Gender differences in academic achievment

Question 1

Sue Sharpe

Answer 1

Compared the attitudes of girls in the 70s vs the 90s.

1970s - ‘love, marriage, husbands and children’

1990s - ‘job, career, and being able to support themselves’ and saw education as the main route to a good job

Question 2

Gendered subject image

Answer 2

Kelly (1987) agrues science is seen as a male subject:

• science teachers are more likely to be men
• examples tecahers use and textbooks often draw on boys interest

Anne Colley (feminist 1998) argues computer studies is seen as masculine for two reasons:

• it involves working with machines (part of male gender domain)
• tasks tend to be abstract and teaching styles formal with few group work oppertunities (off putting to females

Question 3

The male gaze

Answer 3

Mac an Ghail

• male pupils + teachers look girls up and down seeing them as sexual objects and make judgments about their appearance
• the male gaze is a form of surveilance through which dminant hetero masculinity is reinforced and feminity is devalued
• boys who dont display thier masculintiy in this way risk being labelled as ‘gay’

Question 4

Gender domains

Answer 4

Naima Browne and Carol Ross (1991)
* gender domains are the activiies associated with a gender territory (such as fixing a car being male).
* beliefs about gender domain form by early experiences and expectations of adults

Patricia Murphy (1991)
* boys and girls pay attention to different details when tackling the same task.
* girls focus on how peple feel, boys focus on how things are made/work
* explains why girls chose humanities and boys chose choose science

Question 5

Feminisaiton of education

Answer 5

Tony Sewell
* boys fall behind because education has become feminised schools dont nurture ‘masculine’ traits such methodical working and attentivness in class
* “we have thrown the boy out with the bath water”

Question 6

Shortage of male teachers

Answer 6

Lack of male role models causes boys underachievment

• large number of boys brought up in 1.5 million female-headed lone parent families in the uk
• YouGov: 39% of 8-11 year old boys have no lessons wahtsoever with a male teacher , yet 42% of boys surveyed said it made them work harder

Question 7

Decline of traditional male employment

Answer 7

since the 1980s there has beem a decline in heavy industries like iron, steel and shipbuilding as they relocate to china for cheap labour.

Mistos and Browne
* claim that the decline in male employment has led to a ‘identity crisis for men’. Boys lack of prospects leads to low sellf esteem and motivation