Assess sociological explanations of gender differences in education (20 marks) Exams results for GCSE and A level have shown that girls are doing better than boys even in the traditional male subjects like maths and science, although boys are slightly improving, they are not improving as fast as girls are and this is dues to many external and internal factors. An external factor of why girls are achieving better than boys in education is because there is now changes in the attitudes, ambitions and roles of females in society. Sue Sharpe’s (1994) did a study on working class girls in the 1970’s and found that girls main priorities were love, marriage and family. She then did the study again in 1990’s and found that attitudes of females have changed as girls now believe a career and being independent is important. Sharpe’s believe this could be because of the changing attitudes of society in general towards women and the impact of feminism.
This essay will outline and assess each approach in turn. Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that focuses on the hypothesis of patriarchy as a system of power that organises society into a complex of relationships based on the assertion that male supremacy oppresses women. With regards to religion, they see religion as serving the interests of men. The French feminist, Simone de Beauvoir provides an explanation about why gender inequality in religion exists. According to de Beauvoir, religion acts very similar to women as Marxists see it acting on oppressed classes.
arol Gilligan—influential feminist psychologist and author—is worried. Gilligan's 1982 book In Another Voice (called "the little book that started a revolution" by Harvard University Press) electrified the pundit class with its premise that girls were fundamentally misread and oppressed by American society. The advocacy programs promoting equality for girls that resulted from Gilligan's call-to-arms have had an impact few would deny. In fact, they may have worked too well, as schools generally acknowledge that girls now outshine boys in grades and high level-course enrollment (even in math and science, says the National Center for Education Statistics) and outnumber them in formerly male bastions such as honor societies, debating clubs and
Department of Education that show that girls outshine boys in reading, writing, science, math, and have a lot higher educational aspirations. She also gives us data that shows that girls are starting to beat boys in enrolling in college, and that girls are more engaged in academically then boys. She implies that all of this has been happening because the educational doesn’t “favor” boys over girls anymore. I agree with that statement, but I also don’t think that the educational should let boys be “left behind” either. Yes, boys are bad at school; I can say this because I’m a boy and I see everything first hand, my peers are less and less interested in school and college, they often talk about just either dropping out of high school and getting a job, graduating and just work and not go to college or simply join the military.
Female teachers and the current situation forces boys to read books about women. Sports and activities especially for boys that are struggling with studying are declined III. The jobs market also influences the gender gap in college. Boys can get well-paid jobs without college degrees Girls have to get diplomas to make sure good jobs. Conclusion: Both boys and girls need to consider more when they make choices.
She also admits that boys and girls do have many differences, which cause them to behave differently. Orenstein observed that in many situations the teacher ignored the girls when they raised their hands while the boys would blurt-out answers without the teacher scolding them for it. The boys, she observed, usually dominated the classroom discussions while the girls would be very hesitant to raise their own hands for fear of having the wrong answer. Many of the girls Orenstein interviewed said that boys do not care if they are wrong
Media companies take advantage of this shift in power and of men being portrayed as more superior. Popular culture’s enormous effect on the youth is evident everywhere. The media’s effect on the youth is quite strong today. The new trend in music is that it is a standard to degrade women. Rap videos show rappers treating women like objects.
Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the contribution of feminist sociologists to an understanding of family roles and relationships (24 marks) Feminists have helped change the tradition view of the family. There are two types of feminists; liberal and radical. As shown in the item they take a ‘critical view’ of the family arguing that it is patriarchal and focus on the ‘gender inequalities’ in housework and violence against women. They believe gender inequality is created by society and is not natural. Functionalist Murdock suggested as children we are socialised into societies shared norms and values and he believed that males provide the economic roles and females provided the expressive role.
The obsession of the color pink, the non-athletic abilities, and the simple things like how women walk or hold their books. In Chapter 9 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee also approaches the stereotypical expectations of females. "I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants. "(Lee 81). Aunt Alexandra was horrified with the fact that Scout did not live up to the standards society had of women.
Feminists believe that marriage remains patriarchal and that men benefit from wives. Feminists reject the idea of ‘one best’ family type, they welcome freedom and diversity. There is more than one feminist perspective, two of which include Marxist feminists and Radical feminists. Marxist feminists emphasise how capitalism uses the family to oppress women, and the harmful consequences of the family to women’s lives. For example Margaret Benston (1972) argued that capitalism benefits from a large army of women – an unpaid workforce – who are compliant and willing to do as they’re told because women have been socialised to act this way and women rears future workers to think the same way.