Why girls do better than boys?Feminism – the traditional stereotype of

women having to spend their lives behind a kitchen sink have now faded and girls can now imagine as life beyond motherhood/housewife

Equal opportunities – the educational underperformance of girls in the past resulted in schools meeting the needs of girls more, this was mainly due to teachers having a bias towards boys achievements rather than girls

Increasing ambition and job opportunities – increasingly the last two decades have seen a growing number of jobs for women in the service sector, which has inspired them to pursue careers. The extent of this shift is evident from the research of Sue Sharpe – Just Like a Girl’ who found girls priorities in 1976 were “love marriage, husbands, children, jobs and careers in that order.” When Sue Sharpe conducted the same research in 1994 she found the priorities had changed to “job, career and being able to support themselves”

Increasing ambition and job opportunities – Becky Francis (2000) carried out observational research along with interviews. Her interviews confirmed Sharpe’s findings as well as discovering girls were now seeking professional careers like solicitors and doctors rather than simply occupations like hairdressing or clerical work.

All these show the extent of changing female ambitions

Girls work harder than boys – there’s an increasing amount of evidence to show that girls in general are more committed and motivated to school work. They take more pride and tend to do any homework properly. Plus they’re better organised for meeting deadlines.

It’s because of these factors girls have used coursework to their advantage in their GCSEs and A-levels.

Another factor is girls mature earlier than boys and therefore view coursework and exams in a more responsible way especially with the ever increasing career opportunities available to them

By Chris Thompson christhomp@aol.com