Gender

Question 1

McRobbie - Impact of Feminism - change in magazines

Answer 1

Compared 1970’s and 1990’s magazines, change from importance of marriage to strong independent women

Question 2

Sharpe - Girls Changing
Attitudes - what do they now prioritise?

Answer 2

interviewed girls in 70s and 90s, change from prioritising love to prioritising career

Question 3

Fuller - Girls Changing
Attitudes - ed success became a part of whose identity? What ideology did they believe in?

Answer 3

found educational success became a part of girl’s identity, believed in meritocracy and aimed for professional jobs that would enable them to support themselves

Question 4

Beck and Beck-Gernsheim - Girls
Changing Attitudes

Answer 4

link to trend in individualism in today’s society, a career is part of a women’s self-project promising recognition and economic self-sufficiency

Question 5

Reay - Criticism of External Factors

Answer 5

limited aspirations of working class girls refect the limited jobs they perceive as being available to them

Question 6

Boaler - Equal
Opportunities Policy

Answer 6

sees the impact of equal opportunities policy as a key reason for the changes in girls’ achievement, barriers to education success have been removed and schooling is more meritocratic

Question 7

Gorard - GCSE and
Coursework

Answer 7

the gender gap in achievement was fairly constant from 75-89, sharp increase were GCSEs and Coursework introduced, achievement gap is due to changes in assessment
Oral exams, girls perform better du to better developed language skills

Question 8

Elwood - Criticism of
GCSE and Coursework

Answer 8

although coursework may have had some impact it cannot be the only influence on the gender gap as exams have more influence on the final grade

Question 9

Francis - Teacher
Attention

Answer 9

boys were disciplined more harshly and felt picked on by teachers who had low expectations of them

Question 10

Swann - Teacher
Attention

Answer 10

boys dominate whole class discussion, whereas girls prefer pair work and group work, girls better at listening and cooperating, they take turns whereas boys interrupt one another

Question 11

Wiener - how have stereotypes been challenged in schools? Textbooks specifically…

Answer 11

since 80s, teacher have challenged stereotypes and sexist images have been removed from textbooks

Question 12

Jackson - Selection & League Tables - who is more attractive to schools? (Gender)

Answer 12

high achieving girls are attractive to schools whereas low achieving boys are not (self-fulfilling prophecy)

Question 13

Slee - Selection & League Tables - boys are less attractive why? How much more likely to be excluded?

Answer 13

boys are less attractive to better schools because of behaviour difficulties and they’re 4x more likely to be excluded

Question 14

Archer - pupil identity - ideal female pupil

Answer 14

Hyper-heterosexual feminine identity: the girls invested considerable time, effort and money into constructing their feminine identity, schools “other” them, ideal pupil is de-sexualised and middle class

Having a boyfriend: having a boyfriend brought symbolic capital but got in the way of schoolwork, lowered aspirations

Being “loud”: outspoken, independent and assertive, didn’t meet expectation of “ideal female pupil” resulting in conflict with the teacher

Question 15

Evans - successful wc girls - who did girls want to help by going to uni?

Answer 15

w/c girls wanted to go onto university but not for themselves, to increase earning power and help families

Question 16

Skeggs