Topic 4 - Gender and subject choice

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Gender + subject choice

Still relatively traditional pattern of 'boys' subjects' eg maths + physics, + 'girls' subjects' eg modern languages.

National Curriculum gives little freedom to choose/drop subjects by making most subjects compulsory until 16, but where choice possible, tend to follow diff 'gender routes' through ed sys. Shown in NC options, AS + A Levels, + vocational courses.

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National Curriculum options

Where choice in NC, tend to choose differently. Eg, although design tech compulsory subject, girls tend to choose food tech option + boys graphics + resistant materials.

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AS + A levels

Gendered subject more noticeable after 16 as more choice. Eg, big gender diffs in entries for A level subjects w/ boys opting maths + physics, + girl opting sociology, English + languages. Diffs mirrored in uni choices.

Patterns not new - Institute of Physics (2012) found proportion A level physics students who are girls 'stubbornly consisten' at around 20% for over 20 years. Questions effectiveness of policies eg WISE + GIST.

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Vocational courses

Prepare students for particular careers. Gender segregation noticeable feature of vocational training. Only 1 in 100 childcare apprentices male.

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Explanations: Gender role socialisation

Process of learning the behaviour expected of males + females in society. Early socialisation shapes gender identity. Norman (1988) - from early age, dressed diff, diff toys, encouraged to take part in diff activities.

Schools important role. Byrne (1979) - teachers encourage boys to be tough, show initiative, not to be weak. Girls expected to be quiet, helpful, clean + tidy.

Result of diffs in socialisation - boys + girls develop diff tastes in reading. Murphy + Elwood (1998) show how these -> diff subject choices. Boys read hobby books + info texts, girls stories about people. Helps explain why boys prefer science subjects + girls English.

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Explanations: GRS: Gender domains

Browne + Ross (1991) - children beliefs about 'gender domains' shaped by early experiences + expectations of adults. Gender domains - tasks + activities boys + girls see as M/F 'territory' - relevant to themselves. Eg mending car, male gender domain.

Children more confident when engaging in tasks see as part of own gender domain. Eg, when set same maths task, girls more confident tackling it when presented as being about food + nutrition, boy if about cars.

Murphy (1991) found boys + girls pay attention to diff details when tackling same task. Girls focus more on how people feel, boys on how things made + work. Helps explain why girls choose humanities + arts, + boys choose science.

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Explanations: Gendered subject images

Gender image of subject affects who'll want to choose it. Kelly argues science boys' subject b/c:
 - science teachers more likely to be men
 - egs tecahers use, + in textbooks, draw on boys' interests
 - science lessons, boys monopolise apparatus + dominate lab, act as if it's 'theirs'.

Colley (1998) - computer studies sees as masc subject b/c:
 - involves working w/ machines - part of male gender domain
 - way it's taught is off-putting to females. Tasks tend to be abstract + teaching styles formal - few opps for group work, girls favour.

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Explanations: GSI: Single-sex schooling

Pupils who attend single-sex schools - less stereotyped images, less traditional choices.

Leonard (2006) - analysed data on 13,000 pupils, found compared to pupils in mixed schools, girls in girls' schools more likley to take maths + science A levels. Boys in boys' schools more likely to take English + languages. Girls from single-sex schools more likley to study male-dom subjects at uni.

L's findings supported by Institute of Physics study - girls in single-sex state schools 2.4x more likley to take A level physics. Same study - perceptions of physics formed outside as well as inside classroom eg lack of female physicists on TV.

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Explanations: Gender identity + peer pressure

Subject choice can be influenced by peer pressure - eg boys opt out of music + dance b/c fall outside gender domain, likely to attract neg response from peers. 

Paechter (1998) - b/c pupils see sport as mainly male, 'sporty' girls cope w/ image contradicting conventional female stereotype. May explain why girls more likely to opt out of sport. Dewar (1990) - American college students, male students called sporty girls 'lesbian' or 'butch'.

Institute of Physics - 'something about doing physics as a girl in a mixed setting that's particularly off putting' - peer pressure powerful influences on GI + how see themselves in relation to subjects. Mixed schools, peers police subject choices.

Absence of peer pressure from opp sex may explain why girls in single-sex schools more likley to choose traditional boys' subjects. Absence of boys - less pressure to conform.

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Explanations: Gendered career opportunities

Employment highly gendered: jobs sex-typed. WOmen's involve work similar to housewives eg childcare + nursing. Women concentrated in narrow range occupations. Over 1/2 all women's employment falls w/in only 4 categories: clerical, secretarial, personal services + occupations eg cleaning.

Sex-typing affects boys' + girls' ideas about what kinds of job possible/acceptable - if boys get message nursery nurses female, less likely to opt for course in childcare.

Also helps explain why vocational courses more gender-specific than academic courses - more closely linked to career plans.

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Gender, vocational choice + class

Social class dimension to choice of vocational course. W/c pupils may make decisions about vocational courses based on traditional GI. Eg most of w/c girls in Fuller's (2011) study had ambitions to go into jobs eg childcare, hair + beauty. Reflected w/c habitus - sense of what's realistic explanation for 'people like us'.

Ambitions may arise from work experience placements - often gendered + classed. Eg Fuller found placements in fem w/c jobs norm for girls in her study. Concludes school implicitly steering girls to certain job types - certain types vocational course - through w/e placements it offered them.

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