Gender Differences in Educational Achievement Essay

Using material from decimal point A and elsewhere, judge the claim that sexuality differences in informational achievement are mainly the go forth of changes in society almost sociologists claim that gender differences in achievement are the result of external factors such(prenominal) as changes in wider society, e.g. The impact of feminist ideas and changing employment opportunities (as stated in Item A). barely, this could to a fault be an outcome of internal factors such as the direction system becoming feminised, which could create impacted the implementation of girls achievement, as it has go at a faster rate at some levels and in some subjects. Some sociologists also argue that the media constitute exaggerated the expiration and nature of any trouble.External factors such as the impact of womens lib and girls changing ambitions could have a large influence on gender differences in educational achievement. Since the 1960s, feminism has ch altogetherenged the tra ditional stereotypes of a womans purpose as mother and housewife within a paternal family. Feminism has also raises girls expectations and ambitions with regard to races and family. These changes are partly reflected in media images and messages. A good illustration of this is McRobbies comparison of girls magazine in the 1970s, where they stressed the importance of marriage to the 1990s, where it was to a greater extent cerebrate on give career and independence.Changes in the family and employment are also producing changes in girls ambitions. This is supported by carry out Sharpes research where she compared the results of interviews she carried out with girls in the 1970s and girls in the 1990s. In the 1970s the girls had low aspirations and gave their priorities as love, marriage, husbands and children before careers. However, in the 1990s girls were more seeming to see their future as independent women with a career, rather than being dependent on a husband and his in come.There have been a recite of major changed to the family in the last 30 years. Some of these include an increase in the divorce rate, cohabitation and an increase in the number of lone parent families (mainly female headed). These changes are affecting girls attitudes towards education in a number of ways as increased numbers of female-headed lone-parent families whitethorn mean more women need to take on the major dinero winner role.This further creates a new financially independent, career-minded role mystify for girls. The need for good qualifications is made very clear and the girls aspirations be to beseech academic effort. Becky Francis points out that boys are more liable(predicate) to have career aspirations that are not only unrealistic but often subscribe few formal qualifications, e.g. professional footballer.Evidence suggests that girls are more likely to spend their leisure time in ways which compliment their education and contribute to educational achievemen ts. Mitsos and Browne place considerable emphasis on reading. Women are more likely to read than men, and mothers are more likely than fathers to read to their children. Therefore girls are more likely to have same-sex role models to encourage them to read. Poor language and literacy skills are likely to affect boys performance across a wide range of subjects.Whilst there are factors removed give instruction, internal factors also impact gender differences in educational achievements hugely. tally to Tony Sewell, boys fall behind in education because schools have function more feminised, as indicated in Item A. This means that feminine traits such as methodical creaming and attentiveness have been emphasised, which in result disadvantaged boys. The gender gap in achievement increased after the basis of GCSEs and coursework in 1988. Mitsos and Browne argue that girls are more successful in coursework because they are better organised and more conscientious than boys.They found that girls tend to spend more time on their work, take more care on its presentation and are better at keeping deadlines. This all helps girls to benefit from the introduction of coursework in GCSE, AS and A Level. Sewell suggests that some of the coursework should be replaced with final exams and a greater emphasis should be put on outdoor adventure in the curriculum, as he thinks boys learn differently to girls. Jo Boaler argues that equal opportunities policies such as GIST and WISE are a key factor in the improvement of girls educational performance. Schools have become more meritocratic, which means that girls in general work harder than boys and achieve more.Teacher-pupil interactions were also identified as being very significant by Barber. For girls, feedback from teachers focused more on their work rather than their behaviour for the boys it was the opposite. The low expectations of girls in science reinforced their own self-images boys frequently overestimated their abili ties. Research by Abraham (1995) suggests that teachers embrace boys as being more badly behaved than girls in the classroom, and as such expect bad behaviour. Teachers may also tend to be slight strict with boys, giving them more leeway with deadlines and expecting a lower timeworn of work than they get of girls. This can allow boys to underachieve by flunk to push them to achieve their potential.Some sociologists argue that the growth of laddish subcultures has contributed to boys underachievement. Mac and Ghaill examines the kind between schooling, work, masculinity and sexuality. He identifies a particular pupil subculture, the masculine lads which could help to explain why some boys underachieve in education. capital of Mississippi found that laddish behaviour was based on the idea that it is uncool to work hard at school. She found that boys based their laddish behaviour on the overabundant view of masculinity they acted tough, messed around, disrupted lessons and saw school work as feminine.Weiner, Arnot and Davids (1997) criticise this theory and have their own theory that the media have created a misleading moral panic which exaggerated and distorts the extent and nature of any problem. They argue that although the media are also interested in the underachievement of white, upper-middle-class boys, they see black and working-class underachievement as a particular problem because it is likely to lead to unqualified, unemployable black and working-class men crook to crime.In conclusion, girls are improving in achievement whereas boys are underachieving overdue to external factors such as the impacts of feminism boys poorer literacy skills, unrealistic expectations and also girls changing ambitions and perceptions. On the other hand, there are also internal factors , which in my opinion are equally as valid and important, such as laddish subculture, teacher interaction and attention, and also positive role models in schools. However the pre oc cupation with failing boys diverts attention from underachieving girls.Research by Plummer suggests that a lavishly proportion of working class girls are failing in the school system. Cohen (1999) argues that the question is not why are boys underachieving, but why boys underachievement has outright become of concern. Her answer is that it is not just the destruction of the industrial bas of Britain nor is it the result of pressure put on men by feminism, or by girls superior achievement in recent years.