Lazy boys and hardworking girls?

What does the evidence tell us about gender differences in homework time commitment?

Research has found that homework can have a positive effect on educational achievement and attainment. According to the EEF Toolkit, the impact of homework on learning in secondary schools is consistently positive (leading to on average five months’ additional progress). However, getting our students, and particularly the boys, to reap these benefits by not only attempting, but successfully engaging in these homework tasks, can seem like a never ending battle.

Gershenson and S. B Holt from America University, Washington DC, investigated the existence and extent of gender gaps in secondary students’ non-school study time. This has been achieved through analysing time diary data from the 2003 – 2012 waves of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) and the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS). These are two nationally representative data sets for high school students aged 15 – 19 (they contain 13,210 students in 740 schools) and allow for a range of household incomes and parental educational achievement.

On average, they found that males spend about 17 fewer homework minutes per day than females. Notably, daily gender gaps in homework time favour girls in each month throughout the academic year, suggesting that boys do not compensate for the overall gender gap by ‘out-studying’ girls at the end of the year. Apart from the very start and end of the year, when less homework is likely assigned, gender gaps of about 20 minutes a day are statistically significant in each month, or about one hour per week. The gap is largest among high-achieving students.

They found there was no evidence that the gender gap is driven by students’ participation in extracurricular activities, employment outside the home, or caring for household children. There were of course some subtle differences in socio-economic status homework gaps and a sizeable gender gap in homework time in most subsets of the population. Although it rules out many plausible explanations, it is unable to identify the causes of such gaps. So, why the homework gender gap?

Schneider, Wallsworth, and Gutin (2014) argue that gaps might arise from mothers who experience competition in the workplace subsequently encouraging their daughters to work harder in school. Indeed, the authors find that gender gaps in homework are driven by students who feel more competitive. This suggests that underlying factors such as interest and motivation are malleable. Gershenson and Holt suggest further investigation into why females, especially high-achieving and those in higher income groups, spend significantly longer on homework than similar males; as information on students’ interest, motivation and goals is a limitation of the two data sets used in the study.

Time spent on homework is unique in that it both indicates possession of certain skills and facilitates learning and the development of new skills. Furthermore, it is a marker for effort that students are likely to put toward future educational attainment. (Cavanaugh et al., 2006). In short, the rich get richer, the boys, invariably, get poorer.

Considerations for homework setting and policies:

Can we make sure homework is relevant and is only set when appropriate, making sure it has value esp for boys?
How do we model the standards expected and get to re-do if not up to standard/link to effective and helpful feedback? How do we make sure teachers show value in it too and recognise the effort?
Can we change the gender gap or do we have to accept it and work with it?

Jane Elsworth, Geography teacher and Assistant Director of Research School

3 February, 2017 —