Feminist Perspectives on Education- Sociology Notes
One of the main roles of education has been to maintain them gender inequalities.
Gendered language>
Textbooks and teachers tend to use gendered language, ie. him, his, he, when referring to person/people; assuming that non named subjects in research, articles are male.
This creates a male supremacy and makes women's role in education/research less encouraged or desirable.
Gendered roles>
Textbooks present men and women in traditional roles.
Women are presented as housewives and mothers whilst men are depicted as workers, (breadwinners).
Particularly evident in reading schemes during the 1960's/70's.
Gender Stereotypes>
Reading schemes present these.
Analysis of reading schemes from the 1960's/70's found that:
Boys are presented as more adventurous than girls.
Physically stronger than girls.
Having more choices than girls.
Girls presented as more caring/empathetic than boys.
More interested in domestic matters than boys.
Followers rather than leaders.
Women in the Curriculum>
Women have been 'hidden' from history- always been the history of men and in the perspectives of men. Does not create a unity that Functionalist sociologists emphasise history creates.
Subject choices-
Females avoid maths, science and technology.
Certain subjects seen as 'boys' and 'girls' subjects.
Often 'girls' subjects had lower status and market value.
Discrimination>
Against girls in ed. because of their gender.
Eg.- the 11+ in the 1940's, the pass mark for boys was lower so that boys and girls in grammar schools was roughly equal.
Girls were artificially 'failed' so boys could succeed.
Further and Higher Education>
The number of females that go on to higher education has been lower than girls.
Teachers gave more encouragement to boys to go to university than girls.
Evaluation>
Valuable for exposing gender inequality in ed., partly as a result of sociological research a lot has changed, eg. sexism in reading schemes has now disappeared.
Women have overtaken men on practically every measure of educational attainment-
The concern now is the underachievement of boys in ed., not the discrimination of girls.
Marxists criticise their disregard for class inequalities in causing educational differences between pupils.
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