ERIC Number: EJ1169778
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Jan
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1947-5578
EISSN: N/A
A Feminist Perspective on the School-to-Labor Pipeline
Hextrum, Kirsten
Berkeley Review of Education, v5 n1 p89-112 Jan 2014
Today, women across race and class categories graduate high school and college at higher rates than men (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). According to Marxist reproduction theories, schools maintain social hierarchies by academically rewarding the elite. Yet, despite educational gains, women remain materially and symbolically unequal, proving to be exceptions to reproduction frameworks (Fraser, 2009). This paper examines females' anomalous success through a feminist poststructuralist lens (Weedon, 1987). It critiques Marxist and feminist approaches to educational inequality for narrowly defining academic achievement and missing the effects of gender reproduction in schools. It presents an alternative understanding of academic success, one that incorporates gender performance, by examining how the discourse of "separate spheres" informs the dialectical relationship between schools and labor. By reviewing the theoretical, empirical, and historical accounts of schools and the labor market, the paper concludes that academically successful women perform and help reproduce a narrow version of White femininity.
Descriptors: Females, Womens Education, Feminism, Graduation Rate, Gender Differences, Social Influences, Social Bias, Gender Bias, Equal Education, Academic Achievement, Success, Whites, Racial Factors, Postmodernism, Power Structure, School Role, Social Systems, Curriculum, Classroom Environment, Teacher Student Relationship, Playgrounds, Grading
Berkeley Graduate School of Education, University of California, 5648 Tolman Hall, Berkeley, CA 94702. Tel: 510-328-3701; e-mail: bre_editor@berkeley.edu; Web site: http://www.berkeleyreviewofeducation.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A