The Influence of Gender roles on subject choices at A’level



The Influence of gender roles on Further Education subject choices: A research study conducted by Year 12 Sociology Students. November 2015

Background and aim

Existing research in this area suggests that traditional gender roles influence what students choose to study at A’Level or in FE Courses. These choices may lead to the perpetuating gender pay gap of around 20% despite girls outperforming boys overall in education. Recent media suggests that the gender divide in A level choices is still strong. At university, subject choices in sciences show strong gender differences. More males are graduating in engineering, physical sciences and computing and more females are graduating in veterinary science and subjects allied to medicine and education. Female doctors are set to outnumber male doctors by 2017. However female graduates are still earning on average less than their male counterparts. We aim to find out about preliminary subject choices of year 11 students and analyse trends from year to year.

Method

Questionnaires were given out to all year 11s at St Cuthbert Mayne School requesting information about choices at Further Education. Responses were gathered from 105 students, 7 had to be discarded leaving 44 male respondents and 54 female respondents. Most students either choose 3-4 A Level subjects or one vocational subject. The data was analysed by Sociology students. The table below shows A’level and Further Education subjects coloured according to whether more males or females chose the subject or if it was neutral.

Subject Male Female Total No Students

|Art and Design |4 |7 |11 |

|Beauty/Hair |0 |0 |0 |

|Biology |12 |12 |24 |

|Business Studies |6 |6 |12 |

|Carpentry/plumbing/elec |1 |0 |1 |

|Chemistry |5 |3 |8 |

|Child Care |0 |3 |3 |

|English Lang/Lit |5 |10 |15 |

|Environmental/animal |0 |0 |0 |

|Food Tech |0 |1 |1 |

|Geography |9 |6 |15 |

|Health and Soc |0 |0 |0 |

|History |11 |16 |27 |

|ICT |4 |1 |1 |

|Law |0 |0 |0 |

|Maths |18 |6 |24 |

|Media Studies |4 |12 |16 |

|MF languages |1 |3 |4 |

|Music/Drama |0 |4 |4 |

|PE Studies |13 |3 |16 |

|Philosophy/RE |10 |11 |21 |

|Photography |2 |5 |7 |

|Physics |8 |1 |9 |

|Product Design |1 |0 |1 |

|Psychology |6 |15 |21 |

|Sociology |2 |18 |20 |

|Textiles |0 |1 |1 |

|Travel & tourism |0 |0 |0 |

Conclusions 2015

Look at the table of raw data from the study you conducted and consider what conclusions can be drawn. Look for shifts and changes from the data of previous years. Calculate some percentages to describe your data. Produce a graph that demonstrates the data clearly.

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Findings Nov 2014

Subject Male Female Total No Students

|Art and Design |2 |9 |11 |

|Beauty/Hair |0 |3 |3 |

|Biology |2 |11 |13 |

|Business Studies |22 |7 |29 |

|Carpentry |2 |0 |2 |

|Chemistry |3 |5 |8 |

|Child Care |0 |4 |4 |

|English Lang/Lit |8 |14 |22 |

|Environmental/animal |0 |1 |1 |

|Food Tech |4 |4 |8 |

|Geography |9 |2 |11 |

|Health and Soc |0 |1 |1 |

|History |9 |8 |17 |

|ICT |4 |1 |5 |

|Law |0 |1 |1 |

|Maths |17 |9 |26 |

|Media Studies |13 |6 |19 |

|MF languages |0 |8 |8 |

|Music/Drama |11 |5 |16 |

|PE Studies |31 |10 |41 |

|Philosophy/RE |2 |1 |3 |

|Photography |5 |10 |15 |

|Physics |17 |2 |19 |

|Product Design |1 |0 |1 |

|Psychology |7 |19 |26 |

|Sociology |11 |14 |25 |

|Textiles |0 |2 |2 |

|Travel & tourism |0 |1 |1 |

Conclusions Nov 2014

• Data indicates only slight moves by girls towards more traditionally male academic subjects and some vocational e.g environmental/animal studies and a slight shift by boys towards humanities, social sciences and performing arts.

• More boys than girls chose Maths, Physics, Business Studies and IT as per previous patterns. More boys also chose Geography, Media, PE, Product Design, and Carpentry also in keeping with traditional gender roles.

• However more boys also chose History, Philosophy and Music/Drama which goes against previous patterns. Although in History and Philosophy the differences were smaller than in other subjects.

• More girls than boys chose Art, English, Languages and Social Sciences, Biology and Law in keeping with existing patterns. In Social Sciences the differences were smaller than in other subjects.

• More girls than boys chose Chemistry which is the second year this has occurred although the difference is small. This may indicate a trend for girls to take up more science subjects. As females are being highly successful in medicine this could be a factor.

• In Vocational subjects differences are marked with only girls choosing hair and beauty, childcare, textiles, travel and tourism, and Health and Social Care. Photography was chosen mostly by girls but by some males as well. Only boys chose carpentry and product design. Food Tech/Catering was neutral this year.

• Qualitative data suggested students were influenced less by parents than in previous years and more by job prospects, university entrance, general interests and by work experiences. Career choices, where given in the responses were still strongly horizontally segregated.

Conclusions Nov 2013

• In this study more boys chose Physics, Business studies, Law, Media, and vocational subjects like mechanics, and outdoor education. This is overall in keeping with previous research, However more female students chose maths, chemistry, geography and IT (traditionally more chosen by males), although the difference between male and female numbers choosing Maths and Geography were small. This seems to continue the trend from previous years that girls are moving towards sciences and ‘masculine’ type subjects whilst boys are not moving towards ‘feminine’ type subjects.

• More girls chose humanities type subjects, English, Performing arts, art, history and philosophy.

• The most significant difference is in vocational subjects which are 100% chosen by boys for ‘masculine’ type training and 100% chosen by girls in ‘feminine’ type subjects. This has been the case in each of the four years of this study with the exception of 2012 in which more girls chose outdoor education courses. This suggests a continuing trend of tradional gender roles in training for jobs like, child care, hairdressing, car mechanics.

• Qualitative data collected suggested that students’ choices were influenced most by job prospects, parents and teachers.

Findings and Conclusions Jan 2013

Overall

Masculine subjects 87% boys

Feminine subjects 54% girls

Neutral subjects 54% girls

• The figures indicate a further drop in females choosing chemistry and physics on last year but an increase in girls choosing maths.

• More boys selected the subjects labelled as ‘masculine’ (except Maths)

• More girls selected those subjects labelled as ‘feminine’ (except English, MFL and Performing Arts) indicating a possible gradual rise in the number of boys choosing subjects traditionally studied by more girls.

• More girls chose the subjects labelled as neutral with the exception of Art/Design, History and Philosophy which were chosen by more boys.

• Gender difference was most visible in vocational courses.

• There is a large increase in boys choosing English since last year

• Overall this year’s figures produce a more pronounced gender pattern in the masculine type subjects but a more neutral picture in feminine subjects.

• Statistics show girls are out-performing boys in education in general and that more are choosing to study further education courses. Previous years data shows this however this data implies slightly more boys choosing FE.

• Qualitative data collected on what influenced students choices produced themes of family, prospects, money, media, teachers, politics.

Findings and Conclusions 2012

Overall

Masculine subjects 77% boys

Feminine subjects 73% girls

Neutral subjects 57% girls

• The figures indicate a drop in females choosing chemistry and physics and maths on last year.

• More girls selected those subjects labelled as ‘feminine’ except MFL which was equal indicating a possible gradual rise in the number of boys choosing MFL.

• More girls chose the subjects labelled as neutral with the exception of Biology and History

• In vocational courses deemed as masculine there was a fall from 100% boys last year to 76% boys this year indicating more girls choosing mostly sports and outdoor education courses.

• There was an increase in boys choosing performing arts courses from 14% last year to 31% this year.

• There is a large drop in boys choosing English Lang/Lit from 27% boys last year to 12% boys this year (number of students was 26 for both years).

• More girls appear to be choosing FE again (rise of 5% more last year to 12% more this year). However there were more female respondents and more male respondents’ questionnaires disregarded because they indicated they were not entering FE.

• Overall this year’s figures produce a more pronounced pattern of subjects being chosen according to traditional gender roles.

Findings and Conclusions 2011

Overall

Masculine subjects 64% boys

Feminine subjects 69% girls

Neutral subjects 61% girls

• More boys selected the subjects labelled as ‘masculine’ (except Chemistry)

• More girls selected those subjects labelled as ‘feminine’ (except MFL)

• More girls selected subjects labelled as neutral (except Art and History)

• Gender differences are particularly visible in the choices of vocational courses.

• Low percentage differences between boys and girls in Maths and Geography, suggest that girls are moving towards ‘masculine’ subjects more than the other way around.

• 5% more girls are intending to go on to Further Education reflecting the trend that more girls are taking up opportunities in education than in the past.

• Qualitative data indicated that students’ future career choices were influenced by traditional gender roles. Students stated that they were influenced by parents, teachers, job prospects and their general interests. This may indicate that there are still strong social norms related to gender which influence young people’s choices.

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