Gender and education

• Movements in feminism - challenging the stereotype of a classic housewife/ expressive role, girls are more likely to want to start a career and move beyond this role (Sharpe)
• Girls are more hard-working and ambitious - Girls mature at a younger age so are more likely to take exams seriously. They are more motivated and more put time and effort into homework and organization
• Equal oppurtunities  after highglighting the under-represnetation of girls in different fields, movements were made to help and encourage girls into a wider range of oppurtunities, for example STEM. 
• More positive role models and job oppurtunities - there is a decrease in jobs that are considered 'mens jobs' and more girls are now growing up with working mothers and more positive female role models

• Masculinity crisis - decline in traditional male jobs has left men at a loss as to what carrers to go into. Collapse of traditional role as breadwinner means men are more insecure and this is reflected in school
• Lower expectations - teacher's have lower expectations of boys so may put less pressure on them to do well, for example, extending deadlines. This may also lead to a self-fuflling prophecy
• Boys are more disruptive  in general, boys are more disruptive in class and so spend less time listening, so will learn less than girls.
• Leisure time activities - doing rather than talking. Girls are more likely, to talk, discuss and verbally support eachother in their leisure time, whereas boys prefer physical ativity which is less educationally stimulating. Furthermore, boys read less than girls.
• Masculinity and anti-learning subculture - boys often create an anti-learning subculture, whereby it is considered un-cool to work hard and pay attention in class. On study showed that working-class boys who tried hard where harrassed and called 'gay' as an insult.

• Depends on how an individual percieves their gender  - found that subject choice often depends on how an individual percieves their gender, rather than how subjects are percieved
• Gender of teachers - gender of teachers in different subjects may affect choice of subject
• Gendered subject councilling - when taking in-school advice on which sujects to choose, councillors or teachers may reflect their own views of gender into their advice
• Different subjects are considered more masucline or feminine - for example maths and sciences are often considered to be more masculine, whereas the arts and humanities are stereotypically considered to be feminine sujects
• Early socialization  - early socialization of children and what they shuld try and do in life has a dramatic effect on which subjects and careers they choose to pursue.
• Peer pressure - other boys and girl pressurise their peers to conform. For example, girls who do sports are often called 'butch' or 'lesbain' as an insult and may therefore choose not to pursue sport, as to avoid ridicule

Pupils schools experiences may help to reinforce gender identities and stereotypes

• Gendered pursuits - girls may focus more on how they look and their appearence than boys, as to seem attractive to males.
  
• Gendered behaiviour and power in the classroom  - boys are more likely to try and display power in the classroom and ridicule or seualise girls. girls are more likely to sit in smaller friendship groups or cliques to the boys.
• Sexualisation and the male gaze - Lees notes that girls who seem sexually avaible are often called 'slags' whereas there is no equal derogetory term for boys. The male gaze suggests that boys only see girls as sexual objects.