Feminine potential
Often, in the few months of a damp English summer when Parliament isn't doing anything interesting, the British media becomes desperate for news: the long eared rabbit that survived in a tumbledryer, the scandalous activities of British tourists, and the PM's new haircut. In August of this year the media found a new scare to leap on, with headlines such as "Boys are failing," "The problems facing young men," "The importance of shrinking the gender gap." The cause of this? Teenage girls, for the first time had outperformed their male counterparts at A-level, even in traditionally male dominated subjects such as maths and science, and had maintained a 10% lead over boys at GCSE. Panic ensued. David Blunkett delivered a keynote speech on the importance of encouraging boys to succeed, while individuals such as John Dunford, speaking for the Secondary Headteacher's Association, warned that "if secondary schools are to narrow the gender gap, then class sizes must be reduced."
Unsurprisingly, many women were irritated at the level of concern and shock expressed at girls achieving academically. Previously when girls achieved lower grades than boys there had been little reaction from the media. It is not as if the news should come as too much of a surprise either. When the 11+ was at its peak, entry levels for girls were placed artifically highly to enable grammar schools to keep their 50/50 ratio, and for several years girls have been gaining higher grades at GCSE level. This year women even took the biggest share of university places. But our society still seems to expect boys to be intrinsically more intelligent. This view was confirmed by a report out this October by Adrian Furnham, a leading psychologist at University College, London. His findings show that both parents still expect their sons to be more intelligent than their daughters. Men rate themselves as more intelligent, and judge their offspring accordingly. According to Furnham, this leads boys to believe that they can succeed academically without too much effort, whilst girls, often valued for attributes other than intelligence, suffer from low esteem.
How do we get rid of these sterotypes? Dr Farnham seems to have little to suggest. Media reaction to the report implies that if forty years of feminism has not changed the attitudes of parents, nothing will.
In Oxford, women still achieve fewer firsts in finals than men, and it has been suggested that this is largely due to lack of self confidence. Women do not believe that they are capable of firsts, and therefore do not dare to aim for one. In contrast, an Oxford tutor once told me that she was often surprised at the sheer number of male students who told her that they were aiming for a first, when she had not considered them to be obvious candidates. This lack of self belief appears to remain with some women throughout their professional lives; perhaps going some way towards explaining the pitiful number of female QC's and MP's currently in office.
It would appear from the media coverage of exam results that our society still has preconceived ideas about comparable intelligence between the sexes. Only when we destroy these stereotypes will we make any real progress.
5th Oct 2000