Gender and educational acheivement

Results obtained from a table of the percentage of pupils attaining five or more GCSE grades A*-C in England shows that girls have continuously achieved more than boys since 1990-2007. Although the gender difference has rose and then decreased again there is still a large gap between the two genders approximately 10% every year.

A graph on students in higher education shows that the number of males in higher education is significantly larger than females. This goes against the previous statement as more males are trying to degrees.

Boys are doing better than boys Over the past 50 years, the educational performance of boys and young men has steadily improved. Overall, the performances of girls has risen at a faster rate. However, this doesn't justify that all boys are underachievers. Many boys are achieving extremely well (Coffey, 2001).

Only some boys are failing Only certain groups of boys are underachieving. There is a close link between male underachievement and social class - compared to other groups, a high proportion of working-class boys are failing (Epstein et al, 1998).

Whats new? In some respect, there's nothing new about girls outperforming boys. When the 11-plus exam was introduced in the 1940s, more girls passed than boys. The results were fiddled so that roughly equal numbers of boys and girls went to grammar schools. If results hadn't been adjusted, then two thirds of grammar school places would have gone to girls (Chitty, 2002).

Girls failure The preoccupation with 'failing boys' diverts attention from underachieving girls. A high proportion of working-class girls are failing in the school system (Plummer, 2000).


What has changed? In general, the educational performance of girls has improved significantly since the 80s and their improvement has been greater than that of boys. But this does not men boys a group are failing. The educational performance of most boys in improving.

Gender, class and ethnicity The gender gap is significant but it is important to note that class has over five times the effect on educational attainment than gender, and ethnicity twice the effect (Gilbron and Mirza, 2000).