Explaining girl's improvement

Changes in attitude -
Girls and young women's attitudes towards education, work and marriage seem to have changed. Sue Sharpe compared the attitudes of working-class girls in London schools in the early 70s and 90s and she found that the girls in 1990 were more confident, more assertive, more ambitious and more committed to gender equality.
The main priorities of the 1970s girls were 'love, marriage, husbands and children. By the 1990s, this had changed to 'job, career and being able to support themselves'. And education was seen as the main route to a good job and financial independence.

Changes in the labour market and attitude to work
There has been a steady rise in the number of women in the labour market and this has been accompanied by a rise in women's occupational ambitions - increasing numbers are looking forward to careers rather than simply jobs. This has led to a higher value being placed on education as a means to a good job. Studies of primary and secondary pupils indicate girls are increasingly aiming for occupations which require degree level qualifications (Francis and Skeleton, 2005).
According to Sue Sharp girls are increasingly wary of marriage due to witnessing adult relationships breaking up all around them.

Changes in marriage and marital breakup
Over the past 30 years, there have been fewer marriages, divorces and more lone-parent families, most of which are headed by women (Social Trends, 2007)

Changes in schools
There has been a growing awareness of gender bias in schools and attempts to remove it. For example girls were put off by what were traditionally boy subjects such as maths and technology, this led to the introduction of equal opportunity initiatives such as Girls into science and technology.

Changes in society - risk and individualism
A number of sociologists claim that today's society is characterised by risk, uncertainty and individualisation. For example, with rising divorce rate, the future marriage is increasingly uncertain. And the same applies to the future work. ' jobs for life' have largely disappeared and a person's working life is becoming more unpredictable. At the same time people are increasingly seeing themselves as individuals rather than members of social groups, they look at themselves as being more self-sufficient and self-reliant.