Feminism in Education: Gender Equality

Prior to 1870 commandment was not buckramly recognised and sole(prenominal) available to the elite few who could afford to germinate their children privately or at private instills. The poorer state of smart set would stick to rely on the teaching method of the church and its moral teachings rather than academic teachings. Although the 1870 Forster Act was to draw facts of life to all children between 5-10 years old, it was not welcomed by everyone. close to thought it would lead to the masses thinking for themselves and see their roles in society as unfair, causing them to revolt.Others such as the church were funded by the situate with public money to provide education for the poor and these churches did not unavoidableness to lose that influence on youth. Although this gave children a few years of ceremonial education , still lonesome(prenominal) the richer children had the opportunity to further their education until they were 18/19 years old, thus education stil l being establish on social sort until the 1944. The 1944 pantryman Education Act apothegm the introduction of a three stage structure that is still in place today and gave all pupils an equal chance to develop done education.It introduced primary education, up to the age of 11, Secondary education, from 11 to 15, and further education which was non- compulsory after the school leaving age. One of the ground-breaking results of the Act was to educate and mobilise women and the working class. It opened secondary school to girls, and the working class, and as a result, a far higher(prenominal) percentage attended higher education after secondary school. This newly found education change magnitude working class awareness of their disadvantaged social position and created a bitter class division between the working and middle class.The to the highest degree present act of education is the New Labour. The Labour government famous with its motto, Education, Education, Education foc used their campaign on a better education system but kept many old policies such as consumer choice league tables and competition. They mainly focus on market choice and value for money in todays education. Education, since is formal existence, has constantly seen a gender divide in the achievement of young people and there is many studies that link gender to education and achievement.Feminists analyse the school curriculum from a gendered perspective. Feminist argue that education plays a major role in promoting gender inequalities in society through schoolroom interactions, labeling and school curriculum. They highlight the existence of a gendered curriculum within schools. Since the 1944 Butler Act they have been concerned with the discrimination of girls and the difference in trial run results between boys and girls The different branches within feminism advance different degrees on how this is.Liberal Feminists see that sex discrimination should be tackled through educati on command and policies and has had some success in highlighting these inequalities through the work of the agree Opportunities Commission. They see this as being enough to combat the problems within education due to gender but Radical and Marxist feminists feel this is only the surface of the problem and it is much deeper. Radical feminists emphasise a employment between men and women.They see men as in the dominating position within the education system to further their own interests and this patriarchy is their main problem. Their main goal is to eradicate patriarchal control and slack women. They believe that inequality will be brought to an end when women are empty from physical and emotional suppression. Marxist feminists believe that social class has its assort to play in inequalities and that education is their to support the needs of the judgement class.As the ruling class do this the womens role is therefore to support men so are the lowest rung of society within a capitalistic society. They argree with Marxist about the hidden ciricullum but they feel that both the formal and the hidden are ways of enforcing these unequal roles within education A study that supports the feminists point of compute would be Sharpe (1976) Just like a girl how girls learn to be women. This study involved interviewing 249 working class girls who lived in London.It found that many of the girls held traditional views of their role within society- gestation , marriage and family life. Through the education system they were being set up for these roles or for jobs that were classed as womens work, ie shop assistant, office work, work with curt or no promotion opportunities or job satisfaction. To support this study, Kelly (1982) in any case found differences with reagards to gender in the t oys that were being given to children.Although these studies did prove there were some equality between the sexes with regards to the way they children were being educated, th ey really investigate more the issue of stereotyping. As it is from a feminists point of view if fails to recognise that males were also underachieving at the time of Douglass study. It also may be a bit dated as it was conducted again in the 1990s with vast differences. Females were now placing much more emphasis on their career and independence.This emphasises the way society has moved on and there is little of a role perception today. Also the data may have been subjective and open to interpretation as they used the method of interviews. As the studies do show some equality between the sexes, I think these theories may be a bit dated. When these studies were conducted boys were achieving more than girls, roles have changed in todays society and feminists fail to recognise this or offer an explanation.