This document discusses internal and external factors that influence gender differences in educational achievement. Externally, changes in family structure, women's employment opportunities, and girls' changing ambitions have encouraged girls to pursue higher education and see their future as more independent. Internally, equal opportunity policies, more female teachers and role models, changes to assessment like coursework, and efforts to challenge stereotypes in curricula have helped narrow the gender gap or favor girls in some cases. However, radical feminists argue that schools remain patriarchal and limit girls' full potential.

1. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN EDUCATION
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS

2. EXTERNAL FACTORS AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN
ACHIEVEMENT
• The impact of feminism
• The feminist movement has lead to more rights for
women since the 1960's. However equal rights have not
completely been achieved but there has been
considerable success which is highlighted by Angela
McRobbie who compared women's magazines from the
1970s and 1990s. In the 1970s the magazines were
emphasising the importance of marriage and the 1990s
one had images of independent women.

3. EXTERNAL FACTORS CONTINUED…
• Changes in the family
• There have been major changes in the family since 1970s. These include:
• increase in divorce rate
• increase in cohabitation and decline in the number of first marriages
• increase in the number of lone-parent families (mostly female headed)
• smaller families.
• These changes have affected girl's attitude towards education. E.g. An
increase in the divorce rate encourages girls to look after themselves and to
do well at school so they can become 'independent'.

4. EXTERNAL FACTORS CONTINUED…
• Changes in women's employment
• There have been important changes in women's employment. These include:
• The 1970 Equal Pay act makes it illegal to pay women less than men for work of
equal value.
• The proportion of women in employment has risen from 47% (1959) to over 70%
(2007).
• Some women are breaking through the 'glass ceiling'- the invisible barrier which
keeps them out of professional and managerial jobs.
• These changes have encourages girls to see their future with greater
opportunities which provides them with the incentive to gain qualifications.
• Girls' changing ambitions
• Sharpe compared interviews conducted with girls from 1970s and 1990s. She
found major shifts in the way girls see their future now. In 1970s, the girls had
low aspirations and prioritised marriage and the family. The girls in the 1990s
wanted to support themselves and see their future as independent women.

5. INTERNAL FACTORS AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN
ACHIEVEMENT
• Equal opportunities policies
• GIST (Girls into science and technology) and WISE (Women into
science and engineering) encourage girls to pursue careers in non-
traditional areas. Female scientists have visited school acting as role
models so that girls become aware of these policies and use them to
thrive in educational success.
• The introduction of the National Curriculum made boys and girls study
mostly the same subjects which removed one source of gender
inequality.
• Positive role models in schools
• An increase in the amount of female teachers and head teachers
means that there are more women in positions of authority and
seniority which means they can act as role models for girls and push
them towards educational success

6. INTERNAL FACTORS CONTINUED…
• GCSE and coursework
• Gorard found that the gender gap was constant from 1975 till
1988 when it started to favour girls because of the introduction
of GCSEs and coursework. Gorard concluded that the gender
gap is a 'product of the changed system of assessment rather
any more general failing of boys'.
• Mitsos and Browne suggest that girls are more successful at
coursework because they are better at meeting deadlines, more
organised, spend more time on their work and more
conscientious.

7. INTERNAL FACTORS CONTINUED…
• Teacher attention
• Swann and Graddol found that boys attract the teacher's attention
so they get more opportunities to speak. However they found that
teachers interacted with girls more positively because the
discussion focused on school work.
• Swann found that boys dominate class discussions but girls prefer
group work and are better at listening and cooperating. This may
explain why teachers respond to them more positively as they are
seen as cooperative.
• Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum
• Research from the 1970s found women to be portrayed as
housewives and mothers in textbooks. However the removal of
these stereotypes from textbooks have improved girl's
achievement and removed a barrier.

8. INTERNAL FACTORS CONTINUED…
• Selection and league tables
• Jackson sees the introduction of league table as favouring girl's
achievement as schools want to attract high achieving pupils
who tend to be girls and not low achieving pupils (majority
boys). This leaves boys to be seen as 'liability students'-
obstacles to the school improving its league system.
• Two types of girls' achievement
• Liberal feminists- They celebrate the progress made so far on
improving achievement, but believe that more progress will be
made by educational opportunities policies and overcoming
stereotypes.
• Radical feminists- They see the progress made but still see
school as remaining patriarchal e.g. education still limits subject
choices and there are still more male head teachers than
female.