How motivated are female students, towards academic success, and career attainments The effects of gender inequality amongst fe - Literature review Example

Download file to see previous pages Gender mainstreaming in the education and economic development sectors of the economy is redefining how education is being conducted in different regions of the world, in efforts to curb gender inequality (World Bank, 2003, p.4). The education system in the UK has enhanced the aspect of gender parity since early 1990s when both boys and girls of between ages 5 – 11 had access to education till they attained 14 years. This change has contributed to the increase in number of girls enrolment in schools at all levels to approximately 49 to 52 percent (UNESCO International Bureau of Education, 2002, p.26). Today the proportion of girls and boys who achieve top grades in schools is almost equal and this has led to similar qualification level to females and males students under the age of 25 (EOC, 2001, p.2). A study conducted on the performance of students at their A’ level revealed that 35% of females achieved Bs compared to 29% of male students. In 2010, the United Kingdom passed the Equality Act 2010, which would represent all other laws relating to equality. These include the Disability Discrimination Act, Race Relations Act and the Sex Discrimination Act. Under the law, it is against the law for institutions of learning to discriminate against race, sex, disability, sexual orientation and religion (OECD 2011, p. 2). The sociological research that concerns the gender inequality amongst student’s points out that inequality is attributed to the individual characteristics as well as behavioural tendencies of both sexes. Generally, male students receive more attention and appreciation for their aggressiveness as compared to ladies even today (EOC, 2001b, p.11). In 1972, amendments were done on the Title IX education policy in order to do away with inequality in the education system and ensure that both males and females receive the same and best treatment when it comes to education. However, in the contemporary world, this is not the case as the boy child is favoured compared to the female student. This shows that female students are overcoming the gender stereotypes and choosing to perform much better in schools (DfES, 2003, p.9). In the 1950s and 60s, boys outperformed girls in schools by about 5% and policies that the government put in place was successful in enhancing the performance of female students. The girl students have been able to cross several gender gaps to reach to this new point where they can manage to compete with boys in different disciplines. In the late 80s and early 90s, the performance of girls had highly improved making boys to loss the competitive advantage an aspect that has forced the male students to struggle in order to keep up with the success rate of girl’s. Females students are competing strongly in male dominated subjects such as mathematics and sciences an effort that is bearing fruits slowly. In essence, female students have been found to be having strong verbal and non verbal, reading and mathematics reasoning when compared to boys. These outstanding performances of females in academics reveal the significant transformations taking place in the history of gender inequality in the UK education system. However, the disadvantages faced by the girl child are being hidden in the educational system and this leads to masking of the professional and elite middle class son’s success hence, promoting class and race inequality amongst the genders. The pressure from performance oriented schooling as well as social class differences ...Download file to see next pagesRead More