Has the education system been feminised? It has been stated that females
are dominating the education system, resulting in males dropping out to fulfill
more ‘masculine’ or ‘male-stereotypical’ employment. What exactly is feminising
education? Many critics state that it is acknowledging the facts that males are
being negatively impacted by a dominated female school system. Another aspect
to take into account is the fact that there are predominantly more female
teachers than male, particularly in primary education. In 2013statistics show that there
were 18.9% male teachers in primary schools, and 43% male teachers in high
schools demonstrating that females are dominating the workforce in school.
There has even been criticism stated that there are stereotypically feminine
subjects throughout school.
Why is feminising education considered a problem? Male students feel
excluded, lack interest in feminine subjects and leave school to focus on more
male-stereotypical subjects that school doesn't offer. Male students no longer
participate in the classroom; begin achieving poorer results, which results in
less high school certificate attainment rates in comparison to their female
counterparts. This is where we can take into account statistics stated on the
bureau of Statistics.
Source: ABS 2001 transition from education to work survey: 2001-2010
Surveys on education and work.
This graph shows that more females in the age group of 20-24 have
graduated with year 12 attainment. Stating 83% of females and 73% of males hold
a year 12 certificate. There is a 10% gap that has been around for 9 years and
has not improved.
Perhaps boys are dropping out of school because they’re being
out-performed by their female counterparts? “In 2004, fewer boys
achievedbenchmarks levels in reading and writing tasks in both years 3 and 7.
Forexample in reading 89% of boys and 93% of girls in year 7 achieved
benchmarklevels, while for writing tasks, 91% of boys and 96% of girls achieved
benchmarks”. You can see that boys are being out-performed by their female
competitors, so perhaps this is why education attainment rates are lower for
males than females.
“…to some extent boys are victims of the ugly logic of hegemonic
masculinity, which does have negative emotional fallout for many of them”.
(Keneway, J p 34). Perhaps boys don’t want to belong to a particular
stereotype, however this is why they lack the attention they need to help
support males in education. As Jill Parkins states “any society needs
bothsexes to succeed and to be inspired by their education”. However it is boys
who lack their male role models in education and can’t find inspiration to
strive closer to attaining gender equality in the education system. The
education system needs more male educators involved to help encourage male
students to be more academic, achieve better results and steer away from the
stereotype society has burdened male students with.
References:
Parkins, J Stop feminising schools our boys are suffering Direct
link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-432947/Stop-feminising-schools--boys-suffering.html
Unknown author Australian Bureau of Statistics, direct
link: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/bb8db737e2af84b8ca2571780015701e/e29750ff86d9e72cca2571b00014b9e3!OpenDocument
Unknown author Male school teachers direct link https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/media/downloads/about-us/statistics-and-research/key-statistics-and-reports/staff-information/male-school-teachers.pdf
Kenway, J Are boys victims of feminism in schools, some answers
from Australia Routledge, 2011.
ge, 2011.
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