Gender Differences and Intellectual Ability - Essay Example

? In the modern day the people around the world, are more concerned about finding out the reason why girls are doing much better in terms of achievement than the boys? Lot of qualitative research has been undertaken in the above field and all this have very well pointed to the fact that, the gender specific cultures that the adolescent adheres to, has a major contribution to this. Out of the several studies that have been conducted by researchers till now it has been found out that, the girls are the best performers when compared to the boys. It also has been seen that when it comes to the study orientation, that has been observed in general schools of the two genders, it is normally seen that the boy’s culture definitely lags behind that of the girl’s culture. But at the same time this is seen to be quite opposite, in case of the vocational or technical schools. Thus most of the studies that have been conducted recently, have been able to test quantitatively mainly concentrating on the adolescent culture of both the genders and their orientation towards studies during this period of time. Hence this type of research has been undertaken on a very large scale that has involved many countries, where the main reason for the under achievement of the boys when compared to the girls is mainly studied. Thus most of the researchers who have been involved in such studies have pointed to the fact that, it is the attitude of the boys when compared to the girls, which is resulting in their underperformance. To prove this attitudinal difference of the boys in comparison to the girls, various studies have been conducted and all these have pointed that the motivational factor in case of the boys is very less and because of this they have a very negative attitude towards the school. In comparison the girls are much more disciplined and are very keen at finishing their homework and preparations for their classes in advance. The levels of expectations are also higher in case of the girls when compared to the boys. Majority of the girls also prefer to go for higher education. In the case of the boys they are naturally found to be easy going and are very much prone to all sorts of distractions. In general the boys are not ready to work hard at schools to produce good results. Hence it can be stated that these are factors that have contributed to producing the major differential attitudes that is being shown by the two genders. The group effect plays a major role in defining the character and the attitude of the boys, since a boy is more influenced by the group due to which he would prefer not to achieve anything extraordinary, which will push him out of the group. Thus in adolescence it can be summed up that, the boys as well as the girls strive to become popular among their groups. In fact in the case of the boys it is the development of the macho outlook, which is very much important that gives them the image of masculinity. Thus the masculinity as far as the boys are concerned comes from achievement in sports and other extracurricular activities when compared to the studies, which as per them is considered as the feminine tendency of achievement. (Epstein, 1998) Thus during the adolescence the youth irrespective of whether they are boys or girls, are found to be more associated to their specific gender groups and tend to be very much attached to them. Thus these groups indeed develop their own culture, which is quite distinctive of their groups with affiliation towards a certain language, signs and symbols. Thus even in the case of the co-educational system, it is very clearly seen that the boys and girls very strictly stick to their specific genders. Most of the studies also points to the fact that, the girls group is more study oriented than the boys. It has been seen that the culture to which the two genders belong, exerts so much of influence on them and as a result they influence the individual’s behavior, by the process of socialization through which individual’s habits, and values are molded. Thus the groups pressurize each individual to change according to the culture that is followed by each group and disobedient members will face the threat of expulsion from the group. (Owens, 1987; Owens & Steinhoff, 1989)Hence the peer or the companion influence in such groups play a very important role in molding the character and the attitudes of the adolescents, since they attach very much importance to these groups which are otherwise termed as the reference groups.(Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Owens , 1987) Thus from an academic point of view the achievements of the individuals during the adolescent period, is to a very large extent determined by the respective boys and girls groups. The boys form groups mainly for the reason of getting admired and the girls form groups to develop highly intimate and intricate relationships during the adolescence, which tells that this is the main reason behind each individual’s academic performance and achievements. (Davies, 1984) Thus out of all the research that has been done during the past several years in so many schools across the world, the main answer that most of them seek is whether it is this differential culture that the boys and girls stick to, is really behind the reason for their differential achievements. Thus the research that has been done in several schools has been done using the typical methods and tools, which are being used in the research activities across the world. This research is done by collecting the secondary type of data that is collected from the different institutions, by giving questionnaires to both the boys and girls who are in their adolescence. Thus the main aim that was behind this research was to find out, if there was any difference with regards to the academic achievements between the boys and girls. The researchers had henceforth collected data from two different types of institutions, one that was involved in imparting the vocational as well as technical education and the other one, on the schools that wee involved in imparting the general education to the students. Thus before the actual research had begun the researchers proposed two sets of hypothesis, one which stated that the girls are more study oriented than the boys and the second hypothesis which states that, the academic achievement of both the boys and girls are strongly influenced by the gender specific cultures. Thus the primary aim of the researchers was mainly to see, if there is any influence of the specific genders to the factor of achievement, which is known by doing a t- test as well as by means of the multiple regression analysis. In the case of the multiple regression analysis the various control variables are the ability of the students, various types of involvements of the parents and many others. Thus only when this primary testing of achievement versus the gender factor shows positive results, then only the researchers could proceed to testing the two laid out hypothesis. As a result if the researchers have to test the first hypothesis, they have to measure the study culture individually for both the boys and the girls. After doing this they resort to the t- test which helps the researchers to compare the boys and girls cultures. This finally shows which group is more oriented towards the studies. The second part of the stated hypothesis is very well tested by means of doing a multiple regression analysis and also interaction effects. The researchers can conclude that the achievement of both the genders is totally due to the gender specific cultures, only after the final outcome of this test which shows that, the study cultures of both the boys and girls are different and that their achievements are affected by the gender specific type of study culture. The main findings of the research conducted can be summarized as below. 1. The researchers were able to find that there is indeed a real correlation that exists between the gender specific type of the study culture with respect to the students involvement in studies, as well as that this gender specificity also correlates in terms of the gender. 2. In both the types of the schools that have been studied, no difference is noticeable in the case of the mean ability of the boys and the girls. 3. In the case of the studies relating to the socio economic background or SES that is a measure of the parent’s occupational prestige it is found that, in the case of the general education schools the boys have a higher SES when compared to the girls, while there is not much difference in the case of the technical schools. 4. With respect to the parental involvement there is no difference between the boys and girls. 5. The t- test evidence that was gathered showed that, the achievement scores of boys were much lower when compared to the girls, which is further confirmed on doing a regression analysis. 6. The first hypothesis tested using the t- test also confirmed that, the culture of the girls is more study oriented when compared to the boys. 7. The second hypothesis is put to test by means of the multiple regression analysis to study whether there is any relationship between the gender specific type of the study culture of the boys and girls which impacts their achievement. This very well shows that, in the case of the general schools this hypothesis stands true in case of both the boys as well as the girls but in the case of the technical and vocational schools, this does not give satisfactory explanation. 8. Thus the ultimate finding of the research was that, the study culture was mainly responsible for the difference in achievements that has been reported between the two genders and this holds very much true in the case of the general schools, while in the case of the technical or the vocational types of schools, it is very much seen in the case of students in the third year. In the case of the students in the fourth year of the technical schools, it is found that the effect of the study culture is found to be negative. References: Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1980) Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior (Englewood cliffs, NJ, Prentice – Hall). Davies, L. (1984) Pupil power. Deviance and gender in school (London, Falmer Press) Epstein, D. (1998) Real boys don’t work: ‘Underachievement’, masculinity and the harassment of the ‘Sissies’ in: D. Epstein, J. Elwood, V. Hey & J. Maw (Eds) Failing boys? Issues in gender and achievement (Buckingham/Philadelphia, PA, Open University Press). Owens, R. (1987) Organizational behavior in education (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice – Hall). Owens, R. & Steinhoff, C. (1989) Towards a theory of organizational culture, Journal of Educational Administration, 27(3), 6 -16. Read More