Studies Pursued and Boys and Girls

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Studies Pursued and Boys and Girls

“What is considered inherently interesting is knowledge about men.

Because men control the records, and the value system, it is generally

believed that it is men who have done all the exciting things: it is

men who have made history, made discoveries, made inventions and

performed feats of skill and courage – according to men. These are the

important activities and only men become the curriculum.” (Dale

Spender 1982)

The above quite reflects the findings and attitude of Dale Spender, a

female sociologist. She believed that his is the reason why females

were underachieving during this time and females were gendered into

caring subjects. To remove this gender difference the national

curriculum, and programs such as the “Girls into science and

technology” was introduced. The national curriculum helped girls under

achievement. Today girls are now outperforming boys. However there is

still a clear difference in subject choice by gender. Girls still tend

to study and take up careers in the arts and social science where as

males study science and technological subjects in higher education.

I am currently a college student studying A levels in Information

communication technology, biology, chemistry and sociology. In my

scin3ece and technology subjects I have observed that there is a small

female presence in the classroom, but in my sociology classroom the

majority of students are females. These differences have influenced me

to carry out this research project under the current hypotheses.

Secondly research carried out by Alison Kelly in the Missing Half:

Girls and science Education (1981) has also influenced my subject

choice for this project. Alison Kelly found that girls do not study

science because they cannot associate them with something that girls

do. Thirdly the consideration of the availability of material,

research, statistics and research subjects.

Hypothesis: Girls are less likely then boys to study science and

technology subjects in Higher education because these subjects are

seen as masculine subjects.

Objectives:

* Find out what subjects girls study more in higher education as

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