Half of English Schools Re-Enforcing Gender Stereotypes: According to new research by the Institute of Physics, almost half of state-funded mixed gender schools are helping to re-enforce gender stereotypes in terms of the subjects which students are studying at A-Level. The report suggests that certain schools are not actively countering the idea that some subjects are ‘for girls’ and others are ‘for boys’ – the data utilised is taken from the National Pupil Database, which records pupils subject choices at A-level among other statistics.

Study Which Measured Schools Against The National Averages For Gender Divides in Six Subjects Finds Half of English Schools Re-Enforcing Gender Stereotypes

The study considered six subjects in particular – with results showing that physics, maths and economics were more likely to be studied by male pupils, whilst English, biology and psychology were much more likely to see female uptake. The researchers then ranked schools in relation to how well they were doing, compared to these already established national patterns of gender skewing.

The findings, which show that 49% of mixed-gender state schools are currently doing worse than the national average, suggest that almost half of the schools in the study are actually worsening the gender divide in these subjects – ‘rather than even meeting the national average’, as Clare Thomson, curriculum and diversity manager at the Institute of Physics, put it. The figures from this research only relate to schools in England, although the research team have suggested that a similar pattern is visible in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

It should be noted that four in five schools actually perform no better than the national gender average ratio for A-level subject choice. Ms Thomson did, however, suggest that this gender bias was much less of an issue in single-sex schools and independent co-educational schools.

Elizabeth Truss, the Education Minister, stated that physics and maths were becoming ‘increasingly important for a wide range of careers from business to culture.’ She went on to state that it is ‘worrying that we perform worse’ than other countries in the world, and that this ‘waste of talent’ is holding the UK back.