Find out what subjects girls study more in higher education as well as for boys. Why are girls less likely then boys to study science and technology subjects? Create and carry out questionnaires similar to Dale spender research.
Rational
"What is considered inherently interesting is knowledge about men. Because men control the records, and the value system, it is generally believed that it is men who have done all the exciting things: it is men who have made history, made discoveries, made inventions and performed feats of skill and courage - according to men. These are the important activities and only men become the curriculum." (Dale Spender 1982)
The above quite reflects the findings and attitude of Dale Spender, a female sociologist. She believed that his is the reason why females were underachieving during this time and females were gendered into caring subjects. To remove this gender difference the national curriculum, and programs such as the "Girls into science and technology" was introduced. The national curriculum helped girls under achievement. Today girls are now outperforming boys. However there is still a clear difference in subject choice by gender. Girls still tend to study and take up careers in the arts and social science where as males study science and technological subjects in higher education.
I am currently a college student studying A levels in Information communication technology, biology, chemistry and sociology. In my scin3ece and technology subjects I have observed that there is a small female presence in the classroom, but in my sociology classroom the majority of students are females. These differences have influenced me to carry out this research project under the current hypotheses. Secondly research carried out by Alison Kelly in the Missing Half: Girls and science Education (1981) has also influenced my subject choice for this project. Alison Kelly found that girls do not study science because they cannot associate them with something that girls do. Thirdly the consideration of the availability of material, research, statistics and research subjects.
Hypothesis: Girls are less likely then boys to study science and technology subjects in Higher education because these subjects are seen as masculine subjects.
Objectives:
* Find out what subjects girls study more in higher education as well as for boys.
* Why are girls less likely then boys to study science and technology subjects?
* Create and carry out questionnaires similar to Dale spender research.
Context
The sociological perspectives that can be identified best with this research are Feminist Perspective and an Integrationist perspective. I will be specifically relating to a Radical Feminist perspective.
" Radical Feminist consider that patriarchy - the system of domination of females by males - is the central issue for women. In their view, patriarchy permeates the whole of society and the whole of the educational system. They therefore address and attempt to confront sex-bias not only in the allocation of the subject curriculum to females and males but in all aspects of the educational system. (A new introduction to sociology)
Dale Spender was a feminist. She argues (The Invisible Women) that education is part of the patriarchal control system in which men control all key areas of power. Men define what is valuable knowledge. The curriculum is a sexist instrument, which favours boys, by placing emphasis on science and technology. School help to maintain male dominance.
Interactionist such as Kelly (Science and girls) has produced evidence through observational techniques to show how girls are often marginalised in science lesions by the use of textbooks which make few references to women scientist; by teacher who use examples more familiar to boys; and by other male pupils who dominate classroom activities.
This perspective is similar to the Marxist perspective. However this perspective focuses on the education system regenerating class inequalities in society. Karl Marx said, " the class which is the dominant material force in society is at the same time the dominant intellectual force." Schools from what Louis Althusser called the "state ideological apparatus" and seeks to inculate ruling class ideology into the population. This perspective does not include the gender differences that exist in even middle class students.
Funtionalists criticise Marxist and feminist views. They claim that such arguments have errors in them because of a lack of data. They point to statistics that which indicate that girls are catching up with boys in levels of educational success.
Theories that I can identify from the two perspectives are the Hidden Curriculum and Gender Socialization.
I am testing the theory that sciences are seen as masculine subjects as a result of gender socialisation.
Criticisms of this theory. (Taken from success in sociology)
. Socialisation theories do not provide adequate explanations of the diversity of experience between girls of different social class backgrounds and ethnic groups.
2. The ideology and its analysis seem to be based on the assumption that there is a single unified ideology of femininity, rather then complex and sometimes contradictory process.
3. Sex role ideology theorist have assumed that each agent of socialisation transmits the same ideology, regardless of whether this agent is the family, the school, the peer group or the media.
The sociological concepts that I can identify are Gender, Age, class and religion. The sociological concepts that I will be operationalizing in my project are Gender and Age.
These concepts will be included in my questionnaires by asking at the start of the questionnaire the age and sex of the participant.
Studies that I can relate to this research are
* Ann Colley's Study
* Sue Sharpe
* Michelle Stanworth
* Alison Kelly
* The Newsons
Michelle Stanworth
Michelle Stanworth (1983) examined the later stages of the education system in a study of A level classes in a further education college. She interviewed teachers and pupils from seven different classes in the humanities department. Michelle found that the attitudes held by the teachers had a major impact on the educational progress of girls. Male teachers did not always display these attitudes though. In addition to this she found that teachers held stereotypical views of what female pupils would be doing in the future. In addition to this Michelle found that girls were encouraged to take less ...
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Michelle Stanworth (1983) examined the later stages of the education system in a study of A level classes in a further education college. She interviewed teachers and pupils from seven different classes in the humanities department. Michelle found that the attitudes held by the teachers had a major impact on the educational progress of girls. Male teachers did not always display these attitudes though. In addition to this she found that teachers held stereotypical views of what female pupils would be doing in the future. In addition to this Michelle found that girls were encouraged to take less part in classes and got less attention from teachers and as a consequence lacked faith in their own ability.
The fact that Michelle discovered teachers held stereotypical views of what female pupils would be doing in the future is gender socialization and science subjects would seem to be masculine to most female students.
Sue Sharpe
"How girls learn to be women" She interviewed young women who were heading for mainly working class occupations. " Just like a girl published in 1976". She found that what was important for girls were husband marriage etc. Girls preferred office work. In her interviews girls rejected jobs such as electricians etc cause they defined them as men's work. IN 1994 she repeated her studies and found girls were now more interested in getting qualifications and a job or career. She however found that girls are still socialized to be wives and mothers. Just like a Girl" Sue sharp found that the education system plays a part in directing girls towards feminine subjects.
It is interesting to note that the change that girls made over the past years from being non-career oriented to becoming career oriented. Despite this major attitude change girls still choose more social arts subjects. Sue sharps research supports my research view that gender socialization whether it be from the home or the education system helps to maintain gender differences in subject choice.
Black Stone (New Society)
They argue that there are so few women scientist and engineers because of the impact of environmental influences on attitudes, both in the home and the school. Science and technology subjects are seen as male subjects.
Alison Kelly
(The Missing Half: Girls and science Education 1981) In this book Alison Kelly claims science is "masculine because of the way it is presented, the content of its curriculum, the types of employment to which it is related and because of the sex of those who study, teach and use it. So long as science and technology have masculine imagine it is more likely that boys rather then girls will choose to study these subjects.
(Gender and schooling: A study of sexual division in the classroom 1983) In this Study Alison studied teachers attitudes towards girls. In 1987 she tried to explain why science tends to be seen as masculine, and she identifies two main reasons. Science subjects appear to be a boy's subject. In her observations she found that teachers used boy examples. In addition to this boys dominate science classrooms by grabbing apparatus etc.
Roseemary Deem
In Rooseemary Deem's pioneering book "Women and schooling (1978) she combined the Marxist perspective of althusser with a socialist feminist perspective to argue that schools are part of the system of ideological state apparatuses which exist to transmit ideology. Where as boys in school learn their appropriate place in the class and work hierarchy of society and girls are more likely to learn their primary responsibilities lie in the home and family.
This book is from 1978 and might not be very reliable data. However it does support the view of gender socialisation in the education system.
Glenys Lobban
(Sex Roles in reading schemes, 1987) He pointed to the excessive use made of both gender and race stereotypes in textbooks throughout the education system.
In 1992 Lesley Bett and her students examined a sample of 132 books for pre school age children in an attempt to discover whether gender bias in children's books had decreased. She discovered that it still remained and boys were seen as playing and handling technical equipment and girls has a passive role.
Teresa Grafton and her colleagues
Teresa Grafton and her colleagues ( Grafton et al, 1987) carried out a study of a co educational comprehensive school in southwest England. She found that factors out side school were important in influencing subject choice, such as pupils being guided by parents. Organization of school timetables etc played and important role in directing girls towards traditional subject areas.
The Newsons
The Newsons conducted a study of Nottingham child raising practices and found that parents exercise more control over the activities of girls then boys resulting in girls being more cautious and come to regard domestic activities as a more female role.
Dale Spender
(The invisible Woman 1982) She conducted research in 1983 and looked at how the education system was controlled and dominated by men. The curriculum was also male centred.
Anne Colley
She looked at why gender divisions occurred in secondary schools in the late 90's. In her research she looked at gender roles, masculinity is associated with individualism, ambition, and dominance. Femininity is associated with kindness, being affectionate, being eager to soothe etc. She also talks about biology being taken up by more girls at A levels because it is a caring subject.
Criticisms of Stanworth and Spender
My personal view on this research is that females do not take up more science subjects because they consider them to be male oriented subjects. Also I believe that as time passes this will change because women's career choices have changed over the past years. I will carry out my research as fairly and open minded as possible. IN addition to this I believe that I will be able to find evidence that has similar views as mine that has been stated and shown previously. This evidence is fairly reliable.
Evidence
Below was my first objective.
. Find out what subjects girls study more in higher education as well as for boys.
The questions asked to collect data about this objective were included in the questionnaire. A sample of the question is below.
. What (A level) subjects are you currently studying?
Music English Geography Mathematics
PD/Health/PE ICT Drama History
Modern Languages Chemistry Biology Sociology
Physics Sociology Law Business
Media Studies Art Religion Others:
From this question I discovered that Males sill did a lot of science and technology subjects with a small amount taking social science subjects. The case with females was that to my surprise more females take biology then males. I also discovered that females were doing chemistry a lot more then I really though. This however did not show the same in technology related subjects. Females still dominate social science and art subjects. This objective has been met. The fact that more females take up biology is worth explaining. To do this I shall refer to Anne Colley. She looked at gender roles (1990) and discovered that masculinity is associated with gender roles, individualism, ambition and dominance. Femininity is associated with kindness, being affectionate, being eager to soothe etc. She goes on to say that this could be the reason why at A levels girls take up more biology then boys because this is a caring subject.
My second Objective was:
2. Why are girls less likely then boys to study science and technology subjects?
To conduct this objective I included the following questions on my questionnaire:
2. What are your parents occupation?
a. Father b. Mother
3. Why do you think girls are less likely then boys to study science and technology subjects in higher education? (Science and Technology subjects include chemistry, biology and Information Communication Technology or Computer Studies)
Girls do not perform as well as boys in science and technology subjects.
Science and Technology subjects are boy's /masculine subjects.
Some careers that girls choose do not require science and technology subjects.
Science and technology related careers are male dominated.
Females are more caring and have the role of brining up children and prefer social science subjects.
Boys are expected to take up science and techonology subjects? (Expected by teachers, family etc).
Other Reason:
4. If you are doing or not doing any science or technology related subjects why are you doing them or not doing them?
Both males and females saw that girls were less likely then boys to study science and technology related subjects because "Some careers that girls choose do not require science and technology subjects." And for the males and females that were not doing any science or technology related subject the most popular response was that it was not course related. This means that it's not necessary for what the want to study. However the second popular response among girls was that science subjects were seen as being hard. The theory that I am applying to my conclusions and results is that of Alison Kelly. In the Missing half: Girls and Science Education 1981. She states that as long as science and technology subjects have a masculine image, it is more likely that boys rather then girls will choose to study these subjects. In 1987 she observed how teachers of science and technology subjects use boy examples etc. It is the career choice that affects the subject choice of girls and the career choice of girls are affected by the gender socialization transmitted by the education system and home.
Figure 3.12
GCE A level or equivalent entries for young people1: by selected subject, 2001/02
United Kingdom
Percentages
Males Females
Pupils in schools and students in further education institutions aged 16-18 at the start of the academic year in England and in Northern Ireland, and aged 17 in Wales. Pupils in Scotland generally sit Highers one year earlier and the figures relate to the result of pupils in Year S5/S6.
2 England and Wales only.
Source: Department for Education and Skills; National Assembly for Wales; Scottish Executive; Northern Ireland Department of Education
Data for figure 3.12
GCE A level or equivalent entries for young people1: by selected subject, 2001/02
United Kingdom
Percentages
Males
Females
All entries
46.1
53.9
Home economics
5.0
95.0
Religious studies
26.5
73.5
29.3
70.7
30.3
69.7
Modern languages
30.9
69.1
Art and design
31.1
68.9
Biological sciences
37.0
63.0
History
47.1
52.9
Business studies
52.3
47.7
Mathematics
60.4
39.6
Physical education
62.3
37.7
Economics
68.6
31.4
Computer studies
73.6
26.4
Physics
75.7
24.3
Pupils in schools and students in further education institutions aged 16-18 at the start of the academic year in England and in Northern Ireland, and aged 17 in Wales. Pupils in Scotland generally sit Highers one year earlier and the figures relate to the result of pupils in Year S5/S6.
2 England and Wales only.
Source: Department for Education and Skills; National Assembly for Wales; Scottish Executive; Northern Ireland Department of Education
Table 3.9
Students in further and higher education:1 by type of course and sex
United Kingdom
Thousands
Males
Females
970/71
980/81
990/91
2002/03
970/71
980/81
990/91
2002/03
Further education
Full-time
16
154
219
509
95
196
261
517
Part-time
891
697
768
1,424
630
624
986
2,278
All further education
,007
851
987
1,933
725
820
1,247
2,795
Higher education
Undergraduate
Full-time
241
277
345
534
73
196
319
645
Part-time
27
176
193
261
9
71
148
430
Postgraduate
Full-time
33
41
50
105
0
21
34
103
Part-time
5
32
50
135
3
13
36
160
All higher education2
416
526
638
1,036
205
301
537
1,339
Home and overseas students. See Appendix, Part 3: Stages of education.
2 Figures for 2002/03 include a small number of higher education students for whom details are not available by level.
Source: Department for Education and Skills; National Assembly for Wales; Scottish Executive; Northern Ireland Department for Employment and Learning; Higher Education Statistics Agency
Table 3.10
Destinations of first degree graduates:1 by sex and occupation, 2003
United Kingdom
Percentages
Males
Females
All
Managers and senior officials
2
8
9
Professional
28
23
25
Associate professional and technical
24
30
28
Administrative and secretarial
4
9
7
Skilled trades
2
-
Personal service
2
6
4
Sales and customer service
0
0
0
Process, plant and machine operatives
-
Elementary
6
3
5
All occupations
00
00
00
Occupations of UK domiciled full- and part-time first degree graduates in employment about six months after completion of their degree.
Source: Department for Education and Skills; Higher Education Statistics Agency
Table 3.16
Highest qualification held:1 by sex and age, 2003/042
Great Britain
Percentages
Higher
GCSE grades
Degree or
education
GCE A level
A*-C or
Other
No
equivalent
qualification3
or equivalent
equivalent
qualification
qualification
All
Males
16-19
..
..
28
42
1
7
00
20-24
4
6
38
22
2
7
00
25-29
29
8
23
7
4
8
00
30-39
22
9
25
9
5
9
00
40-49
20
9
30
5
3
2
00
50-64
7
9
32
0
3
20
00
All males
8
8
29
8
3
3
00
Females
16-19
..
31
45
8
3
00
20-24
6
7
35
24
9
8
00
25-29
29
9
20
21
2
8
00
30-39
20
0
6
29
4
1
00
40-49
7
2
5
27
4
6
00
50-59
1
2
2
20
8
28
00
All females
6
0
8
27
4
5
00
Males aged 16 to 64, females aged 16 to 59.
2 At winter. Data are not seasonally adjusted and have been adjusted in line with population estimates published in spring 2003. See Appendix, Part 4: LFS reweighting.
3 Below degree level.
Source: Department for Education and Skills from the Labour Force Survey
Table 3.13
GCSE or equivalent entries and achievements:1 by selected subject and sex, 2002/03
United Kingdom
Percentages
Number of entries
Percentage of entrants
(thousands)
achieving grade A*-C
Males
Females
All
Males
Females
All
Mathematics
371
362
733
51
53
52
English
348
347
696
54
69
62
English Literature2
269
287
555
58
73
66
Science Double Award
261
266
527
53
56
55
Design and Technology
252
215
467
47
63
54
French
71
94
365
43
59
52
Geography
37
07
245
59
66
62
History
19
19
237
61
68
64
Art and Design
96
32
228
58
77
69
Physical Education
93
46
39
58
62
60
German
66
71
38
49
62
56
Information Technology
70
47
17
57
64
60
Science Single Award
40
38
78
8
21
20
Some double counting may occur if a student enters for more than one subject within a subject category. Those in all schools who were 15 at the start of the academic year, 31 August 2002. Pupils in Year S4 in Scotland. See Appendix, Part 3: Qualifications.
2 Data are for England and Wales only.
Source: Department for Education and Skills; National Assembly for Wales; Scottish Executive; Northern Ireland Department of Education
There is a wide variety of subjects available, and there are
differences in subject choice between males and females.
In 2002/03, 76 per cent of school or further education students
who entered for GCE A level (or equivalent) physics and
74 per cent of those entered for computer studies in the United
Kingdom were male. Other male-dominated subjects included
economics (69 per cent) and mathematics (60 per cent).
In comparison, females made up around 70 per cent of those
entered for religious studies, social studies, English literature,
modern languages, and art and design (although data for
English Literature are only for England and Wales). Furthermore,
94 per cent of entrants for home economics were female.
The proportion of pupils in the United Kingdom gaining two or
more GCE A levels (or equivalent) increased from 19 per cent in
992/93 to 39 per cent in 2002/03. The proportion of young
women who achieved this increased from 20 per cent in
992/93 to 43 per cent in 2002/03 (Figure 3.14). For young
men the proportion increased from 18 per cent to 34 per cent
over the same period. Thus the performance gap between
the sexes widened to 9 percentage points, from just under
2 percentage points in 1992/93.
Methodology
The method I adopted for my coursework was positivism.
Advantages of chosen method:
. Large amounts of data can be obtained quickly. The time period to conduct the research is very short, therefore an appropriate method had to be chosen to get it done quickly.
2. Access to subjects. During Pilot study I discovered that students were not keen on taking interviews and with this method I could get a lot of students to participate.
3. IT is easy to quantify results. I could very easily look at trends.
4. Replication is easy.
5. I will be able to give a standardised set of questions or give additional prompts.
Disadvantages of chosen method.
. Some respondents may not take the questions seriously.
2. No opportunity to correct misunderstandings or give additional prompts.
Objectives:
. Find out what subjects girls study more in higher education as well as for boys.
2. Why are girls less likely then boys to study science and technology subjects?
3. Create and carry out questionnaires similar to Dale spender research.
To reach my first and second objective I collected quantitative data in the form of questionnaires.
Sampling Method
The type of sampling method used was opportunity sampling.
My initial sociological problem was that in higher education girls tend to study less science technology related subjects then males.
My sampling size was thirty students, with equal amounts of females and male subjects. I took 5 samples from each area of study for example I took 5 samples from a science classroom and 5 from a sociology classroom.
To ensure that my sample was representative of the population I decided to take equal amounts of females and males and to take samples from a range of subjects.
In consideration of time and opportunity I had to resort to an opportunity sampling. At the start of the research I conducted a pilot study. (This pilot study will be included in the evidence section of my coursework) In this pilot study I discovered many errors and was not able to conduct interviews or carry out an appropriate sampling method.
The data should be reliable and valid because I used a very large sample and a variety of samples.
Evaluation
My original plan was to conduct interviews. The area of research that I am looking at is qualitative, looking at feelings sand beliefs. In my initial interview with a student I discovered that the participant was very eager to finish the questions and leave. This happened a second time and after each interview when I received feedback I discovered that the respondents did not like taking interviews because they were long and boring. The age group that I am studying are from 16 to 20. And students at this age are not very mature.
After considering all of my options I decided to carry out questionnaires, which would be quicker, and I would have more access to research subjects. I do not believe that choosing a different method will decreases the reliability or validity of my research but id disadvantages me into studying deeper the subject choice and gender.
After conducting my pilot study again I discovered that
. Questions were still too vague and long.
2. The questionnaire was not given a proper introduction explaining what the questionnaire was about.
3. I decided to include more option choice questions to make it easier for participants.
I was fairly successful in meeting my aims and objectives.
Good response rate, questionnaires designed well.
I made some very interesting discoveries. I discovered that although at my particular college science subjects are not popular with girls on a whole across the UK. It appears that there are more girls then it actually appears to be studying science subjects such as chemistry and in particular biology. Physics tends to have fewer girls or no girls at all. From figure 3.12 physics and computer studies and maths have very little female presence.
In conclusion from my questionnaire two reasons why females did not take up science subjects were that girls view science and technology subjects as being very hard and not course related. Due to the fact that girls are not going into careers that require these science and technology subjects they do not take them. Therefore this suggests that the career choice affects the subjects taken. And the career choice is affected by gender socialisation in the home and education system.
Colley concludes that subject choice continues to reflect:
"adult male and female social roles and the abilities and attributes assigned to males and females on the bias of these roles in the gender stereotypes of academic subject areas. The information contained in these stereotypes is acquired during socialisation and reinforced by prevailing beliefs, observations of the status quo and educational practices which themselves are influenced by the same stereotypes."
Figure 3.12
GCE A level or equivalent entries for young people1: by selected subject, 2001/02
United Kingdom
Percentages
Males Females
Pupils in schools and students in further education institutions aged 16-18 at the start of the academic year in England and in Northern Ireland, and aged 17 in Wales. Pupils in Scotland generally sit Highers one year earlier and the figures relate to the result of pupils in Year S5/S6.
2 England and Wales only.
Source: Department for Education and Skills; National Assembly for Wales; Scottish Executive; Northern Ireland Department of Education
If more time were allotted I would have conducted my research on a larger area such as interviewing students from different colleges. I would have also liked to look into the home as well. I wanted to conduct observations or carry out interviews to see what affect the home played on subject choice for girls.