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Youth Transitions

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Historical youth transitions from school to work were more straightforward than current transitions. The young person would complete school between 14-18, find a job, move out of the family home, form a relationship then marry by 18-11 In a variety of youth research and literature there is a focus on youth transitions. This popular focus examines how youth progress through various stages until they reach adulthood. One of these transitions is from school to work via education. This essay will examine how gender affects the educational choices youth make in this school to work transition. The essay will consider late modern theory in relation to choice biographies. Traditional linear transitions will be compared to current paths. The impact …show more content…

64). The result of this empowerment is that women are taking steps to create their choice biographies.

An additional impact on youth education choices has been policy focuses. In the 1970’s it was identified that young women were disadvantage compared to boys in education. This disadvantage presented itself in the form of retention rates and poor performance in the workforce following education. As a result there was extensive policy focus on eliminating the differences between the genders. This focused on areas such as curriculum, equal budget and spending and research into female needs in education. This demonstrated a result by the increase in females completing school and choosing subjects that were previously dominated by males (White and Wyn 1998, p.24-25).

After many years focusing on female’s in education more recent studies have indicated that boys have actually suffered and are now in positions of disadvantage. This is indicated by retention rates, delinquency and learning difficulties (Yates in White and Wyn 1998, p.25). One explanation for this is that by the increase of women participating in education and their expressed enjoyment of it, the men are then associating education with femineity. Where strong gender roles of masculine and feminine exist, this then impacts male choices to participate in an activity that they

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