Gender differences in education

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Gender differences in education
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Gender differences in education

• This PowerPoint 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).
• www.statistics.gov.uk

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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.

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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.

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Factors affecting gender differences

• The impact of feminism
• Changes in the family
• Changes in womens employment
• Girls changing attitudes and ambitions

• Equal opportunities policies
• Positive role models in schools
• GCSE and coursework
• Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum
• Teachers attention and classroom interaction

Internal factors
External factors
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External factors

• Changes in the family
• There has been big changes in the family since
  the 1970s.
• These changes have effected girls attitudes to
  education in a number of ways.
• 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.
• Increase in divorce means girls may have to
  support themselves financially, this will
  encourage girls to get their own qualifications
  to make a living.

• Impact of feminism
• Feminism is a social movement, it strives for
  equal rights between men and women.
• It has fought for changes in how women are seen
  in society and the media. It has fought against
  patriarchy (male dominance).
• It has raised womens expectations and their self
  esteem.
• This has lead to girls realising that there isnt
  only the housewife role available to them.
  Feminism has affected girls own self-image,
  showing them choices that werent there before.
• In turn, females have begun to strive for success
  in all areas of society, including education.

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External factors continued

• Changes in womens employment
• In the last few decades there have been a number
  of important changes in womens employment
• 1970 Equal Pay Act illegal to pay women less
  than men for the same job
• More women are now in employment (part-time and
  often in the service sector)
• Some women are now breaking through the glass
  ceiling (invisible barrier that keeps them from
  reaching the top)
• All these changes encourage females to do well in
  education, as they now see there are many job
  opportunities for them

• Girls changing attitudes and ambitions
• Changes in family and employment have lead to
  changes in girls attitudes and priorities
• Sue Sharpe interviewed girls in the 1970s on
  their priorities. She found that their priorities
  were marriage and children.
• She redid her study in 1994 and discovered that
  girls priorities had changed.
• Their priorities were now jobs and careers with
  marriage and children being less of a priority.
• This obviously has an influence on their
  attitudes to education