identity class and gender

• Hetero sexual femine identites

  • Many girls invest time into being desirable and glamorous
  • Girls performance of feminine identity brought status from female peer groups and avoided ridicule for wearing the wrong brand
• Girls wearing jewlerry etc.

  Brought them into conflict within schools
• Having boyfriends

  • Brought symbolic capital but got in the way of school work and lowered girls' aspirations as they lose interest in going to university
  • Instead these girls settle down and have children and work locally in childcare jobs
• Being loud

  • Some working class girls adopted loud feminine identities that often led to them being outspoken, independent and assertive
• Working class girl dilemma

  • Gaining symbolic capital from their peers by conforming to hyper hetero sexual feminine identity and having more expensive clothes
  • Gaining educational capital by rejecting their working class identity and conforming to schools' middle class notions of an ideal pupil
• Mcveigh notes the similarities in girls' and boys' achievement are far greater than the differences, especially compared with class or ethnic differences
• Connolly suggests certain combinations of gender, class, ethnicity have more effect than others