Examine Recent Trends in Gender Attainment

Authors Avatar

Examine Recent Trends in Gender Attainment

Gender gap in education between boys and girls has widened over the years. The tendency for girls to do better in the later years at school has become increasingly pronounced in the UK in the past two decades. Both girls and boys are doing better every year but, the facts and figures show that the performance of girls has risen at a faster rate in most subjects than boys. However, over the last 50 years, the educational performance of boys has steadily improved as well.

Coffey (2200) suggests that girls achieving better results than boys hardly justifies labelling all boys as underachievers. Weiner (1997) is also sceptical about the sudden discovery of male underachievement. He argues that the media have created a misleading moral panic, which exaggerates and distorts the extent and nature of any problem.

There are many reasons and theories to why girls are performing well at school and achieving extremely good results. There has been a change in the job market since 60s. Sharpe and Wilkinson suggest that young women have experienced a ‘genderquake’ in terms of profound changes in attitude and expectation.  The 'genderquake' idea is based mainly on the fact that most new jobs are going to women, who now make up half the work-force. This isn't because women are taking men's jobs, but because of the changes in the economy with a shift from manufacturing to service industries. Because of years of discrimination, manufacturing jobs have been the preserve of men. They have been the car workers, aerospace workers and engineers. Women on the other hand, have been and still are the secretaries, clerical workers, shop assistants, cleaners and cater. It is precisely in these areas of 'women's work' that a growth in jobs has been taking place. According to ‘Social Trends’, by 2002, the number of men and women in paid employment was virtually the same.  Working mothers also provided role models for their daughters.  As a result, girls are more likely to see their future in the workplace and to value education as a means to a good job.

Join now!

Also, Sharpe’s surveys of young working class women in London in 1994 found that they no longer prioritised love, marriage, husbands and children as they did in 1976. Her survey concluded that jobs, careers and financial independence were their main goals.  As such there is an incentive for females to succeed at school.

The women’s movement and feminism have achieved considerable success in improving the rights and raising the expectations and self-esteem of women.  Women are more likely to aspire to careers that require high levels of qualifications, and are therefore motivated to succeed in education.

Changes to the curriculum ...

This is a preview of the whole essay