Gender and Education A Summary

Gender and Education Girls achieve better results in all levels in National Curriculum tests. Girls get better results in most subjects at GCSE. Girls are more likely to pass their A-levels.

Gender and Education Women are more likely to go to university. Men have more success at the highest levels of university. Girls flourish in subjects such as English, whereas Boys succeed in subjects such as Maths and Physics.

Sue Sharpe – a feminist 1976 – girls priorities were ‘love, marriage, husbands, children, jobs and careers, more or less in that order’. Research was repeated in Priorities has changed: ‘job, career and being able to support themselves’.

Mitsos and Browne (1998) Teaching has become feminised. Women are more likely than men to be classroom teachers – especially in primary schools. Therefore, girls have positive role models from a very young age.

The National Curriculum has been influential… NC has forced girls to take subjects that were traditionally dominated by men. For example, girls now succeed in Science-based subjects. LEAs and government initiatives such as W.I.S.E (Women In Science and Engineering) have influenced this.

Swann and Graddol (1993) Female achievement is a result of the interaction that they have with their teachers. Teachers spend their time with girls helping them with their work. Teachers spend their time with boys managing deviant behaviour.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy? Jackson (1998): schools label boys negatively. Boys are associated with deviant behaviour. This leads to schools getting a bad reputation. This, in turn, leads to low achievement.

Why do boys underachieve? Identity crisis? Do teachers have low expectations of boys? Does the lack of male teachers mean that boys don’t have many role models? Are activities such as reading and studying ‘girly’?

Pro or Anti –school subcultures 1977 – Paul Willis – “Willis’s lads”. Why do working class kids get working class jobs? ‘Lads’ rejected school. Formed an anti-school subculture.

Mac an Ghaill (1994) Crisis of Masculinity Boys may join a macho lad subculture. Boys might join a pro-school subculture.

Consider all of this in the context of social change… Think about how social change has influenced gender roles. Think about the significance of the feminist movement of the 1960’s onwards… Think about changes in the law, such as the Equal Pay Act, 1971 and the Sex Discrimination Act, 1975.