Subject Choice and Gender Identity

Subject Choice and Gender Identity.

Subject Choices.

Early Socialisation:

Norman notes that from birth, girls and boys are dressed differently, given different toys, and expected to do different activities.

Parents typically reward girls for displaying passive behaviour, and boys for active behaviour.

Murphy and Elwood found that children develop different tastes in reading. Boys typically enjoy hobby or information books, whereas girls prefer books about people.

This could explain why girls prefer to choose english and boys prefer science.

Gendered Subject Images:

This can affect who chooses what subject. A girl picking a typical "boy" subject can result in bullying.

The Dfes found that single sex schools held less stereotyped images of subjects.

Peer Pressure:

Results from when peers are disapproving on choice of subject. Students can recieve a negative response when picking outside of their gender domain.

Again, this is less the case within single sex schools.

Gendered Career Opportunities

Women's…