Education - gender identities

• What are outside school factors that influence subject choice?

  primary socialisation

  career aspirations
• what are inside school factors that influence subject choice?

  • Gendered subject image
  • peer pressure
• what are inside school factors influencing gender indentities?

  • verbal abuse
  • male gaze
  • male peer groups
  • female peer groups/symbolic capital
  • teachers, discipline + uniform
• who argues that toys played with influence subject choice?

  Kelly
• primary socialisation

  • males tend to play with construction toys (meccano) which generates an early interest in scientific based subjects
  • girls play in a caring and communicative way with dolls and so develop language based subjects
  • CP: deterministic - not all boys and girls play like this - increasing girls play with lego
  • ladybird books reinforce gendered stereotypes
  • CP: more recent books are less stereotyped
  • Murphy + Elwood - evidence today of bedroom culture
• career aspirations

  • female careers mainly concentrated in the service sector + males in the primary sector - shapes subjects that the genders do especially when selecting vocational courses
  • females opt for subjects such as health and social care and males construction
  • Fuller - WC girls had limited aspirations to enter jobs such as childcare or hair and beauty - reinforced by schools as they allocated work experience based on class and gender
• gendered subject image

  • science and technology has a masculine image - male gender domain - lowers female participation and interest
  • Kelly:
  • fewer science teachers are female - lack of positive female role model
  • male students dominate lessons
  • teachers explain scientific terms using examples mainly males will identify with
  • CP: science and technology has become less male dominated with introduction of GIST and WISE
• peer pressure

  • students can face extreme pressure to conform to gender stereotypes
  • Paechter - sport is often seen as male dominated and girls will be seen as unfeminine if they opt for it
  • because of concerns of masculinity boys are often are reluctant to opt for biology and dance as they are not part of their gender domain
  • absence of peer pressure from the opposite sex may explain why single sex schools there is less gendered division in subject choice - Leonard - this shows that genderisation is a social construct
• verbal abuse

  • terms such as 'gay' are used to police gender and sexual identities
  • boys name call girls if they do not dress in a feminine way and boys are labelled gay if they show an interest in fashion or art
• male peer groups

  • male peer groups use verbal abuse to reinforce their definitions of masculinity
  • Willis - study of anti-school subcultures found the lads accuse boys who wanted to do well in school as being gay or effeminate
  • Mac and Ghail - WC anti-school macho lads labelled WC boys who worked hard as 'dickhead achievers' to reinforce their class based masculine identities
• male gaze

  • type of social control where males frequently look women up and down, seeing them as sexual objects and making judgements about their physical appearance
  • this is done to maintain their dominant heterosexual masculinity - not to do so runs risk of being called 'gay'
• Symbolic capital


  Capital gained from social recognition and prestige within a group
• WC girls gaining symbolic capital from female peers


  • Investing in a subculture of hyper-heterosexual feminine identity
  • Dressing in a glamorous or 'sexy' way
  • Having a boyfriend
  • Talking loudly
• Gaining symbolic capital through having a boyfriend


  1. Peers police this identity

  2. Failure to conform risks bullying and rejection
• Girls wanting to do well at school

  • Get a 'boffin' identity and are excluded from other girls
  • Seek achievement through 'asexual identity'
  • Gain symbolic capital from school
• Gaining symbolic capital through having a boyfriend is risky as gender identities may be shamed if they are too competitive (slut) or not competitive enough (frigid)
• teachers, discipline and uniform

  • teachers tease of tell boys off for behaving like girls or getting lower test scores and ignore boys sexual abuse of girls - reinforces dominant definitions of gender identity
  • girls are expected to wear skirts + blouses and boys trousers and ties