This question appeared on AQA A-level Sociology Paper 1 (7192/1), Education with Theory and Methods, in June 2024. It is a 10-mark “analyse” question with an item, and it combines relationships and processes within schools with gender.
In this type of question both of your points must be taken from the item. Read Item A for the two “hooks” it gives you, then develop and analyse each one.
Have a go yourself first. If you need to revise the topic, see my posts on in-school factors and gender inequality and the feminist perspective on education.
Full question including item
Item A
Pupils may be able to choose what subjects to study at GCSE and beyond. Pupils can express their identities in a variety of ways, some of which may lead to conflict.
Girls may experience problems as a result of relationships and processes in schools.
Applying material from Item A, analyse two problems girls may experience as a result of relationships and processes in schools. [10 marks]
Hints for answering this question
The item gives you two hooks:
- “Pupils may be able to choose what subjects to study at GCSE and beyond.” The problem here is subject choice: girls being steered, by school processes, towards subjects that lead to lower-paid work, and away from STEM.
- “Pupils can express their identities in a variety of ways, some of which may lead to conflict.” The problem here is conflict over girls’ identities: with teachers who see some feminine identities as inappropriate, and with peers through sexual harassment and the policing of girls’ reputations.
Three things to watch:
- The question is about problems girls experience. Don’t write about boys’ underachievement. Girls outperforming boys in exams doesn’t stop this from being a question about girls’ disadvantage, and the best answers make exactly that point.
- The problems must come from relationships and processes in schools: teachers, careers advice, peer groups, school rules. Keep socialisation at home to a supporting role.
- Name a problem in each paragraph, not just a process. “Girls choose different subjects” is a pattern; “girls are steered away from the subjects that lead to the best-paid jobs” is a problem.
AQA’s mark scheme lists sources including Archer, Askew and Ross, Connell, Epstein, Francis, Kelly, Lees, Mac an Ghaill, Sharpe, Skelton, Stanworth and Willis. You don’t need any particular one for full marks.
A possible answer
One problem is that girls may be steered towards gendered subject choices that limit their later opportunities. As Item A says, pupils may be able to choose what subjects to study at GCSE and beyond, but those choices are shaped by processes in school. Careers advice and subject counselling may channel girls towards subjects traditionally seen as feminine, such as health and social care, and away from physics, computing and engineering. Alison Kelly (1985) argued that science is constructed in schools as a masculine domain, so that girls come to see it as not for them. Teachers’ stereotypes play a part too: in a 2016 survey for Accenture, 57% of teachers admitted making subconscious stereotypes about girls and boys in relation to STEM subjects.
The effect shows up as soon as choice opens. In 2026 girls made up nearly half of GCSE physics entries but only about a quarter of A-level physics entries. This is a problem for girls because the subjects they are steered away from tend to lead to better-paid jobs, which helps explain why girls’ higher exam results have not produced equal pay: across all employees the gender pay gap was still 12.3% in 2026. Radical feminists would see this as patriarchy working through the hidden curriculum. However, liberal feminists would point out that the pattern is slowly changing (girls’ share of computing and engineering degrees has risen over the last decade), which suggests school processes can reduce the problem as well as cause it.
A second problem is that girls’ identities may bring them into conflict with teachers and peers. Item A says pupils express their identities in a variety of ways, some of which may lead to conflict. Louise Archer’s research on working-class girls found that the identities that brought them status among peers, such as a glamorous, hyper-heterosexual feminine image, or being loud and assertive, conflicted with the school’s idea of the “ideal pupil”. Teachers read these identities as a sign that girls weren’t serious about their work, which led to disciplinary conflict and low expectations.
Girls also face conflict from other pupils. Sue Lees found that girls’ reputations were policed by boys through labels such as “slag”, with no equivalent label that damaged boys. The problem has not gone away: in Ofsted’s 2021 review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges, 92% of girls said sexist name-calling happened a lot or sometimes to them or their peers, and Ofsted found that such behaviour had become so normal that many girls saw no point in reporting it. This is a problem that achievement statistics hide completely, and it suggests that schools can be hostile environments for girls even where girls do well academically. The two problems also connect: a girl who chooses a male-dominated subject such as computing may be one of only a few girls in the class, which can expose her to more of this kind of conflict.
The mark scheme
AQA marks this question out of 10: 3 marks for knowledge and understanding (AO1), 4 for application (AO2) and 3 for analysis and evaluation (AO3).
Why this answer would score well
- Both points come from the item, and each paragraph quotes it.
- Each paragraph names a problem for girls, not just a difference between girls and boys.
- Each point is analysed: the first by linking subject choice to pay and setting the radical feminist reading against the liberal one; the second by showing why achievement statistics hide the problem, and by linking the two problems together.
KT’S COMMENTARY
This question catches out students who have only revised why girls do better than boys. If your instinct is to write about boys’ laddish subcultures, stop: the question is about problems girls experience, and girls doing well in exams is the starting point, not the answer.
The subject choice hook is the easier of the two, so make sure you turn it into a problem. Say what it costs girls (lower-paid careers), not just that they choose differently.
The identity hook is where the best answers pull away. Archer and Lees give you the conflict with teachers and peers, and the Ofsted review gives you current evidence. That’s a combination most students won’t have.
Related questions
- June 2025, Q03: Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which relationships and processes within schools may lead to gender differences in educational achievement. [10 marks]
- June 2022, Q02: Outline three ways in which the education system may be seen as patriarchal. [6 marks] (answer on the feminist perspective post)
- June 2017, Q02: Outline three ways in which factors within schools may shape gender differences in subject choice. [6 marks] (marked answer on my guide to the 4 and 6 mark questions)
For every Question 03 AQA has set on Paper 1, with its item, see my guide to the 10 mark question with an item.
Sociology of Education Revision Bundle
If you like this sort of thing, then you might like my sociology of education revision notes bundle, which includes short answer exam practice questions and exemplar answers. It’s written by Karl Thompson, who taught A-level sociology for eighteen years and spent twelve as an AQA examiner, marking all three papers on the current specification.
Signposting and Related Posts
This post has been written for students sitting AQA A-level sociology Paper 1, specification 7192/1.
- Gender and subject choice
- Gender identity and education (Archer and Lees in full)
- Gender socialisation in schools (the Ofsted review in full)
- The feminist perspective on education
Please click here to return to the homepage – ReviseSociology.com
Sources
- AQA, A-level Sociology 7192/1 Paper 1, June 2024: question paper and mark scheme. AQA material is reproduced for educational purposes. Past papers are available from the AQA past paper finder.
- EngineeringUK (August 2026) A level and Scottish Highers results 2026 and Level 2 results: GCSE, VTQ and National 5 (2026), from JCQ data
- Office for National Statistics, Gender pay gap in the UK: 2026 (22 October 2026)
- Ofsted, Review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges (10 June 2021)
- Higher Education Policy Institute (16 May 2026) Subject choice shapes gender balance across UK universities
- Kelly, A. (1985) ‘The construction of masculine science’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 6(2), 133–154
- Lees, S. (1986) Losing Out: Sexuality and Adolescent Girls
- Accenture (2017) survey of 8,644 young people, parents and teachers in the UK and Ireland, carried out online in December 2016