Girls Identity,class And Achivement Flashcards
What does Diane reay argue?
Many working class girls continue to have gender stereotype aspirations for marriage and children and expect to go into traditional low women’s work. This reflects the reality of their class position and the limited opportunities available to them.
Symbolic capital and clash with school values
symbolic capital refers to the status recognition and sense of work that we are able to obtain from others. Archer found that by performing the working class identities the girl gain symbolic capital from their peers. Girls follow several strategies for creating a sense of self worth her heterosexual feminine identity having a boyfriend and being loud
What is symbolic violence?
Harm done by denying someone symbolic capital e.g. by defining their culture as worthless
What are hypersexual feminine identities?
Many girls invest considerable amounts of time money and effort into their appearance. Girls performance of this feminine identity what status from the female peer groups and avoid them being ridiculed or being different. This often bought them into conflict with the school for example for wearing jewellery teachers saw the girls preoccupation with appearance as a distraction that prevents them from engaging with education.
Boyfriends and being loud
Having a boyfriend is thought of being symbolic capital it got in the way of schoolwork and lowered girls have aspirations this included losing interest in going to university in studying masculine subjects such as science instead of these girls aspire to settle down some girls adopted loud family identities which let them to be outspoken independent and assertive, e.g. questioning teachers authority
The working class dilemma
Working class girls are faced with a dilemma either gaining symbolic capital or gaining educational capital. Some girls try to cope with this dilemma by finding themselves as goodies. This underneath self image reflects the girls struggle to achieve a sense of wealth within their education system that values their class feminine identities.
What did Sarah Evans study?
Study of 21 working class girls who attended London comprehensive school six form Evans found that participants wanted to attend universities close to home and living at home whilst studying. The girls wanted to go to university to increase their spending power, but this was not just for them but for their families as one participant stated the one thing I want to do is give something back to my family. The girls motivation reflected their working class for identity and their caring role. Many of the girls and Evan study wanted to live at home to their responsibilities economics necessity was a further reason to choose a university near to home.
