‘Football, Fighting and F***ing’: Working-class white boys underprivileged?

[dropcap]N[/dropcap]ew data out this week shows that white, working-class boys attend university in far smaller numbers than other social groups. Only 29% continue in education post-16 and they are 50% less likely to attend university than women from the same background.

This is hugely detrimental to their own prospects, but it hurts us all as it results in a massive loss of potential productivity for our economy and contributes towards our mammoth ‘skills gap’. We must address it.

Only 29% continue in education post-16 and they are 50% less likely to attend university than women from the same background.

The Universities Minister, David Willets MP, believes that universities should apply another level of positive discrimination towards white, working-class boys in addition to the measures already in place for ethnic minority students and state school pupils in general.

He hints at reforms within the education system to improve the suitability of the environment for white, working-class boys and an increase in the flexibility of university recruitment to allow them to adopt the positive discrimination measures. Finally, he outlines a new scheme to convince parents not to be put off by the new fees structure. Only time will tell us how successful these policies will be.

Universities should apply another level of positive discrimination towards white, working-class boys

We can be sure however that there is no shortage of debate on this issue. It is one of the most popular among sociologists, yet few definitive causes have been identified. An increasingly prominent idea is that education has become highly feminised; the vast majority of primary school teachers are women and the values taught in schools and required by teachers are ones of passivity, obedience and maturity.

These often contradict the values boys are socialised into from a young age, such as activity (a focus on sports in particular) and individualism, in combination with the fact that boys mature at a later stage than girls. Such a socialisation is especially prominent in more working-class communities, where historically higher education hasn’t been required for employment.

An increasingly prominent idea is that education has become highly feminised

This explanation seems highly simplistic and stereotypical at face value; however it may help to explain why boys fall behind girls at a very early stage. In addition, an undeniable causal factor is deindustrialisation. As working-class communities in the North East, South Wales and the West Midlands among others suffered the loss of industry, they incurred long-term unemployment, falling living standards and increasing crime rates.

As people grow up in these often desolate communities, seeing only low-paid jobs available (if any at all) and facing competition from an influx of migrants more skilled than they are themselves, a palpable sense of disillusionment and resignation to a life of poverty and unemployment is present and is frequently reported in academic studies.

They incurred long-term unemployment, falling living standards and increasing crime rates.

Ultimately, I would hint at a cultural explanation for this phenomenon. The difference in cultural tastes and habits of white, working-class boys from other groups exists. Ofsted rather brutally described the culture as ‘fighting, football and f***ing’. It is a culture that rejects education as some sort of nerdy, unfashionable pursuit that only children hoodwinked by the establishment forces of parents and teachers will succumb to. It does not satisfy the immediate gratification that our society so readily promotes.

Boys do not benefit from the so-called ‘bedroom culture’ of girls, in which a more passive socialisation puts them in a social space where education is more convenient and is not such a cause of social exclusion. Speaking as someone who would place themselves within the white, working-class category, such a cultural explanation exacerbated by the unsuitable environment of the school fits with my experience; no matter how stereotypical it appears as an explanation.

Boys do not benefit from the so-called ‘bedroom culture’ of girls

To solve this, more male teachers must be recruited to change the environment in schools and the media must promote male role models outside of the usual confines of footballers and celebrities. But ultimately, a long-term cultural change is required and that will not happen overnight.