Gender Roles in Primary School

Week 3: Gender Diversity

Rebecca Walker, Elise Howard, Joanne Cooper, Alexandra Pulsford, Suzette Borg

IntroductionWhat is Sex?

“Sex Refers to a whether a person is considered female or male based on the type of body they have.” (Holmes)

What is Gender?“Gender describes the ideas and practices that constitute femininity and masculinity” (Holmes)

THEREFORE SEX AND GENDER ARE NOT THE SAME!

YouTube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VqsbvG40Ww

…That Gender is a choice, or that gender is a role, or that gender is a construction that one puts on, as one puts on clothes in the morning, that there is a ‘one’ who is prior to this gender a one who goes to the wardrobe of gender and decides with deliberation which gender it will be today.

Seminar Outline

Introduction to GenderBirth and Early YearsEarly Stage 1Stage 1Video and Class discussionStage 2Stage 3Beyond Stage 3/ AdulthoodConclusion

Birth and Early YearsGender role standards and

stereotypesParents influence on children’s

gender- typed choicesParental behaviour toward girls

and boys

The rituals of gender

We are not born with a gender, that is culturally formed. There are people and institutions that police the way we act as a female or male, but that there should be a domain of agency or freedom of how we act as ourselves.

– J. Butler (2011)

Early Stage 1 (KINDERGARTEN)

Age 4 - 5

Decision making and personal choices: ◦belongings ◦uniform◦stereotypical colours

Pressure to belong

Stage 1 (YEAR 1 & 2)

• Children are aware of their perceived gender• This is dominated through society

constructing the idea of gender and the schooling environment being structured to separate the sexes.

Videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v

=srnaXW9ZgZc

Class discussionDo you think giving children toys that do

not adhere to their gender will effect their sexuality in the future?

Do you agree with parents who are letting their children decide their own gender?

Stage 2 (YEAR 3 & 4)

Age 7- 9Participation in team sportsSelf imageCompetitiveness and masculinityBoys Investment in Football

Culture – A.Keddie.

They wont let us play, unless you're going out with one of them. – E.Renold

Stage 3 (YEAR 5 & 6)

Pressure to conform to gender roles

Failure to meet gender stereotypes can result in bullying

Gender and sexuality become intertwined

Beyond Stage 3 & Adulthood

Importance of discussing gender roles and sexuality in Primary Education

Implementation of rules and activities into the school and classroom

Promotion of the idea of gender equality

Bickmore says-

Discussing sexuality and gender roles with elementary students is risky- but necessary- because it is very important to their personal and political lives

RefrencingBickmore, K. (1999). Why discuss sexuality in elementary

school?,.Queering Elementary Education. Geelong: Deakin University

Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York, NY: Routledge

Butler, J. http://bigthink.com/videos/your-behaviour-creates-your-gender. (2011). Retrieved Tuesday 5th March 2013

Casper, V. Cuffaro, H. Schultz, S. Silin, J. Wickens, E. (1998). Towards a more thourough understanding of the world: Sexual orientation and early childhood education. Gender in Early Childhood. London: Routeledge.

Keddie, A. (2003). Boys Investments in Football Culture: Challenging Gendered and Homophobic Understandings. Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies. University of Southern Queensland

McInnes, D. Couch, M. (2004). Quiet Please! There’s a Lasy on the Stage- Boys, Gender and Sexuality Non-conformity and Class. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. Doi: 10.1080/0159630042000290937

Palotta- Chiarolli, M. (1995) Can I use the word ‘gay’?. Boys in Schools. Lane Cove: Finch Publishing.

ReferencingRenold, E. (2006). They wont let us play…unless you’re going out with

one of them: girls, boys and Butlers ‘Heterosexual Matrix’ in the primary years. British Journal of Sociology of Education. Doi: 10.1080/01425690600803111

Renold, E. (2007). Primary School “Studs”: (De)Constructing Young Boys Heterosexual Masculinities. Men and Masculinities. Doi: 10.1177/1097184X05277711

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072820144/student_viewo/chapteris