Education

Smarter or quicker?

 

According to Haralambos and Holborn (2013) females have been outperforming males for over 12 years within education. From the year 1990 to 2012 there is an evident difference between genders in gaining GCSE’s graded A*-C in England as is shown in the table below.

 

Male and female students attaining five or more GCSE grades A*-C, England, 1990-2012. Haralambos, M. and Holborn, M. (2013) Sociology: Themes and Perspectives. Hammersmith: HarperCollins Publishers Limited. Pg 707. Table 10.8

Year	Males	Females	Gender difference
1990	30.8	38.4	7.6
1994	39.1	47.8	8.7
1998	41.3	51.5	10.2
2002	46.4	57	10.6
2004	48.4	58.4	10
2006	52.6	62.2	9.6
2007/8	60.1	69.3	9.2
2009/10	71.9	79.5	7.6
2010/11	77	84	7
2012	65.4	73.3	7.9

 

 

What causes this gender gap?

The feminist movement has had a major effect on females throughout society, with more women being encouraged to reach higher than what would have been expected of them 50 years ago. The pressure that may have once been set upon boys to achieve in order to gain wealth and provide for the family has significantly shifted to both men and women. In today’s society it is much more accepting for a women to be the breadwinner of the household rather than being a housewife. This means females are encouraged more into academic subjects within schools. Sue Sharpe (1976) performed as study which showed that during the 1970’s ‘love, marriage, husbands and children’ were the main priorities of working class school girls. By the 1990’s these priorities had changed significantly to ‘job, career and being able to support themselves’ in Sharpe’s repeated study (Haralambos, M & Holborn, M [2013] pg710). This meant that rather than seeing education as a method of learning the basic academic skills to become a house wife, girls were seeing education as their stepping stone to gaining a desired and well paid career.

Giddens (1993) suggest that due to teaching being a female dominated sector that teachers may favour female students, giving them an advantage over male students. Giddens (2000) also explains that the modern school curriculum now offers no distinction between of sex based classes. So with both sexes no longer having to commit to these gender based classes, such as sewing for girls and rough sports for boys, there is a compulsory set of classes that all should take giving each student an equal opportunity to succeed in which ever subjects they wished to apply themselves to.

Although it seems that women are achieving higher than boys this doesn’t necessarily mean that boys are under achieving? According to Haralambos and Holborn (2013) it is not the level of achievement that is changing but the more so the rate at which they are achieving. This means that females have increased their rate of achievement significantly faster than boys.

 

 

References

 

Giddens, A (1993) Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press. Pg443-444.

 

Haralambos, M. and Holborn, M. (2013) Sociology: Themes and Perspectives. Hammersmith: HarperCollins Publishers Limited.