Girl and boy children learn through interaction and try to develop their stages of personality. They try to develop their gender identity starting their sensorimotor stage of personality development to the formal operational stage of personality. During these stages of personality development, girls and boys learn differently to play with toys, recognize objects and symbols, and the ability to analyze objects logically in later stages. This primary learning in femininity and masculinity develops an opinion about gender differences that may not change over time. Moreover, children achieve internal motivation and try to develop and learn the role of their gender. These roles are linked as feminine and masculine are reflected by society.

Further, it is pertinent to mention here that girls’ learning and role performance are linked with obedience, shyness, care, submissiveness, household activities, and emotional attachment. Contrary to it, boys’ learning is linked with daring, outdoor activities, normality, and rough behaviour. These learning differences result in gender differentials for females and males in the public domain. Similarly, parental dealing and learning environments create differences among females and males in educational performance in examinations. In the current situation of educational performance, female students are outscoring males in educational examinations not only at schools and colleges but also at the tertiary level. The primary learning and socialization that is developed at home by parents provide space for girls. Hence, this favourable socialization to females results in their better performance in higher education. Moreover, female students are more competing with their counterparts in learning efforts and parental support as compared to the past.

Many sociologists have studied the process of gender socialization and identified differences between female and male behaviours. The process of socialization starts with birth when the family treats a child according to his or her sex in a potentially different way. The socialization of gender roles begins in delivery rooms including a blue dress for boys and a pink dress for girls. Baby enters the world that is updated with language and symbols which shapes its conception of gender stereotypes and gender roles. The language used in a family mostly centres on physical characteristics and themes for boys as agility and strength while appropriate language for girls used by a family might be daintiness, expressivity, and address affection. Such boundaries become the identity standards, and context is used to compare the self to others. The literature on gender role socialization, the mechanisms and procedures that differentiate acceptable behaviour for females and males, and the evolvement of behaviour over time. Therefore, these differences in socialization result in gender differentials in academic performance in education.

Girls and boys learn different feminine and masculine identities as per cultural theories based on gendered socialization. Moreover, society provides the lens to perform behaviour and role for each gender. Likewise, these gendered roles result in providing a clearer picture of the individual to see and analyze the social world. Furthermore, it inhabits each gender, and children perform different activities in their lives that suit their gender. The male was dominated in the past in cultural and value structural contexts. Equal space was not provided to females in the past. Moreover, the liberal feminist approach asserts that several societies in the past did not deal with females and males equally but discriminated against females. It is pretty good to develop the argument that females’ underperformance in the past was based on their early unfavourable socialization and gender identity differences that started from their homes. Moreover, their household activities and work burden of child care and familial chores were the main reasons for lagging in educational performance. Gradually, the feminist approach contributed to removing educational barriers for females. But still, the situation of female education in the developed and developing world is not similar. It is pertinent here to mention that females in the developing world are still facing barriers to access to education such as familial value system and gender identity matters.

In the early times, boys were preferred by parents and provided more space for education as compared to girls. They performed better than girls based on favourable environments and learning opportunities. However, as this space and opportunity are provided to girls in learning and education, they are performing better than boys not only at schools and colleges but also at the university level. Currently, female students are not only in competition but also outnumbering and outscoring male students in the examination at the tertiary level. Consequently, it is pertinent here to mention that the performance in the examination is not only linked with biological determinism but also with the psychological and socio-cultural domains.

Dr. Shoaib 

The writer is working as a Chairperson and Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Gujrat. He can be reached at shoaibsoc@ uog.edu.pk