Thirdly peer pressure is another cause of the gender difference in subject choices. Boys and girls may apply pressure to an individual if they disapprove of his or her choice. For example, boys tend to opt out of music and dance because such activities fall outside the gender domain and so are likely to attract a negative response from peers. Carrie Paetcher (1998) found that because pupils see sport as mainly within the male gender domain, girls who are ‘sporty’ have to cope with an image that contradicts the conventional female stereotype. This may explain why girls are more likely than boys to opt out of sport
Assess the views that gender differences in achievement are largely the result of changes in the education system (20marks)
There a number of factors both internal and external which help increase the gender differences in achievement are largely the result of changes in the education system.
The external factors are factors outside the education system such as home and family background and wider society.
Firstly changes in the family are an external factors due to there has been major changes in the family since the 1970’s. These changes are affecting girl’s attitudes toward education in a number of ways. Increased number of female-headed lone-parent families may mean more women need to take on a breadwinner. This in turn creates a new adult role model for girls – the financially dependent women. To achieve this independence, of course, women need well-paid and therefore good qualifications.
Likewise, increase in the divorce rate may suggest to girls that it is unwise to rely on a husband to be their provider; again, this may encourage girls to look to themselves and their own qualifications to make a living.
Secondly there have been important changes in women employment in recent decades the 10970 equal pay act makes it illegal to pay women less than men for work of equal value, and the 1975 sex discrimination act outlaws sex discrimination in employment
Since 1975, pay gap between men and women has fallen from 30% to 17%
Some women are now breaking through the ‘glass ceiling’ – the invisible barrier that keeps them out of high-levels professional and managerial job.
These changes have encouraged girls to see their future in terms of paid work rather than as housewives. Greater career opportunities and better pay for women, and role models that successful career women offer, provide an incentive for girls to give qualifications.
Finally the views that changes in the family and employment are producing changes in girls’ ambitions are supported by evidence from sociological research. Sure Sharpe (1994) compared the results of interviews she conducted with girls in the 1970’s and the 1990’s. The finding show a major shift in the way girls see themselves and their future
In 1974, the girls Sharpe interviewed had low aspiration; they felt educational success was unfeminine and believed that if they appeared to be ambitious and intelligent they would be considered unattractive. They gave their priorities as ‘love, marriage, husbands, children, jobs and careers, more or less in that order’
By the 1990s, girls’ ambitions had changed and they had a different order of priorities – careers and being able to support themselves. Share found that girls were now more likely to see their future as an independent woman with career rather than as dependent on their husband and his income.
The internal factors are factors within schools and the education system, such as the effect of schools’ equal opportunities policies.
Firstly a positive role model will help the pupils want to be someone. In recent years there has been an increase in the proportion of female teachers and head teachers. These women in positions of authority and seniority may act as role models for girls, showing them women can achieve positions of importance and giving them non-traditional goals to aim for.
Secondly the ways in which teachers interact with boys and girls will help the different in achievements. Swann and Graddol (1994) found that boys are generally more boisterous and attract the teacher’s gaze more often than girls, and so get more opportunity to speak. However, they found that the way teachers interacted with girls was more positive because it focused on schoolwork rather than behaviour.
Thirdly some sociologists argue that the removal of gendered stereotypes from textbook, reading schemes and other learning materials in recent years has removed a barrier to girls’ achievement. Gaby Weiner (1995) argues that since the 1980s, teachers have challenged such stereotypes. Also, in general, sexist images have been removed from learning materials. This may have helped to raise girls’ achievement by presenting them with more positive images of what women can do.
Some reasons for boys’ underachieving according to the DCSF (2007), the gender gap is mainly the result of boys’ poorer literacy and language skills. One reason for the may be the parents spend less time readying to their sons. Another may be that it is mothers who do most of the reading to young children, who thus come to see it as a feminine activity.
Furthermore the feminisation of education is another reasons for the boys falling behind. Tony Sewell mentions that education has become more ‘feminised’. That is, schools do not nurture ‘masculine’ traits such as competitiveness and leadership. Instead, they celebrate qualities more closely associated with girls, such as methodical working and attentiveness in class.