| Gender differences in education |
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This lesson is to review and revise issues in gender and education. Specifically it will look at girls in education and some of the reasons why they have improved.
 In recent years there have been some significant changes in the area of gender and education.
Both females and males have improved in terms of the qualifications they achieve in education. However girls have now overtaken boys.
How do we know this?
Official statistics!!
By looking at national statistics on education you can see the differences between male and female achievement.
Use the hyperlink below to explore these statistics (you will need the education section and you can search using key words like gender).
How do we know girls are outperforming boys?
Starting school
Baseline assessments are given to children (Government and qualifications and curriculum authority, 1999). They found girls score higher in all tests.
Key stage 1 to 3
Girls do consistently better than boys, especially in English but even in ‘male’ subjects like maths and science.
GCSE
The gap has widened between girls and boys to over 10%
AS and A2
Girls are more likely tom pass their exams and get higher grades, even in so called ‘boys subjects’.
Reasons for girls achievement
There are many reasons for gender differences in education. We will now look at reasons for girls improvement. This can be divided up into external factors and internal factors.
External factors
Factors outside the education system, such as home and family background and wider society.
Internal factors
Factors within schools and the education system, such as the effect of school policies.
Factors affecting gender differences
| External Factors |
Internal Factors |
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- Changes in women’s employment
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- Girls changing attitudes and ambitions
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- Equal opportunities policies
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- Positive role models in schools
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- Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum
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- Teachers attention and classroom interaction
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External factors
| Impact of feminism |
Changes in the family |
- Feminism is a social movement, it strives for equal rights between men and women.
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- It has fought for changes in how women are seen in society and the media. It has fought against patriarchy (male dominance).
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- It has raised women’s expectations and their self esteem.
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- This has lead to girls realising that there isn’t only the housewife role available to them. Feminism has affected girl’s own self-image, showing them choices that weren’t there before.
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- In turn, females have begun to strive for success in all areas of society, including education.
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- There has been big changes in the family since the 1970’s.
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- These changes have effected girls attitudes to education in a number of ways.
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- Increase in lone parent (mainly female headed). So more women are taking on the breadwinner role, thus creating a new role model for girls where qualifications are needed to get a good job.
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- Increase in divorce means girls may have to support themselves financially, this will encourage girls to get their own qualifications to make a living.
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External factors continued…
| Changes in Women's employment |
Girls changing attitudes and ambitions |
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In the last few decades there have been a number of important changes in women’s employment
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1970 Equal Pay Act – illegal to pay women less than men for the same job
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More women are now in employment (part-time and often in the service sector)
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Some women are now breaking through the ‘glass ceiling’ (invisible barrier that keeps them from reaching the top)
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All these changes encourage females to do well in education, as they now see there are many job opportunities for them
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Changes in family and employment have lead to changes in girls attitudes and priorities
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Sue Sharpe interviewed girls in the 1970s on their priorities. She found that their priorities were marriage and children
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She redid her study in 1994 and discovered that girls priorities had changed
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Their priorities were now jobs and careers with marriage and children being less of a priority.
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This obviously has an influence on their attitudes to education
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