- The impact of feminist ideas; changes in the family e.g. more divorce; more job opportunities for women; changes in girls’ ambitions and priorities.
- Equal opportunities policies; introduction of coursework; positive role models; non-sexist learning materials; non-sexist careers advice; league tables.
- Laddish anti-school subcultures; parents spend less time with sons reading; boys have more behavioural problems and are more likely to be excluded; boys see education as feminine; over-confidence means they do less revision; the decline of traditional men’s jobs.
- Science teachers are more likely to be men; examples used are often from boys’ interests; boys monopolise apparatus.
- Peer pressure; gender domains; career opportunities.
- By teasing boys for doing less well than girls, by ignoring or encouraging verbal abuse of girls; by intervening in female teachers’ lessons to restore order.
‘Wendy the Welder’ and ‘Rosie the Riveter’.
Have such images provided positive role models for women?
