Girls Are More Achiever Than Boys

Whilst there are factors outside school, internal factors also impact gender differences in educational achievements hugely. According to Tony Sewell, boys fall behind in education because schools have become more 'feminised', as indicated in Item A. This means that feminine traits such as methodical working and attentiveness have

Historically boys were top of the class. Today that is no longer the case. A recent article in The Economist discusses a 2009 study by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) that examined how 15-year-old boys and girls performed in reading, mathematics and science. They found that girls are performing better than their male classmates. This gender gap is worldwide. Girls score higher than boys on tests measuring reading ability in every country in the world (Loveless).

There are multiple reasons why Kelley King, Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens are on the pro side. For one reason, they believe that the differences exist due to boys being more interactive with certain topics and methods that don’t usually interest girls or vice versa. For example, the Wamsley Elementary School in Rifle, Colorado has both boy and girl students. However, in the past, the girl students over accomplished the boy students due to the school staff being more experienced in understanding how to teach girls than understanding how to teach boys. So, the school focused on teaching the boys with their own learning styles that are also girl friendly such as online courses. The result of this was successful as boys became more accomplished than they were from before. (Pages 147 – 148).

In the past females have achieved less well than boys at higher levels in the education system, then during the 1990', the girls over took boys at all levels in the education system. The percentage of females in the UK achieving two or more A-levels or equivalent has increased from 20% in 1990 to 42% in 2006. Over the same time period, the percentage of males achieving the same level increased from 18% to 33%. On the other hand, there still continues to be a large difference in the choice of subjects by males and females. Even with the national curriculum being restrictive in the lower levels, meaning both male and females do the same subjects, when they get to a-levels and degree level, both male and females still tend to choose different

Gender differences in achievement can be explained best by changes that have occurred in factors outside of school, known as external factors. A DfES (2007) bar chart showed that throughout the years (1985 – 2007), there has been a higher percentage of females that achieved five or more A*-C grades at GCSE. The percentage has been constantly increasing at a faster rate than the male percentage. This proves that changes in wider society have affected both genders differently, but girl’s achievement has benefited from this more.

A further possibility in explaining the differences in educational achievement in regard to educational system changes could be the phasing out of more practical subjects that have historically been advantageous for boys, the majority of whom are kinaesthetic learners and do better with this type of examination. In the past where subjects such as woodwork or design technology consisted of largely practical assessments (making or designing things); they now consist more of exams which probably do not suit boy as much as the practical, kinaesthetic way of learning and being assessed. This can be said for many other traditional subjects, such as the sciences, which used to contain more actual experimentation that students would be graded on, but has now become more exam based. Girls on the other hand learn better either through visualising or listening which could favour them in exams. This could be the reason why girls, when these sorts of subjects were more practical didn’t do as well as boys, but since the changes, have enabled them to do better than the boys.

In the 21st Century the number of women enrolling in higher education institutions is surpassing the numbers of men enrolled. The graduation rates of women from high school and higher education are most often higher than for men. The number of women graduates from most professional occupations, including higher paying medicine, law and business, will exceed the number of men graduates in the near future. In numerous occupational areas with a majority of women graduates, salaries already surpass salaries in occupational areas with a majority of men graduates.

Furthermore, gender inequality is rising instead of declining. For all female workers, (including people who are working part time), the wage gap has risen from 19.6% to 19.7%. This highlights that society is moving backwards and is becoming more intolerant; is this the reputation we want for our country? Later in life women are less likely to study engineering or science later in life. This demonstrates women being underestimated and perhaps society is discouraging them into aiming for jobs that have been predominantly male in the past. Schools show that (early on in life) women have, statistically, far more potential than men, so what is it that subdues this? Social attitudes concerning women and their potential essentially hold a certain level of accountability for this. Not only does this result in women being oppressed and not achieving their full potential, it also devalues society as we are deprived of their aptitudes.

Over time there has been a change in gender success throughout education “coming into the late 1980’s girls were less likely than boys to obtain one or more A-levels and were less likely to go on to higher education however 1990 's there was a sudden reversal girl were doing better than boys and In 2006 10% more females were obtaining 2 or more A-levels than males (Trueman,2016)”. In today’s society feminist’s doubt that the topic in school want girls to achieve less like the model also considers that gender stereotyping may still be in society as boys are believed to fit better in the workforce than girls. The distinction between girls and boys are often sketched on sex and ideas of biology Dr Zuleyka mention that “Sex are the biological traits that societies use to assign people into the category of either male or female, whether it be through a focus on chromosomes, genitalia or some other physical ascription." (Zevallos), Gender does not depend on biological personality it is an idea that describes how societies determine and manage sex categories also determined by what an individual feels and does. Girls are more conscientious and mature while boys are seen as a liability student. A parent who spends less time reading to their son impact their son to achieve a lower grade. Many jobs tend to be dominated by one gender for example nursing which is seen as a female job. Girls do consistently better than boys at all levels and likely to get higher grades

Girls and boys have similar test scores, and in some places, boys even dominate. In reading, “79 percent of elementary schoolgirls” and “72 percent of boys” can “read at a level deemed proficient” (p.11). The statistics on test scores are almost equal, proving that girls are not forging ahead in education and leaving the boys in the dust. In math, “boys and girls are about equal” (p.11). Many education experts worry that boys are failing, but they have nothing to worry about. Actually, “62 percent of kids who earn perfect 2,400 scores on the SAT are boys” (p.12). So, girls are not only equal to the boys, but boys even lead in some places. If women were to dominate the world, they’d have to be more intelligent than men, and test scores do not prove that. Girls have simply caught up to boys in academics. Just as girls don’t “dominate” in school, women don’t take over the workplace either. Men are likely to work in summer jobs like construction, so dominance will shift “with men predominant in the summers and women in winters.” (p.3). Since the workplace is more or less balanced, there’s no need to worry that because women are excelling, men are getting worse. Women are not taking over the world and the dawn of an era without men is not coming. Women are not going to “dominate” because they are not really “ahead” of men. They are simply working towards being

Not too long ago, men were considered superior and were in charge of controlling the world because their role in society allowed them to be the dominant gender. Now that women have more privileges, gender roles are altering and women are starting to outshine the men. Studies have established that there are more women receiving higher education by attending universities and colleges than men. The articles The Lost Boys by Elaine McArdle and The New Gender Gap by Michele Conlin focus on how originally men had the advantage of education until recently when women students started to outnumber and outperform the men. McArdle and Conlin are writing about how men are becoming the secondary gender while women have the upper hand. The message that these

Sexism has been prevalent in our society for generations. It has plagued the views and outlooks on gender, and has molded the populace’s minds to favor one over the other. Engrained within society is the strict framework of binary gender roles, and placing males and females into distinct and rigid categories that they can rarely break free from. While progress has been made with regards to weakening these rigid and unfair gender roles, the prejudice views that run rampant through the minds of the older generations, and into the up-and-coming ones, are difficult to combat. Women are often overlooked and regarded as the inferior gender, and they are often portrayed as individuals who are at men’s every beck and call. This is highlighted through the observations of Paula Rothenberg in her novel Invisible Privilege, she discusses her observations and dealings first hand with prejudice of all kinds. The book recalls her experiences from the mid to late 20th century, which was a time of more blatant sexism, but I will be using other sources in addition to prove that sexism is still a prevalent issue in everyday life. The sources I will pull from in addition to the novel include, “Different but Equal? Inequalities in the workplace, the Nature Based Narrative, and the Title VII prohibition on the Masculinization of the ‘Ideal Workers,’” an academic article by Kristin Housh, which uses statistical information to argue that women are treated differently in the workplace. Secondly, “Gender Bias in Education,” an op-ed by Amanda Chapman, which discusses unequal treatment of women in education, in addition to a visual and song lyrics that also support these arguments. Sexism and unequal treatment of women in the workplace and education is still a problem in society today that needs to be changed.

A lot of inequality among the sexes is simply based on stereotypes. Stereotypes can be explained as “one-sided and exaggerated images of men and women which are deployed repeatedly in everyday life”. (Scott and Marshal, 2009, pp. 279) A great example of stereotypical sexist views is portrayed in the humours video of the character Ali G who interviewed a lady about her views on feminism. In this video he seems to be making fun of some sexist notions such as the idea of people being uncomfortable about flying in a plane piloted by a female

On the pretest a boy scored the highest with an eighty-three, and followed closely by a girl at eighty-one. However on the posttest, that same boy saw a ten point decrease to a seventy-one and the same girl only saw a one point increase to a eighty-two. She scored exactly the same on every question, only gaining a point on the last question where she had to sort by color. On the pretest, the girls generally either outscored or tied with the boys when it came to individual question average scores and were pretty much split fifty/fifty when it came to the target questions and DOK questions. However, on the posttest, the girls either had the highest individual question average or tied with the boys. The boys did not outscore the girls on average on a single question. The girls also carried the highest average score on all of the target and DOK groups. This has made me curious as to why the girls saw the biggest gains and were able to outscore the boys across the board on the posttest. Did my teaching style and the lessons I prepared cater more toward a female learning style than a male? Was the material presented in a way that was more female

Gender equity in terms of education is about the socialization of men and women and the results of this process on the life outcomes of the two genders (Husen & Postlethwaite, 1994). In the United States, the education system is required to treat males and females equally. There has been much research done to compare the genders in all areas. In the past, research has found that women fall far behind men in many areas such as math, and science, but men lag behind women in certain areas as well. Over the years, many provisions have been made with the goal of equalizing the treatment of girls and boys in public education. These improvements are proven successful as women, as well as men, are advancing in areas where they tend to lag