(Blog 7) Stephanie Webster

The chapter reading for this week examined structural and social inequalities in schooling. The chapter focused on ascribed characteristics, which are defined as “those features of individuals with which they are born, such as race, sex, and the social class of one’s family”(p.193), which are al things that people have no control over. All of these factors play a role in a person’s academic achievement, some being more influential than others.

I found the section on gender very interesting to read about. The text states that “71 percent of all women aged 25 to 44 had post-secondary education, compared to 64 percent of males in the same age range”(p.194), but that women are underrepresented in the areas of natural sciences, applied sciences, engineering and mathematics (p.194). Women tend to dominate in the area of “caring professions” including education, health and social sciences. I think we can certainly see this trend when we examine our cohort, where the majority of us are girls, particularly in the early years stream. I wonder if this is a result of biology, societies expectations, socialization or perhaps a combination of many of these factors. It is interesting know that standardized testing shows no difference in male and females abilities in math and science, but that women have lower perceived abilities in these areas (p. 194).

I went to an all girls’ school, which was a university prep school that was very focused on the areas of math and sciences. The school placed a lot of emphasis on these areas where I almost felt pressure in the opposite direction that I had to find a career in these areas to be considered successful. I went into university thinking I was going to pursue a career in the sciences; I had never considered the area of social sciences until I was out of high school and done my first year of university.

Discussion: Has anyone else, specifically the females in the class, experienced this type of pressure with regards to post-secondary education and career choices?