The document discusses several external and internal factors that influence the educational achievement and subject choices of girls and boys. Externally, changes in family structure and attitudes towards gender roles since the 1960s have impacted girls' achievement positively. However, working-class girls may be less influenced by feminism. Boys' literacy skills and perception of limited career opportunities negatively impact their achievement. Internally, policies aimed at removing gender stereotypes from curriculum, as well as more female teachers and role models, have benefited girls. However, the lack of male teachers has been detrimental to boys. Subject choices are influenced by socialization, peer pressure, and gender stereotypes regarding career opportunities.

1. Gender differences
External factors - Girls
 Reasons for the improvement
 Impact of feminismsincethe 60s – McRobbie - this is
defeating stereotypes that women are housewives;
changes are reflected in the media.
 Changes in the family structuree.g. more divorces,less
marriages and LPFs mean women have to take
breadwinner roles.
 Changingambitions – Sharpe –
1974 – girls prioritised marriage,husbands and
children.
1990 – more girls prioritised careers and self-reliance.
 Biggart – W/C girls areless likely to feel the impactof
feminismor a change in priorities.
Internal factors – Girls
 Policies
GIST – Girls Into Science& Technology
WISE – Women Into Science& Engineering
National Curriculum– removed gender inequality by
makinggirls and boys study the same things.
 Positiverolemodels
More female role models within schools e.g. head teachers,
governors, head of years etc.
 GCSE & Coursework – Mitsos & Browne
Girls spend more time and carewith their work in
comparison to boys; they are also better atmeeting
deadlines and arebetter equipped for lessons.Boys are
proven to be better at exams due to risk factor.
 Teacher attention
Boys receive more negative attention and punishment. Girls
prefer group/paired work rather than whole class
discussions.Teachers respond more positively to girls as
they are viewed as more cooperative.
 Stereotypes in the curriculum
Removal of stereotypes from textbooks and other learning
material.This provides girlswith positiveimages of that
they can achieve.
 Selection and league tables - Jackson
Girls areviewed positively duringschool selection
processes as they get good results.This leads to a SFP of
boys underachievingas they areviewed to have
behavioural problems.
 Shift away from coursework means girls arelikely to
suffer as a result.
 French – attention and time was roughly the same
between boys and girls.
 Most head teachers in secondary schools arestill men.
 Sexual harassmentin schools impactgirl’s ability and
confidence to achieve.
 Education system may limitor push girls to pick certain
subjector steer them to or away from career paths.
 Female identities
 Hyper-heterosexual feminine identities – girls spend
money and time of makingthemselves look desirable.
This prevented bullyingfrompeers. However, it
clashed with school dress codes;teachers sawthis
obsession as a distraction fromschool.This led them to
be labelled as incapableof success.Ideal identities are
de-sexualised.
 Boyfriends brought symbolic capital,yet itgot in the
way of school work and lowered aspiration.
 Being loud or ‘outspoken’, questioningteacher
authority was seen as aggressiverather than assertive.
 W/C dilemma between gainingsymboliccapital from
peers and gainingeducational successby losingtheir
W/C identities.Some girls feel littleself-worth in a
system that devalues their W/C background.
External factors – Boys
 Reasons for underachievement
 Boys have poorer literacy and languageskillsbecause
parents focus less on readingand more on activethings
e.g. football.
 Globalisation –Mitsos & Browne - has led to a decline
in manual,low skilled ‘mans work’ so boys see little
point in educational achievement as there is littlework
for them.
 This work was low skilled and required no
qualificationsto begin with, which would not explain a
sudden disinterestin achievement.
 The impactof undeveloped literacy skillsand inability
to read body languageseverely impacts educational
achievement.
 Internal factors – Boys
 Shortage of maleteachers - Sewell
Lack of male rolemodels both in the home and in schools
especially duringprimary years –1.5 million femaleheaded
LPFs in the UK. With only 20% of all teachers in Britain
being male, there is a lack of malerole models. 42% of boys
report that havingmaleteachers make them want to work
harder, maleteachers are also said to be better at
discipline.
 Are more needed?
Disciplinarian discourse–shouting,hostile, authoritative.
Liberal discourse– speakingone-to-one likean adult-
‘pseudo adultification’
 Most teachers admitto usingdisciplinarian discourse
regardless of gender.

2.  The feminisation of education creates a SFP as boys are
put off becoming teachers as itis seen as ‘un-
masculine’.
Laddish subculture
Masculinity is valued by W/C, in order not to be labelled
otherwise they develop a laddish subculturewhich accents
masculinetraits and shows the importanceof manual work.
Non manual work and school work is seen as inferior.
Moral panic
Moral panic aboutunderachievingboys becoming
dangerous, unemployable,underclass.New policies areset
up to try and improve achievement but these have little
impacton the W/C.
 This shows that it is potentially an external issuerather
than an internal issuee.g. material deprivation or
cultural deprivation.
Gender and subjectchoice
 Socialisation and gender domains
Boys and girls aresocialised froman early age to be
interested in different activities. This impactschoiceof
subjectat school.
e.g. girls –cooking+ caring= food tech, health and social
care, child development
e.g. boys – hands on + sports = p.e., resistantmaterials,
construction
Subjects with heavy populations of either gender are
considered ‘gender domains’. The oppositegender usually
avoids these subjects out of fear or being labelled as
feminine or butch.
 Peer pressure
Subject choicecan be influenced by peer pressure.Verbal
abuseis used to express disapproval of a subjectchoice.
 Gender career opportunities
Jobs areclosely linked to gender roles.Women’s jobs
usually centreon the housewife role, therefore givinggirls a
narrowpath of occupations.This is why vocational courses
are female dominated.
 Pupils’sexual and gender identities
 Double standards –Lees – sexual experience gives
males status;this attracts negative labels to girls.This
can be seen as a form of social control.
 Verbal abuse - Paetcher – negative languagetowards
peers to policethem into conformity.
 Male gaze – male teachers and pupils sexualisegirls
and judge them based on appearance.Masculinity is
values where as femininity is devalued,boys have to
boastabout sexual conquests to avoid beinglabelled as
gay.
 Male peer groups – Mac + Ghaill – verbal and physical
abuseto reinforcemasculinity,they create peer groups
to maintain and createidentities.
 Female peer groups – W/C girls gain statusfromthe
hyper-sexualised identity.Those who wish to succeed
must become the idealised feminineidentity of being
loyal to friends and non-competitive. These are called
Boffins and are ignored by the HS girls.
 Gender subject images + singlesex schools
Science is seen as a malesubject becauseits image is
masculine.With malescienceteachers, male examples in
text books and males dominatingclass experiments.
Singlesexed schools hold less stereotyped subjectimages,
which mean girls arefree to choose maths or scienceand
boys are free to chooseEnglish and languages.
 Murphy + Elwood – boys read hobby books and
information texts and so aremore likely to pick science
whereas girls read books aboutpeople which indicate
they prefer English.
 Verbal abuse exists outsideof choiceof subjects
suggestingit is a real problem that needs to be
addressed within education.
 Kelly - argues that making sciencepartof the
compulsory curriculumhelps to equaliseopportunities.
 Mitsos and Browne - teachers are less strictwith boys
and allowthem to waste time, which leads to their
underachievement.
 Radical feministsand liberal feminists havedifferent
views on progress made, with liberal feminists focusing
on celebratingprogress and radical feminists using
double standards,malegaze and sexual harassmentas
proof that society hasn’t changed.