gender identity & peer pressure

• when may peer pressure be applied?

  when others disapprove of someone's choice
• what do boys tend to opt out of

  dance & music

  -fall outside their gender domain

  -more likely to attract negative responses from peers
• Paechter


  -pupils see sport as mainly within male domain

  -girls who're 'sporty' have image contradicting conventional female stereotype

  -explain why girls more likely to opt out of sport than boys
• study in American school - DEWAR

  -male students call girls 'lesbian' & 'butch' if interested in sport
• mixed schools


  -pupils police each others subject choices

  -so boys & girls adopt appropriate gender identity
• peer pressure in single sex schools

  -students more likely to pick subjects traditional for other sex

  -absence of boys means less pressure for girls to conform to restrictive stereotypes