gender

• Recent statistics show girls outperforming boys in education. Sociologists attribute this to factors like equal opportunities, changing ambitions, and societal shifts. They also point to "laddish" subcultures and shifts in job markets as contributing to boys' underachievement. Gendered identities and subject preferences further shape educational outcomes.
• Reasons for girls' increased educational achievement


  • External factors (girls changing ambitions, changes in the family, changes in women's employment)
  • Internal factors (equal opportunities, teacher attention, coursework)
• Reasons for boys' underachievement


  • Feminisation of schooling
  • Decline in manual labour
  • Laddish subcultures
• Feminism


  McRobbie studied girls magazines and found that in the 1970s, they emphasised the importance of getting married. However, nowadays, they contain images of strong, assertive and independent women.

  feminists Campaigned for women's rights and changes in the law (eg. equal rights)
• Changes in women's employment

  • Changes in the law have improved the position of working women
  • Equal Pay Act (1970) - The first piece of UK legislation that guaranteed equal pay for men and women.
  • Sex Discrimination Act (1975) - prohibited sex discrimination in the workplace.
• Changing girls' ambitions


  Sharpe interviewed girls and found that their ambitions in the 1970s were to marry and have children, and saw their future in terms of a domestic role. However, in the 1990s, the girls priorities had changed to careers and wanting to be independent.
• Girls' internal factors


  • GCSE and coursework (Mitos & Brown: Girls excel in coursework due to organization. Gorad: Gender gap widened with GCSE in 1988.)
  • Equal opportunities policy (GIST and WISE programs promote girls in STEM. National curriculum: girls and boys study similar subjects.)
  • Role models (more female teachers)
  • Teacher attention (Swann observed girls excel in listening, while boys dominate discussions. Girls often receive more encouragement. French and french found boys received more attention due to higher punishment rates, despite equal academic focus.)
• Marketisation policies


  Marketisation policies have led to increased competition between schools. Schools therefore have the incentive to recruit more able students. Girls are generally more successful than boys, so are more attractive to schools. 
• Boys' external factors

  • Boys' literacy (Parents spend less time reading to sons because it is seen as a 'feminine' activity. Boys leisure interests do not encourage language and communication skills, whereas gitls ‘bedroom culture’ does.)
  • Decline in manual labour (Globalisation had led to the decline in heavy industries (eg. shipbuilding, mining and manufacturing) in the UK. This has led to a male ‘identity crisis’, giving them little motivation to get qualifications for a job.)
• Boys' internal factors


  • Feminisation of schooling (Boys fall behind because education has been ‘feminised’, meaning schools no longer nurture masculine traits. The introduction of coursework has disadvantages boys. Lack of male primary school teachers - only 1 in 6 primary school teachers are male.)
  • Laddish subcultures (There is peer-pressure on boys to demonstrate their masculinity by being ‘anti-school’.)