GENDER- IDENTITY,CLASS AND GIRLS’ ACHIEVEMENT Flashcards
1-SYMBOLIC CAPITAL- who talks about it and what does it mean?
-ARCHER- the status,recognition and sense of worth that we are able to obtain from others
SYMBOLIC CAPITAL-what did ARCHER find?
Found that by performing their working class feminine identities the girls gained symbolic capital from their peers, this however clashed with school, preventing them from acquiring educational capital(qualifications) and economic capital(middle class careers)
SYMBOLIC CAPITAL- what strategies does ARCHER say girls followed for creating a sense of self
-adopting a hyper-heterosexual feminine identity
-having a boyfriend
- being loud
2-HYPER-HETEROSEXUAL FEMININE IDENTITIES- what do girls get from this identity?
Status from their female peer group and they avoided being ridiculed or called a ‘tramp for wearing the wrong brand
HYPER-HETEROSEXUAL FEMININE IDENTITIES- how does this bring girls into conflict with the school?
They were often punished for having the wrong appearance e.g too much jewellery or makeup on
- teachers saw the girls’ preoccupation with their appearance as a distraction from engaging with education
- this led to the school othering the girls defining them as not capable of educational success
-BORDIEU describes this as symbolic violence- damage done by denying someone symbolic capital
HYPER-HETEROSEXUAL FEMININE IDENTITIES- what does ARCHER say is the schools ‘ideal female pupil identity’?
De-sexualised and middle-class
2-BOYFRIENDS- how did this affect girls?
Gave them symbolic capital but got in the way of schoolwork and lowered girls’ ambitions, this included losing interest in going to uni, studying ‘masculine’ subjects like science and gaining a professional career
- instead they were interested in ‘settling down’ having children and doing ‘feminine’ jobs like childcare
3-BEING LOUD- what does this mean and how does it affect girls?
- Some WC girls adopted loud’ feminine identities that led them to be outspoken independent and assertive,mis meant questioning teacher authority - this failed to conform to the schools idea of the ideal female pupil which was passive and submissive to authority - teaches interpreted their behaviour as aggressive instead of assertive
- WORKING CLASS GIRLS’ DILEMA- what is this?
- either gaining symbolic capital from their peers by conforming to a hyper- heterosexual feminine identity or gaining educational capital by rejecting their WC identity and conforming to the schools idea of an ideal female pupil
