gender and achievement

Question 1

impact of feminism

Answer 1

McRobbie - changes in content of women’s magazines - more independent

social media - encourage young girls to be independent and successful

• more ambition and raising expectations

Question 2

changes in women’s employment

Answer 2

1970 - equal pay act - 30% to 9% in 2020
1975 - sex discrimination act

women in employment now 72% - men is 80%

service sector - women increasingly likely to be employed over men

• girls see future in paid work

Question 3

changes in family structure

Answer 3

divorce rate and large increase in cohabitation
increase in single parent families - 90% mother

families getting smaller - more time to spend with children

more women in breadwinner role - positive role model

• more relevant for middle class

Question 4

girls changing ambitions

Answer 4

Sharpe - 1970s - marriage and family - 1990s - career and have family later

Beck and Beck-Gernsheim - rise in individualism and independence
Postmodernity - no longer feel restricted by gender or historical structural patriarchy

Question 5

girls mature faster

Answer 5

at 16 - girls estimated to be more mature than boys by up to two years

girls more likely to view exams in a responsible way and recognise the seriousness and importance of academic and career choices

Question 6

girls mature faster limitation

Answer 6

feminists criticise - society infantilising men eg domestic responsibility - women bear burden of domestic and emotional labour

benevolent sexism - make an assumption about a gender identity - creating a characteristic - also hurts boys

Question 7

gendered socialisation

Answer 7

Norman - parents think appropriate socialisation is to handle her gently - more likely to read

more likely to succeed in education in terms of behaviour and language skills

boys run around more

Becky Francis - gender codes within school media
McRobbie - bedroom culture

Question 8

globalisation and employment opportunities and male identities

Answer 8

decline in traditionally male jobs - crisis of masculinity

Mac an Ghaill - w/c boys - crisis
Mitsos and Browne - little prospect of getting proper job

lack in motivation

white w/c boys - intersectionality

Question 9

leisure patterns

Answer 9

McRobbie - boys play sport and play games to relate to peers, girls talk to them - bedroom culture

boys fail to develop linguistic and reasoning skills for many non-manual jobs

Question 10

socialisation and different attitudes to reading

Answer 10

reading - feminised
- boys stop being interested in reading at 8
- elaborated speech code - Bernstein

Question 11

external factors - strength

Answer 11

external factors link together different parts of society and show interdependence of each aspect of society

feminism - structural

Question 12

external factors limitations

Answer 12

decline of manufacturing and crisis - only w/c when middle class girls outperform middle class boys

improved career opportunities do not explain trend fully - 9% pay gap despite girls overachieving

socialisation doesn’t explain why girls overtook boys in 1980s

interactionism - inschool processes for important than structural factors

radical feminists - emphasise importance of institutional sexism in schools

Question 13

teacher labelling

Answer 13

Swann and Graddol - teachers tend to see boys as unruly and disruptive - likely to tell them off than helping - lower expectations

Abraham- teachers describe typical boy and girl
- boy — not bright, likes laugh and attention seeking
- girl — bright, hardworking, quiet
- self fulfilling prophecy

teachers stricter on girls not following gender domain

Question 14

subcultures

Answer 14

w/c boys - anti-school subculture

willis - learning to labour - sewell - antischool black masculinity

fuller - black girls form pro-school subcultures

school work feminised - bullied and labelled as gay

Question 15

national curriculum

Answer 15

before 1988 (new right) boys better than girls
GCSEs - girls overtook - coursework

Mitsos and Browne - girls benefit from coursework and work harder and spend more time on homework

GCSEs - oral exams - girls more likely to do well due to language skills

Question 16

national curriculum strengths

Answer 16

good evidence coursework has an impact
- coursework dropped from maths GCSE in 2009 and girls achievement stayed same while boys rose to overtake girls for first time in 12 years

Question 17

national curriculum limitations

Answer 17

coursework no longer exists in majority of GCSE subjects and gender gap in achievement still exists

exams have most influence on final grades so coursework cannot explain all of the gender gap in achievement

Question 18

feminisation of teaching

Answer 18

more female teachers - role models
- teaching style appropriate for girls

Browne and Roff - girls see school as their gender domain

Sewell - schools do not nurture masculine traits and focus on feminine qualities

however - Francis - 2/3rd of 7-8 year olds believed gender of teacher does not matter

Question 19

internal factor strengths

Answer 19

offer good counter-balance to structural explanations

explanations had major impact on social policy eg teacher training

interactionists - support internal explanations as micro-level interactions between groups of individuals

Question 20

internal factor limitations

Answer 20

tendency in some of these approaches to end up blaming the teacher

some studies based on small-scale qualitative research - low in reliability and generalisability

wrong to exaggerate extent of male underachievement - boys still improving and catching up