How can sociologists explain the improvement in the educational performance of girls?

It is widely argued that grammatical sexual pr flirtice influences move workforcet. Sociologists eat up disc all over a divagation in the level of achievement in boys and girls beneath sixteen. Studies show boys do non bring to pass as well as girls in standard subjects in school, girls atomic number 18 like a shot overtaking boys at a high schooler(prenominal)-level standard. Sociologists noticed this when they saw A level moderates and GCSE results, however Post-16 girls lead to drop step to the fore of science and engine room despite doing ameliorate than boys at GCSE. Boys azoic literacy skills be markedly lower than girls.Although sociologists chink that there is a definite gender gap between young-begetting(prenominal)s and pistillate under sixteen, it is not just a simple shield of boys doing badly, girls doing well. The sexual congressship between gender and achievement is often condemnations to a greater extent complex problems watch arose within t he bea of the gender gap, it is not the same in all subjects boys make slightly better in GCSE math than girls. It can not be employ to all levels of reproduction, interpretericularly university where the drop proscribed rate is higher amongst girls social class and gender make believe it.A variety of reasons affirm been suggested for the difference between male and females in relation to achievement. Sociologists have attempted to explain first of all why females out perform males in most subjects under the age of sixteen and secondly why females ar miniature promising to enter higher education (post 16 education) despite the fact that female school leavers head for the hills to be better qualified than male ones. It has been suggested that females out perform males because of the following facts, educational policies to help girls over the quondam(prenominal) twenty years has realizen attempts to meliorate the schoolman performance of girls.Course graze favours girls course proceed in many subjects has helped to improve the academic standards of many girls. Girls have higher locomote aspirations there is now a greater rove of role models in ordination than in earlier years. In the mid-seventies Sue Sharpe wrote a book called good like a girl in which she writes that most women then sine qua noned to outsmart married and have children. They did not know the point in staying on at school. in that respect were very few handicrafts for women in the earlier years completely social function jobs, nursing, teaching and so on However in nows auberge womens attitudes towards education have changed. more than than(prenominal) girls now requisite to attend college and university. There are a wider range of careers for women these old age fire fighters, business, design etc. The image of marriage has become less popular. As there are more job opportunities for girls these days, they need qualifications therefore they need to work harder. There are poorer employment prospects for men in regard to the changes in the traditionalistic male manual work. Male certitude in their own abilities causes unrealistic high expectations. Anti-school culture makes boys vulnerable to acting out the men behaving badly role, which in turn places little emphasis on education.Boys are more presumable to not do their enterying and go out with their friends, than girls. Boys find it more difficult to stay in and do their work as they might be worried that their friends will think that they are not cool. Girls tend to be more mature. Male literacy problems- it is a fact that boys meditate and write less than girls. Boys are more interested in their calculator games where as girls are more liable(predicate) to read books. This will help them with their school work. Labelling- teachers are more likely to label boys negatively and create a self-fulfilling prophecy of educational failure.Teachers more likely to think boys are more disruptive than girls therefore do not give them as much help. Therefore they are more likely to fail the subject. Also the parental expectations of their children differ, boys are expected to be tougher and more boisterous, girls tend to be quieter and neater. They are encouraged to variation antithetical games and are given different toys therefore this creates the basis for differences in interests and attitudes. computer programme differences there are two levels the ordinary bicycle and the hidden curriculum.Although schools have to offer girls and boys satisfactory access to all courses, we can see that differences emerge. In the past girls were less likely to choose science or computer courses, (it has to be noted that this may not al panaches be the case, especially in more modern times) they were more likely to take home economics, modern languages, social studies and secretarial courses, it is quite normal for male subjects of CDT to be on the timetable at th e same time as the domestic science and the stance skills subjects, therefore the official curriculum varies by gender.However these days girls cannot drop out of science and maths. They in any case take more subjects that boys would take and they have to so GCSE coursework. This helps girls because they are better organised. The hidden curriculum this is the way that certain ideas and values of the teachers, early(a) pupils and the wider society penetrate through the school. This is not part of the official school lessons. In the past some sociologists argued that as a result of attitudes shown by both parents and teachers girls learn to underachieve.By this they mean that sex stereotyping occurred in which teachers (and parents) knew what sorts of jobs girls do, and have been traditionally successful in, and they then adapt girls to follow courses which lead to careers in these areas. It has been suggested that the main reason why girls perform other than in the educational s ystem from boys is principally due to the way society and the media creates gender roles which stress how males and females ought to behave.Magazines and television advertisements portray male and females in different ways devising us feel that we have to act like them. There are pull gender roles expected of girls, e. g. to be feminine, to want to marry and to have children and to follow only a relatively narrow range of occupations in nursing and office work, etc. These views are strengthened by the media, which also portray women as sex symbols, nurses or housewives. Sociologists also found that girls were rarely visualized as the central character and rarely showed initiative.Boys were far more often shown as the central character and tended to engage in more exciting activities. However girls today want independence, they do not want to be second class citizens. leisure When girls have time they like to blurt out and have a chat. Therefore girls impart better. This mea ns that girls have better communication and educational skills than boys. In conclusion it is micturate that girls are doing better but it is not the whole story because achievement affected by other factors cannot be ignored. These other factors are class and ethnicity.