Flashcards on Gender Differences in Education (2.4)

Question	Answer
At all stages of education, which gender performs better?	Females.
However, although females are performing better than males in all educational areas, what should be noted?	Results for both genders have improved over all levels in recent decades, it's just that females' rate of improvement has been more rapid and a significant gap has opened up.
When examining why there are gender differences in education, sociologists examine external factors that may put females at an advantage. What are the four external factors discussed?	1. The impact of feminism. 2. Changes in the family. 3. Changes in female employment. 4. Changes in female ambition.
How has the impact of feminism resulted in increased female academic success?	Feminism as a movement has strived for equal rights for women in all areas of life. It challenges the idea that a women's role is solely that of mother and housewife. This affects girls' self-image and ambitions, which may explain their improved educational achievement.
How have changes in the family resulted in increased female academic success?	Since the 1970s, we've seen major changes in the family and these affect girls' attitudes towards education. Increased numbers of female-headed lone-parent families may provide young girls with a positive, independent female role model and encourage them to not rely on a husband for income.
How have changes in female employment resulted in increased female academic success?	More women are going out to work and laws have outlawed discrimination in the workplace. The workplace is no longer a 'male' area and girls can pursue whatever career they want. This encourages them to succeed in school.
How have changing female ambitions resulted in increased female academic success?	In the past, girls were primarily concerned with finding a husband, having a home and creating a family. Now, girls are more concerned about their careers and their independence.
Which sociologist's interviews with girls in the 1970s and the 1990s show a major shift in their ambitions?	Sue Sharpe.
Which sociologists link this shift in ambition to individualisation?	Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim.
What do Beck and Beck-Gernsheim mean when they reference 'individualisation'?	The value now placed on independence.
In order to achieve independence, girls now understand that they need to be educated. Carol Fuller studied girls' attitudes to education. What did she find?	Educational success was a central aspect of many of the girls' identities. They believed they could create their own future through meritocracy. They pursued professional careers that would allow them to be financially independent.
However, there are class differences in how far girls' ambitions have changed. How can working-class girls' ambitions be described?	As continuing to be 'gendered', primarily concerned with marriage, childbirth and low-paid 'women's' work.
Which sociologist argues that working-class girls' gendered ambitions reflect the reality of their class position - their limited aspirations mirror the limited job opportunities they believe are available to them?	Diane Reay.
While external factors may influence gender achievement, factors within the education may also play an important role. There are six internal factors. Give examples:	1. Equal opportunities policies. 2. Positive role models in schools. 3. GCSEs and coursework. 4. Teacher attention. 5. Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum. 6. Selection and league tables.
Feminists believe that equal opportunities policies have a major impact on the education system. Why?	Policymakers are now much more aware of gender issues and teachers are much more cautious of stereotyping. It is now understood that both genders are entitled to the same opportunities and this is reflected in policies.
What are GIST and WISE examples of?	Policies encouraging girls to pursue careers in 'male' areas.
The National Curriculum also removed one source of gender inequality by making girls and boys study mostly the same subjects. When was the National Curriculum introduced?	In 1988.
Another internal factor that may have had an impact on girls' achievement is the increase in the proportion of female teachers and head-teachers. Why might this have been influential?	Witnessing women in senior positions may inspire young girls, showing them that women can achieve high positions if they work hard.
Alternatively, the internal factor of GCSE and coursework may have impacted girls' educational success. Which sociologist argue that they way students are assessed benefits girls?	Stephen Gorard.
Gorard found that the gender gap in achievement was fairly consistent until 1989, when it sharply widened. What happened this year that arguably caused this change?	It was the year GCSEs and coursework were introduced.
Which sociologists argue that girls benefit from coursework because they are more conscientious and better organised than boys?	Eirene Mitsos and Ken Browne.
Why are these traits believed to be more commonly found among girls?	Sociologists link these traits to the early gender role socialisation in the family - girls are more likely to be encouraged to be tidy and patient.
Some sociologists argue that the internal factor of teacher attention can be linked to the gender gap in achievement. According to Jane and Peter Finch, why do boys receive more attention?	Because they attract more reprimands.
Joan Swann also found gender differences in communication styles. What were her findings?	Boys dominate in whole-class discussions while girls prefer pair-work and group-work.
Why might the gender differences in communication styles explain why teachers respond better to girls?	Because girls' communication styles make them appear more cooperative, while boys appear potentially disruptive.
Sociologists argue that the gender gap in achievement may also be a result of the active attempt to remove stereotypes from the curriculum. Why might this help?	Sociologists argue that removing gender stereotypes from the curriculum has broken the barrier to girls' achievement.
Finally, the internal factor of marketisation policies may impact the gender gap. Why?	Because they have created more competition within the education system, which now sees girls as desirable recruits because they achieve better exam results.
Which sociologist noted that the introduction of exam league tables has improved opportunities for girls?	David Jackson.
While there have been changes in gender and educational achievement, sociologists differ in their interpretation of the importance of these changes. What are the two views of girls' achievements?	1. Liberal feminism. 2. Radical feminism.
How do liberal feminists respond to girls' achievement?	They celebrate the progress made so far in improvement achievement and believe further progress will be made.
How do radical feminists respond to girls' achievement?	They recognise that girls are achieving more, but emphasise that the system remains patriarchal.
While girls are more academically successful than they were in the past, this doesn't mean that all girls are successful. In particular, what factor influences girls' achievements?	Social class.
Which sociologist argues that one reason for the class differences in achievement among girls is that there is a conflict between working-class girls' feminine identities and the values of the school?	Louise Archer et al.
What concept does Archer refer to when examining the conflict working-class girls may experience?	Symbolic capital.
Archer identifies several strategies that the girls followed when creating a valued sense of self. What sort of strategies did she identify?	- Adopting a hyper-heterosexual feminine identity. - Having a boyfriend. - Being 'loud'.
How do working-class girls adopt hyper-heterosexual feminine identities, according to Archer?	They invest considerable time, effort and money in presenting themselves as glamorous and desirable.
Girls' performance of the feminine identity brings status from their female peers. However, what does it also cause?	Conflict with the school. They are often punished for having the wrong appearance. Teachers perceive them to be preoccupied with their appearance and distracted from education.
The school defines girls who adopt this hyper-heterosexual as incapable of educational success and less worthy of success. They therefore do not have symbolic capital. Rather, what are they subjected to?	Symbolic violence.
While having a boyfriend brought symbolic capital, why can it impact girls' schooling?	Because it gets in the way of schoolwork, lowers girls' ambitions and makes them uninterested in 'male' subjects and roles.
Some working-class girls adopt 'loud' feminine identities that often result in them being outspoken, independent and assertive. Why does this have a negative impact on their schooling?	This personality does not conform with the school's values and results in conflicts with teachers.
As such, it can be concluded that working-class girls face a dilemma. What two choices do they have?	1. To gain symbolic capital form their peers by conforming to the hyper-heterosexual feminine identity. 2. To gain educational capital by rejecting the working-class identity and conforming to the school's middle-class notions of an ideal female student.
How do some girls tried to cope with this dilemma?	They define themselves as 'good underneath'.
What does this 'good underneath' self-image reflect?	The girls' struggle to achieve a sense of self-worth within the education system, which devalues their working-class feminine identities.
Although working-class girls in general are likely to achieve, some do succeed and carry on into higher education. However, even these girls may be disadvantaged by their gender and class. Which sociologist found this when studying 21 working-class girls studying for their A Levels?	Sarah Evans.
Evans found that the girls wanted to go to university to increase their earning power. However, this was not for themselves. Why did they want to increase their earning power?	To help and provide for their family.
Evans also found that many working-class girls choose to remain living at home while attending university to help reduce costs. However, why did living at home while attending university negatively impact working-class students?	Because it limited their opportunity to attend the top universities.
Living at home was not just an economic necessity - it was also a positive choice and aspect of their working-class identities. Why?	A preference for the local is a key feature of working-class habitus.
What has the gender gap in achievement given rise to?	Concern about boys failing behind.
Several factors may be responsible for boys' lack of academic success. Give examples of some of the external factors:	1. Boys' poorer literacy skills. 2. The decline of traditional men's jobs.
Which government department argues that the gender gap in achievement is primarily the result of boys' poorer literacy and language skills?	The Department for Children, Schools and Families.
What may be one explanation for boys' poorer literacy and language skills?	It may be that parents spend less time reading to their sons.
Alternatively, it has been argued that the fact that mothers are more likely than fathers has resulted in boys' poorer literacy and language skills. Why?	Because boys begin to see reading as a 'feminine' activity.
In addition, how do boys' and girls' leisure activities impact their language and communication skills?	Boy's leisure activities, such as football, do little to develop their language skills. Girls, on the other hand, have a 'bedroom culture' which helps develop their language skills.
Another external factor that may impact boys' literacy is the decline of traditional men's jobs. When did heavy industries begin to decline?	In the 1980s.
Why have heavy industries been in decline since the 1980s?	Partly due to globalisation, which has led to the majority of the manufacturing industry relocating to developing countries.
According to Eirene Mitsos and Ken Browne, what has the decline in male employment opportunities lead to?	An 'identity crisis for men' - many boys believe they have little prospect of getting a proper job. Their self-esteem is subsequently undermined, which results in them giving up on education.
While there may be some truth in this claim, why can it be criticised?	Because the decline has been largely in relation to manual working-class jobs that don't actually require academic success anyway. It therefore seems unlikely that the decline in such jobs would impact boys' motivation to be academically successful.
Give examples of some of the internal factors that may explain boys' poorer literacy skills:	1. The feminisation of education. 2. The shortage of male primary school teachers. 3. Laddish subcultures.
Which sociologist argues that boys fall behind because education has become feminised?	Tony Sewell.
What does Tony Sewell mean when he says that education is feminised?	He means that schools do not nurture 'masculine' traits such as competitiveness and leadership. Rather, they celebrate qualities more closely associated with girls, such as attentiveness.
Sewell argues that the introduction of coursework is a major cause of gender differences in achievement. What does Sewell believe coursework should be replaced with?	Final exams and a greater emphasis placed on outdoor adventure in the curriculum.
Another potential external cause of boys' poorer literacy skills is the shortage of male primary school teachers. Why might this have an impact?	Because it means there is a lack of male role models in the education system.
According to YouGov, what percentage of primary school teachers are male?	14%.
39% of 8-11 year old boys have no male teachers whatsoever. What impact does this have on them?	Most of the boys said that the presence of male teachers made them behave better and work harder.
However, research indicates that the absence of male teachers might not be a major factor in boys' underachievement. What did Beck Francis find?	Two-thirds of 7-8 year olds believed that the gender of a teacher doesn't matter.
Barbara Read is critical of the view that education has become feminised. She studied the type of language teachers use to express criticism and/or disapproval. She identified two types of 'discourse'. What were they?	1. A disciplinarian discourse (the teacher's authority is made explicit and visible). 2. A liberal discourse (the teacher's authority is implicit and invisible).
Which genders are the two discourses associated with?	The disciplinarian discourse is associated with masculinity and the liberal discourse with femininity.
However, what challenge to these assumptions did Read find?	Most teachers, regardless of gender, used the disciplinarian discourse to control behaviour.
Read reaches two conclusions from her findings. What are they?	1. The fact that most teachers favour a masculine discourse disproves the claim that the culture of the primary school has become feminised. 2. The fact that female teachers were just as likely as males to use a masculine discourse disproves the claim that only male teachers can control a classroom.
In agreement with Read, which sociologists argues that rather than seeing education as feminised, we should see it as a 'masculinised educational structure that is numerically dominated by women'?	Malcolm Haase.
Some sociologists argue that the growth of 'laddish' subcultures has contributed to boys' underachievement. Debbie Epstein examined the way masculinity is constructed within schools. What did she find?	Working-class boys are likely to be harassed, labelled as sissies and subjected to homophobic verbal abuse if they appear to be interested in their education. This is because in working-class culture, non-manual work (including schoolwork) is seen as effeminate.
Becky Francis states that laddish culture is becoming increasingly widespread. Why is this, in her opinion?	Because as girls move into traditional masculine areas, boys respond by becoming increasingly laddish in the effort to differentiate themselves.
Jessica Ringrose found that girls' academic success is resulting a moral panic about boys' academic failure. The moral panic reflects what fear?	The fear that underachieving working-class boys will grow up to become a dangerous, unemployable underclass that threatens social stability.
Ringrose argues that the moral panic has caused a major shift in educational policy, which is now preoccupied with raising boys' achievements. What are the negative effect does this has?	By narrowing equal opportunities policies down simply to 'failing boys', we focus purely on gender and ignore class and ethnic factors that may cause underachievement. We also fail to recognise the negative experiences girls go through in schools (e.g. sexual harassment).
We should not assume that boys are a 'lost cause', however. Which sociologist argues that the similarities in girls' and boys' achievement are far greater than the differences, especially when compared with class or ethnic differences?	Tracey McVeigh.
It would therefore make more sense to focus on the class differences in education before tackling the gender differences in education. How much wider than the gender gap is the class gap?	Three times wider.
Additionally, the extent to which gender influences achievement itself varies depending on a pupil's class and ethnic group. Discuss:	The gender gap among black Caribbean pupils is greater than among other ethnic groups - black girls are typically successful while black boys are often unsuccessful.
What does Paul Connolly conclude about the influence of gender, class and ethnicity on academic achievement?	We must look at them in combination with one another - for example, being female raises performance more than 'added to' being black Caribbean than it does when 'added to' being white.
There continues to be a fairly traditional pattern of 'boys' and 'girls' subjects. What subjects do boys typically opt for and what subjects do girls typically opt for?	Boys still choose subjects like maths and science while girls still choose language based subjects.
The National Curriculum gives pupils little freedom to choose or drop subjects by making more subjects compulsory until the age of 16. However, where choice is possible, what do boys and girls tend to follow?	Different 'gender routes'.
The patterns of gendered subject choices are not new. According to the Institute of Physics, the proportion of female A Level physics students is "stubbornly consistent", remaining at 20% for over 20 years. What does this call into question?	The effectiveness of policies such as WISE and GIST, which are aimed at encouraging girls to enter traditionally 'male' subjects.
Students taking vocational courses are particularly influenced by what is a 'male' or 'female' subject. How many childcare apprentices are male?	1 in 100.
There are a number of explanations as to why boys and girls choose different subjects. One explanation is gender role socialisation. What is this?	The process of learning the behaviour expected of a particular gender.
Schools play an important part in the socialisation process. According to Eileen Byrne, how to teachers treat the different genders?	They encourage boys to be tough and show initiative, while expecting girls to be quiet, helpful, clean and tidy.
As a result of differences in socialisation, boys and girls develop different tastes in reading. According to Patricia Murphy and Jannette Elwood, how does this subsequently impact subject choice?	Boys read hobby books and information texts, while girls are more likely to read stories about people. This explains why boys prefer science subjects and girls prefer language subjects.
Another explanation as to why boys and girls choose different subjects is that subjects have a certain 'gender image'. What does this mean?	This term refers to the gender associated with a subject.
Sociologists attempt to understand why some subjects are seen as 'boys' subjects and some are 'girls' subjects. Which sociologist argues that computer studies is seen as masculine because it involves working with machines, which is part of the male gender domain?	Anne Colley.
Interestingly, pupils who attend single-sex schools tend to hold less stereotyped subject images and make less traditional subject choice. Which sociologist found evidence to support this?	Diana Leonard.
Subject choice can be influenced by peer pressure. Which sociologist found that, in an American college, male students would call girls 'lesbian' or 'butch' if they appeared to be interested in sports?	Alison Dewar.
Subject choice may also be influenced by 'gendered career opportunities'. What does this term refer to?	The fact that jobs are often sex-typed as either 'men's' or 'women's'.
What do women's jobs often involve?	Women's jobs often involve work similar to that performed by housewives, such as childcare and nursing.
Why does sex-typing of occupations affect boys' and girls' ideas about what kinds of job are available to them?	Because if, for example, a boy 'gets the message' that childcare providers should be female, he will be less likely to opt to study childcare.
Why does is explanation supported by the fact that vocational courses are extremely gender-specific?	Because vocational courses are, by definition, closely linked to students' career plans.
What other dimension make exist in a student's choice of vocational course?	Social class.
Which class in particular may make decisions about vocational courses that are based on a traditional sense of gender identity, and why?	The working class. This may be a reflection of their habitus.
A child's early socialisation into a gender identity is not the only influence over their academic career. What else has an impact?	Internal experiences (those occurring within the school) also construct and reinforce their gender and sexual identities.
One example of internal experiences that arguably construct and reinforce gender and sexual identities is the experience of double standards. Which sociologist identifies a double standard of sexual morality within the school?	Sue Lees.
How does Lees describe this double standard of sexual morality?	She states that boys can boast about their own sexual exploits, gaining status for their sexual conquests, but will call a girl a 'slag' if she looks or behaves in a certain way.
What do feminists see these double standards as?	An example of a patriarchal ideology that justifies male power and devalues females.
Another internal experience that may impact a student's gender and sexual identity is verbal abuse. This is something argued by a number of sociologists (e.g. Sue Lees, Carrie Paechter). What does Andrew Parker note about the verbal abuse and subsequent labels that some students face?	They often have little or no relation to their sexual behaviour. Their sole function is to reinforce gender norms and identities.
The enforcement of double standards and the expression of verbal abuse are both verbal aspects. However, there is also a visual aspect to the way pupils control each other's identities. What is this referred to as?	The 'male gaze'.
What is meant by the 'male gaze'?	The term refers to the way male pupils and teachers look girls up and down, seeing them as sexual objects and making judgements about their appearances.
How does Máirtín Mac an Ghaill see the male gaze?	As a form of surveillance through which dominant heterosexual masculinity is reinforced and femininity devalued.
Both male and female peer groups are internal experiences that construct and reinforce gender and sexual identities. Name the sociologist whose study, Learning To Labour, demonstrated how male peer groups influence a students attitude to learning:	Paul Willis.
Name the sociologist whose study of working-class girls' peer group consisting of 13- and 14-year-olds demonstrated how being positively labelled as 'popular' was crucial to the girls' identity:	Jessica Ringrose.
Ringrose found that as the girls transitioned from a girls' friendship culture into a heterosexual culture, they faced tension. What was this tension between?	Their pre-existing idealised feminine identity, which showed loyalty to their female peer group, and their newfound sexualised identity, which involved competing for boys' attention.
Although relationships with boys can confer symbolic capital, what can relationships with boys also be described as?	A 'high risk game' - girls are forced to perform a balancing act between being too competitive and being too apathetic.
If a girl is too competitive when pursuing relationships with boys, she may be 'slut shamed'. If she is too apathetic with regards to relationships with boys, she may be 'frigid shamed'. What can shaming be regarded as?	A social control device.
In addition to the idealised feminine identity and the sexualised identity, a third identity does exist. What is it known as?	The 'boffin identity'.
Girls who want to be academically successful may feel as if they have to conform to the school's notion of the ideal feminine pupil identity. Which sociologist found that this involves presenting themselves as 'asexual'?	Diane Reay.
However, by presenting themselves as asexual, what will the girls be at risk of?	Being excluded by other girls and also by boys.
Finally, research shows that teachers also play a part in reinforcing dominant definitions of gender and identity. According to Máirtín Mac an Ghaill, why do male teachers tell boys off?	For 'behaving like girls' and being outperformed by girls.

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Flashcards on Gender Differences in Education (2.4)

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