Gender gap in work and education

“Silly boys”, “schoolboy pranks,” “schoolboy errors.” Remember these phrases from school?

Well they are no more!

Such uses of these phrases are to be banned from the lips of school teachers. Recent claims state such comments can reinforce the view that boys are more likely to misbehave than boys and that children’s beliefs become a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that influences their academic achievements.

Teachers are warned against using stereotypical language or separating classes into “boys vs girls” to avoid adding to children’s preconceived ideas about the gender divide. Although these phrases tend to slip off the tongue, harmlessly, they may actually be going more harm than realised by reinforcing children’s perception that judging and evaluating people based on gender is acceptable.

In recent years, the gender gap of achievement throughout primary and secondary education has widened, with girls far more likely to obtain good GCSE and A-level results in their teens and reports suggest this may be linked to boys’ and girls’ personal perceptions of their abilities at a young age.

Research shows that pupils from all ages are more likely to identify girls as the better behaved and harder working pupils and even boys were more likely to pick out girls as high achievers. With the use of gender divides and stereotypical language in the classroom, boys tend to contribute to the expectation that boys behave worse and under perform therefore contributing to the notion of a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” Research has shown that boys as young as seven or eight years old hold the belief that girls are smarter than boys and they are more likely to be more successful. Although in reality, we know this is not true.

However, although males tend to achieve less in exam results, in the world of work, men are the higher achievers with the most prestigious careers. Whereas, although females are gaining the higher grades in Maths, Science and English there still appears to be a lack of females in high managerial positions or careers where such knowledge is being used effectively. This suggests that not only are boys subject to stereotypical language that affects their grades but more detrimental is girls being given advice to enter stereotypical job roles.

In addition to the gender gap in education widening, there is little progress in narrowing the wage difference between men and women, calling for a change in the education system to encourage girls to opts for non-traditional jobs.

Despite the monumental changes in women’s position in the workplace, there is still clearly job segregation, with women dominating caring, cashiering, clerical, cleaning and catering sectors, where pay rates are lower.

In order for things to change, schools need to be the foundations for instilling ambition so that everyone has the opportunity to use their talents to their maximum potential. Goals need to be set for tackling stereotyping in careers advice, increasing the take up of vocational skills and providing work experience placements for girls in non-traditional sectors.

It is clear that women have outperformed men in education for many years now yet many females still end up in low paid, part time work once they become mothers.

Giving parents the chance to balance childcare responsibilities with a job that fully uses and develops their skills would boost the productivity in the UK, immensely which is exactly what is needed for our economy at the moment to get things moving again.

Saphra Bennett

Less time on Facebook, more time on career advice

Many students hold a nonchalant attitude towards their futures and feel they will walk straight into university then walk straight out into a high paid job, which just isn’t the reality these days.  It has been suggested that school children need to spend less time on Facebook and other social networking sites and instead use their time researching possible career options.  This effort should be a joint exercise between pupils and teachers, with teachers having a responsibility to keep up-to-date with current affairs within education and career paths to ensure they are clued up on what is available and what is relevant.

Careers advice in private schools tend to be more focused and available to pupils than that available within the state sector. According to the Institute of Career Guidance, careers advice in schools in England is “patchy and inconsistent.” And it is thought that this may be the reason why many state pupils are being rejected from university due to the bad advice they receive on A-Level choices.  However, it is argued that teachers cannot be expected to be experts in employment in addition to being excellent teachers in their field.

Over the past 10 years the government has concentrated on aiding those most vulnerable to end up unemployed, or not in education or training but this has affected the level and standard of help available to mainstream pupils.  Teachers, do need to be aware that times are changing and they cannot continue to espouse the same career guidance year after year.  This advice needs to be relevant to where society currently is now, not 20 years ago.

One platform for teachers to keep updated on careers and career guidance for the 21^st century is using CAFE via IMJack.com.  Thousands of job descriptions are uploaded monthly to a careers library for pupils and teachers to gain information on the requirements, regarding qualifications and experience, of various job industries.  Students can also conduct Q&A sessions with business mentors for more information about specific roles and they may also receive eMentoring from business professionals within the sectors pupils may be interested in.

CAFE may well be the solution to all career guidance needs with a wide array of information available at the fingertips, displayed in a simple, fun, comprehensive format.

For more information on CAFE, please contact us via http://www.cafe.imjack.com.

Saphra Bennett, Stewart Boutcher, September, 2010.

August babies

David and Samantha Cameron with baby Florence

With the premature birth of the Prime Minister’s new baby girl, tongues are set wagging about the life this August baby has to look forward to.

For years there has been endless debate and speculation at the school gates as to the progress of summer babies academically. And surprisingly confirmation of what many parents suspected has come to light; those born in the summer months are significantly less likely to be academically successful compared to their older classmates.

We know that late-August babies are too young for school just by looking at them, before even considering their academic ability.

As school years run from September to September, those born in late summer result in being the youngest in their school year, almost a whole year behind in some children’s cases. While some mothers’ offspring are walking, talking and starting to read, if not reading already, the late-August child is still barely able to sit upright and only recently stopped drinking from a bottle. These children tend to be a lot smaller, less formed, slower resulting in a lagging behind in gym and ball skills. However, if these children were to begin school a year later, they would be sure to excel and thrive physically and academically.

Recent studies are constantly demonstrating that children born in summer are consistently out-performed by their older counterparts.

Research conducted three years ago by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that children born in August do worse in school tests, have a high likelihood of struggling with reading and writing and then tend to drop out of education by age 16. The study was based on the records of every state school child and concluded, August-born children, in particular girls, are penalised by this unlucky birth date, which in extreme cases can lead to children being mistakenly labelled as having special educational needs.

In addition to this study, another concluded that fewer children born in August were likely to continue into higher education.

More recent studies such as research conducted by the Department of Education, earlier this year, highlighted the negative effects of an August birthday. Younger children were considerably behind by the age of five and were struggling to catch up throughout compulsory education. This research also found that these summer-born children were more likely to get bullied and be reported with learning difficulties far more then older classmates.

Although research has found the most high achieving athletes and personalities are born between September and December, Earlier this year with the majority of Premiership footballers born in autumn months, summer children tend to be very creative and artistic. Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Madonna, and Coco Chanel are to name a few of great August babies. So all is not lost in summer babies!!

In conclusion, understanding why some children fall behind their peers is essential to building a better education system and such findings suggest for example; students should sit national tests when they reach a specific age rather than as a year group, annually.

Saphra Bennett, August 2010