Review of Strategies to Address Gender Inequalities in Scottish ...

were still highly gendered. Further, the EOC (1999) argue that mainstream systemsreinforce rather than challenge traditional patterns of gender stereotyping andsegregation. Croxford and Raffe (2005) found gender-differentiated patterns in scienceand technology from S3 in secondary education in Scotland.The EOC identified a range of factors as contributing to the continuation of genderdifferentiated patterns. These included: careers guidance; school options guidance; peerpressure; societal stereotyping; ‘washback’ into schools and colleges of employmentpatterns; parent views; and students’ own predilections. They advocate an open focus ongender alongside changes such as opening up option choices in schools.One related area in school-based vocational education is that of work experience.Mackenzie (1997) noted the impact of gender on work placements, with boys more likelyto have placements in engineering, mechanics and construction and girls in clerical andcaring occupations. Some girls seeking non-traditional placements in e.g. mechanics werenot taken seriously. Differences in the source of influence were found, with girls moreinfluenced by parents and boys by their peers, particularly in circumstances where caringplacements were regarded as ‘women’s work’. In a more recent study, Hamilton (2003)notes that parental influence in choice of work placements often reinforces traditionalchoice, although he did note that more boys were now involved in placements in primaryand pre-five establishments.2.9 ConclusionDiscussions of gender issues in the 1970s perceived girls as disadvantaged, while morerecently the focus has been on boys’ underachievement relative to girls. Similarly,‘solutions’ to gender-related disadvantage have developed from straightforwardprescriptions for organisational change through timetabling, subject choice and the wayin which the curriculum is presented, e.g. ‘girl-friendly’ science approaches, to morecomplex theories about the nature of masculinities, in particular, and their relationship toother forms of social identity. The issues are more complex than was first considered andmore strategies for addressing gender-related disadvantage are becoming available.Developing gender policies and practice requires that gender issues are considered in allaspects of school development, as well as being a specific focus pursued through discretestrategies. Such permeating approaches might be mirrored in local authority and nationaleducation initiatives. The invisibility of gender in many policy documents has beensurprising, given the highly gendered patterns of pupil experience.Also noted here has been the influence of the broader social and economic context ofschooling. Schools are sites where gender identities and relationships are formed, butthese are also shaped by other factors such as social class, ‘race’ and ethnicity. Youngpeople will have a sense of their futures and a view of the kind of men and the kind ofwomen they will (and can) become, related to their wider experience in the family and inthe community.Having discussed how gender inequalities are made manifest and some of the strategiesthat have been advocated for addressing them in schools, we turn to consider how someschools have tried to implement such strategies and the impact that they have made.The review of the literature relating to gender inequalities was intended to provide thebasis for analysing strategies in use in Scottish schools. The key elements that form thebasis of the analysis are:i. Background of the school(s) involvedii. Initial impetus and fundingiii. The implementation of the strategy/ies______________________________________________________________________________________Review of Strategies to 15 University of StrathclydeAddress Gender Inequalitiesand University of Glasgow