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The writing on the wall: Beginning or end of a girl's career?
ozi7-?3Y.i 86 I? w+ .M Pcrpamon Journals Ltd
THE WRITING ON THE WALL: BEGINNING OR END OF A GIRL’S CAREER?* JANET WHITE Department of Language. National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales. Slough. Berks. SLI 2DQ. U.K.
Synopsis-This article draws upon the results of five years annual surveying of language performance of children aged 11 and 15 in the United Kingdom. The theme of the article concerns anomalies in the way literacy values are communicated to pupils in schools. Strong sex-typing is evident in the preferences which pupils express for certain types of writing. with girls appearing to choose the most prestigious forms of reading and writing in school terms. Girls’ success in fulfilling school criteria for literaT excellence does less than might be expected to advance their career prospects: on the contrary. it is suggested that the process of becoming a good writer at school is parr of the general sorting process whereby girls cease to compete in other fields of work and study.
The doomsday implications of this title are intentional: I want to draw attention in this article to some of the ironies which surround an area of schooling in which girls excel: namely. writing. ‘Writing on the wall’ is an accurate description of what happens to a great deal of girls’ writing in primary school. yet that occasion of public display is typically the acme of public acknowledgement of its quality. It marks a beginning and an end. Schools accept the excellence of girls’ written work with friendliness: it is girls’ written work which is frequently displayed in books or used to ornament the classroom walls; girls are the obvious choice when it comes to writing on blackboards, in registers, for copying letters or programmes for parents, etc. (Steedman, 1982). However. somewhere between the scribal tradition of the primary school and the adult world of the professional writer, there is a curious hiatus. The girls who were at an early age so competent and confident in handling written language (Maccoby and Jacklin. 1974; Licht and Dwek. 1983) seem to have disappeared. Few of them ever make it to positions of power based on the strength of their apparent ‘giftedness’, their facility with written language.
l It should be noted that the views expressed in this article are those of the author. and that these views are not necessarily shared by the APU or NFER.
PATTERNS OF WOMEN’S WORK Slightly more than 8 million women are in work. comprising 43 per cent of the work force (figures for June 1982. Central Statistics Office. 1983). Over half this number (54 per cent) are employed in service areas, such as distributive trades, public administration, miscellaneous services (for example. laundering. catering. hairdressing). One service area alone ‘professional and scientific’ is staffed by a workforce which is 70 per cent female. Here are concentrated nurses, ancillary workers and of course. teachers: most women are in the primar) sector (women outnumbering men by a ratio of 3 to 1. DES. 1983b). and on lower ranking scale posts at all levels (78 per cent of women are on scales 1 and 2, NUT. 1980). with increasingly sparse representation in HE or FE sectors (DES, 1983b). Women for example constitute 2.7 per cent of universit! professors. (Friesman. 1980; Acker. 1984b). In striking contrast to the patterns for male employment, where no single industry accounts for more than 10 per cent of working men, women are neither distributed across a wide range of jobs. nor are the) distributed across the pay scale. Despite the Equal Pay legislation of 1975, full-time women workers earn on average less than 70 per cent of an equivalent man’s pay (Central Statistics Office. 1983). While the usefulness of writing to some of the occupations women typically pursue is evident, where it might be thought to play a crucial role, especially in terms of career advancement in academic life, women are notably absent.
561
562
JANET WHITE
The dearth of women writers whose names appear either as authors or reviewers of books in daily newspapers is a further reminder of the scarcity of women who have pursued a career in writing-related domains. such as journalism and editing, to the point of visibility. Women proliferate in magazine journalism (the ‘obvious’ focus for interests in fashion. cooking. childcare . .). and amongst copy editors and editorial assistants. but their allocation to ‘women’s stories’ prevents the accumulation of varied experience needed for promotion to top jobs (Miller, 1981). Writing skills are also involved in advertising. but although women consumers are the target for the majority of advertisements. only about 1 in 6 account executives are women. and about 1 in 5 copy writers. Women are present as behind the scenes researchers, and ubiquitous typists/secretaries in all these fields. Considering the disparity between women’s early achievements in literacy and their subsequent paid employment, we need to ask why it is that thousands of able girl writers leave school and go into secretarial jobs. in the course of which they will patiently revise and type the semi-literate manuscripts of their male bosses. or else return in droves to the primary classroom. there to supervise the production of another generation of pen-wise girls. DO WOMEN WRITE LITERATURE? Women do, of course. write books and make a living from writing in that way. It has been estimated that women wrote between half to two-thirds of novels published in England in the eighteenth century (Moers. 1978; Russ. 1984). and women continue to write popular and saleable fiction. Women have also written numerous diaries. letters and journals, but is this literature? Since the inception of English Literature as an academic subject in the first half of this century (Doyle. 1982). the concept of what appropriately counts as its Texts has specifically excluded much of what women traditionally write, along with all but a few women authors. The absolutely commercial nature of much of the writing produced by women (the Mills and Boon romances, Agatha Christie’s countless books. the Enid Blyton oeuvre), makes it possible for it to be read as the output of syndicated enterprises. rather than as the creation of an author whose craft and beliefs are seen as contributing significantly to ‘literature’. Whereas the male sex too has produced writers of pot-boilers, Westerns and various DIY compendiums, the image of a male writer is less vulnerable to caricature. or disregard, by being typically associated with commercial/escapist genres. mainly because of the canonisation of men as the producers of Great Books. Despite the upsurge in women’s publishing over the last decade (Marland. 1983b; Pringle, 1984). and
the popularity of women novelists such as Iris Murdoch. Muriel Spark. Margaret Drabble. Penelope Mortimer. Angela Carter, Doris Lessing etc., the quantity of books written by women that are actually read and studied in schools and universities is pathetically small. Women authors from the past are as effectively isolated and marginalised as those in contemporary life. Joanna Russ (1984) speaks of the ‘restrictions on the quantity of visibility allowed to women writers: that 5 to 8 per cent’. who make up the female contribution to well known undergraduate English Literature anthologies, and who come to be studied on Literature courses generally. Such an estimate would in fact be a generous one for GCECSE examining bodies in the U.K., whose reading lists constitute a clear view of what the certifying academies take to be Literature. For example. a compilation of texts recommended by eleven Schools Examination Boards over the years 1974-1984 (Goulden and Hartley, 1982) documents the overwhelming representation of male authors in the ‘league table’ (see also Rose. 1983: Deem. 1984). The extreme weighting of Literature courses in the direction of men’s writing. combined with the largely uncritical use of male-centered texts as the basis for language ‘exercises’ (Marland. 1983b; McRobbie and McCabe. 1982). serves to reinforce the image of Language and Literature as a subject that may be practised by women but which is professed by men. For girls coming through such a system, the implicit messages must be that though women may write, they rarely write Literature. In surveying the career/jobs route taken by girls overall. it is not plausible to extrapolate one single factor as ‘explanatory’ of choices made or simply avoided; a multiplicity of stereotyping influences are at work in association with educational experiences and outcomes in determining the job orientation of individuals, girls and boys alike. Yet it is nevertheless strikingly anomalous. as the selection of figures above reveals. that one outcome from an educational system that affords so much weight to written assessment (Broadfoot, 1979) is that the group which does best at writing at school should do much less well once outside it. Can it be that schools are operating with a completely benighted vieu of what the purpose of literacy is in our society, which would mean that qualifications as a writer as measured by school requirements were largely nonnegotiable tokens for longer-term career prospects? Or could it be the case that the processes by which girls become good at writing at school subtly disengage them from high level participation in careers related to writing? With these questions in mind I particularly look at:
want to
0 The evidence we have for claiming that girls
Writing
on the Wall: Beginning
are good at writing.
l Preferences and attitudes: the views expressed by pupils about the writing they do at school. 0 The place and status of literacy in the school curriculum. 0 Career choices for the literate pupil. 1. The evidence: scores on written tests Research evidence concerning the language performance of ll- and 15year old children. and their writing performance in particular. has been gathered on a national scale since 1979. The Assessment of Performance Unit has carried out twice yearly surveys of the school population in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, dealing with approx. 12.000 pupils each time. This has involved the creation of special test materials and new modes of assessment. to cover reading, writing and spoken language activities. (Six reports detailing the work of the project have so far been published.) The writing survey which annually involves about 4500 children of each age group has three main components: a series of test booklets which encompass a range of writing tasks representative of the written work undertaken across the school curriculum at both age levels; a writing attitude questionnaire and a ‘work sampling’ component. which enables us to gather a selection of work completed under normal. i.e. non-test. classroom conditinnc
The writing collected is assessed bp panels of practising teachers using two systems of marking: impression marking and analytic marking. It is the latter method which provides the more detailed information about the nature of performance levels. because using this system. a marker records an assessment for five aspects of each script. I stress this point. because it is sometimes assumed that judgements ahout the merits of a piece of writing are hopelessly clouded in subjectivity or at any rate lacking an ‘objective criterion of correctness’ (Licht and Dweck. 1983). which is presumed to prevail in mathematical subjects. If one them goes on to claim that girls happen to do well at writing. the rejoinder can often be dismissive because of the presumed lack of hard ‘evidence’. or worse. because doing well is thought to depend on some combination of surface. presentational features merely. In APU analytic marking. we examine written scripts with reference to five main criteria: content, organisation. appropriateness and style. knowledge of grammatical conventions and knowledge of orthographic conventions. These criteria are devised so as to be sensitive to differences between tasks: neither the style nor the organisation of a story is the same as that of a formal
or End of a Girl’s Career?
563
letter or the plan of an experiment. For example, subject matter may be provided in the form of source material. or need to be drawn from the pupil’s own experience or imagination; grammatical and orthographical conventions, though stable features of written language, have problematic aspects in some contexts more than others; the management of style and appropriateness is also influenced by the context or purpose of writing. In each of the surveys conducted, on all of the analytic criteria used, girls have been found to achieve higher mean scores than boys. These particular detailed results are what lie behind the overall results of impression marking, which for both age groups. show girls achieving higher mean scores than boys. Figures 1 and 2, derived from the results of the 1980 writing surveys, are typical of the general pattern of results over the years 1979-1983. 2. Preferences and attitudes: pupils’ views about the writing they do in school As stated earlier, one component of the writing assessment framework is a questionnaire about pupils attitudes to the writing they do in school and outside it. Topics covered include preferred writing activities, sense of ease or difficulty in writing. processes of composition and revision. use of writing for pleasure or learning. collaborative writing with others. interest in sources and models, long-term interests in Lvriting. and differences between writing in certain school subjects or between primary and secondary school. In interpreting the data from attitude questionnaires we need to remember that there are limits to its explanatory power: while the evidence about a pupil’s orientation towards an activity can illuminate the overall result. it will rarely be sufficient to account for it entireI>-. However throughout much of the research into attitudes and pupils’ academic performance. there has been a persistent thread. namely the association between negative attitudes and lower performance. Both the reading and writing data collected by the APU confirm this trend, showing a strong correlation between the expression of negative or reluctant attitudes towards literacy activities and poorer performance scores. There was also an association between higher performance scores and more positive confident attitudes. although in statistical terms this was less significant, suggesting that enjoyment of writing, for example. is not in itself a guarantee that a child will do well at it. and likewise, that being able to write well is not a necessary precondition of finding it enjoyable. By contrast, the connections between dislike of writing and doing poorly in writing seem much stronger. Two themes of descriptive interest emerge as
564
JANETWHITE
&p
---__
Girts -
-ErJ
5
70
E 60 8 EX
20 IC I
3i 32 34 36 38 40
Writing wformonce
Fig. 1, Distribution
I
I
I
42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 56 60 62 64 66 68 70
of writing performance
estimates
estimates
(impression
marking):
boys and girls. age
11
Boys _____ Girls -
3C 32 34 3E 3.3 4C 42 44
46 4E
5c Y
Writing performance
FIN 2 Distribution
of wriung
performance
estimates
54 56 58 EC 62 64
6E 68 7C
estimates
(impression
marking):
boys and girls. age 15
Writing on the Wall: Beginning or End of a Girl’s Career? relevant to the theme of this paper: first, boys are in the majority in the groups expressing negative attitudes towards writing and achieving lower performance scores, and second, already at age 11, the broad boy/girl differences in predilection for some types of writing rather than others, has begun to be visible (DES, 1982a; DES, 1985a, b). Thus, while girls outnumber boys in preference for writing letters and stories (though narrative writing is the overall favoured activity for both sexes, and remains thus at age 15 also). boys’ interests in writing tend to cluster around factual, episodic writing assignments (DES, 1982b: 131). For example. ‘Most of all I like writing when it’s part of project work. The kinds of writing I like best is when I write down information about my hobbies.’ Whereas boys emphasised their dislike of completing written exercises based on reading material, girls were more accepting of the interconnection between reading and writing. and agreed: ‘I get lots of ideas to write about from reading books.’ Girls are more inclined to enjoy writing about their family and personal experiences and to view the writing of poetry as something enjoyable in appropriate circumstances (DES. 1983a: DES, 1985a. b). At the end of primary schooling. girls not only have achieved a soundly based competency in written work, but their sense of themselves as writers is similarly robust. Significantly greater numbers of girls than boys endorsed the following statements, (DES, 1982b: ibid.). ‘I think writing is an enjoyable feelings and ideas.
way of expressing
I think it is very helpful to have other people read my work and say what they think of it. ‘Letter writing is something that I find enjoyable. ‘1 like writing poetry because it’s fun to organise language in different ways. ‘I find it easy to write neatly and clearly. ‘I find it helpful writing.’
to make notes before starting
Boys for their part endorsed more emphatically statements expressing disinclination to write or lack of confidence in writing abilities: ‘Apart from school work I only write if I have to. ‘It takes me a long time to write neatly always rushed to finish. ‘I look forward writing to do.
so I’m
to a time when I won’t have much
565
‘Whenever I have to write something I try to write as little as possible. ‘I feel that writing is my weakest subject. ‘It bothers me to have to think where to put all the commas and full stops in writing.’ The views of 15-year olds conformed to the same pattern as these, but despite girls’ continued superiority in writing performance. there are indications that in the course of secondary schooling their confidence in their own abilities as writers has lessened (DES, 1985a: 155). For example. 60 per cent of girls as opposed to 47 per cent of boys agreed: ‘I don’t think I write as well as other people do.’ Similarly, 31 per cent of girls as opposed to 23 per cent of boys agreed: ‘I don’t think I am creative enough to do well at writing.’ In the secondary sample as a whole it is evident that pupils are more critical of the writing activities they are required to do in school. citing essays and comprehensions as particular areas of dislike; amongst this group of disaffected pupils boys are more dismissive of the value or interest of any form of writing. The incidence of low self-esteem amongst secondary girls has been a topic of investigation from the point of view of various subject interests. (The recent GAMMA and GIST projects are just two initiatives which have attempted to tackle the problem of girls’ apparent under-cofidence in maths and science.) By contrast, language studies and English are generally assumed to be an area where girls are alright, at least as far as their confidence in writing is concerned. It is disturbing therefore to note these signs of under-confidence in girl writers. We might also note in passing that though the phrase ‘learned helplessness’ (Dweck and Reppucci. 1973) has been used to describe typical female underestimation of personal talent. the description applies accurately in a different sense to the group of secondary boys who have effectively given up on writing. The pervasiveness of an attitude that writing doesn’t matter for boys. leads neatly into a situation where (female) secretarial skills will be indispensible in the future. But what of the girls who underestimate their potential as writers? Hypotheses advanced to explain the presence of such maladaptive attitudes draw attention to a history of learning experiences surrounding the attribution of successes and failures (Licht and Dweck. 1983; Serbin. 1983; Stanworth. 1983). It appears that these experiences differ systematically for girls and boys in normal classroom interaction: in one study (Licht and Dweck. 1983). almost half the work-related criticism offered b)
566
JANET WHITE
teachers to boys referred to aspects of performance apar! from intelligence. concentrating on lack of effort, inattention. poor presentation. while for girls, although fewer such criticisms were made, almost all negative commentary was directed at the intellectual quality of their work. Licht and Dweck go on to hypothesise that for girls on the receiving end of such criticism. it is no consolation that their investment of effort or attentiveness is unquestioned: on the contrary, their high input at all levels makes the criticism less easy to ascribe to anything other than fundamental factors, and consequently strikes at their academic self-image whether this is justified or not. A boy. criticised for not trying hard enough might in fact not be able to do better, but whilever the teacher’s perception is that he can. he is encouraged to construct an over optimistic view of his academic potential. Boys persistently overestimate their chances of success, even in the face of demonstrated failure (Stanworth. 1983; Buswell. 1984). Unfortunately, Licht and Dweck’s generally perceptive analysis assumes that the way in which English as a subject is taught and assessed provides a haven for girl’s otherwise prone to the maladaptive syndrome described above. They suggest that the criteria for ‘correctness’ in English are less ‘visible’. more ‘ambiguous’ that in other (scientific) subjects, and moreover that it is an altogether less risky subject than mathematics where ‘hard and confusing material’ is frequently to be encountered. In fact. what we can discover about the assessment criteria used for English. points not so much to their ambiguity or vagueness as to their confusing. arbitrary and often trivial character (Thornton. 1980) making progress through eleven years’ language work at school more like a journey through an exploding minefield than a refuge for tender sensibilities. The following quotation is a fair representation of what an Examination Board considers it appropriate to communicate to teachers, who in turn will pass this wisdom on to pupils. in the course of preparing them for a CSE language paper: ‘ . I the problems were the same as ever. The use of commas in the place of full stops in the mistaken belief that long sentences look better than short ones; the muddling of plurals and possessives with a totally arbitrary use of the apostrophe; the switching of first to third person narrative; quite arbitrary changes of tense; poor punctuation of speech; indentation, as if for paragraphs. mechanically inserted after a number of sentences had been written, but these paragraphs revealing no corporate theme but rather a multitude of diverse thoughts.’ (WMEB, 1979). The persistence with which schools and pupils alike cling to an association between good writing and
relurively minor surface features of spelling and handwriting is perhaps understandable in the light of the annual lengthy satires directed at pupils’ shortcomings in these areas; nor is it enlightening that these aspects of writing are unsystematically merged with broader questions of text creation and organisation. Relatively few sentences are offered as to the merits of candidates, and by its brevity serves to make high achievement even more remote and inexplicable: ‘The best work was a delight to read. It often seems to us that the great division is not between grades C. B and A, but between all these and those happy few who can write with real distinction. We wish we could let them know that their work has not passed unnoticed; that we could give an “A with distinction” to the one or two in a thousand who deserve it.’ (Oxford Board. ‘0’ level, 1978). Sadly, for about half the population, and for girls in particular. this is not helpful feedback: they alread! have most of the stigmatised features under adequate control when they arrive at secondary school, and must seriously wonder what further development in the subject comprises. Few schools have anything amounting to a writing policy. or keep writing records enabling the planning of written work across subjects or years, in such a wa) that a committed pupil would be able to obtain systematic feedback on achievements and progress. It is against this background of hit and miss assessment that girls’ declining confidence in their writing ability needs to be considered. For the uncommitted writers in school (typically of the male sex), the more arbitrary or trivial the feedback received on written work. the more likely they are to be confirmed in an attitude that it’s all a matter of luck anyway. and that although they have failed to satisfy school-based criteria, writing m later life will no doubt be a different matter 3. The place and status of writing in the school curriculum Nevertheless. girls do continue to succeed across a range of subjects in secondary school. Measured b> the crudest yardstick, the number of GCECSE qualifications at school leaving age. girls emerge as marginally ahead of boys. and fewer of them leave school without any qualifications at all (Table 1). Of particular interest is the percentage increase in girls share of qualifications over the past decade in terms of curriculum where positive intervention programmes have occurred, namely in mathematics and physical sciences (Fennema, 1983). Despite the doubts frequently expressed about girls’ mathematical ability, their results in the subject are practically identical with boys’ fourteen years
7.1
No A-levcla or SCE H-grades but with S or more higher pradest at GCElCSE or equivalcnt$
IX.7
Y.X 44.0
13.S
30.6
24.X
X.0
17.0
IYXO-~XI
* Based on population aged I7 years at 31 August for S or more 0lcvck t Grades A-C at M‘F- O-level or patIc I at <‘SE. $ Includes Scottish 0-grade. 8 Grades. II, Eat GCE O-level and grades 2-5 at <‘SE. )) Provisional. Source. DES (198Sh) Education School Lcavcrs IYXZ-19X4.
No eradcd results
27.X
16.X
I or mnre other graded6 results
23.‘)
X.2
16.0
gradest a~ M’F./CSF or equivalent$
I-4 higher
16.6
With I or more C;CE A-lcvcls or SCE 11-pidcs
1075-76
I. School Icavcrs in England
lY7&71
Tat&z
12.3
32.h
27.3
9.7
IX.2
IYX?--X.3
with different
12.2
32.7
26.0
10.0
18.2
14X3-X4ll
43.9
10.7
16.2
6.2
17.x
IY7%71
14.0
3.33
24.6
9.1
17.‘)
I YR.%X41(
I3oys
levels of qualilication’
I .o
IO.3
44.
I
29.3
I
IX.5
IYX3 -X4(/
31.9
lcvcls
Girls
X.Y
17.4
X.0
15.3
lY7tL-71
and ahovc. and npcd I5 years at 31 August for other qualification
12.Y
31.2
25.6
9.4
17.7
IYXI-x2
Percentage
568
JANETWHITE
Writing
on the Wall: Beginning
ago: at that period educationalists were not shaking their heads over the exceptional difficulties the subject presented for boys. Table 2 delineates the achievement of each sex group at school leaving age. The gradual successful movement of girls into ‘non-traditional’ areas of the secondary schooling goes some way towards deconstructing the myth that girls’ abilities are mainly confined to verbal areas as these are defined by courses in English language and literature. Obviously one factor in girls’ general achievement must be the pervasiveness of literacy skills, given the importance of reading and writing in the examination system. Pupils themselves are perhaps the last to see this connection because of the way ‘reading and writing’ come to be isolated as specific concerns of English teaching. Again. unfortunately for the self-image of pupils who happen to be good at English, those particular skills are not accorded high status either within the peer group or outside it in the world of educational policy decisions. Licht and Dweck report that children overwhelmingly chose reading as the subject ‘where someone could do well even if they weren’t smart’ (op. cit., 1983: 88); Frith likewise pinpoints current attitudes to English as an ‘amateur‘ subject: ‘Every teacher is a teacher of English’. ‘You don’t do anything in English’ ‘English is easy’. (Frith 1982: 31). Girls who show an early promise as good writers and readers are especially vulnerable to the persuasion, categorisa-
Table
3. Percentage
of pupils
in examination
Biology.
chemistq.
Chemistr!
physics
physics
pupils
569
tion or unquestioned assumption that they are less suited for ‘harder’ areas of study. There is in fact quite striking evidence from the APU surveys of mathematics, science and language to show that girls’ abilities are equally apparent in all three areas. For example, when comparisons are made between the achievements of boys and girls aged 15 studying one or more of Biology, Chemistry and Physics, girls achieved higher scores than boys in both the mathematics and the language tests (DES, 1984). Indeed, their group performance scores on the APU tests of reading and writing were the highest recorded (DES, 1983a). In science too their performance was outstanding, ‘when comparisons were made between groups of boys and girls studying the same science courses, girls consistently achieved scores similar to boys (if not better) on all sub-categories’ (DES, 1984b), and contrasted with the overall difference in favour of boys in the science assessments. In the present school system, only girls of the highest ability are entered for the combination of three science courses. whereas the larger numbers of boys taking these ‘traditionally male’ subjects are drawn from a wider span. General academic attainment and type of school attended influence the uptake of science courses more markedly in the case of girls, especially in relation to physics. Using the figures for examination entry as the measurement of ability in this instance, we can see at a glance hon these groups are composed (Table 3).
entq
group
for each science
course
‘7c taking 6 or more O-levels
No. of Science course combination
or End of a Girl’s Career?
combination Ictaking 4 or more CSEs
BOJ s
Gnls
All
1’6? - _
80
89
YOl
53
75
Boys
Girls
All
83
4
2
3
51
16
6
15 13
Biolog). chemtstr!
653
38
61
55
24
10
Biology.
514
40
65
48
26
7
19
30
35
34
29
24
25 27
Biology
physics on)!
Chemistr!
167
onI\
283
31
32
32
23
30
Physics onl!
990
25
35
27
33
25
31
Human
743
8
13
12
32
43
41
9
6
42
37
40
17
‘5
22
33
32
32
General
btolog! science
1273
No science Source. DES (lYS?b:
1103 3-t)
570
JANET WHKE
Commenting on the results obtained by the top scoring girls, the authors of the Science Report are wary of any implication ‘that the overall sex differences in favour of boys would disappear if the pattern of science was similar for boys and girls’ (ibid.: 37). As things stand, boys on average do more science than girls, and a large part of the difference in measured performance seems explicable by this fact. Even granted that nearly all the ‘top girls’ are already doing three sciences (in combination with perhaps seven other ‘0’ level subjects), it would seem to be plausible that many more girls, again on the basis of their general ability in which linguistic capacity plays no small part. could contemplate taking on one or two mainstream science courses with no poorer expectation of success than the ‘average’ boy. At present, girls are not encouraged into science courses on the basis of being highly literate; nor are the mandatory presentational skills of handwriting organisation and layout in written work seen as possible springboards for entry into design-related technical courses for girls. The ambivalent place and status which writing occupies in the school curriculum militates against a girl’s ability to use a consciously realised strength to forge an entry into non-literary subjects. The English Department which operates with a punctilious view of ‘good‘ writing (a matter of prescriptive correctness) and enshrines only a few types of writing as the ‘best’ (fictional narrative. varieties of ‘creative’ description) is ultimately doing as great a diservice to its predominantly female students as are the overt@ ‘unfriendly’ male-dominated subject areas. 4. Career choices for Ihe lirerate pupil At school leaving age. many academically promising girls opt out of the system. The proportion of girls going straight into secretarial. professional or vocational courses is almost double that for boys. e.g. 19 per cent compared with 9.6 per cent (DES. 1984~). Prior to the cut-backs in teacher training courses this proportion was greater. with upwards of 6 per cent of girl-leavers destined for teaching. Although the participation of girls in full time education has increased over the past decade (DES. 1984~). the pattern of subject choice at A level still shows the familiar ‘sorting’ process at work for girls and boys. In 1982-3 the greatest number of A level passes in English went to girls and the greatest number of A level passes in physics to boys (Table 4). Looking at educational outcomes in such stark terms we need also to remember that ‘English’ at A level means English Literature. i.e. the close stud) of Great Books. with all the attendent interest in cultivating the individual sensibility. expanding the imagination. empathising with far off personages. and writing intricate descriptions of characters.
plots, motives and heightened uses of language. In this way the ‘good writer’ becomes the perpetual reader, right through to undergraduate level. where English faculties have a student intake which is over 60 per cent female.
Literature was originally included in the school syllabus as a ‘civilizing’. ‘humanizing’ force to counter the narrow and barbaric practices of 19th century schooling for boys. Nowadays. boys seem to have vacated these areas of the curriculum leaving girls as the ‘natural’ transmitters of ‘literature. (that) powerful agency for benefiting the world and civilizing it’ (Arnold. 1972: 370). The Arnoldian view of literary studies as source of personal and moral growth has not lost force over the past eight! years; remembering that literature students are so predominantly female we do well to ponder the implications of the Bullock Report’s fulsome case for the ‘civilizing’ power of literature: ‘Books compensate for the difficulties of growing up. They present the child with a vicarious satisfaction that takes him outside his own world and lets him identify for a time with someone else. They present him with controlled experience. which he can observe from the outside at the same times as being involved within it.’ (1975: 125). values implicit in this literature are. b) and large. written by men. chosen by men. and at the most advanced levels. taught ,by men (Spender. 1980). For girls. what kind of clvllizing process is this? Yet so successful has the ‘cooling-out‘ of girls‘ aspirations been (Buswell. 1984). that protestlnf voices. such as the one quoted belou,. are rareI> heard:
The cultural
‘all those poems about women. wrltten b! men: it seemed to be a given that men write poems and women inhabited them. These M’omen u’err’ almost ahvavs beautiful. bur threatened with the loss of beaut\. the loss of vouth Or the! were beautifil and died young. like Luc! and Lenore. Or cruel and the poem reproached her because she had refused to become a luxur!, for the poet the girl or woman who tries to write is peculiarl! susceptible to language. She goes to poetr) or fiction looking for her ua!’ of belnf in the \corld she is looking eager]! for guides. maps. possibilities: and over and over she comes up against something that negates everything she iq about She finds a terror and a dream La Belle Dame Sans Merci but precisely whar she does not find is that absorbed. drudging. puzzled, sometimes inspiring creature. herself (Adrienne Rich. cited b> Russ 1984: IS). We asked a sample of 15year olds ()V = 200) to comment on this state of affairs and to say whether they thought it was a good thing or not. ‘that more
* Derived from GAD Source, DES (1984~).
General studies
Commercial
estimates of the population
2.7
-
I.3
and domestic studies
3.2
Geography
Creative
arts
3.3
2.0
Biological sciences
History
4.0
Chemistry
I.3
5.7
Physics
1.4
6.1
Mathematics
French
3.6
English
Craft, design. technology and other science
16.h
Bovs
I.4
0.7
2.2
2.6
3.5
3.1
0. I
2.4
2.1
ft.4
1.X
2.9
3.4
2.2
0.x
2.2
2.u
3.6
I.6
4.1
I .9
5.2
1S.S
Total
3.9
0.3
I.3
3.2
3.0
I.1
1.1
2.4
4.5
6.0
7.1
2.8
16.7
ROVS
change
3.0
1.0
2.5
2.4
3.2
3.0
0.3
3.7
2.7
I.R
3.S
6.5
1h.S
Girls
19X2-83
Percentage
passes in selected subjects. Percentage
I .4
6.9
14.4
Girls
1971-72
Leavers with A-level
Any subject
Tattle 4. School leavers in England.
3.5
0.6
I.9
2.8
3.1
2.0
0.7
3.1
3.7
4.0
S.3
4.h
lb.6
Total
+44
-
-
-
-9
-21
-IS
+ 20
+13
+s
+I6
-22
+I
ROW
of the l7-year
1982-83
+I14
+43
+14
-8
-9
-3
+2(w)
+54
+69
+29
+R4
-6
+I.5
Girls
197l-72to
old age fqwp*
+67
+50
+6
-3
-9
-9
-12
+41
+32
+I1
+29
-12
+7
Total
572
JANETWHITE
girls obtain qualifications in languages and more boys obtain qualifications in scientific subjects’. The replies were a fair indication of the prevailing school ethos as concerns the value placed upon language vs science subjects. and also provides a sad illustration of the minimal aspirations which many girls. committed to a mainly language based course of study, articulate. (A course of study is not the unique determinant of an aspiration; its perceived scope can be synonymous with personal ambitions. however.) Equal numbers of boys and girls agreed that the existing status quo was a good thing (about one third of each sample expressed this opinion). Typical of their reasons were the following (from girls): ‘It’s good for girls to get language qualifications to be good air hostesses. Boys have the ego in experiment with chemicals. ‘Most girls end up as secretaties etc., and boys as engineers etc. ‘BOYS are encouraged to do sciences. but it’s not ladylike for a girl. Girls aren’t eager to join the male dominated classes.
‘Girls are less able to take the academic subjects. This is to do with their home and life styles.’ Replies from boys could hard11 be characterised as more sexist: ‘Boys are more to do with practical work and experiments and girls are more to learn and listen and enjoy writing. ‘Women are better typists etc. Most of the great scientists have been men. ‘There are more qualifications in the jobs boys do. Girls think the) are going to do something extravagant. e.g. air hostess. secretary. ‘It is a good thing that boys get science qualifications as a fair percentage will need it for jobs. but girls don’t need language qualifications as they will be at home with children.’ Similar proportions of boys and girls explained this state of affairs as purely a matter for individual choice (about 10 per cent). While similar proportions refer.ed to ‘conditioning’. thought it made no difference (there were no jobs anyway). or were undecided: a handful of boys stated that they simply didn’t care. The one area in which responses from girls differed substantially from boys was in terms of the numbers who stated that a mixture of subjects was better for both sexes. About 25 per cent of girls made this recommendation. contrasted with approx. 14 per cent of boys. Two girls. reflecting on the ill-advised stereotyping of subject choices. commented: ‘Girls should be encouraged to feel that sciences
are not boys subjects and the same with boys and languages. ‘Girls may find sciences boring and keep away and so never know if they could succeed-same with boys and English.’ This finding refers us back to the recognition that girls’ all-round academic ability perhaps places them in a stronger position to make such a recommendation and suggests a potential for flexible movement between subject areas. It thus raises many questions about subject option counselling and careers advice. which has left untouched-or emphatically confirmed?-the prejudices of at least one in three pupils. Is it after all accidental that the secondary curriculum at once etiolates and downgrades writing skills. perpetuating a divisive view of factual vs fictive uses of language. with so high an aesthetic value placed on the latter that the more ‘everyday’ functions of writing come to seem unworthy of the name? What would happen if a more worldly vieu of the purpose and function of writing entered the school system? Might this not result in all the wrong people developing inappropriate ambitions on the basis of their competence as writers? Careers information directed at girls often stresses the place of writing skills in association with other qualifications (Miller. 1981), but as long as girls who are good at writing go on ‘choosing’ literature as a major area of study they will simply not acquire a pragmatic awareness of what else they can do with their talents. apart from joining the ranks of IOH paid pedagogues in schools or unpaid domestic pedagogues at home (Acker. 1984d). Many advances go on being made on the education of girls. but for all that. Marland (1983~). is still able to describe the situation that prevails in the eighties as ‘the old conventional picture of the British girl: literate. with a smattering of foreign language. with a future in an office. and the holder of the religious conscience’. There is an urgent need for a reappraisal of language and literature courses with an awareness that at present they effectively coral1 some of the ablest pupils into an academic cul-de-sac. Within literature studies themselves more could be done to attempt to increase the representation of women authors on examination lists: the constraint to stud! a particular author need not preclude study of other writers. or prevent analysis of the circumstances in which books are generally produced. The English class should always be an obvious place for the examination of sexist. discriminatory uses of language. and a variety of wavs of discussing set texts can ensure that authoritahan. boy-dominated procedures of classroom interaction do not prevail. The whole concept of what constitutes ‘literature’. and why, can be made a profitable subject of
Writing on the Wall: Bepinning or End of a Girl’s Career? investigation and allow the introduction of noncanonized texts, including those produced by pupils. Teachers of all subjects should reahse that one advantage of a mixed class is that it is bound to contain some able girl writers, who can be set more challenging collaborative tasks. or be freed from routine ‘exercises’ to work as editors or advisors with less advanced pupils. not on the basis of their sex (as ‘helpful’ girls) but because of their competence and growing professionalism in writing. Self-assessment practices are also feasible for pupils of varying levels of ability and can lead to profitable discussion of real strengths and weaknesses as pupils perceive these. The out of class reading interests of pupils in secondary school deserves more attention, as here too our research has picked up information about strong sex typing of interests (DES. 1982 a et seq.): boys’ disinclination to produce extended pieces of writing may be traced to their habitual lack of interest in reading any. while girls. whose option choices preclude the study of technical or politically oriented domains, may have iittle general acquaintance with the written literature associated with those fields. Researchers continue to address the matter of girls’ uptake of scientific courses; we continue to see attempts to improve boys’ language performance. It would undoubtedly be to many pupils advantage if a greater connection could be made between what are at the moment discrete areas of school study. but beyond that there is an equally pressing need for the skills of writing as developed and practised in schools to be evaluated in real-world terms. Being good at writing. the fate of at least half the school population. should afford more career choices than those bounded by helping others to put pen to paper.
REFERENCES Acker. Sandra. 1983. Women and teaching: a semidetached sociology of a semi-profession. In Walker. S. and L. Barton. Eds. Gender. Class and Educarion. The Falmer Press. Falmer. Acker. Sandra and David Warren Piper. Eds. 1984a. Is Higher Education Fair ro Women? SRHE and NFERNelson. Acker. Sandra. 1984b. Women in Higher Education: What is the problem? In Acker. S. and Warren Piper. 1984a. Acker. Sandra er al.. eds. 1984~. Ubmen and Educarion, World Year Book of Education. Kogan Page. London. Acker. Sandra. 1984d. Sociology. gender and education. In Acker er al.. 1984~. Arnold. Mathew. (1879) 1972. Mixed Essays. In Super. R. H.. ed.. Complere Prose U’orks oj MatheM, Arnold, Vol VIII. Ann Arbor.
Broadfoot.
573
Patricia. 1979. Assessmenr,
Schools
and
Socierx. Methuen.
Buswell.
London. C. 1984. Sponsoring
and stereotyping
in
a
working-class English secondary school. In Acker er al.. 1984c. Central Statistics Office. 1983. Social Trends 14. HMSO. Deem. Rosemary, ed. 1984. Co-educarion Reconsidered. Open University Press. London. DES. 1975. A Language for Life, Repon of rhe Commifree of Inquiry appointed by the Secretary of Srare for Education and Science under the chairmanship of Sir Alan Bullock. FBA. HMSO. DES. 1981. Language performance in schools. Primar) Survey Repon No. 1. HMSO. DES. 1982a. Language performance in schools. Secondar? Survey Report No. 1. HMSO. DES. 1982b. Language performance in schools. Primary Survey Repon No. 2. tiMSO. DES. 1983a. Laneuaee wrformance in schools. Secondarj’ Survey Report No.-2,‘HMSO. DES. 1983b. Education Slarisrics for the United Kingdom, 1983 Edition. HMSO.
DES.
1984a. Language
performance
in schools.
1982
Primary Survev Report HMSO.
DES. 1984b. Science in schools. Age 15. Report No. 2. HMSO. DES. 1984c. Srafisrical Bullerin, English School Leavers 1982-3. HMSO. DES. 1984d. Education Observed 2. A Review, of Published Reports by HM Inspectors and 11-16 and X2-16 Comprehensive
of Primary Schools
Schools. HMSO. performance in schools. 1982 Secondary Survey Report. HMSO. DES. 1985b. Staristical Bulletin, Education Studies for the Unired Kingdom, 1985. HMSO. Doyle. Brian. The hidden histoc of English studies. In Widdowson, ed., 1982. Duelli Klein. Renate. 1984. The intellectual necessity for Women’s Studies. In Acker and Warren Piper. eds, 198Ja. Dweck. Carol S. and N. D. Reppucci. 1973. Learned helplessness and reinforcement responsibility in children. 1. Persona/iv Social Psvchol. 25. 109-116. Fennema. Elizabeth. 1983. Success in mathematics. In Marland. ed.. 1983. Friesman. Sue. 1980. Gender. class and education. In Schoolmg and Culrure. ILEA, Cockpit Arts Workshop. Frith. Gill. 1982. Little Women. Good Wives: is English good for eirls?. In McRobbie and McCable. ed.. 1962. Goulden H.-and J. Harley. 1982. Nor should topics such as homosexuality. masturbation. frigidit). premature ejaculation or the menopause be regarded as unmentionable. In LTP. J. Lirerature Teaching Politics 1. Cardtff. Licht. Barbara G. and Carol S. Dweck. 1983. Sex differences in achievement orientations: consequences for academic choices and attainments. In Marland ed. 1983. Maccoby. Elennor E. and Carol N. Jacklin. 1974. The Psychology of Sex Differences. Stanford University Press. Stanford. CA. Marland. Michael. ed. 1983a. Sex Differenriation and Schooling. Heinemann. London. Marland. Michael. 1983b. Curriculum matters. In Marland. ed., 1983.
DES.
1985a. Language
574
JANETWH~E
Marland, Michael. 1983~. Towards a programme of action. In Marland. ed.. 1983. McRobbie. Angela and Trisha McCabe. 1982. Feminism for Girls. an Adventure Story. Routledge and Kegan Paul. London. Megarry. Jackquetta. 1984. Introduction: sex, gender and education. In Acker, er al., 1984. Miller. Ruth. 1981. Equal Opporruniries, A Careers Guide. Penguin. Harmondswotth. Moers. Ellen. 1978. Lirerar? Women. The Women’s Press. London. National Union of Teachers in association with the Equal Opportunities Commission. 1980. Promorion and rhe Woman Teacher. London. Pringle. Maggie. 1984 Offspring of the Female Eunoch. The Guardian, 25.2.84.
Rose. Joy. 1983. English. In Whyld, ed., 1983. Russ, Joanna. 1984. How IO Suppress Women’s Wriring. The Women’s Press. London.
Serbin. Lisa A. 1983.The Hidden Curriculum: academic consequence of teacher expectations. In Marland. ed.. 1983. Spender, Dale. 1980. Man-made Language. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. Stanworth, Michelle. 1983. Gender and Schooling. Hutchinson in association with the Explorations in Feminism Collective, London. Steedman. Carol. 1982. The Tidy House. LitlIe Girls’ Writing. Virago, London. ’ Sutherland, Margaret B. 1983. Anxiety, aspirations and the hidden curriculum. In Marland, ed., 1983. Thornton, Geoffrey. 1980. Teachina Wriring: The Developmew of Wrinen Language Ski&. Edward Arnold, London. West Midlands Examinations Board. 1979. ReDor! of. , Examiners.
Widdowson, Peter, ed. 1982. Re-reading English. Methuen, London. Whyld, Janie. ed. 1983. Sextim in rhe Secondary Curriculum. Harper and Row, London.
THE WRITING ON THE WALL: BEGINNING OR END OF A GIRL’S CAREER?* JANET WHITE Department of Language. National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales. Slough. Berks. SLI 2DQ. U.K.
Synopsis-This article draws upon the results of five years annual surveying of language performance of children aged 11 and 15 in the United Kingdom. The theme of the article concerns anomalies in the way literacy values are communicated to pupils in schools. Strong sex-typing is evident in the preferences which pupils express for certain types of writing. with girls appearing to choose the most prestigious forms of reading and writing in school terms. Girls’ success in fulfilling school criteria for literaT excellence does less than might be expected to advance their career prospects: on the contrary. it is suggested that the process of becoming a good writer at school is parr of the general sorting process whereby girls cease to compete in other fields of work and study.
The doomsday implications of this title are intentional: I want to draw attention in this article to some of the ironies which surround an area of schooling in which girls excel: namely. writing. ‘Writing on the wall’ is an accurate description of what happens to a great deal of girls’ writing in primary school. yet that occasion of public display is typically the acme of public acknowledgement of its quality. It marks a beginning and an end. Schools accept the excellence of girls’ written work with friendliness: it is girls’ written work which is frequently displayed in books or used to ornament the classroom walls; girls are the obvious choice when it comes to writing on blackboards, in registers, for copying letters or programmes for parents, etc. (Steedman, 1982). However. somewhere between the scribal tradition of the primary school and the adult world of the professional writer, there is a curious hiatus. The girls who were at an early age so competent and confident in handling written language (Maccoby and Jacklin. 1974; Licht and Dwek. 1983) seem to have disappeared. Few of them ever make it to positions of power based on the strength of their apparent ‘giftedness’, their facility with written language.
l It should be noted that the views expressed in this article are those of the author. and that these views are not necessarily shared by the APU or NFER.
PATTERNS OF WOMEN’S WORK Slightly more than 8 million women are in work. comprising 43 per cent of the work force (figures for June 1982. Central Statistics Office. 1983). Over half this number (54 per cent) are employed in service areas, such as distributive trades, public administration, miscellaneous services (for example. laundering. catering. hairdressing). One service area alone ‘professional and scientific’ is staffed by a workforce which is 70 per cent female. Here are concentrated nurses, ancillary workers and of course. teachers: most women are in the primar) sector (women outnumbering men by a ratio of 3 to 1. DES. 1983b). and on lower ranking scale posts at all levels (78 per cent of women are on scales 1 and 2, NUT. 1980). with increasingly sparse representation in HE or FE sectors (DES, 1983b). Women for example constitute 2.7 per cent of universit! professors. (Friesman. 1980; Acker. 1984b). In striking contrast to the patterns for male employment, where no single industry accounts for more than 10 per cent of working men, women are neither distributed across a wide range of jobs. nor are the) distributed across the pay scale. Despite the Equal Pay legislation of 1975, full-time women workers earn on average less than 70 per cent of an equivalent man’s pay (Central Statistics Office. 1983). While the usefulness of writing to some of the occupations women typically pursue is evident, where it might be thought to play a crucial role, especially in terms of career advancement in academic life, women are notably absent.
561
562
JANET WHITE
The dearth of women writers whose names appear either as authors or reviewers of books in daily newspapers is a further reminder of the scarcity of women who have pursued a career in writing-related domains. such as journalism and editing, to the point of visibility. Women proliferate in magazine journalism (the ‘obvious’ focus for interests in fashion. cooking. childcare . .). and amongst copy editors and editorial assistants. but their allocation to ‘women’s stories’ prevents the accumulation of varied experience needed for promotion to top jobs (Miller, 1981). Writing skills are also involved in advertising. but although women consumers are the target for the majority of advertisements. only about 1 in 6 account executives are women. and about 1 in 5 copy writers. Women are present as behind the scenes researchers, and ubiquitous typists/secretaries in all these fields. Considering the disparity between women’s early achievements in literacy and their subsequent paid employment, we need to ask why it is that thousands of able girl writers leave school and go into secretarial jobs. in the course of which they will patiently revise and type the semi-literate manuscripts of their male bosses. or else return in droves to the primary classroom. there to supervise the production of another generation of pen-wise girls. DO WOMEN WRITE LITERATURE? Women do, of course. write books and make a living from writing in that way. It has been estimated that women wrote between half to two-thirds of novels published in England in the eighteenth century (Moers. 1978; Russ. 1984). and women continue to write popular and saleable fiction. Women have also written numerous diaries. letters and journals, but is this literature? Since the inception of English Literature as an academic subject in the first half of this century (Doyle. 1982). the concept of what appropriately counts as its Texts has specifically excluded much of what women traditionally write, along with all but a few women authors. The absolutely commercial nature of much of the writing produced by women (the Mills and Boon romances, Agatha Christie’s countless books. the Enid Blyton oeuvre), makes it possible for it to be read as the output of syndicated enterprises. rather than as the creation of an author whose craft and beliefs are seen as contributing significantly to ‘literature’. Whereas the male sex too has produced writers of pot-boilers, Westerns and various DIY compendiums, the image of a male writer is less vulnerable to caricature. or disregard, by being typically associated with commercial/escapist genres. mainly because of the canonisation of men as the producers of Great Books. Despite the upsurge in women’s publishing over the last decade (Marland. 1983b; Pringle, 1984). and
the popularity of women novelists such as Iris Murdoch. Muriel Spark. Margaret Drabble. Penelope Mortimer. Angela Carter, Doris Lessing etc., the quantity of books written by women that are actually read and studied in schools and universities is pathetically small. Women authors from the past are as effectively isolated and marginalised as those in contemporary life. Joanna Russ (1984) speaks of the ‘restrictions on the quantity of visibility allowed to women writers: that 5 to 8 per cent’. who make up the female contribution to well known undergraduate English Literature anthologies, and who come to be studied on Literature courses generally. Such an estimate would in fact be a generous one for GCECSE examining bodies in the U.K., whose reading lists constitute a clear view of what the certifying academies take to be Literature. For example. a compilation of texts recommended by eleven Schools Examination Boards over the years 1974-1984 (Goulden and Hartley, 1982) documents the overwhelming representation of male authors in the ‘league table’ (see also Rose. 1983: Deem. 1984). The extreme weighting of Literature courses in the direction of men’s writing. combined with the largely uncritical use of male-centered texts as the basis for language ‘exercises’ (Marland. 1983b; McRobbie and McCabe. 1982). serves to reinforce the image of Language and Literature as a subject that may be practised by women but which is professed by men. For girls coming through such a system, the implicit messages must be that though women may write, they rarely write Literature. In surveying the career/jobs route taken by girls overall. it is not plausible to extrapolate one single factor as ‘explanatory’ of choices made or simply avoided; a multiplicity of stereotyping influences are at work in association with educational experiences and outcomes in determining the job orientation of individuals, girls and boys alike. Yet it is nevertheless strikingly anomalous. as the selection of figures above reveals. that one outcome from an educational system that affords so much weight to written assessment (Broadfoot, 1979) is that the group which does best at writing at school should do much less well once outside it. Can it be that schools are operating with a completely benighted vieu of what the purpose of literacy is in our society, which would mean that qualifications as a writer as measured by school requirements were largely nonnegotiable tokens for longer-term career prospects? Or could it be the case that the processes by which girls become good at writing at school subtly disengage them from high level participation in careers related to writing? With these questions in mind I particularly look at:
want to
0 The evidence we have for claiming that girls
Writing
on the Wall: Beginning
are good at writing.
l Preferences and attitudes: the views expressed by pupils about the writing they do at school. 0 The place and status of literacy in the school curriculum. 0 Career choices for the literate pupil. 1. The evidence: scores on written tests Research evidence concerning the language performance of ll- and 15year old children. and their writing performance in particular. has been gathered on a national scale since 1979. The Assessment of Performance Unit has carried out twice yearly surveys of the school population in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, dealing with approx. 12.000 pupils each time. This has involved the creation of special test materials and new modes of assessment. to cover reading, writing and spoken language activities. (Six reports detailing the work of the project have so far been published.) The writing survey which annually involves about 4500 children of each age group has three main components: a series of test booklets which encompass a range of writing tasks representative of the written work undertaken across the school curriculum at both age levels; a writing attitude questionnaire and a ‘work sampling’ component. which enables us to gather a selection of work completed under normal. i.e. non-test. classroom conditinnc
The writing collected is assessed bp panels of practising teachers using two systems of marking: impression marking and analytic marking. It is the latter method which provides the more detailed information about the nature of performance levels. because using this system. a marker records an assessment for five aspects of each script. I stress this point. because it is sometimes assumed that judgements ahout the merits of a piece of writing are hopelessly clouded in subjectivity or at any rate lacking an ‘objective criterion of correctness’ (Licht and Dweck. 1983). which is presumed to prevail in mathematical subjects. If one them goes on to claim that girls happen to do well at writing. the rejoinder can often be dismissive because of the presumed lack of hard ‘evidence’. or worse. because doing well is thought to depend on some combination of surface. presentational features merely. In APU analytic marking. we examine written scripts with reference to five main criteria: content, organisation. appropriateness and style. knowledge of grammatical conventions and knowledge of orthographic conventions. These criteria are devised so as to be sensitive to differences between tasks: neither the style nor the organisation of a story is the same as that of a formal
or End of a Girl’s Career?
563
letter or the plan of an experiment. For example, subject matter may be provided in the form of source material. or need to be drawn from the pupil’s own experience or imagination; grammatical and orthographical conventions, though stable features of written language, have problematic aspects in some contexts more than others; the management of style and appropriateness is also influenced by the context or purpose of writing. In each of the surveys conducted, on all of the analytic criteria used, girls have been found to achieve higher mean scores than boys. These particular detailed results are what lie behind the overall results of impression marking, which for both age groups. show girls achieving higher mean scores than boys. Figures 1 and 2, derived from the results of the 1980 writing surveys, are typical of the general pattern of results over the years 1979-1983. 2. Preferences and attitudes: pupils’ views about the writing they do in school As stated earlier, one component of the writing assessment framework is a questionnaire about pupils attitudes to the writing they do in school and outside it. Topics covered include preferred writing activities, sense of ease or difficulty in writing. processes of composition and revision. use of writing for pleasure or learning. collaborative writing with others. interest in sources and models, long-term interests in Lvriting. and differences between writing in certain school subjects or between primary and secondary school. In interpreting the data from attitude questionnaires we need to remember that there are limits to its explanatory power: while the evidence about a pupil’s orientation towards an activity can illuminate the overall result. it will rarely be sufficient to account for it entireI>-. However throughout much of the research into attitudes and pupils’ academic performance. there has been a persistent thread. namely the association between negative attitudes and lower performance. Both the reading and writing data collected by the APU confirm this trend, showing a strong correlation between the expression of negative or reluctant attitudes towards literacy activities and poorer performance scores. There was also an association between higher performance scores and more positive confident attitudes. although in statistical terms this was less significant, suggesting that enjoyment of writing, for example. is not in itself a guarantee that a child will do well at it. and likewise, that being able to write well is not a necessary precondition of finding it enjoyable. By contrast, the connections between dislike of writing and doing poorly in writing seem much stronger. Two themes of descriptive interest emerge as
564
JANETWHITE
&p
---__
Girts -
-ErJ
5
70
E 60 8 EX
20 IC I
3i 32 34 36 38 40
Writing wformonce
Fig. 1, Distribution
I
I
I
42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 56 60 62 64 66 68 70
of writing performance
estimates
estimates
(impression
marking):
boys and girls. age
11
Boys _____ Girls -
3C 32 34 3E 3.3 4C 42 44
46 4E
5c Y
Writing performance
FIN 2 Distribution
of wriung
performance
estimates
54 56 58 EC 62 64
6E 68 7C
estimates
(impression
marking):
boys and girls. age 15
Writing on the Wall: Beginning or End of a Girl’s Career? relevant to the theme of this paper: first, boys are in the majority in the groups expressing negative attitudes towards writing and achieving lower performance scores, and second, already at age 11, the broad boy/girl differences in predilection for some types of writing rather than others, has begun to be visible (DES, 1982a; DES, 1985a, b). Thus, while girls outnumber boys in preference for writing letters and stories (though narrative writing is the overall favoured activity for both sexes, and remains thus at age 15 also). boys’ interests in writing tend to cluster around factual, episodic writing assignments (DES, 1982b: 131). For example. ‘Most of all I like writing when it’s part of project work. The kinds of writing I like best is when I write down information about my hobbies.’ Whereas boys emphasised their dislike of completing written exercises based on reading material, girls were more accepting of the interconnection between reading and writing. and agreed: ‘I get lots of ideas to write about from reading books.’ Girls are more inclined to enjoy writing about their family and personal experiences and to view the writing of poetry as something enjoyable in appropriate circumstances (DES. 1983a: DES, 1985a. b). At the end of primary schooling. girls not only have achieved a soundly based competency in written work, but their sense of themselves as writers is similarly robust. Significantly greater numbers of girls than boys endorsed the following statements, (DES, 1982b: ibid.). ‘I think writing is an enjoyable feelings and ideas.
way of expressing
I think it is very helpful to have other people read my work and say what they think of it. ‘Letter writing is something that I find enjoyable. ‘1 like writing poetry because it’s fun to organise language in different ways. ‘I find it easy to write neatly and clearly. ‘I find it helpful writing.’
to make notes before starting
Boys for their part endorsed more emphatically statements expressing disinclination to write or lack of confidence in writing abilities: ‘Apart from school work I only write if I have to. ‘It takes me a long time to write neatly always rushed to finish. ‘I look forward writing to do.
so I’m
to a time when I won’t have much
565
‘Whenever I have to write something I try to write as little as possible. ‘I feel that writing is my weakest subject. ‘It bothers me to have to think where to put all the commas and full stops in writing.’ The views of 15-year olds conformed to the same pattern as these, but despite girls’ continued superiority in writing performance. there are indications that in the course of secondary schooling their confidence in their own abilities as writers has lessened (DES, 1985a: 155). For example. 60 per cent of girls as opposed to 47 per cent of boys agreed: ‘I don’t think I write as well as other people do.’ Similarly, 31 per cent of girls as opposed to 23 per cent of boys agreed: ‘I don’t think I am creative enough to do well at writing.’ In the secondary sample as a whole it is evident that pupils are more critical of the writing activities they are required to do in school. citing essays and comprehensions as particular areas of dislike; amongst this group of disaffected pupils boys are more dismissive of the value or interest of any form of writing. The incidence of low self-esteem amongst secondary girls has been a topic of investigation from the point of view of various subject interests. (The recent GAMMA and GIST projects are just two initiatives which have attempted to tackle the problem of girls’ apparent under-cofidence in maths and science.) By contrast, language studies and English are generally assumed to be an area where girls are alright, at least as far as their confidence in writing is concerned. It is disturbing therefore to note these signs of under-confidence in girl writers. We might also note in passing that though the phrase ‘learned helplessness’ (Dweck and Reppucci. 1973) has been used to describe typical female underestimation of personal talent. the description applies accurately in a different sense to the group of secondary boys who have effectively given up on writing. The pervasiveness of an attitude that writing doesn’t matter for boys. leads neatly into a situation where (female) secretarial skills will be indispensible in the future. But what of the girls who underestimate their potential as writers? Hypotheses advanced to explain the presence of such maladaptive attitudes draw attention to a history of learning experiences surrounding the attribution of successes and failures (Licht and Dweck. 1983; Serbin. 1983; Stanworth. 1983). It appears that these experiences differ systematically for girls and boys in normal classroom interaction: in one study (Licht and Dweck. 1983). almost half the work-related criticism offered b)
566
JANET WHITE
teachers to boys referred to aspects of performance apar! from intelligence. concentrating on lack of effort, inattention. poor presentation. while for girls, although fewer such criticisms were made, almost all negative commentary was directed at the intellectual quality of their work. Licht and Dweck go on to hypothesise that for girls on the receiving end of such criticism. it is no consolation that their investment of effort or attentiveness is unquestioned: on the contrary, their high input at all levels makes the criticism less easy to ascribe to anything other than fundamental factors, and consequently strikes at their academic self-image whether this is justified or not. A boy. criticised for not trying hard enough might in fact not be able to do better, but whilever the teacher’s perception is that he can. he is encouraged to construct an over optimistic view of his academic potential. Boys persistently overestimate their chances of success, even in the face of demonstrated failure (Stanworth. 1983; Buswell. 1984). Unfortunately, Licht and Dweck’s generally perceptive analysis assumes that the way in which English as a subject is taught and assessed provides a haven for girl’s otherwise prone to the maladaptive syndrome described above. They suggest that the criteria for ‘correctness’ in English are less ‘visible’. more ‘ambiguous’ that in other (scientific) subjects, and moreover that it is an altogether less risky subject than mathematics where ‘hard and confusing material’ is frequently to be encountered. In fact. what we can discover about the assessment criteria used for English. points not so much to their ambiguity or vagueness as to their confusing. arbitrary and often trivial character (Thornton. 1980) making progress through eleven years’ language work at school more like a journey through an exploding minefield than a refuge for tender sensibilities. The following quotation is a fair representation of what an Examination Board considers it appropriate to communicate to teachers, who in turn will pass this wisdom on to pupils. in the course of preparing them for a CSE language paper: ‘ . I the problems were the same as ever. The use of commas in the place of full stops in the mistaken belief that long sentences look better than short ones; the muddling of plurals and possessives with a totally arbitrary use of the apostrophe; the switching of first to third person narrative; quite arbitrary changes of tense; poor punctuation of speech; indentation, as if for paragraphs. mechanically inserted after a number of sentences had been written, but these paragraphs revealing no corporate theme but rather a multitude of diverse thoughts.’ (WMEB, 1979). The persistence with which schools and pupils alike cling to an association between good writing and
relurively minor surface features of spelling and handwriting is perhaps understandable in the light of the annual lengthy satires directed at pupils’ shortcomings in these areas; nor is it enlightening that these aspects of writing are unsystematically merged with broader questions of text creation and organisation. Relatively few sentences are offered as to the merits of candidates, and by its brevity serves to make high achievement even more remote and inexplicable: ‘The best work was a delight to read. It often seems to us that the great division is not between grades C. B and A, but between all these and those happy few who can write with real distinction. We wish we could let them know that their work has not passed unnoticed; that we could give an “A with distinction” to the one or two in a thousand who deserve it.’ (Oxford Board. ‘0’ level, 1978). Sadly, for about half the population, and for girls in particular. this is not helpful feedback: they alread! have most of the stigmatised features under adequate control when they arrive at secondary school, and must seriously wonder what further development in the subject comprises. Few schools have anything amounting to a writing policy. or keep writing records enabling the planning of written work across subjects or years, in such a wa) that a committed pupil would be able to obtain systematic feedback on achievements and progress. It is against this background of hit and miss assessment that girls’ declining confidence in their writing ability needs to be considered. For the uncommitted writers in school (typically of the male sex), the more arbitrary or trivial the feedback received on written work. the more likely they are to be confirmed in an attitude that it’s all a matter of luck anyway. and that although they have failed to satisfy school-based criteria, writing m later life will no doubt be a different matter 3. The place and status of writing in the school curriculum Nevertheless. girls do continue to succeed across a range of subjects in secondary school. Measured b> the crudest yardstick, the number of GCECSE qualifications at school leaving age. girls emerge as marginally ahead of boys. and fewer of them leave school without any qualifications at all (Table 1). Of particular interest is the percentage increase in girls share of qualifications over the past decade in terms of curriculum where positive intervention programmes have occurred, namely in mathematics and physical sciences (Fennema, 1983). Despite the doubts frequently expressed about girls’ mathematical ability, their results in the subject are practically identical with boys’ fourteen years
7.1
No A-levcla or SCE H-grades but with S or more higher pradest at GCElCSE or equivalcnt$
IX.7
Y.X 44.0
13.S
30.6
24.X
X.0
17.0
IYXO-~XI
* Based on population aged I7 years at 31 August for S or more 0lcvck t Grades A-C at M‘F- O-level or patIc I at <‘SE. $ Includes Scottish 0-grade. 8 Grades. II, Eat GCE O-level and grades 2-5 at <‘SE. )) Provisional. Source. DES (198Sh) Education School Lcavcrs IYXZ-19X4.
No eradcd results
27.X
16.X
I or mnre other graded6 results
23.‘)
X.2
16.0
gradest a~ M’F./CSF or equivalent$
I-4 higher
16.6
With I or more C;CE A-lcvcls or SCE 11-pidcs
1075-76
I. School Icavcrs in England
lY7&71
Tat&z
12.3
32.h
27.3
9.7
IX.2
IYX?--X.3
with different
12.2
32.7
26.0
10.0
18.2
14X3-X4ll
43.9
10.7
16.2
6.2
17.x
IY7%71
14.0
3.33
24.6
9.1
17.‘)
I YR.%X41(
I3oys
levels of qualilication’
I .o
IO.3
44.
I
29.3
I
IX.5
IYX3 -X4(/
31.9
lcvcls
Girls
X.Y
17.4
X.0
15.3
lY7tL-71
and ahovc. and npcd I5 years at 31 August for other qualification
12.Y
31.2
25.6
9.4
17.7
IYXI-x2
Percentage
568
JANETWHITE
Writing
on the Wall: Beginning
ago: at that period educationalists were not shaking their heads over the exceptional difficulties the subject presented for boys. Table 2 delineates the achievement of each sex group at school leaving age. The gradual successful movement of girls into ‘non-traditional’ areas of the secondary schooling goes some way towards deconstructing the myth that girls’ abilities are mainly confined to verbal areas as these are defined by courses in English language and literature. Obviously one factor in girls’ general achievement must be the pervasiveness of literacy skills, given the importance of reading and writing in the examination system. Pupils themselves are perhaps the last to see this connection because of the way ‘reading and writing’ come to be isolated as specific concerns of English teaching. Again. unfortunately for the self-image of pupils who happen to be good at English, those particular skills are not accorded high status either within the peer group or outside it in the world of educational policy decisions. Licht and Dweck report that children overwhelmingly chose reading as the subject ‘where someone could do well even if they weren’t smart’ (op. cit., 1983: 88); Frith likewise pinpoints current attitudes to English as an ‘amateur‘ subject: ‘Every teacher is a teacher of English’. ‘You don’t do anything in English’ ‘English is easy’. (Frith 1982: 31). Girls who show an early promise as good writers and readers are especially vulnerable to the persuasion, categorisa-
Table
3. Percentage
of pupils
in examination
Biology.
chemistq.
Chemistr!
physics
physics
pupils
569
tion or unquestioned assumption that they are less suited for ‘harder’ areas of study. There is in fact quite striking evidence from the APU surveys of mathematics, science and language to show that girls’ abilities are equally apparent in all three areas. For example, when comparisons are made between the achievements of boys and girls aged 15 studying one or more of Biology, Chemistry and Physics, girls achieved higher scores than boys in both the mathematics and the language tests (DES, 1984). Indeed, their group performance scores on the APU tests of reading and writing were the highest recorded (DES, 1983a). In science too their performance was outstanding, ‘when comparisons were made between groups of boys and girls studying the same science courses, girls consistently achieved scores similar to boys (if not better) on all sub-categories’ (DES, 1984b), and contrasted with the overall difference in favour of boys in the science assessments. In the present school system, only girls of the highest ability are entered for the combination of three science courses. whereas the larger numbers of boys taking these ‘traditionally male’ subjects are drawn from a wider span. General academic attainment and type of school attended influence the uptake of science courses more markedly in the case of girls, especially in relation to physics. Using the figures for examination entry as the measurement of ability in this instance, we can see at a glance hon these groups are composed (Table 3).
entq
group
for each science
course
‘7c taking 6 or more O-levels
No. of Science course combination
or End of a Girl’s Career?
combination Ictaking 4 or more CSEs
BOJ s
Gnls
All
1’6? - _
80
89
YOl
53
75
Boys
Girls
All
83
4
2
3
51
16
6
15 13
Biolog). chemtstr!
653
38
61
55
24
10
Biology.
514
40
65
48
26
7
19
30
35
34
29
24
25 27
Biology
physics on)!
Chemistr!
167
onI\
283
31
32
32
23
30
Physics onl!
990
25
35
27
33
25
31
Human
743
8
13
12
32
43
41
9
6
42
37
40
17
‘5
22
33
32
32
General
btolog! science
1273
No science Source. DES (lYS?b:
1103 3-t)
570
JANET WHKE
Commenting on the results obtained by the top scoring girls, the authors of the Science Report are wary of any implication ‘that the overall sex differences in favour of boys would disappear if the pattern of science was similar for boys and girls’ (ibid.: 37). As things stand, boys on average do more science than girls, and a large part of the difference in measured performance seems explicable by this fact. Even granted that nearly all the ‘top girls’ are already doing three sciences (in combination with perhaps seven other ‘0’ level subjects), it would seem to be plausible that many more girls, again on the basis of their general ability in which linguistic capacity plays no small part. could contemplate taking on one or two mainstream science courses with no poorer expectation of success than the ‘average’ boy. At present, girls are not encouraged into science courses on the basis of being highly literate; nor are the mandatory presentational skills of handwriting organisation and layout in written work seen as possible springboards for entry into design-related technical courses for girls. The ambivalent place and status which writing occupies in the school curriculum militates against a girl’s ability to use a consciously realised strength to forge an entry into non-literary subjects. The English Department which operates with a punctilious view of ‘good‘ writing (a matter of prescriptive correctness) and enshrines only a few types of writing as the ‘best’ (fictional narrative. varieties of ‘creative’ description) is ultimately doing as great a diservice to its predominantly female students as are the overt@ ‘unfriendly’ male-dominated subject areas. 4. Career choices for Ihe lirerate pupil At school leaving age. many academically promising girls opt out of the system. The proportion of girls going straight into secretarial. professional or vocational courses is almost double that for boys. e.g. 19 per cent compared with 9.6 per cent (DES. 1984~). Prior to the cut-backs in teacher training courses this proportion was greater. with upwards of 6 per cent of girl-leavers destined for teaching. Although the participation of girls in full time education has increased over the past decade (DES. 1984~). the pattern of subject choice at A level still shows the familiar ‘sorting’ process at work for girls and boys. In 1982-3 the greatest number of A level passes in English went to girls and the greatest number of A level passes in physics to boys (Table 4). Looking at educational outcomes in such stark terms we need also to remember that ‘English’ at A level means English Literature. i.e. the close stud) of Great Books. with all the attendent interest in cultivating the individual sensibility. expanding the imagination. empathising with far off personages. and writing intricate descriptions of characters.
plots, motives and heightened uses of language. In this way the ‘good writer’ becomes the perpetual reader, right through to undergraduate level. where English faculties have a student intake which is over 60 per cent female.
Literature was originally included in the school syllabus as a ‘civilizing’. ‘humanizing’ force to counter the narrow and barbaric practices of 19th century schooling for boys. Nowadays. boys seem to have vacated these areas of the curriculum leaving girls as the ‘natural’ transmitters of ‘literature. (that) powerful agency for benefiting the world and civilizing it’ (Arnold. 1972: 370). The Arnoldian view of literary studies as source of personal and moral growth has not lost force over the past eight! years; remembering that literature students are so predominantly female we do well to ponder the implications of the Bullock Report’s fulsome case for the ‘civilizing’ power of literature: ‘Books compensate for the difficulties of growing up. They present the child with a vicarious satisfaction that takes him outside his own world and lets him identify for a time with someone else. They present him with controlled experience. which he can observe from the outside at the same times as being involved within it.’ (1975: 125). values implicit in this literature are. b) and large. written by men. chosen by men. and at the most advanced levels. taught ,by men (Spender. 1980). For girls. what kind of clvllizing process is this? Yet so successful has the ‘cooling-out‘ of girls‘ aspirations been (Buswell. 1984). that protestlnf voices. such as the one quoted belou,. are rareI> heard:
The cultural
‘all those poems about women. wrltten b! men: it seemed to be a given that men write poems and women inhabited them. These M’omen u’err’ almost ahvavs beautiful. bur threatened with the loss of beaut\. the loss of vouth Or the! were beautifil and died young. like Luc! and Lenore. Or cruel and the poem reproached her because she had refused to become a luxur!, for the poet the girl or woman who tries to write is peculiarl! susceptible to language. She goes to poetr) or fiction looking for her ua!’ of belnf in the \corld she is looking eager]! for guides. maps. possibilities: and over and over she comes up against something that negates everything she iq about She finds a terror and a dream La Belle Dame Sans Merci but precisely whar she does not find is that absorbed. drudging. puzzled, sometimes inspiring creature. herself (Adrienne Rich. cited b> Russ 1984: IS). We asked a sample of 15year olds ()V = 200) to comment on this state of affairs and to say whether they thought it was a good thing or not. ‘that more
* Derived from GAD Source, DES (1984~).
General studies
Commercial
estimates of the population
2.7
-
I.3
and domestic studies
3.2
Geography
Creative
arts
3.3
2.0
Biological sciences
History
4.0
Chemistry
I.3
5.7
Physics
1.4
6.1
Mathematics
French
3.6
English
Craft, design. technology and other science
16.h
Bovs
I.4
0.7
2.2
2.6
3.5
3.1
0. I
2.4
2.1
ft.4
1.X
2.9
3.4
2.2
0.x
2.2
2.u
3.6
I.6
4.1
I .9
5.2
1S.S
Total
3.9
0.3
I.3
3.2
3.0
I.1
1.1
2.4
4.5
6.0
7.1
2.8
16.7
ROVS
change
3.0
1.0
2.5
2.4
3.2
3.0
0.3
3.7
2.7
I.R
3.S
6.5
1h.S
Girls
19X2-83
Percentage
passes in selected subjects. Percentage
I .4
6.9
14.4
Girls
1971-72
Leavers with A-level
Any subject
Tattle 4. School leavers in England.
3.5
0.6
I.9
2.8
3.1
2.0
0.7
3.1
3.7
4.0
S.3
4.h
lb.6
Total
+44
-
-
-
-9
-21
-IS
+ 20
+13
+s
+I6
-22
+I
ROW
of the l7-year
1982-83
+I14
+43
+14
-8
-9
-3
+2(w)
+54
+69
+29
+R4
-6
+I.5
Girls
197l-72to
old age fqwp*
+67
+50
+6
-3
-9
-9
-12
+41
+32
+I1
+29
-12
+7
Total
572
JANETWHITE
girls obtain qualifications in languages and more boys obtain qualifications in scientific subjects’. The replies were a fair indication of the prevailing school ethos as concerns the value placed upon language vs science subjects. and also provides a sad illustration of the minimal aspirations which many girls. committed to a mainly language based course of study, articulate. (A course of study is not the unique determinant of an aspiration; its perceived scope can be synonymous with personal ambitions. however.) Equal numbers of boys and girls agreed that the existing status quo was a good thing (about one third of each sample expressed this opinion). Typical of their reasons were the following (from girls): ‘It’s good for girls to get language qualifications to be good air hostesses. Boys have the ego in experiment with chemicals. ‘Most girls end up as secretaties etc., and boys as engineers etc. ‘BOYS are encouraged to do sciences. but it’s not ladylike for a girl. Girls aren’t eager to join the male dominated classes.
‘Girls are less able to take the academic subjects. This is to do with their home and life styles.’ Replies from boys could hard11 be characterised as more sexist: ‘Boys are more to do with practical work and experiments and girls are more to learn and listen and enjoy writing. ‘Women are better typists etc. Most of the great scientists have been men. ‘There are more qualifications in the jobs boys do. Girls think the) are going to do something extravagant. e.g. air hostess. secretary. ‘It is a good thing that boys get science qualifications as a fair percentage will need it for jobs. but girls don’t need language qualifications as they will be at home with children.’ Similar proportions of boys and girls explained this state of affairs as purely a matter for individual choice (about 10 per cent). While similar proportions refer.ed to ‘conditioning’. thought it made no difference (there were no jobs anyway). or were undecided: a handful of boys stated that they simply didn’t care. The one area in which responses from girls differed substantially from boys was in terms of the numbers who stated that a mixture of subjects was better for both sexes. About 25 per cent of girls made this recommendation. contrasted with approx. 14 per cent of boys. Two girls. reflecting on the ill-advised stereotyping of subject choices. commented: ‘Girls should be encouraged to feel that sciences
are not boys subjects and the same with boys and languages. ‘Girls may find sciences boring and keep away and so never know if they could succeed-same with boys and English.’ This finding refers us back to the recognition that girls’ all-round academic ability perhaps places them in a stronger position to make such a recommendation and suggests a potential for flexible movement between subject areas. It thus raises many questions about subject option counselling and careers advice. which has left untouched-or emphatically confirmed?-the prejudices of at least one in three pupils. Is it after all accidental that the secondary curriculum at once etiolates and downgrades writing skills. perpetuating a divisive view of factual vs fictive uses of language. with so high an aesthetic value placed on the latter that the more ‘everyday’ functions of writing come to seem unworthy of the name? What would happen if a more worldly vieu of the purpose and function of writing entered the school system? Might this not result in all the wrong people developing inappropriate ambitions on the basis of their competence as writers? Careers information directed at girls often stresses the place of writing skills in association with other qualifications (Miller. 1981), but as long as girls who are good at writing go on ‘choosing’ literature as a major area of study they will simply not acquire a pragmatic awareness of what else they can do with their talents. apart from joining the ranks of IOH paid pedagogues in schools or unpaid domestic pedagogues at home (Acker. 1984d). Many advances go on being made on the education of girls. but for all that. Marland (1983~). is still able to describe the situation that prevails in the eighties as ‘the old conventional picture of the British girl: literate. with a smattering of foreign language. with a future in an office. and the holder of the religious conscience’. There is an urgent need for a reappraisal of language and literature courses with an awareness that at present they effectively coral1 some of the ablest pupils into an academic cul-de-sac. Within literature studies themselves more could be done to attempt to increase the representation of women authors on examination lists: the constraint to stud! a particular author need not preclude study of other writers. or prevent analysis of the circumstances in which books are generally produced. The English class should always be an obvious place for the examination of sexist. discriminatory uses of language. and a variety of wavs of discussing set texts can ensure that authoritahan. boy-dominated procedures of classroom interaction do not prevail. The whole concept of what constitutes ‘literature’. and why, can be made a profitable subject of
Writing on the Wall: Bepinning or End of a Girl’s Career? investigation and allow the introduction of noncanonized texts, including those produced by pupils. Teachers of all subjects should reahse that one advantage of a mixed class is that it is bound to contain some able girl writers, who can be set more challenging collaborative tasks. or be freed from routine ‘exercises’ to work as editors or advisors with less advanced pupils. not on the basis of their sex (as ‘helpful’ girls) but because of their competence and growing professionalism in writing. Self-assessment practices are also feasible for pupils of varying levels of ability and can lead to profitable discussion of real strengths and weaknesses as pupils perceive these. The out of class reading interests of pupils in secondary school deserves more attention, as here too our research has picked up information about strong sex typing of interests (DES. 1982 a et seq.): boys’ disinclination to produce extended pieces of writing may be traced to their habitual lack of interest in reading any. while girls. whose option choices preclude the study of technical or politically oriented domains, may have iittle general acquaintance with the written literature associated with those fields. Researchers continue to address the matter of girls’ uptake of scientific courses; we continue to see attempts to improve boys’ language performance. It would undoubtedly be to many pupils advantage if a greater connection could be made between what are at the moment discrete areas of school study. but beyond that there is an equally pressing need for the skills of writing as developed and practised in schools to be evaluated in real-world terms. Being good at writing. the fate of at least half the school population. should afford more career choices than those bounded by helping others to put pen to paper.
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573
Patricia. 1979. Assessmenr,
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in
a
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DES.
1984a. Language
performance
in schools.
1982
Primary Survev Report HMSO.
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1985a. Language
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Marland, Michael. 1983~. Towards a programme of action. In Marland. ed.. 1983. McRobbie. Angela and Trisha McCabe. 1982. Feminism for Girls. an Adventure Story. Routledge and Kegan Paul. London. Megarry. Jackquetta. 1984. Introduction: sex, gender and education. In Acker, er al., 1984. Miller. Ruth. 1981. Equal Opporruniries, A Careers Guide. Penguin. Harmondswotth. Moers. Ellen. 1978. Lirerar? Women. The Women’s Press. London. National Union of Teachers in association with the Equal Opportunities Commission. 1980. Promorion and rhe Woman Teacher. London. Pringle. Maggie. 1984 Offspring of the Female Eunoch. The Guardian, 25.2.84.
Rose. Joy. 1983. English. In Whyld, ed., 1983. Russ, Joanna. 1984. How IO Suppress Women’s Wriring. The Women’s Press. London.
Serbin. Lisa A. 1983.The Hidden Curriculum: academic consequence of teacher expectations. In Marland. ed.. 1983. Spender, Dale. 1980. Man-made Language. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. Stanworth, Michelle. 1983. Gender and Schooling. Hutchinson in association with the Explorations in Feminism Collective, London. Steedman. Carol. 1982. The Tidy House. LitlIe Girls’ Writing. Virago, London. ’ Sutherland, Margaret B. 1983. Anxiety, aspirations and the hidden curriculum. In Marland, ed., 1983. Thornton, Geoffrey. 1980. Teachina Wriring: The Developmew of Wrinen Language Ski&. Edward Arnold, London. West Midlands Examinations Board. 1979. ReDor! of. , Examiners.
Widdowson, Peter, ed. 1982. Re-reading English. Methuen, London. Whyld, Janie. ed. 1983. Sextim in rhe Secondary Curriculum. Harper and Row, London.