Subject choice

• Early socialisation-

  • Murphy and Elwood argue that differences in early socialisation leads to boys and girls having differences in subject choice .boys tend to read books about hobbies which develops interests in sciences where as girls interest more in English
  • Norman - from an early age, boys and girls are dressed differently, given different toys and encourage to take part in differnt activities
• gender domains -

  • brown and ross -children tend to be more confident in the tasks and activities that re seen as part of their gender domains
  • this could explain why girls are attracted to arts and boys prefer science
• gendered subject images-

  • paetcher -sports are still seen as masculine. Therefore girls who choose sports are often stigmatised as it is seen to fall within the male gender domain and contradicts female stereotype.

  evalutaion-

  • gendered subject image was not a problem in same sex schools and that subject choice they tend to hold less stereotype, subject images and make less traditional subject choices
• peer pressure-

  • it can influence subject choice as boys tend to opt out of dancing because of how others will perceive this to be out the male gender domain and be negative towards them
  • paetcher -girls who choose pe are often stigmatised as it falls within the male domain and contradicts female stereotypes ,they would be labelled lesbian and butch

  evaluation

  • The problem is lessened in same sex schools, where gender stereotypes are not so rigid.