Gender Differences and Writing

This book reports on a study which investigated gender differences in terms of boy and girls'' self- efficacy beliefs, attitudes and perceptions towards writing. One of the aims of the study was to identify factors which may adversely contribute to the negative affect and poorer performance of boys in comparison to girls in the domain of writing. The results indicated that there are some gender differences with boys displaying more negative attitudes to writing and less enjoyment of writing as a classroom activity. Gender differences were also indicated in terms of the writing genres boys and girls prefer to engage in. The most interesting finding was that whilst the students did not perceive writing to be an inherently masculine or feminie activiy, they did indicate an awareness of differential outcomes for boys'' and girls'' writing in the way that their respective preferred genres were regarded and valued both within the classroom and beyond. The idea that writing has a pedagogical and ideological bias that favours girls more than boys is therefore posed.