It is my hypothesis that the recent improvement of girls in educational attainment has been caused by changing attitudes and aspirations in females.

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Hypothesis/Aim

It is my hypothesis that the recent improvement of girls in

educational attainment has been caused by changing attitudes and

aspirations in females. In the late 1980s, girls were raising concern

over their attainment, and achieving significantly lower grades than

boys, whereas in the mid 1990s, they began to drastically improve, and

have since become better than boys in the classroom and in

examinations. This is a well-known fact about society, and is also

quite noticeable in many of my classes. Being a boy, I am keen to find

out why this is taking place, and hope to prove my hypothesis correct.

Contexts And Concepts

My first context is `Just Like A Girl' by Sue Sharpe. This study was

taken out in 1991. Her study attempts to replicate her research of

1972, in which she surveyed 249 mainly working-class girls from the

fourth forms of four schools in the London Borough of Ealing. Sharpe

concluded that the difference in educational attainment in girls

between '72 and `91 may be reflected by changing attitudes among

females. She found that girls no longer attach primary importance to

marriage and having children, and instead `almost unanimously endorsed

the importance of having a job or career and, in this respect,

emphasised being able to support themselves.' They therefore attached

much more importance to education than their counterparts had in the

1970s.

My second context is `Young People And Sex Stereotyping" from the
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Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). The study involved focus groups,

in which children were asked many different questions in a

classroom-type setup. The questions were based around the subject of

changing attitudes amongst the sexes. One girl was recorded to say

"Nowadays women have got more courage, if they are determined to do

something they will go out and do it. In the past they wouldn't have

had the security, support or enough confidence."

The statement shows that young people in the focus groups

knew that they had more opportunities than ...

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