In contrast to this functionalists believe that the education system is a ‘level playing field’ in which everyone is granted an equal chance in succeeding, all that is needed is for the pupil to put the effort in and they will then be rewarded. Functionalists believe in particularistic values, being your ascribed status that you are brought up to believe by your family and close friends and universalistic values, being your achieved status which is what you are given by everyone because of what you have attained at school by putting in the work. Functionalists also put across the sexual division of labour to be a good thing within society as it keeps an equal balance within society, the man being the ‘breadwinner’ and the women being the emotional role.
Feminists disagree with both of these sociological groups as they see society to be perfectly normal as a patriachal culture. Feminists have found that children are socialized from a young age into believing that it is alright for women to be ‘second in line’ to men, they have found there to be many ways in which females are constantly but subtly oppressed by males within the education system for instance, gendered roles, gendered stereotypes and gendered language. This view of the feminists provides a clear division between the three points of view being evaluated and gives a very useful view on the education system because of this.
The hidden curriculum, for functionalists the hidden curriculum is seen to help reinforce the gendered roles, making males conform to one line of work and females to a different line of work. Functionalists are very much in favour of the hidden curriculum as they see it as passing on the ‘central norms’ of society. On the other hand feminists are against the hidden curriculum as they see it almost as a ‘weapon for male dominance’ providing an even greater gap in the division of male and females, with every situation a female is put in giving males the ‘upper hand’ such as school uniforms, certain subjects for a certain sex and even the teachers thinking more of the boys than the girls. Marxists like functionalists are also in favour of the hidden curriculum but they see it as a place to fuel capitalism as it provides a strong workforce within society that are socialized to obey orders and work hard.
In all the feminists view on education is extremely helpful as it provides a third perspective to the marxists and functionalists views. Both males and females have both been hidden from the existence of patriachal dominance but now as it is laid out before us we can see that the education system is slightly unbalanced when giving women a fairer chance in becoming successful. The education system has benifited greatly over the years due to this, creating a much more equalistic society, where everyone stands a fairer chance at succeeding.
