The next possible idea is Culture. These explanations suggest that the stereotyped gender roles are promoted by the culture of society. Sue Sharpe carried out research in the 1970s, which supported this view. She interviewed working class children, and found that the vast majority of them valued marriage and a family, more than they valued a career. They also indicated that in front of their male counterparts, the females did not want to be seen as intelligent, as they believed that this was an unattractive quality in a female. Douglas also found that in working class homes, where resources were scarce, working class parents prioritised the education of their son, over their daughter, assuming that in the future, they would be the breadwinners.
The next possible reason for female underachievement in the past is discrimination from school. Apart from the more obvious and formal discriminations to females in the past, such as not being allowed into University, interpretive sociologists suggested that traditionally females experienced much more subtle means of discrimination, and that these came from the teachers in the school. The curriculum focuses more on male achievements in society, and tends to ignore the female. Also, when Spender analysed tape recordings of various classes, he found that males were given much more attention in class, and girls seemed to be invisible. A lot of the time, males are seemed to be allowed to dominate in the classroom.
In 1993, Michelle Stanworth did a study of A Level classes. In this it was found that within the classroom, interaction disadvantaged girls. The teachers were much more likely to remember boys names, rather than females, and he expected intelligent females to marry someone important, or become a secretary, rather than get a better job, with a higher status in today’s society. She concluded that girls were prepared for a lower status in later life, which they accepted without question, where as males were encouraged to try and get a higher status job in society.
An argument was put forward as a possibility to why males are underachieving in society today. This argument stemmed from the low levels of male employment in the 1980’s, and it has been exacerbated by a decline in the demarcation lines according to gender. This argument is the “crisis of masculinity.” In society today, women have a much higher status than they used to, and they are a lot more commonly the breadwinners of the household. It is now acceptable for them to be seen as intelligent, and it is not seen as an unattractive quality.
Boys seem to have been left behind in the education system, with subjects such as science and technology becoming more “girl friendly”, and more female teachers. Also, there is more group work and more coursework, which has been proven to work at an advantage to girls, because of their outside hobbies.
Mitsos and Browne have an interactionists approach to the underachievement of boys. They suggest that teachers are less strict with boys and allow them to waste time, which leads to their underachievement. If boys are disruptive in class, it can result in their exclusion in lessons, and burden their education, as it would disadvantage tem and other members of the class. Also, males overestimate themselves, where as females underestimate themselves. This means that while girls work extra hard t try and get themselves to the same level as the rest of the class, the males don’t feel they need to, and therefore won’t work as hard as the females, which may react in them doing badly or not reaching their full potential. The culture of masculinity also differs from that of femininity in a big way, with males, it is seen as uncool to study, and most boys wish to appear macho in front of their friends. This means that most won’t study, because they wish to achieve the “macho” look. However with females, in most cases, it is not seen as a big deal, and they are more likely to support each other in regarding to school. Also, the leisure activities boys take part in are less conducive to educational achievement.
The impact of feminism has had two effects. The first is that the government was made to introduce a legislation which provided equality in educational provision for girls. And the second was to raise the expectations and aspirations that girls had.
The legislation included the sex discrimination act and consequently equality in educational provision. This means that girls are no longer excluded from some universities in the way that they were before, and they are not excluded from subjects in the same way that they were. As I mentioned earlier, subjects have also been made more “girl friendly”, which is a big advantage to them. A policy known as GIST (Girls into Science and Technology) was designed, to encourage girls to choose science and technology. This policy included having visits arranged from female students, so they could act as a positive role model towards them. It also included non-sexist career advice, curriculum materials that interested females, and raising teachers’ consciousness of gender role stereotyping.