Gender Differences in Education

Gender differences in educational achievement

Girls generally tend to outperform boys in education.

External factors

• The impact of feminism
• Girls' changing ambitions

Internal factors

• (Government) Equal opportunity policies – GIST & WISE
• Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum
• Role models in schools Though, it should be considered that they are all interrelated.

Point 1: External

The impact of feminism:

The impact of the feminist movement has challenged traditional stereotypes regarding gender roles, raising girls 'ambitions.

McRobbie – Noticed a shift in girls' magazines from traditional femininity to more empowerment and independence.

Changes such as this, encouraged by feminism, may have changed girls' priorities, explaining improvements in their educational achievement.

Evaluation -

However, these girls' magazines often contain images of Western women. This may result in girls from ethnic minorities feeling excluded as they struggle to identify with these women, resulting in them not experiencing the same rise in achievement as they struggle to find role models outside of school to help raise their aspirations.

Though, as it is external, feminism may have only had an indirect impact on girls' achievement, suggesting it is not a main factor and there are perhaps internal factors at play

Point 2: External

Girls' changing ambitions:

Sharpe – Girls now see their future as financially independent women with a career

Girls recognise that these aspirations require qualifications, thus explaining girls' rise in achievement

Evaluation -

There are class differences in how far girls' aspirations have changed as some working-class girls continue to have gender-stereotyped aspirations for marriage and children.

Dianne Reay – Working-class girls' limited aspirations reflect the limited job opportunities they believe are available to them

Point 1: Internal

Equal opportunity policies:

GIST and WISE – Tried to make science a more gender-neutral domain by encouraging girls in school to study science subjects.

This resulted in more girls studying sciences than boys in 2020 (except physics) and additionally outperforming them.

Boaler – Programmes such as these are a key reason for girls' achievement as they removed key barriers.

Evaluation -

However, despite the progress of girls in science, physics is still heavily male-dominated as in 2019 77% of physics A level students were male. This challenges the effectiveness of policies such as GIST and WISE.

Although the girls still outperformed the boys, this suggests there is another factor influencing girls' achievement beyond education, perhaps differences in primary socialisation.

Francis and Skelton - Girls are being raised with formal learning-type skills, resulting in them being more prepared for education overall.

Therefore, perhaps there are external factors at play such as differences in primary socialisation, contributing to gender differences in achievement. However, it should be considered that as GIST and WISE are government policies, they are likely to have been shaped by wider external factors such as feminism.

Point 2: Internal

Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum:

The removal of gender stereotypes from school learning materials has removed a barrier to girls' achievement

Weiner – Teachers and resources in education have started to challenge stereotypes which may have helped to raise girls' achievement due to them having higher aspirations.

Pearson – A recent example of this is Pearson launching guidelines to tackle gender bias and stereotypes within school textbooks and exams

Sewell – Though, stereotypes still remain externally in the media. Arguing that this is not the reason why girls are ahead but why boys are behind as these approaches have only tackled female stereotypes.

This may be due to the wider external impacts of feminism, suggesting that it is not entirely an internal factor.

Evaluation -

However, gender stereotypes are still an issue as they are only being challenged in certain parts of the world, globally and culturally stereotypes aren't being challenged in the same way.

Point 3: Internal

Role models in schools:

There are currently more female teachers within schools, which may act as role models for girls, encouraging them to see education as part of their gender domain.

Sewell – The presence of more female teachers in schools and coursework being introduced 'feminises' the learning environment, thus benefiting girls and leaving boys behind.

However, this may not be entirely an internal factor, as wider external factors such as the impacts of feminism may have influenced more female teachers being in schools.

Evaluation -

However, schools are still being controlled by more men than women as 63% of secondary head teachers are male. This suggests that although there are more female teachers in schools, there are fewer with a high status of authority, perhaps resulting in girls still lacking motivational role models in school.

Conclusion:

We cannot look at internal and external factors in isolation from each other.

For example, although there have been changes made inside schools, such as the removal of stereotypes and the introduction of educational policies, these are largely shaped by external factors such as feminism which has changed girls' ambitions

Ultimately, suggesting that the internal and external factors are interrelated and thus shouldn't be looked at separately.

However, internal factors may have played a larger role in these differences as feminism, and the influence it has on girls' ambitions may have only had an indirect impact on education and gender differences in achievement.