Why are UK Girls Outperforming Boys in School?

Question

According to statistics published by the British government "Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills", girls are outperforming boys in the number of exams they pass, and the grades with which they pass at age 15.

Full data, correlated by region, gender, and nationally can be found here:

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000610/contents.shtml

Table 13 provides details by gender.

This trend continues to age 18, and is the disparity is quite startling, details can be found here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/may/15/schools.gender

"In the most extreme case, City College in Birmingham, girls were 115 per cent more likely to achieve an A or B grade than boys. In London's Kidbrooke School, just 15 per cent of boys achieved the top grade compared to 35 per cent of girls."

Why do you think this is happening?

Answer 1

Are you kidding. I've just left school, and starting Uni, i tell you the reality is far from what is portrayed

Boys are doing nicely thank you, but what is happening is that the figures are massaged to show girls in a good light, they focus on their good subjects

when it comes to employment its young men that are fast streaming straight into the city

the girls are all going after the few same stupid jobs

we are the top earners by a long, long way......

edit: golden -- for your information

There is NO, that's NO where in the world where women out perform MEN in ANYTHING. not one thing (childbirth is accepted)

if you know different, then NAME IT

Answer 2

The answer lies within the question - Girls are outperforming girls because they are outperforming them!! Simple as that.

Some of the answers here are ludicrous, rather hilarious what some of you guys will come up with! you take is so personally!!

Guys, women are ALLOWED an education these days, you can't hold us back anymore.... So deal with it.

But don't worry guys - You will still get all the top jobs. Men still control all the top jobs so will keep hiring you above women as long as they are alive.

Answer 3

this is not just happening in the UK, but girls are outperforming boys all over the place including taking out more and more of the top places in universities...

now we see why men had women under a steel fist for so long and why they prevented women from even getting an education...it was legislated that women couldnt attend university

so, Why?? well....

the boys knew they couldnt compete fair and square so they kept women down...

but now sisters are getting out and up...

women have the 'superior brain' - it outperforms the male brain on 7 of the 8 subscales of the standard IQ test...funny how the IQ test was originated to demonstrate how smart men are but it has ended up showing that women are smarter by far...YAY...GO GIRLS

Answer 4

The school system is no more feminised now than it was 50 or 100 years ago. Back then the boys outperformed the girls, and nobody wondered why - everyone knew the boys were smarter, so it was only natural!

Funny how I don't hear anyone saying that about the girls now...

Answer 5

Boys are stupid.Throw rocks at them.

Answer 6

This is a really complex issue, an important one, and one that is near and dear to my heart. As a female, I got the impression that if I wanted to be successful, then I was going to have to work really hard.  I also knew that if I ever wanted a family (which I do), I would have to achieve success quickly. I recognized that I was socially and biologically at a disadvantage. If I wanted to overcome those disadvantages, I would have to make sacrifices, work hard, and get good grades.

My brother believed the opposite. My macho-father was always filling his head with nonsense about male superiority which gave my brother a false sense of entitlement. He believed that he would succeed simply because he was male. It was his destiny. I remember my brother before all that c**p filled his head. We were the best of childhood friends. When adolescence arrived, he began to act in stereotypically negative ways, fighting, crashing stolen cars, running with gangs, selling drugs, etc. It was painful. I thought I had lost him.  He went to prison for manslaughter at 19 and there he got his GED, taught himself to read and write.It's  odd that even with my graduate degree and all the honors and awards I've accumulated, and with his prison record and lack of education, my brother still makes more money than I do. Enough said?

To be fair, the school my brother went to patholigized him for very normal behavior. He was diagnosed with ADHD and medicated. For the record, Ritalin, and other such drugs commonly prescribed to children for extended periods of time, cause rather long-lasting changes to the Dopamine receptors in the brain's pleasure center, similar to the changes caused by long term use of cocaine or amphetamines. The resulting decreased ability to feel pleasure accounts for the rise in criminality and risk taking we see in young people today, especially boys.

As someone with a background in psychology, I can say that these drugs should be illegal. Hyperactivity is completely normal in the young, especially in young males. I do believe that my brother was a victim of a system which seeks  to educate children most cheaply and easily by making them sit still. Children are being forced to learn in ways that are simply contrary to human development. All people learn differently but most people learn best by doing, not by rote memorization. What schools need is not "more money" but a complete overhaul in our approach to education.

The conflicting messages my brother received definitely impacted him. On one hand he was told, "it's a man's world" -- that he could expect things to go his way, this world was designed to benefit him easily (a lie by the way) -- and on the other hand he was told, "boys are stupid, throw rocks at them" -- that he was inferior by nature, that he was "disordered" (a lie too, by the way). Neither of these messages served him well and then he made some really bad decisions.

I got consistently negative messages about myself. I never had the illusion of superiority. I seemed to be the only person in my family who even recognized that I was smart. I had to push myself, I had to get good grades, the scholar athlete award, be class president, and get into a good college. Otherwise I'd end up like so many other women, caring for a small brood at the welfare office, or working poor, or waiting tables, or filing papers in the back (if I was lucky), or (if I was really lucky) I might marry a rich man and be his maid, s*x dispenser, and baby maker. I made decisions too. I made rational decisions, in my self-interest, to go with the system (even if I thought is was c**p). I wanted to be a full participant in life. Education was the only way.

Perhaps if we revolutionize the educational system, outlaw addictive, mind-altering pharmaceuticals for little kids, and teach our boys and our girls that they are innately capable, beings, instead of filling their heads with lies and illusions of superiority/inferiority, well, perhaps we'd see happier, more successful, healthy people. That would be good for all of us.

Answer 7

oh the amusement MRAs provide is endless..

So when females outperform males it is because the system favors females?

And when males outperform females it is because males are superior?

I worked hard in school because I knew that girls are welcome in college, unlike previous generations, and I wanted to be a candidate for institutions of higher education. Maybe girls are motivated to take advantage of the relatively newfound freedom and opportunities.

Answer 8

As Eoghan says.

Same thing is happening in at least a few of the western type cultures - and oddly is being picked up at around the same time period.

Feminists tho don't believe that to be the case.

They think that maleness needs to change to keep up. They seem to be of the notion that what femininity was has changed so now maleness has to change

Or at least that's the over all impression gained.

Personally I don't think femininity has changed. I think it now has more areas to be expressed. And more pressures put on it to be all things. But I don't think femininity has changed - I think they just want to think it has. It justifies what how they want to think of themselves and what they intend to do.

@Emerealda - I was under the impression schooling has changed a great deal over the last 50 - 100 years. The punishment system, councillors, the introduction of psycho-based disciplines to govern the workings (psychology etc). The introduction of fairness to minorities into the system.  Hige waves of men being prosecuted (and often being innocent) for allegations related to being teachers. A massive drop in men being teachers. Theres a few things that have changed in that time period. Oh I didn't mention the rise of feminism in popular cultural awareness....

@ golden no one said that the lads are superiour. It has been obvious to many of us that there is equal ability amoung the sexes. Theres no issue on that. When there starts to be pattern of girls on an international basis out doing guys in every country that is deeply effected by changes brought about by a movement that appears to have deep favourtism of all that is female ... then you have to wonder what has changed so much? ..... On the other hand well dont on proving your misandry. Your notions and lack of thinking make a good point in and of themselves.

Answer 9

Its a feminized system, girls interests are paramount.

Answer 10

how old are you? have you been to an English school in recent times. I am 24 and when I was at school only a very small percentage of the lads concentrated or didnt get into trouble. They werent really interested. I think you get out what you put in. I know not all boys in UK are like that but many are from mine and my younger brothers experiences.

Answer 11

girls are encouraged to be quiet and conscientious. We do better at sitting in a classroom, obeying our teacher and minding our business. However, what these studies often fail to mention is that while women's passivity may be encouraged & rewarded in school, it is nothing of the sort in our careers. These same behaviours will only make us stagnate.

also, when barriers are lifted, as women have seen in education, the 'flood gates' break - it would only be normal to see such a high amout of women after barriers dropped.

i wish this would be taken in a better light, though. it's often seen as a negative - geez, more girls than boys go to school and get good grades - they must be hindering the boys.

Why is this?

Answer 12

girl power

How the h**l are the school systems favoring girls? Whatever. When females are doing better, the system favors them. When males are doing better, they are considered superior. Women were not encouraged back then into education. Now that they are just like guys, they are doing better. Ah well. Looks like a lot of guys are going to be finding different ways to get around the truth... not that girls are smarter, but that they are working harder on the average.

Answer 13

Has it ever occurred to you that maybe IN GENERAL, girls are doing better because they work at it? Young men are plain not interested: they are more vulnerable to peer pressure, alcohol, high-risk behaviors, drugs, yadayada. Girls are forging ahead because they work harder, not because men are discriminated against. Funny no how people interpret this? When men did better at academics, they were just plain better than women. Reverse the tables and all you can hear is: OMG! Its the feminists trying to destroy men!

Answer 14

yes girls are so mutch better, and brighter then any man