Gender - Girls

• External - impact of feminism

  • Since the 1960s, feminism has challenged traditional stereotypes of a woman's role as a housewife within a patriarchal family and has raised girls expectations with regards to careers
  • Reflected within the media - McRobbies comparison of girls magazines in the 70s and 90s.
  • 70s magazines emphasised getting married whereas in the 90s they emphasised career and independence
• External - changes in the family

  • In the last 30 years - increased divorce rate, increased cohabitation and increased lone-parent families
  • Increased lone-parent families headed by women taking on the main 'breadwinner' role creates financially independent and career minded role models for girls
  • Encourages girls to do well in education
• External - changes in women's employment

  • Equal Pay Act 1970
  • Sex Discrimination Act 1975
  • The proportion of women in employment has risen to nearly 30% in the last 80 years - they are breaking through the glass ceiling to high level professional jobs previously denied to them
  • Provides an incentive for girls to take education seriously
  • Since 1975, the pay gap has halved
• Evaluation of changes in women's employment

  • The gender pay gap for men full and part time workers combined in the UK was 18.4% in 2017 - meaning women currently make 80% of mens median hourly wages
• External - girl's changing ambitions

  • Sue Sharpe compared results of interviews she carried out with girls in the 70s and 90s
  • 70s girls - saw educational success as unfeminine, had low aspirations and priorities were love and marriage
  • 90s girls - saw their futures as independent women with careers
  • O'Connor's study of 14-17 year olds found that marriage and children were not a major part of life plans.
  • Beck and Beck-Gernsheim link this to individualisation
• Evaluation of girl's changing ambitions

  • Aspirations are limited by social class. Reay and Biggart argue that W/C girls may have limited aspirations and see motherhood and low-level jobs as their future
• Internal - equal opportunities policies

  • GIST and WISE encourage girls to pursue careers in non-traditional areas
  • Female scientists visit schools to act as role models and efforts have been made to raise awareness of gender domains in science
  • 1988 National Curriculum allowed girls and boys to study the same things
  • Jo Boaler argue these policies are a key factor of girls performance and schools have become more meritocratic so girls achieve more than boys
• Evaluation of equal opportunities policies

  • Women are still underrepresented in STEM fields. In 2015 only 37% of those beginning further education in STEM fields were women
• Internal - positive role models in schools

  • In 2001, 25% of head teachers in secondary schools were female. In 2015 this figure has risen to 38%
  • Women in positions of power and authority have acted as important role models for girls as it shows them that they can achieve important positions
  • Reinforces girls to work hard
• Internal - GCSEs and coursework

  • The gender gap in achievement increased after the introduction of GCSEs in 1988
  • Mitsos and Browne argue girls are more successful in coursework as they are organised and more conscientious than boys. Girls spend more time on their work, take more care of presentation and are better at keeping to deadlines
  • Oral exams introduced - girls develop better language skills
  • Sociologists argue these characteristics are the result of gender role socialisation in the family and become an advantage in education
• Evaluation of GCSEs and coursework

  • Exams have more influence than coursework on final grades
  • Coursework was removed from maths in 2006 and in 2013 conservative government removed coursework from all but GCSE science subjects however girls still outperform boys
• Internal - teacher attention

  • Teachers respond more positively to girls as boys are disruptive and girls co-operative
  • SFP for girls as self esteem increases leading to higher achievement
  • Barber - girls feedback from teachers was more focused on work and more focused on behaviour for boys
  • Abraham - teachers perceive boys as more badly behaved and expect this in the classroom
  • Swann Report - boys dominate whole-class discussion whereas girls prefer paired work as they are better at listening
  • Jane and Peter French - boys receive more attention as they attract more reprimands
• Internal - challenging stereotypes in the curriculum

  • Removing gender stereotypes from textbooks and other learning materials has removed a barrier to girls achievement
  • Gaby Weiner - argues that teachers have been challenging gender stereotyping since the 80s. Sexist images have been removed from teaching materials which promotes more positive images of what girls are capable of
  • Mackay - carried out research to suggest schools should aim to remove these stereotypes whilst combating toxic masculinity
• Internal - selection and league tables

  • Marketisation policies create a competitive climate within schools - girls are seen as more desirable recruits as they achieve better exam results
  • Boys are seen as liability students which are barriers to efforts by schools to climb the league tables
  • Jackson - league tables place a high value on academic achievement which has improved opportunties for girls
  • This tends to produce a SFP in which girls are more likely to be recruited by good schools and do better