Reasons for Gender Differences in Education (Girls' Overachievement)

• 1980s - Females were underacheiving; 1990s - Girls began to outperform males
• Present - Crisis of male underachievment

                 - Girls do better in SATs, GCSEs (except Science)

                 - Girls do better in English (2/3 achieve A*-C compared to 1/2 boys)

                 - Girls are more likely to get into Sixth Form, achieve their A-Levels and get accepted into University

                 - Girls are more likely to get Distinctions in vocational subjects

• Feminist movement and Women's Rights - Sex Discrimination Act 1975

                                                                    - Abortion Reform Act 1969

                                                                    - Divorce Reform Act 1970

• McRobbie - Content analysis - Compared girls magazines in the 1970s and 1990s

                                               - Women now have more positive role models and marriage is less of a priority. 

• Women are still expected to do the 'triple shift' (work, housework and emotional work)
• Women still take more maternity leave - Many feminists still argue that the world is still very patriarchal

• Increased divorce rates
• Decreased marriage rates
• Decline in birth rates
• Increase in single parent families (female-led)
• Smaller family sizes
• Increase in co-habitation

• Women are still expected to do the 'triple shift' (work, housework, emotional work)
• Women still take more maternity leave - Many feminists argue that the world is still very patriarchal

• Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• Equal Pay Act 1970
• Women in employment increased from 47% in 1959 to 70% in 2007.
• Earnings gap has fallen from 30% to 17%
• Francis - Interviewed girls in 2001 - Said the had high aspirations

• Women are still expected to do the 'triple shift' (work, housework, emotional work)
• There's still an earnings gap
• Women still take more maternity leave - Many feminists still argue that the world is still very patriarchal

• Combination of the previous arguments changed society's views of women's capabilities

• Women are still expected to do the 'triple shift' (work, housework and emotional work)
• There is an earnings gap
• Many feminists argue that the world is still very patriarchal

• 'Feminisation of Education' - Study in 2007 found thyat 84% of primary school teachers are women; 61% of 8-11 year olds have had no male teachers

• Radical feminists would say school is still very patriarchal
• Male teachers are more likely to become headteachers
• History is still mainly taught by men

• Since the feminist movement, there has been a drive in schools to boost girls' grades
• Education Reform Act 1988 - Introduced National Curriculum which puts both genders into the same courses
• WISE (Women Into Science & Engineering)/GIST (Girls Into Science & Technology)
• Weiner - Teachers are challenging gender sterotypes more

• Radical feminists would say that school is still very patriarchal
• Radical feminists would say that there is not a lot of choice
• Liberal feminists would say that this is progress for gender equality
• History is still mainly taught by men

• Gorard - Gender gap increased with GCSEs that had a lot of coursework (Girls did better)
• Mitsos and Browne - Girls are more organised, spend more time on work and care more about presentationn (Socialisation)

• Radical feminists would say that there is not a lot of choice
• Liberal feminists would say that this is good progress for gender equality
• Courseowork argument is flawed - Exams are worth more than coursework

• Becker - Halo effect
• Rosenthal and Jacobson - Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Keddie - Unequal access to classroom knowledge
• Swann - Boys dominate discussions in class
• Francis - Boys are more likely to be disciplined as girls are left to work quietly (Becker - Labelling)
• Cream skimming and silt shifting

• Deterministic
• Labels do not always stick
• Liberal feminists would say that this is good progress for gender equality