1. Sociology Revision Gender & Achievement

2. Specification can you do all of this?

3. Gender differences in achievement pg. 51 - 65
Using your revision clock…
Summarise what you know about gender differences in achievement…
Internal: Equal opportunities policies, positive role models in schools, GCSEs and coursework, teacher attention, selection and league tables.
External: feminism, changes in the family, changes in women’s employment, girls’ changing ambitions
There is also ‘boys and achievement’, gender and subject choice & pupils’ sexual and gender identities

4. Stats…
Choose one or two statistics from page 51 – fill this in one section of your clock – remember you can use this as your introduction.

5. Research - External Changes in the family Increase in divorce rate
Increase in cohabitation and decrease in the number of first marriages
Many more female-headed families = girls are becoming more independent and therefore more ambitious

6. Research - Internal
Policies have been introduced to make school more meritocratic
National curriculum – boys and girls all do the same subjects
Positive role models in schools – more female teachers and heads – shows girls that they can aim for goals and achievements

7. Research – GCSEs and coursework
Introduction of coursework has favoured girls and not boys. Girls are more successful in coursework as they are better organised than boys (Mitsos and Browne, 1998). This is because girls spend more time on their work, are better at meeting deadlines.

8. Research – Teacher attention
French (1993) – boys received more attention but in a negative way. Were more likely to be disciplined more harshly and felt picked on by teachers who often had lower expectations of them.
Weiner (1995) argues that since the 1980s, teachers have challenged stereotypes towards girls, sexist remarks have also been removed from learning materials.

9. Research – identity, class and girls’ achievement…
Boyfriends!
Get in the way of school work and lowered girls aspirations. This included losing interest in going to university or gaining a professional career.

10. Boys and achievement Boys and literacy
Gender gap is mainly the result of boys’ poorer literacy and language skills. May be due to parents spending less time reading with their sons
Globalisation and the decline of traditional men’s jobs
Decline of working-class manual jobs may have led to an ‘identity crisis’ with boys having lower aspirations BUT… this is only true for manual jobs so boys should still have aspirations towards jobs which require more qualifications

11. Boys and achievement Shortage of male primary school teachers
Only 14% of primary teachers are male. Therefore primary schools have become feminised, leading to lack of discipline and role models for boys

12. Gender and Subject Choice
Only 7% of female and 93% male took computing
Compared with 75% female and 25% male for sociology

13. Explanations of gender differences in subject choice
Gender role socialisation
Gender domains
Single-sex schooling
Gender identity and peer pressure

14. Explanations of gender differences in subject choice
Gender role socialisation
Gender domains
Single-sex schooling
Gender identity and peer pressure

15. Pupils’ sexual and gender identities
Double standards
The male gaze
Male peer groups

16. Could you answer these questions?
Outline three ways why girls generally achieve more highly than boys in education (6)
Outline and explain two reasons why girls and boys often choose to study different subjects (10)