Children born in Scotland today will all have the same opportunities. They will all most likely
attend primary school, then move forward to secondary school, finally moving on to either
tertiary education or work. In Scotland there are over 2000 primary schools, just under 400
secondary schools, 150 special schools which deal with complex, social, emotional and
behaviour issues, and 100 independent schools. That equates to a total of 700000 pupils
and 50000 teachers.1 Schooling in Scotland is free and provides the countries future leaders
with knowledge, skills and attributes that will be used throughout life.2 When thinking
about education these are the things that come to mind. However education is a lot more
elaborate than you may think. It consists of three main disciplines. Philosophy, Psychology
and Sociology, each area of education has distinctive questions and approaches. In this
essay we will focus on sociology, particularly focusing on gender in schools.
The sociology of education refers to how a pupils experience shapes the way they interact
with schooling. Specifically, the sociology of education examines the ways in which the
children’s experiences affect their educational achievement and outcomes. There are many
inner topics within sociology of eduction. In regards to gender, the way in which both male
and females are viewed in school heavily influence the way in which children view
themselves. Schools are not just a place where children are taught knowledge about the
world. They are socialising institutions where children go and socialise with each other.
Sociologist question everything about education and schooling. The major theoretical
perspectives in sociology are Marxist and Functionalists. Marxist is the view of society as
divided classes. The ruling and the working. Education does not exist for good, it exists for
the rich. The culture is the rich and the workers provide profit for the rich. Functionalist
view is that schools exist to perform a particular function in society that binds society
together. There are 5 key areas on gender that highlight how the way children are treated in school
influences their educational achievements. These areas are the gender gap, subject choices,
gender identities and the feminist perspectives.
An article written by Lynn Oliver, March 21st 2015 was published online which highlights the
gender gap in education.3 The article focuses on how females are out performing males in
school and why this may be. In 1988, Fiona Norman investigated the gender gap and found
that most parents think appropriate socialisation for girls is to handle them very gently, and
to encourage the girls in passive, quiet activities. She also found that many parents are also
more likely to read with girls than with boys which highlights why many boys go to primary
school unable to read whereas girls normally pick up reading quicker.
“Gender stereotypes held by parents also mean that ‘typical boys’ need more time to run
around and play and ‘let off steam’, and parents are more likely to be dismissive if their boys
are in trouble at school often seeing this as just them being ‘typical boys’. These gender
stereotypes and differences in gender socialisation disadvantage boys and advantage girls in
education.”4 – Fiona Norman, 1988
This has an impact on education as too many boys are slipping under the radar and move
onto high school unable to read or write.5 The gender gap causes problems as it causes a
crisis of masculinity as young boys are unable to get good grades which lead them to gain
purpose and identity through looking after his future family.6 The gender gap can also be
used in psychology of education as the difference between girls and boys learning can be
observed and studied.
The next two areas in the sociology of education focusing on gender are subject choices and
gender identity. Andrew Stables and Felicity Wikeley, 1996 found that there was a big gender difference in subject choices. In an unnamed school a survey was conducted and
revealed 90% of males chose subjects like computing science and graphic design whereas
only 10% of girls decided to take these subjects because they were seen as manly.7 Through
studying subject choice gaps it can be shown that there are 4 main reasons for the gender
differences in subjects.
1. Early socialisation- girls and boys seen as different. Girls are passive whereas boys
are active
2. Gendered subject image- Physics and maths seen as a man subject whereas biology
and home economics seen as a girl subject.
3. Peer pressure- boys tend to opt out of subjects which attract negative response from
peers such as music and dance
4. Gendered career opportunities- jobs such as nurses are seen as women jobs whereas
builders are seen as jobs for men.
This highlights how in schools many children feel pushed towards subjects because of their
gender rather than their interests. This has an impact on education as it helps highlight to
teachers to help guide children to subjects which they excel at rather than a subject where
they ‘belong’ with their gender. Gender identity can also have a massive effect on children
in education. This can cause many children to feel they don’t fit in at school if they don’t fit
into the gender expectations. This can be fixed by getting ride of gender stereotypes and
gender roles such as head boy and girl etc. This also links with bullying. Children who don’t
fit into gender stereotypes often suffer abuse from peers as they are seen as weird. Boys
who study hard are often called ‘gay’ and girls who like subjects like Physical education are
seen as ‘butch’ and ‘lesbian’. This is a problem as it caused many children to feel unsafe at
school and may impact their future learning. This can be fixed by slowly getting rid of
genderising subjects and changing they way teachers look at gender. This relates to
philosophy of education as when dealing with gender identity and subjects we focus on how
the children should all get a fair, safe education rather than a gendered specific education.
Starting in the 1960s, feminist sociologists highlighted that there were gender inequalities in
society. They argued that education was a system put in place to prepare children for future
work in force. Feminist perspectives focus on gender inequalities in society and schools.
They focus on how male domination has been maintained throughout history and how one
of the main roles of education is to maintain the gender inequality. The main focus in
eduction was on language, roles, stereotypes and further education. To stay textbooks
contained gendered language like ‘he’, ‘him’, ‘men’ and traditionally school textbooks
presented men and women in gendered roles in society for example housewife and working
husband. Stereotypes such as boys are stronger, boys are leader. Then traditional lay the
number of girl students continuing to university was always lower than boys because
teachers used to give boys more attention.9 This is important as feminist perspectives have
been valuable in exposing gender inequality throughout a child’s education process.8
Rebecca Ratcliffe, June 29th 2013 stated in the guardian
“There are twice as many female full time undergraduates as there are males”10- Higher
Education Statistics Authority, 2013
This highlights that through the study of feminist perspectives by sociologist that gender
inequalities are starting to reduce and children are being educated on fair grounds. This can
also relate to psychology as they argue that there is something about the mind which is
common to all individuals therefor education should be equal to all. This highlights how
gender inequalities should not exist and everyone should receive the same education.
However sociologist believe that the way people think differs between ages.
In conclusion, when discussing sociology of education one needs to focus on a key area.
Gender has been investigated and describes and explains what is wrong with the way school has been genderised throughout the years. Education used to be a male dominated
institute. In Scotland, education was different. The phrase ‘lad of pairts’ was commonly used
as in the past young boys who showed potential would be favoured. However due to society
changing with the help of sociology education of the 21st century is a place where most are
equally and women have really rose out of the shadows.