Assess the View That Gender Differences in Achievement Are the Result of Changes in Wider Society.

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Assess the view that gender differences in achievement are the result of changes in wider society. Boys and girls are achieving high and well in education. Girls have always been high achievers in education but over the last 50 years. Only some boys are falling a little behind than usual, but this is due to a very close link between boys underachievement and social class. There are many reasons to as why there is a huge difference between girls and boys achievements. There are a couple of in school factors to refer to. The first factor is peer-pressure. Boys may be peer-pressured into different subject choices (which is a big impact on their achievements) as they may want to do a ‘’feminised’’ subject such as music and art and they may get pressured out of it by their friends or another group of lads, get called ‘sissy’ which makes them choose a subject they wouldn’t enjoy. They will choose it as it is the social norm to do man-based subjects such as science, p.e, woodwork etc. They are stepping out of their comfort zone and doing what is expected of them. Now-a-days, education has been more feminised. Not only Social Policies have been introducted like GIST and WISE which stands for (Girls in Science and Technology and Women in Science and Engineering) which have been introducted to make education more fairer for both sexes so now women can do man-based subjects. Kelly 1987 belives that making scienve part of the national curriculum has made things more easier for both sexes, as well as lifting the barrier for girls and is more meritocratic. Education is now more femined as in the UK, there is only 12% male primary school teachers compared to the 38% of male secondary school teachers. Only 1 in 4 primary schools in England, have no male teachers. This is a lack of male role models for young boys in school. This may be part of the result to boys
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