Girls achievement

• Girls achievement -internal factors

  equal opportunity policies—

  • policies such as GIST and WISE encourages girls to pursue in non traditional areas
  • it is now part of mainstream thinking that boys and girls should have the same opportunities in school

  evaluation

  • women are still underrepresented in STEM, in 2015 only 30% of those accessing STEM in higher eduction were women
• positive role models in school -internal

  • in recent years the proportion of female teachers and head teachers has increased
  • in 2015 38% of headteachers in secondary schools were female
  • shows that it is possible for girls to achieve and reinforced that they need to work hard and gain qualifications

  evaluation

  • majority of high positions are still dominated by men
• GCSE and Coursewor-internal

  • Mitsos and Browne have argued that girls are more successful in coursework because they are more organised than boys ,they found girls are better at meeting deadlines
  • Some sociologist have argued that changes in the way students are examined have favoured girls and set boys at a disadvantage

  evaluation

  • exams have more of an influence than course work on final grades -not the only reason for gender gap
• teacher attention - internal

  • teachers respond more positively to girls than boys this is because they see girls as cooperative and boys as disruptive
  • Barber found that teachers actions were significant, for girls feedback focused on their work where as for boys their behaviour
• feminisation of education- internal

  • the increase in female teachers and decline in male ones has put females at an advantage as they have more educational role models and act as a motivation to girls
  • a change in teaching and learning strategies has put girls at an advantage because it has became more cooperative and collaborative which suits their better communication skills and collaborative nature

  evaluation

  • however males still dominate in higher positions in both education and society in general
• the impact of feminism-external

  • since the 1960s feminims has challenged tradtional women stereotypes of a women’s role as a mother and housewife .Girls now have larger aspirations
  • McRobbies study -showed comparisons from magazines from 1970s where it focused on getting married where as in 1990 the magazines emphasised a career and independance

  evaluation

  • however ,within education girls are still encouraged to take subjects like health and social and food tech which would support them in typical female jobs like nursing
• changes in the family -external

  • over the last 30 year , there’s been a number of changes in the family inclusions increased number of divorce rate and increased in lone parent families -mainly female headed
  • due to these changed girls attitudes towards education has changed as women now need to take on been the major income earner role this creates an independent career minded role model for girls to aspire to and encourages them to do well and gain qualifications
• Changes in women’s employment -external

  • women are breaking through the invisible glass ceiling to high level professional jobs which previously denied them
  • 1970 equal pay act
  • sex discrimination act

  evaluation

  • however the gender pay gap still exists in some sectors in the UK
• girls changing ambitions -external

  • sue sharpes study found that girls in the 1970s main ambitions were love, marriage ,husband and children where as in 1990s it was more based on career ,jobs and been able to support themselves

  evaluation

  • these aspiration's are limited by social class ,Biggart argues that working class girls may have limited aspirations and see motherhood as their future jobs