Gendered Subject Choice

Question 1

Feminist Perspective:

Answer 1

Jackson et al argues that educational policy has been focused on boys’ underachievement; girls still face problems in school such as low self-esteem.

Ringrose - Moral Panic about boys’ underachievement.

Archer - WC girls, feminine identity = hyper-heterosexual feminine identity.

Mac an Ghail - ‘male gaze’, hegemonic masculinity.

Question 2

Gender Role Socialisation:

Answer 2

Norman states that children are taught what is expected of males/females in society from an early age (based on clothing, toys, etc).
Murphy and Elwood = differences in socialisation = different tastes in reading. So boys like hobby books whilst girls love fiction about people.

Question 3

Gender Domains and Subject Images:

Answer 3

Gender domains influenced by a child’s early experiences, teaching them what activities are male and which are female.
Murphy = girls focus on people’s feelings whilst boys focus on logic = why girls choose humanities and boys sciences.

Kelly = teachers likely to be men, boys monopolise equipment and dominate the science labs. = why science is a ‘boy subject’.

Question 4

Peer Pressure:

Answer 4

Peers ‘police’ subject choice, so children stay in their traditional gender domain.

Dewar = girls called ‘butch’/’lesbian’ if they showed interest in sports.

Question 5

Gendered Career Opportunities:

Answer 5

Employment is heavily gendered with certain jobs being seen as ‘male’ or ‘female.’
Teachers may reflect their own stereotypes onto students when giving advice about careers = encouraged into traditional roles despite less traditional gender socialisation.

Question 6

Evaluation:

Answer 6

• Postmodernists claim that an individual can ow choose whoever they want to be and the identity they want to form, so this is irrelevant.
• Research into single-sex schools shows that students are more likely to pick a subject outside of their gender domain if they go to an all-girls school.