Gender Balance in Geography

Steve Brace, Head of Education at the Royal Geographical Society (one of our Supporter organisations) writes about gender and geography, and how having gender-balanced entry does not solve all gendered issues in a subject.

There was much written in the press in November 2019 about university level geography and whether the subject had equal appeal to both female and male students.  Lurid press headlines characterized the subject as being for ‘white, posh and dim boys’.  Such comments echoed the debate from 100 years ago, around the admittance of women as Fellows to the Royal Geographical Society, with the author of a letter to the Times declaiming that “We contest in toto, the general capability of women to contribute to scientific geographical knowledge.”

But whether expressed in the 20th or 21st Centuries such sentiments stand in stark contrast to the current experiences of geography teachers who teach a subject which has one of the best gender balance of all and appeals equally well to female and male students.  Indeed, since 2010 the subject’s growth at GCSE (rising from 27% to 40% of the annual cohort) has occurred due to growing numbers of pupils taking the subject who were previously less likely to study it.  These include Black, Asian and minority ethnic pupils, those who’d experienced disadvantage or lower prior attainment or were studying in comprehensive schools. 

Geography helps young people better understand the world’s people, places and environments.  In this way it connects the classroom to the real world and can be a subject through which young people can explore deeper issues such as how we live our lives in relation to our changing communities and environment.  The subject may sit in the GCSE EBacc ‘humanities’ option group - yet it is a subject which spans the social and physical sciences, and requires significant levels of both data skills and extended writing. 

Data from the Joint Council for Qualifications (2017)

This partly helps explain why geography has almost equal uptake of female and male students at GCSE and A Level.  In Higher Education there is now a majority of female undergraduates, growing from 47% in 2010 to 56% today.   

Data provided by the Joint Council for Qualifications for the 2019 examination cycle shows that slightly fewer female candidates studied GCSE geography with 122,353 entries, compared to 142,816 male candidates.  However, female candidates outperformed the male counterparts with 30% of female candidates achieving a grade 7/A grade or above, compared to 21% of male students.

The pattern of female candidates outperforming male candidates continued at A Level.  However, at this stage we also now see more young women (17,824) studying geography compared to young men (17,136).

However, despite the subject fitting comfortably in the middle of the subject tables for gender disparities there are still issues that the subject is conscious of and seeking to address. 

For example, some geography teachers have reported that access to taking part in fieldwork – a required element of GCSE and A Level geography – may vary across female and male students.   The question of how inclusive geographical fieldwork is of the different genders has been explored within Higher Education (e.g. Maguire 1998, and Maddrell, Strauss and Thomas 2016) and deserves more attention in the school context.   

In addition, there is some evidence that young women are slightly more likely to progress onto an undergraduate degree with an emphasis on human, rather than physical, geography.  Standing back from geography there is much wider encouragement for young women to consider further study in STEM subjects and within Higher Education geography was recognised as a ‘part-STEM’ subject in 2010.  With this in mind, there is potential for more work across the geographical community to present the subject an appropriate choice for female students who may wish to continue their studies within a subject with significant STEM opportunities. 

Geography may certainly be heading on a correct bearing.  Though there is still more to do to ensure that the benefits of studying geography can be fully realized by all young people. So I would encourage geography teachers to become involved with the Gender Action School Awards so that geography can play its part to help ensure that there are more young people reaching their full potential.

If you want to learn more about gender inequality and geography, check out these resources and podcast from the RGS: https://www.rgs.org/schools/teaching-resources/gender-inequality-and-women-in-geography/

 You can follow Steve Brace on Twitter at @stevebracegeog

Further reading:

Gender Differences in Attitudes to Undergraduate Fieldwork   Sarah Maguire (1998)

Mind the gap: Gender disparities still to be addressed in UK Higher Education geography  Maddrell, A; Strauss, K; Thomas, NJ; et al. (2016)