education - gender differences - external factors

Question 1

gender patterns in achievement

Answer 1

in the past boys out performed girls, but since the 1980s girls have improved more rapidly and now do better than boys at all levels in most subjects
•more girls than boys go into higher education
•at as and alevel girls are more likely to pass and to get higher grades
•in key stages 1 to 3 girl do consistently better than boys especially in english

Question 2

the influence of feminism

Answer 2

•feminists have had an impact on women’s rights and opportunities through campaigns to win changes in the law e.g equal pay act
•feminist ideas are more likely to have affected girls self image and aspirations. as result they are more motivated to do well in education

Question 3

girls’ changing perceptions and ambitions- linking to the influence of feminism

Answer 3

•sharpe - compared her two studies of working class girls in the 1970s and 1990s. she found that in the 1970s, girls’ priorities were ‘love, marriage, husbands, children, jobs and careers, more or less in that order’. they saw their future in terms of a domestic role, not paid work. In the 1990s she found that girls priorities switched to careers and being able to be independent
•francis - found that girls now had higher careers aspirations and so needed educational qualifications

Question 4

changes in the family

Answer 4

there have been major changes in the family since the 1970s
•an increase in the divorce rate
•more lone parent families, about 90% which are female headed - meaning the female takes the breadwinner role, giving girls a positive role model

overall, girls realise they can’t rely on having a man being the financial support - women need to be more economically independent -gives them more motivation to do well in education

Question 5

changes in women’s employment

Answer 5

married women’s employment has risen from 53% in 1971 to 72% in 2022
•changes in the law has improved the position of working women:
-the equal pay act 1970 and sex discrimination act 1975 gave women more employment rights
-since 1975, the pay gap between men and women have almost halved

as a result of these changes, girls today have more incentive to see their future in terms of paid work and this creates incentive for them to gain paid work