Gender (2)

Gender (2)

1. Identity, class & girls' achievement

   • 2013, only 40.6% of girls from poorer families achieved 5 A*-C. 67.5% others did
   • Archer
     • Conflict between W/C girls' identities and values and ethos of school
     • Uses term 'symbolic capital' to refer status and worth
     • Performing W/C girls' identities, girls gained 'symbolic capital' from peers
     • Also prevents educational success

2. Hyper-Heterosexual identities

   • Many girls- invested in constructing hyper-heterosexual identities
   • Avoided being ridiculed for wearing 'wrong brand'
   • Teachers perceived this obsession with appearance as distraction from engaging in education
   • Bourdieu defines the schools action as 'symbolic violence'
   • Girls aspired to 'settling down'- symbolic capital gained through having a boyfriend
   • Adopted loud, feminine identities
   • Even successful girls' identities- outspoken & assertive.
   • Thus W/C girls have a dilemma: symbolic capital or educational capital
   • Even successful girls differed in that they didn't see success for themselves as the criteria but rather their ability to help family
   • Showed preference for working class 'habitus

3. Moral panic about boys

   • Ringrose suggests views about 'girls having it all' & 'girl power' has contributed to this.
   • She suggests two main effects
     • Narrowing policy to 'failing boys'
     • Ignoring girls
   • Disadvantage of particular groups: looked over in favour of notion of 'failing boys'

4. Subject choice & gender identity

   • Intro of National curriculum limited choice
   • Stables and Wikely
     • Found girls & boys, where there is choice, choose differently
   • At A-level choices = more apparent
   • Vocational choices = 'gendered

5. Explanations of choice

   • Early socialisation
   • Oakley
     • 'Sex' = inborn physical differences
     • 'Gender' = learned cultural role
   • Norman notes girls & boys dress differently & given different toys. Boys- rewarded for being physical. Girls- being passive
   • Murphy & Ellwood suggest this leads to different tastes in reading