genderand femaleedimprovement

8/8/2019 genderand femaleedimprovement

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Gender and Educational Achievement

In this Presentation I shall distinguish broadly between two broadtime periods: the 1950s to the late1980s and the late 1980s to thepresent day.

If you would like to switch directly to the slides on the late 1980s tothe present day click here.

I have made some links to my teaching notes on this topic whichyou can consult for further details and of course you will also wish toconsult your textbooks as appropriate.

Click here for more information on the Sociology of Education.


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The Data to be explained; the 1950s to the late 1980s

There was clear evidence that in the era of the 11+ pass marks were sethigher for girls than for boys so as to prevent girls from taking adisproportionate share of Grammar School places.

From the early 1950s until the late 1960s girls were less likely than boys tobe entered for GCE Ordinary Level examinations. In any case in the 1950sand early 1960s many pupils left school at age 15 having taken no officialnational examinations.

The candidate pass rate in GCE O Level examinations was higher for girlsthan for boys from the early 50s to the late 1960s so that despite the higherentry rates for males the percentages of male and female school leaversactually passing 5 or more GCE O levels were fairly similar although

females did usually outperform males by 1-2% each year. This overall statistic masked the facts that girls outperformed boys by

considerable margins in Arts and Humanities subjects and that boys usuallyoutperformed girls but by smaller margins in Mathematics and Sciencesubjects.


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The Data to be explained: the 1950s to the late 1980s

However females were disadvantaged to some extent by their subjectchoices for 16+ courses. They were less likely than males to opt forscientific subjects [other than Biology] and also less likely to opt forstereotypical male subjects such as technical drawing, woodwork and

metal work. By the late 1970s boys and girls were equally likely to be entered for GCE

O levels. The percentages of both male and female school leavers passing5 or more GCE O Levels rose slowly but steadily from the 1950s to the1980s and girls remained slightly more likely than boys to pass 5 or moreGCE O Levels

However female students were less likely than males to enrol on Advanced

Level courses, less likely to achieve two or more Advanced Level passesand less likely to participate in Higher Education from the 1950s to the1980s.

Gender differences in subject choice were if anything greater at AdvancedLevel and Degree level than at 16+ level.


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Explanations for relative female educational under-achievement

from the 1950s to the 1980s

Relative female educational under- achievement has been explained interms of several types of theory.

IQ theories in which it is claimed that females are innately less intelligentthan males.

Gender differences in socialisation throughout society as in the studies of ,for example, Fiona Norman and Sue Sharpe.

Factors operative in the schools themselves as in the theories of MichelleStanworth, Dale Spender and others.

The following slides 5-11 summarise the findings of some relevant theoriesand studies .


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Explaining relative female educational under-achievement: gender

differences in IQ

Throughout history, it has been claimed that women are less intelligent than men .It has variously beenargued that women have smaller brains than men, that they are emotional rather than rational and thatthe different shapes of male and female brains give men advantages in mathematical and technicalsubjects.

However it should be noted that relative to average body weight, female brains are larger than malebrains and also, that the tables have been turned to some extent by research suggesting that female

brain structures give them innately superior linguistic abilities.

An important recent DCFS publication suggests that gender differences in educationalachievement cannot be explained in terms of gender differences in measured intelligence.

In any case since females now out-perform males at all levels of the UK it seems foolish to suggest thatfemales are innately less intelligent .However many sociologists would also deny that females areinnately more intelligent than males.

There are many limitations to IQ tests as methods of accurately measuring intelligence. Slides on thenature and limitations of IQ theory can be found in the presentations on Class and educationalachievement and Race, Ethnicity and educational achievement. For convenience I repeat them here.


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Key Elements of IQ Theory

The IQ key theorists, Jensen, Herrnstein, Eysenck, Burt and Murray ,focussed mainly on relationships between IQ and social class and/orbetween IQ and race/ ethnicity rather than between IQ and gender.

The key assumptions of IQ theory are listed below.

Intelligence can be defined clearly

It can be measured accurately via IQ tests Data have sometimes been used to suggest that women have lower IQs

than men.

However in the era of the 11+ girls were far more successful than boys inthis examination and the girls examination marks were adjusted downwardsto prevent girls from taking a much larger share on the available grammarschool places.

This policy was justified at the time on the grounds that girls matured morequickly and that boys would catch up quickly once they matured. However,many girls were actually denied the grammar school places which theirexamination marks suggested they had fairly earned.


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Some criticisms of IQ Theory

Intelligence cannot be defined clearly or accurately measured by IQ tests.

IQ tests may be culturally biased

Some students may not be at their best when they take the tests

Others may not take the tests seriously

Student IQ test scores can improve with practice, suggesting that they donot measure fundamental intelligence

The relative importance of genetic and environmental factors in determiningintelligence is unknown but critics of IQ theories claim that genetic factorsare unlikely to be as significant as suggested by IQ theorists


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Gender Differences In Socialisation

It has been suggested that in societies such as the UK the socialisationprocess as it operated at least up to the 1970s meant that many parentssocialized their daughters to show dependence, obedience, conformity anddomesticity whereas boys were encouraged to be dominant, competitiveand selfreliant.

Also when young children saw their parents acting out traditional genderroles many would perceive these roles as natural and inevitable leadinggirls and boys to imagine their futures as fulltime housewives and mothersand as fulltime paid employees respectively.

In schools teachers praised girls for "feminine qualities" and boys for"masculine qualities"; boys and girls were encouraged to opt for traditional

male and female subjects and then for traditional male and female careers. Furthermore in certain sections of the mass media [and especially perhaps

in teenage magazines] girls were encouraged to recognize the allimportance of finding "Mr. Right" and settling down to a life of blissful

domesticity in their traditional housewife-mother roles.


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Gender differences in socialisation

Fiona Norman (1988) showed that pre school socialisation may be a factor inexplaining subsequent female under achievement.

She emphasised that many parents would provide gender specific toys andencourage male and female children to adopt different leisure activities. Childrenwould also be influenced by perceived differences in male and female roles within

families. At this time these gender roles were still often relatively traditional. Perhaps the best known study stressing the influence of gender differences in

socialisation on subsequent educational achievement is Just Like a Girl by SueSharpe.

She argued in the 1970s that teenage girls had been socialised to focus on theimportance of romance followed by the housewife /mother role rather than on theimportance of education followed by a career.

By the early 1990s, when she repeated the research, she found girls to be moreconcerned with their future career prospects. and her conclusion was supported in amore recent [2000] study by Becky Francis.

Information on the Becky Francis study is provided later in the presentation.


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Gender Differences in Socialisation

Remember that the socialisation process may be analysed from different

sociological perspectives and different ideological points of view.

You should distinguish between Functionalist, Marxist, Feminist and Social Action

sociological perspectives.

Remember also the several varieties of feminism each of which provide differentapproaches to the analysis of the socialisation process.

Also important are the approaches to socialisation of New Right theorists and

Postmodernists.

Remember, for example, that Functionalists would support the socialisation of males

and females into traditional so-called instrumental and expressive gender roles, a

view that feminists would reject.

More information on socialisation in general and gender differences in socialisation in

particular will soon be provided elsewhere on the site.


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Female relative educational under-achievement: school effects

Studies focusing on the education system [for example in the work of Lesley Best,Michelle Stanworth, B. Licht and C. Dweck and others] claimed that widely usedreading schemes encouraged socialisation into traditional gender roles; that teachersgave less attention to girls; that teachers failed to rebuke boys who verbally abusedgirls; that boys monopolised science equipment which restricted girls' opportunities;that teachers had stereotypical expectations about girls' future career prospects andthat girls were lacking in confidence relative to boys. because of the ways in whichthey were treated in school.

It must be noted that these conclusions were all based upon small scale studieswhich may, as a result not have been representative. The studies are now ratherdated but it is possible that female students still suffer some of these disadvantagesbut are improving more rapidly than boys despite this.

It is still worthwhile for you to consult your textbooks for further information on thesestudies.


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The Data to be explained: from the late 1980s to the present

day.

The GCSE was introduced in 1988 and from then onwards the female- male gender difference ineducational achievement at GCSE level widened as differences between the [ higher] female passrates and the male pass rates in Arts and Humanities widened and females narrowed orsometimes reversed the traditional higher male pass rates in Mathematics and science subjects

It has been claimed that the relative improvement of female educational achievements can beexplained partly by the nature of the new GCSE courses .This has been disputed, however, onthe grounds that several factors have contributed to these trends.

By the late 1980s females were more likely than males to gain two or more Advanced Levelpasses and during the course of the 1990s they also became more likely to gain 3 or more A levelpasses.

Females also soon became more likely than males to gain A grades in almost all Advanced Levelsubjects Nevertheless gender differences in examination performance at Advanced level aresmaller than at GCSE level.

Females are more likely than males to enrol on Undergraduate and Post Graduate courses.

Males are still marginally more likely than females to gain First Class degrees but females aresignificantly more likely than males to gain Upper Second degrees.

Nevertheless there are still some significant gender differences in subject choice at Advancedlevel and Degree level and these differences could potentially restrict womens futureemployment prospects.


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The Data to be explained: from the late 1980s to

the present day

It is in any case necessary to consider the relative sizes of gender, social

class and ethnic differences in educational achievement and to consider the

interconnected effects of gender, ethnicity and social class on educational

achievement.

Gender differences in educational achievement are far smaller than socialclass differences in educational achievement. Students of both sexes who

are eligible for free school meals are far less likely than students of both

sexes ineligible to be successful at ll levels of the education system.

Some ethnic differences in educational achievement are also greater than

gender differences in educational achievement.


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Recent Data: some useful links [1]

Click here for a link to the ONS site providing recent information on gender

differences in educational achievement at GCSE, Advanced and Degree

levels.

Click here for a link to the ONS site providing recent information on gender,

ethnicity and GCSE examination performance. Females are shown to

achieve better GCSE results in all ethnic groups.

Click here for a link to the DCFS site and then on EXCEL for recent

information on gender, free school meal eligibility and GCSE examination

performance. There are significant gender differences in educational

achievement between females eligible and ineligible for free school meals

although it can also be shown that these differences are greater for white

students than for students from other ethnic groups.

Again it is vital to remember that social class differences in educational

achievement and some ethnic differences in educational achievement are

greater than gender differences in educational achievement


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Recent data: some useful links [2]

Click here for the BBC News coverage of the 2008 GCSE and Advanced

Level examination results. Once you reach the BBC page follow the links on

the left hand side of the page.

Click here for the BBC coverage of the 2010 GCSE results.

Click here for BBC coverage of the 2010 GCE Advanced Level Results Click here for my document on Gender and Subject Choice which contains

several additional links.


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Recent data: GCSE examinations in 2007-2008

English , Mathematics and Sciences are compulsory GCSE subjects although not all

students who enrol for these subjects will necessarily be entered for the GCSE

examinations . Boys and girls are almost equally likely to be entered for these subject

examinations although there are significant gender differences [in favour of boys] in

entry rates for individual science subjects.

In summary boys are more likely than girls to attempt Single Sciences, Design andTechnology [where there are also significant stereotypical gender differences in

option choices], Information Technology, Business Studies, Geography and PE. In summary girls are more likely than boys to attempt Home Economics, Social

Studies, Art and Design, English Literature, Drama, Media/Film/TV Studies and RE.

The girls' A*-C pass rates exceeds that of boys almost every subject.

The onlyexceptions in 2007/2008 were Physics, Biological Sciences and P.E.


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Recent Data: GCSE Examinations 2007-2008 [2]

Girls, even in the late 1960s were more likely than boys to gain 5 or more GCE Ordinary Levelpass grades. From the 1960s to the 1980s the percentages of girls and boys gaining 5 or moreGCE Ordinary Level pass grades gradually increased but the so-called "gender gap" ineducational attainment increased especially once the GCSE was introduced primarily becausegirls have maintained their traditional higher attainment levels in Arts and Humanities subjects butalso reduced [and in some years overturned] the traditional attainment gaps in favour of boys in

Mathematics and Science subjects. In 2007-2008 69.3% of girls and 60.1% of boys achieved 5 or more GCSE Grade A*-C passes;

51.3% of girls and 42.0% of boys achieved 5 or more GCSE Grade A*-C passes including Englishand Maths.

The gender difference in examination success varies considerably from subject to subject. Forexample girls in 2007-2008 girls outperformed boys by 14% in English, 16% in Design andT

echnology, 9%

in Modern Foreign Languages, 17%

in Art and Design and 12

%

in EnglishLiterature but by only 1% in Mathematics, 2% in Core Sciences, 1% in Chemistry and 2% inClassical Studies.

Although the data are not presented here Girls are now more likely to gain A* and A grades inmost but not all GCSE subjects.


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Females relative educational improvement from the 1980s onwards

Click here and follow the subsequent relevant link for more detailed information frommy teaching notes

In order to analyse the relative educational improvement from the 1980s onwards wemust distinguish between factors accelerating the rate of female improvement andfactors restricting the rate of male improvement.

Females and males educational achievements have improved but the rate of femaleimprovement has been faster and this widened the female-male achievement gapespecially at GCSE level.

Remember, however, that gender, social class and ethnicity are interconnected. Girlsare more successful than boys in all ethnic groups but middle class boys are stillmore educationally successful than working class girls in all ethnic groups.

Gender differences in educational achievement are smaller than social classdifferences in educational achievement and some ethnic differences in educationalachievement.


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Possible factors explaining females increased

educational achievements [1]

As the relative rate of female educational improvement increased it came to beargued that this might be explained to some extent by biological factors.

Experiments investigating the brain activities of male and female babies suggestedthat differences in the structures of female and male brains respectively may meanthat females have genetically determined linguistic advantages which would explain

females especial facility with language based subjects.

It was also suggested that girls earlier maturity means that they can concentratemore effectively and are better organised especially in relation to course work.

This was considered to be a significant point because the relative improvement infemale GCSE results was associated especially with the introduction of coursework-based assessments which had been absent from the GCE Ordinary Levelexaminations which the GCSE replaced.

However in relation to these theories it should be noted that male-female differencesin Advanced level language examination results are small, that the relationshipsbetween physical and intellectual maturity are uncertain and that gender differencesin examination results cannot be explained only by the presence or absence ofcoursework.


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Possible factors explaining females increased educational

achievements [2]

It has been argued that in may families girls have traditionally been socialised to be relativelyquiet, obedient and passive and to see their futures more in terms of marriage and motherhoodrather than in terms of full time employment careers.

However more parents nowadays are anxious to encourage both their sons and their daughterswith reading and other study activities thereby reducing any relative female disadvantage.

Furthermore since young children are most often taught to read by mainly female first schoolteachers and by their mothers this may have led children to believe that reading was primarily a

feminine activity which may discourage some boys from engaging with it. This may occur especially in cases where mainly fathers are especially keen to encourage their

sons sporting and other more active masculine leisure activities.

Therefore not all gender differences in socialisation operate to the disadvantage of femalestudents since they may also be encouraged through socialisation to take more interest in readingand thinking about personal issues. This may have been especially helpful for English, MFL andHumanities :exactly the subjects in which female improvement has been fastest at GCSE level .

However we must remember that girls have always been taught to read mainly by female teachersand by their mothers and so this factor does not on its own explain recent female relativeeducational improvement.

There have also been important changes in the occupational structures of advanced industrialcountries and in the nature of family life that have had a major impact on female attitudes toeducation.


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Possible factors explaining females increasing


The increased employment of married women was one factor which was

said to have encouraged a shift from asymmetrical to symmetrical family

forms.

Although the extent of such changes should not be overstated it is certainly

possible that in more symmetrical families girls were less likely to besocialised to accept that their futures would automatically be as full-time

housewives and mothers rather than as paid employees.

In the 1950s and 1960s there may well have been significant social class

differences in gender socialisation. Many middle class parents encouraged

the daughters to pursue their education seriously even in the 1950s

whereas working class parents were less likely to do so. However it is likely that by the 1980s working class parents also became

increasingly likely to encourage their daughters to prioritise their education.


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Possible factors explaining female students increased


The effects of changes in family organisation and parental attitudes werecomplemented by changing attitudes within the education system itself.

Feminists ,and teachers influenced by Feminism, emphasised theimportance of womens rights in family ,school and work place.

Some female students were influenced by these ideas, especially perhapsby the Liberal Feminist version of Feminism.

Therefore more female students decided that they might want good careersin the future instead of or as well as marriage.

They recognised that if they were well educated and in well paid careersthis would significantly improve potential family living standards if and whenthey did marry.

Some recognised the possible inaccuracy of the romanticised view ofmarried life and may also have noted that the increase in the divorcestatistics suggested the possibility that they might need to supportthemselves and children financially after divorce.


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Possible factors explaining female students increased educational

achievements [5]

The conclusions of the earlier sociological studies of female educational disadvantage nowled feminists and other educational reformers to propose educational reforms that wouldremove gender discrimination within the education.

Significant reforms were introduced.

1. More emphasis was placed on equal opportunities issues in teacher training courses ,

schools, and school inspections.2. Better teaching resources were developed which aimed at avoidance of gender

stereotyping;

3. Under the terms of the National Curriculum introduced in 1988 GCSE Science wasmade compulsory for all students as a result of which more female students entered forand gained A*-C grades in GCSE Science examinations.

4. Academics and teachers combined to form GIST [Girls into Science and Technology]and WISE [Women into Science and Engineering] which aimed to produce more girlfriendly Science teaching resources and to broaden female career horizons.

5. Careers advice for female students began to improve

6. The greater emphasis on examination results and the introduction of league tablesmade it increasingly necessary for schools to maximise both boys and girlsexamination results as a means of safeguarding/improving league table performance.


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Possible factors explaining female students increased

educational achievements [5C] : WISE

The WISE programme was set up as a national initiative by the Equal

Opportunities Commission and the Engineering Council in 1984 and was

designed to raise awareness of the need for more female scientists and

technologists and to emphasise the attractiveness for girls, young women

and older women seeking to retrain of careers in Science and Technology. WISE is still in operation and its website points out that whereas about 20

years ago only 4% of Engineering undergraduates were women the figure

for2009 was 13%.

Obviously WISE itself may well have contributed to this increase at least to

some extent.


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Possible Factors Explaining Females Relatively Rapid Educational

Improvement: Becky Francis Study : Boys, Girls and Achievement:

Addressing the Classroom Issues [2000]

The findings of Becky Francis in this study encapsulate many of the abovepoints .

She argues that in so far as girls are improving more rapidly than boys , thisis to be explained primarily in terms of the processes affecting the socialconstruction of femininity and masculinity. In relation to the socialconstruction of femininity, she argues that many girls of middle school andsecondary school age aim to construct feminine identities which emphasisethe importance of maturity and a relatively quiet and orderly approach toschool life.

Girls certainly do take considerable interest in their appearance and maychoose to rebel quietly by talking at the back of the class or feigning lack ofinterest but , according to Becky Francis, not in a way which will detractfrom their school studies. Their femininity is constructed in such a way that if

they choose to behave sensibly and work hard this, if anything, adds to theirfemininity.


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Becky Francis [2]

No evidence is found to the effect that girls nowadays worry thatevidence of intelligence and hard work may render themunattractive to boys and attitudes within female friendshipgroups are likely to strengthen rather than undermine girls'

commitment to their school work. although ,admittedly , however,girls do not wish to be perceived as "nerds", interested in schoolwork and nothing else. Increasingly also by comparison , saywith the girls interviewed by Sue Sharpe in the first edition of"Just Like a Girl" teenage girls nowadays have gradually come toprioritise the importance of gaining good academic qualifications

as a means of improving their own career prospects rather thanassuming that their future employment is likely to be ofsecondary importance by comparison with their likely future rolesas housewives and mothers.


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Becky Francis: [3]

Thus the girls in Becky Francis sample express interest in a relatively wide

variety of careers; are relatively unlikely to favour stereotypical female

careers such as nurse, clerical worker or air hostess ; are quite likely to

express interest in careers usually associated with men and very likely to

express interest in careers for which further education, higher education and

a degree will be necessary. However broadly traditional patterns of career

choice do remain in that the girls are more likely to choose careers

associated with the Humanities or the caring professions than with Science,

Mathematics or Engineering. Also very importantly the girls believe strongly

that they are likely to face gender discrimination in employment and Becky

Francis sees this as a major reason why girls are increasingly keen to work

hard to achieve good educational qualifications.


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Explaining the relatively slow rate of male educational

improvement :1

For more detailed information click here and then on the relevantsubsequent link.

Continued existence of laddish, macho anti- school subculture.

Boys may sometimes overestimate their abilities and consequentlymake limited progress.

Male socialisation process inhibits development of linguistic andinterpretive skills.

Change in occupational structure and the decline of manufacturingindustry has demoralised some boys whose preferred work choicesdisappear which may encourage misbehaviour in school.

Misbehaviour leads to poor concentration and possible exclusion


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Explaining the slower rate of male educational

improvement : 2

Possibility that teachers dont do enough to discourage laddish culture

Negative teacher labelling of boys

Emphasis on poor boys results discourages some boys even more.

However many boys [especially but not only middle class boys] are academicallyambitious and many others now recognise the greater importance of educationalqualifications as a means of securing steady employment

Possibility of exaggerated moral panic over boys examination results linked to thedevelopment of a UK Underclass.

Backlash type arguments; claims that schools have overemphasised relative femaleeducational disadvantage to the detriment of male students. Educational reformshould now give greater priority to boys educational difficulties.


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Slower Male Educational Improvement 3: Moral

Panic, Underclass and Backlash Arguments

Issues around the concepts of moral panic and underclass are complex. Forsome further information click here and then on the subsequent relevantlink.

The relative improvement in female educational achievement especially at

GCSE level was presented in some sections of the mass media in wayswhich intensified the so-called Moral Panic which developed in the 1980ssurrounding the growth of a so-called underclass of unemployed, criminallyinclined and welfare dependent individuals who because of their fecklessbehaviour should be seen as part of the undeserving poor to use ratherolder terminology.

In conservative versions of the underclass theory as expounded primarily by

Charles Murray it is argued that the development of the underclass can bestbe held back by denial or reduction of social security payments which willforce these people to stand on their own two feet etc.


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An Underclass? [2]

The argument that an increasing proportion of schoolboys make little effort in schoolto improve their own prospects lends support to the underclass theory.

Furthermore the underclass theory lends support to New Right ideas that it isdesirable in any case to restrict the scope of the welfare state so that, for example,taxation can be reduced.

Some theorists argue, therefore, that the whole issue of boys educational difficultieshas been exaggerated to act as a support for New Right ideology.

Nevertheless there are also structural versions of the Underclass theory which arenot linked to New Right ideology and one can analyse relative male educationalunderachievement without linking it in any way to theories of the underclass.

You may wish to investigate further the concepts of moral panic and underclass


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Slower Male Educational Improvement : Backlash

Arguments

Writers such as Susan Faludi suggested that there was evidence in themass media of a growing anti-feminist backlash in which it was arguedthat anti-discrimination and equal opportunities had now gone so far that itwas now males who were more likely than females to experiencediscrimination.

In relation to education it was argued that specifically female friendlyeducation policies had become one of the prime causes of male relativeeducational underachievement.

Against this Susan Faludi herself argues that women clearly continue toface various forms of gender discrimination .

With regard to education critics of the backlash approach argue that muchmore credible explanations for gender differences in educational

achievement can be found. For more information click here and then on the subsequent relevant link for

more information on backlash arguments.


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Gender Differences in Educational Achievement: Conclusion

Since the late 1980s relative female educational achievement has increased at alllevels of the educational system such that they now out-perform males at GCSE andGCE Advanced levels and are more likely than males to enrol on undergraduate andpost graduate courses.

Their relative improvement can be found in factors operative in the family and widersociety and in the schools themselves.

Nevertheless may mainly working class females are still relatively unsuccessful in theeducation system such that class [and some ethnic] differences in educationalachievement are greater than gender differences in educational achievement.

The slower rate of relative male educational underachievement may be explained interms of the ongoing extent of laddish behaviour and the difficulty that some boysappear to face in coming to terms with the subject matter of some Humanitiessubjects although neither of these arguments apply to all boys.

You should also familiarise yourselves with the relevance of the concepts of moralpanic and the underclass and with so-called backlash arguments for the analysis ofthis topic.

Good luck!

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