Gender and Subject Choice

Gender and Subject Choice Questions

1. What subjects are more commonly chosen by males?

Computing, Physics and Maths

2. What subjects are most commonly chosen by females?

Biology, English, Drama and Sociology

3. What are the 4 main reasons behind this?

Early Socialisation, Gender Subject Images, Peer Pressure and Gendered career opportunities

4. What does Oakley mean by sex and gender?

Sex = inborn physical differences between males and females

Gender = the learned cultural differences of males and females

5. How does gender socialisation shape out identity according to Norman?

She says that from an early age, boys and girl are dresses differently, given different toys and encouraged to take part in different activities.

6. What does Bryne say?

She shows that teachers encourage boys to be tough and show initiative and not be weak, but encourage girls to be clean, tidy, helpful and quiet.

7. How do boys and girls reading differ according to Elwood?

She shows how they lead to different subject choices. Boys read hobby/info books whereas girls are more likely to read stories about people. This helps to explain why boys prefer science subjects and girls prefer English.

8. What are gender domains?

Gender domains are the tasks and activities that boys and girls see as male or female territory and therefore relevant to themselves. These are shaped by their early experience.

9. How does Murphy show how boys and girls interpret tasks differently?

Murphy set Primary and lower secondary pupils open ended tasks where they were asked to design boats and vehicles and to write estate agents adverts for a house. Boys designed powerboats and battleships with elaborated weaponry, where as girls designed cruise ships paying attention to social and domestic details. This shows how girls and boys pay attention to different details when tackling tasks.

10. What does gendered subject image mean?

Gendered subject imaged is how some...