Gender and identity Flashcards
What is symbolic capital?
Resources available to an individual on the basis of honour, prestige or recognition and serves as value that one holds within a culture.
What did Archer argue about symbolic capital?
Reason for class differences amongst girls achievement is conflict between WC girls feminine identities and the value and ethos of the school.
By performing their WC identities the girls gained symbolic capital from their peers.
This brought conflict with the school preventing them from acquiring educational capital and economic capital.
Strategies girls followed for creating a valued sense of self
Hyper heterosexual feminine identity
Having a boyfriend
Being loud
What is hyper heterosexual feminine identities
Many girls invested time effort and money into constructing desirable and glamorous feminine identities
Gained status and avoided them being ridiculed or called a tramp for wearing wrong brands
Brough conflict with school
Led to school othering the girls, incapable of success (symbolic violence)
School viewed ideal female pupil as a desexualised, middle class one that excludes many working class.
What are boyfriends in context of symbolic capital?
Brings symbolic capital
Got in the way of school work and lowered girls aspirations
When gaining boyfriend lost interest in going to university, studying masculine studies and gaining a professional career.
Girls wanted to settle down, have children and work feminine, working class jobs like childcare.
What is being loud in the context of symbolic capital?
Some girls adopted ‘loud’ feminine identities leading to being outspoken, independent and assertive
Some also acted dumb
Fails to conform to the schools stereotype of the ideal pupil
Brought about conflict with teachers who interpreted their behaviour as aggressive rather than assertive.
What did Evans study?
21 working class sixth form girls in a school
Found that girls wanted to go to university to increase their earning power.
However rather than it being for themselves it was for their families.
Girls motivation reflected their WC feminine identities.
What does Skeggs argue?
Caring is a crucial part of the WC feminine identity which bad the girls in Evans study want to stay at home .
How is economic necessity another reason for staying at home for WC girls?
Cost and fear of debt
Living at home makes uni affordable but limits their choice of uni and value of their degree
Archer - it is often a personal preference and shows the working class habitus.
What do the DCSF argue about boys achievement?
The gender gap is because of boys poor literacy and language skills
What could be a reason for the gender gap?
Parents spend less time reading to their sons
Mother do most of reading to younger children so may mean that they see reading as a feminine activity.
What are policies that help to tackle boys and literacy?
Playing for success
The dads and sons campaign
What do Mitsos and Browne argue?
Decline in male employment opportunities since 80s (decline in industries and access to cheap labour) has led to an identity crisis.
Many boys believe that they have little prospect of getting a proper, manly job.
Undermining their motivation and self esteem, consequently giving up.
What does Sewell argue about the feminisation of education?
Boys fall behind because education has become feminised.
Schools do not nurture masculine traits such as competitiveness and leadership
Sees coursework as a massive course for gender differences. Some coursework should replaced with final exams and greater emphasis on outdoor adventure in curriculum so that we can nurture boy traits too.
What is argued about the shortage of male primary school teachers?
Presence of male teacher makes boys behave better/ work harder
This is because the culture of primary school has become feminised because they are staffed with female teachers who are unable to control boys behaviour
Male teachers are better able to impost the strict discipline boys need in order to concentrate.
What did Francis find?
2/3 of 7-8 year olds did not mind about the gender of their teachers.
Studied type of language teachers used to express emotions
. Disciplinarian discourse (masculine) teachers authority is made explicit/visible
. Liberal discourse (feminine) teacher authority is implicit
What did Read study and find?
51 primary school teachers of both genders
Most teachers favoured a masculine, disciplinarian discourse of control, disproving the argument that primary school has become feminised.
Female teachers were just as likely to use a masculine discourse to control pupils behaviour, disproving the argument that only males can provide strict classroom behaviour management.
What did Epstein study?
The way masculinity is constructed in school.
Working class boys are more likely to be harassed and labelled as sissies etc
Boys are more concerned than girls about being labelled by their peers and as a threat to boys masculinity is harsher than a threat to girls femininity.
School work is seen as feminine resulting in them rejecting school work and avoiding the risk of being labelled as ‘swots’
What does Ringrose argue?
Critics of feminism argue policies to promote girls achievement are no longer needed.
These views have contributed to a moral panic about failing boys
Reflect fear that underachieving WC boys grow up to be dangerous and threaten social stability.
Has cause a major shift in policy which is now preoccupied with raising boys achievement
What does Ringrose argue the negative effects of moral panic are/
Narrowing equal opportunities policy down to just including boys, it is now ignoring EM pupils and the WC.
By narrowing gender policy down to issue of achievement gaps, ignores the problems that girls face in schools such as sexual harassment.
