Gender differences in education

Gender gap in achievement
1. On starting school: 62% of girls could concentrate without supervision for 10 minutes, while boys only 49%. 56% girls could write and spell their name correctly, while boys only 42%.
2. At key stages 1 to 3: Girls do especially better in English. Narrower in science and maths but girls still better.
3. At GCSE: DfES study (2007) show 10% more of girls achieve five or more GCSE grades A*-C than boys
4. At AS and A level: 2006, 95.8% girls pass two or more A levels, as against 94% of boys. The average A level points score in state schools was 274 for boys, but 295 for girls.
5. On vocational courses: a larger proportion of girls achieve distinctions in every subject, including engineering and construction where girls are a tiny minority of students.
External factors
1. Impact of feminism: feminism has raised women's expectations and self-esteem McRobbie comparison of girls' magazines in 1970s and 1990s, shows in 1970s girls' magazines such as Jackie emphasised the importance of getting married and not being 'left on the shelf' whereas 1990s/nowadays magazines contain images of assertive, independent women. Changed values women hold over family and careers affecting educational achievement.
2. Changes in the family: changes include, an increase in divorce rate, increase in cohabitation and decrease number of first marriages, increase number of lone-parent families and smaller families. More female-headed lone-parent families mean more women need to take on the breadwinner role. Creating a new adult role model for girls (the financially independent women). To achieve this women need well-paid jobs thus good qualifications. Increase in divorce may suggest to girls it is unwise to rely on a husband to be their provider. Encouraging girls to look to themselves and their own qualifications to make a living.
3. Changes in women employment: changes include, 1970 Equal Pay Act (Prosser says responsible for change of economic status in women in last 30 years) making it illegal for women to be payed less than men for work of equal value and 1975 Sex Discrimination Act outlaws sex discrimination in employment, more women in employment (49% in 1959 whereas 70% in 2007) while traditional 'mens' jobs have declined, more women breaking through 'glass ceiling' the invisible barrier that keeps women out of high-level professional and managerial jobs. Meaning women seeing future as paid work not housework. Greater career options better pay for women and the role models provide an incentive for girls to gain qualifications'
4. Girls' changing perceptions and ambitions: changes in family and employment are changing ambitions. Sue Sharpe compared results of interviews she conducted with girls in 1970s and 1990s shows a major shift in the way girls see themselves and their future. In 1974, girls had low aspirations, felt educational success was unfeminine and believed if appeared ambitious and intelligent they would appear unattractive. In 1990s girls more likely to see their future as an independent woman with a career.
Internal factors
1. Equal opportunities policies: those that run the education system are much more aware of gender issues and teachers are much more sensitive to the need to avoid gender stereotyping. The belief boys and girls are equally capable and entitled to the same opportunities is now part of mainstream thinking in education and influences policy making. GIST (Girls Into Science and Technology) and WISE (Women Into Science and Engineering) encourage girls to pursue careers in these non-traditional areas. Introduction of National Curriculum in 1988 removed one source of gender inequality by making girls and boys study mostly the same subjects. Boaler believes many of the barriers have been removed and schooling has become meritocratic due to policies.
2. Positive role models in school: In recent years there has been an increase in the proportion of female teachers and head teachers (1992, in secondary schools 22% headteachers to 2005 35% women). These women in positions of authority may act as a role model to girls, showing women can achieve positions of importance and giving them non-traditional goals to aim for. Primary schools in particular become 'feminised' with virtually all-female staff (66% headteachers, 84% teachers). Impacting how far each gender sees schooling as part of their 'gender domain' or territory.
3. GCSE and coursework: Gorard found gender gap in achievement fairly constant until 1988-9, when it increased sharply (years GCSEs introduced with cw). Gorard concludes that the gender gap in achievement is a 'product of the changed system of assessment rather than any more general failing of boys'; Mitsos and Browne support this view. They conclude girls are better at cw as more organised than boys (girls: spend more time on their work, take care with way its presented, better at meeting deadlines bring the right equipment and materials to lessons). They also note girls gain from maturing earlier from their ability to concentrate for longer. Elwood criticises saying cw can have limited impact o final grade, exams have more influence on final grades.
4. Teacher attention and classroom interaction: Spender found teachers spend more time interacting with boys, however, Francis found whilst boys get more attention, they were disciplined more harshly and felt picked on by teachers, who tended to have lower expectations of them. Swann and Graddol found boys generally more boisterous and attract teacher's gaze, however, found teachers interacted more positively with girls as focused more on schoolwork not behaviour. Swann found when working in groups, girls' speech involved turn taking, not hostile interruptions that often characterised boys' speech. Explaining why teachers see boys as potential disruption possibly leading to self-fulfilling prophecy.
5. Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum: removal of gender stereotypes from textbooks, reading schemes and other learning materials in recent years has removed a barrier to girls' achievement. Reading schemes in 1970s and 80s portrayed women mainly as housewives and mother, physics books showed them as frightened or amazed by science, maths books depicted boys as more inventive than girls. Weiner argues that since 80s, teacher have challenged stereotypes. Sexist images have been removed from learning material helping to raise girls' achievement by presenting them with more positive images of what women can do.
6. Selection and league tables: Marketisation created competitive climate in which schools view girls as desirable recruits because they achieve better exam results. Jackson notes that introduction of exam league tables has improved opportunities for girls as high achieving girls attractive to schools. Slee argues boys are less attractive to schools as they are more likely to suffer from behavioural difficulties and are four times more likely to be excluded. Boys may be seen as 'liability students' obstacles to the school improving its league tables.
Two views of girls' achievement
1. Liberal feminists: Celebrate progress made so far in improving achievement. Believe further progress made by continuing development of equal opportunities policies, encouraging positive role models and overcoming sexist attitudes and stereotyping.
2. Radical feminists: Recognise girls achieving more, emphasise that system still remains patriarchal and convey strong message that it is still a man's world. For example sexual harassment of girls continues in school. Educations still limits subject choice and career options, male teachers are more likely to become heads of secondary schools (2005, 65% headteachers male). Women are under-represented in many areas of the curriculum e.g. their contribution to history is largely ignored. Weiner describes secondary school curriculum as a 'women-free zone'.
Boys achievement
1. Boys and literacy: Parents spend less time reading to their sons. Mothers who do most of the reading to young children, thus come to see it as a feminine activity. Boy's leisure pursuits, such as football and computer games, do little to help develop their language and communication skills. Girls tend to have a 'bedroom culture' centred on staying in and talking to friends.
2. Globalisation and the decline of traditional men's jobs: since 80s since decline in heavy industries such as iron and steel, shipbuilding, mining, engineering and other manufacturing due to globalisation whereby industry is relocated to developing countries like China, to take advantage of cheap labour. These sectors mainly employed men meaning male unemployment. Mitsos and Browne claim that this has led to an 'identity crisis for men'. Boys believe they have little prospects of getting a proper job. Undermining their motivation and self-esteem and so give up trying to get qualifications. However this sector mostly employed w/c boys with few if any qualifications thus seeming its unlikely that the disappearance of these jobs would have much impact on boys' motivation to obtain qualifications.
3. Shortage of male primary school teachers: lack of strong positive male role models both at home and at school lead to boys' underachievement. Large number of boys are being brought up in the 1.5 million female-headed lone parent families in UK. Men now make up only 16% of primary school teachers. Yougov poll, 39% of 8-11 yr old boys have no lessons whatsoever with a male teacher. The majority of boys surveyed said the presence of a male teacher made them behave better and 42% said it made them work harder. However male teacher absence may not be may factor in explaining underachievement, for example Francis found that 2/3 of 7-8 yr olds believed that the gender of teachers does not matter. Myhill and Jones found that 13-15 yr olds felt male teachers treated them more harshly.
4. 'Laddish' subcultures: Epstein found w/c boys likely to be harassed, labelled as sissies and subject to homophobic verbal abuse if they appear to be 'swots'. Francis found boys more concerned than girls about being labelled as swots by peers (as this label is more of a threat to their masculinity than it is to girls' femininity). Non-manual work and extensive school work is seen as inferior and effeminate. w/c boys tend to reject schoolwork to avoid being called 'gay'. Epstein observes, 'real boys don't work' and if they do they get bullied. Francis claims lad culture becoming more widespread. Francis claims as as women more intro traditional masculine area such as careers, boys respond by 'becoming increasingly laddish'.
5. Feminism and education: Sewell says boys falling behind because education has become 'feminised'. Schools do not nurture 'masculine' traits such as competitiveness and leadership. They celebrate qualities more closely associated to girls, such as methodical working and attentiveness in class. Sewell sees cw as a major cause for gender differences, arguing some cw should be replaced with final exams and a greater emphasis placed on outdoor adventure in the curriculum. Argues 'We have challenged the 1950s patriarchy and rightly said this is not a man's world. But we have thrown the boy out with the bath water'.
Subject choice
1. Early socialisation: Ann Oakley two definitions, 'sex' inborn physical differences between males and females, 'gender' leaned cultural differences between sexes. Gender role socialisation is the process of learning the behaviour expected of males and females in society. Early socialisation shapes children's gender identity e.g. Norman found early age, boys and girls are dressed differently, given different toys and encouraged to participate in different activities. Parents reward boys for being active and girls for being passive. Byrne found teachers encouraged boys to be tough and show initiative and not be weak or behave like 'sissies'. Girls are expected to be quiet, helpful, clean and tidy.
  1. Murphy and Elwood study on reading- girls read books on people whereas boys read hobby and informative, explaining why boys prefer science subjects and girls prefer subjects like English. Browne and Ross highlighted importance of 'gender domains' meaning the tasks boys and girls see as male or female 'territory' e.g. maths problem, boys more confident tackling it if about cars whereas girls more confident if about nutrition. Murphy study, set open-ended tasks in primary schools where they were asked to design boats and vehicles and estate agents' advert. Found boys designed powerboats and battleships with elaborate weaponry whereas girls designed cruise ships, paying attention to social and domestic detail. Boys designed sports cars, girls designed family cars. Boys made poster focusing on 'masculine' spheres e.g. garage space, girls focus on 'feminine' ones such as kitchen design and decor.
2. Gendered career options: Jobs tend to be sex-typed as 'men's' and 'women's'. Women's jobs tend to involve similar work to that performed by housewives e.g. nursing/childcare. Sex-typing of occupations affects girls and boys idea about what kinds of jobs are acceptable/possible e.g. boy wanting to study nursing may be put off as it is 'sex-typed' to women, thus affecting his choices of what subjects he thinks are acceptable to further his career. Explains why vocational courses are much more gender-specific than academic courses, as courses are by definition closely related to students' career plans.
3. Gendered subject images: subjects 'give off- an image affecting who wants to choose it. Kelly argues science is viewed as a boys subject for several reason, 1) science teachers more likely to be male 2) the examples in textbooks and by teachers often draw upon boys' experiences and interests 3) in science lessons boys tend to monopolise the apparatus and dominate the laboratory, acting as if it was 'theirs'. DfES shows pupils from single-sex school tend to hold less stereotyped subject images e.g. less likely to see science as a boys' subject. Leonard found this may result in them making less traditional subject choices. Studied 13,000 individuals, found girls more likely to study maths and sciences at A level, and at boys' schools more likely to take English and modern languages.
4. Peer pressure: Boys may opt out of music/dance as it may fall out of their gender domain, attracting negative responses from peers. Paetcher found girls tend to opt out of taking sport as it is out of their gender domain and therefore if they do take it have to cope with image that contradicts the conventional female stereotype. Dewer found in an American school girls who took sport were labelled 'lesbian' or 'butch'. The absence of this in single-sex schools explains why girls choose traditional 'boy's' subjects, as there is less pressure on them to conform to the restrictive stereotype.
Gender identity
1. Male peer groups: peer groups also use verbal abuse to reinforce their definitions of masculinity e.g. studies by Epstein and Willis show, boys in anti-school subcultures often accuse boys who want to do well of being gay or effeminate. Mac an Ghaill study of Parnell school examines how peer groups reproduce a range of different class-based masculine identities e.g. w/c 'macho lads' were dismissive of other w/c boys who worked hard and aspired to m/c careers, referring to them as 'dickhead achievers'. m/c 'real Englishmen' tried to project an image of 'effortless achievement' (though in some cases actually working hard 'on the quiet')
2. Teachers and discipline: Haywood and Mac an Ghaill found male teachers told boys off for 'behaving like girls' and teased them when they gained lower marks in tests than girls. Askew and Ross found male teachers often have a protective attitude towards female colleagues, coming into their classes to 'rescue' them by threatening pupils who are being disruptive. However, this reinforces the idea women cannot cope alone.
3. The male gaze: the way male pupils and teachers look girls up and down, seeing them as sexual objects and making judgements about their appearance. Mac an Ghaill sees male gaze as a form of surveillance through which dominant heterosexual masculinity is reinforced and femininity devalued. One way boys prove their masculinity to their friends and is often combined with constant telling and retelling of stories about sexual conquests. Boys who do not display their heterosexuality in this way run the risk of being labelled gay.
4. Double standards: exists when we apply one set of moral standards to one group but a different set to another group. Sue Lees found in boys, they boast about their own sexual exploits, but call a girl a 'slag' if she doesn't have a steady boyfriend or if she dresses and speaks in a certain way. Sexual conquest is approved of and given status by male peers and ignored by male teachers, but 'promiscuity' among girls attracts negative labels. Feminists see this as an example of patriarchal ideology and that justifies male power and devalues women. This can be seen as a form of social control that reinforces gender inequality by keeping females subordinate to males.
5. Verbal abuse: Connell claims 'a rich vocabulary of abuse' as one of the ways dominant gender and sexual identities are reinforced e.g. boys use name-calling to put girls down if they behave or dress in a certain way. Sue Lees found boys called girls 'slags' if they appeared to be sexually available- and 'drags' if they didn't. The use of negative labels such as 'gay', 'queer' and 'lezzie' are ways in which pupils 'police' each other's sexual identities e.g. Parker found that boys werelabelled 'gay' simply for being friendly with girls and female teachers. The labels bear no relation to pupils' actual sexual behaviour, their function is simply to reinforce gender norms.
Gender, class and ethnicity: It would be wrong to consider boys as a 'lost cause'. The performance of both sexes has improved considerably in recent years. Boys may be lagging behind, but boys today are achieving more than they did in the past. McVeigh notes that educational achievement with boys and girls are more similar when comparing class and ethnic differences. For example, DfES (2007) showed class gap in achievement at GCSE is 3 times wider than the gender gap.
1. Girls and boys of the same social class tend to achieve similar results e.g. at GCSE (2006) the gender gap within any social class was never greater than 12%. Social class differences more influential e.g. girls is highest social class were 44% ahead of girls from lowest. Pupils may define their gender differently according to their class of ethnicity e.g. the gender gap among black Caribbean pupils is greater than any other ethnic group (Fuller shows girls are successful as they define their femininity through educational achievement and independence). Connolly, Suggests 'interactions effect' so certain combinations of gender, class and ethnicity have more effect than others.

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Gender differences in education

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