Gender Differences in Attitudes Toward the Language Arts: Why Do They Persist?
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Date
1987-08
Authors
Stockard, Jean
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Abstract
Of all the academic subjects students study, the ones that are most often sex-typed as feminine are reading, grammar, and spelling, the "language arts." Not only do girls generally do better than boys in these subjects, they also seem to prefer them more than boys do. These differences persist from the early years of school through college, where women major in languages and literature more often than men.
While a fair amount of attention has focused on sex differences in attitudes toward mathematics, relatively little has concerned differences in attitudes toward the language arts. This paper attempts to remedy this situation by looking at sex differences in attitudes toward the language arts in a group of students from the fourth grade to ninth grade and variables that might help account for these differences. I end the paper by discussing the implications of the findings, both for scholars interested in understanding more about gender differences in attitudes toward the language arts and for teachers and other practitioners who work with students.
Description
37 pages
Keywords
Gender differences, language arts, sex-typing, attitudes, early education, education