Expectations For Girls Research Articles

Effects of social economic status and parenting values on adolescents\u2019 expected field of study

Field of study decisions are important for children’s future life chances, as significant differences exist in terms of financial and status benefits across fields of study. We examine whether the economic or the cultural status of the parents is more influential in shaping their children’s expectations about their future field of study. We also test whether children’s expectations about field of study choices are mediated by the child-rearing values that parents hold. Results show that parental economic status increased the likelihood of adolescents expecting to opt for extrinsic rewarding fields of study. Adolescent girls, not boys, with high cultural status parents were more likely to expect to opt for intrinsically rewarding fields of study. An upbringing that is characterized by conformity increased the expectations of boys to choose an extrinsically rewarding study, while self-direction increased the expectations of girls to opt for an extrinsic field of study

“This is probably the reason why she resorted to that kind of action”: A qualitative analysis of juvenile justice workers attributions for girls’ offending

A large body of evidence suggests that within the juvenile justice system, girls fare worse than boys on several measures, including number of arrests, length of stay, and mental health outcomes while in the system. Scholarship suggests a myriad of gendered social factors that precipitate girls’ involvement in the juvenile justice system; however, less is known about how stakeholders within the juvenile justice system perceive the girls they work with or interpret their experiences. The current paper examines the attributions that juvenile justice system workers make about the reasons girls offend. In line with previous research, we identify both internal (personality, character traits) and external (situational) explanations for girls’ involvement in the juvenile justice system that correspond to gender stereotypes and expectations of girls. Furthermore, we identify structural attributions as a special subset of external attributions that take into account how larger social, economic, and historical factors shape girls’ situations and experiences and contribute to their criminal behavior. These structural attributions have implications for practitioners’ views of justice and the role of the juvenile justice system in the lives of girls. We conclude with a set of implications for practice and policy.

Nasze naymilsze siestrzyczki... czyli habitki w klasztorze Wizytek Warszawskich w XVII wieku

The sisters of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, more commonly known as Visitationists, were brought to Poland from France by Marie Louise Gonzaga (known in Poland as Ludwika Maria) in 1654. Visitationists ran a boarding school for girls and provided education for inner-city girls from less well-to-do backgrounds. In addition, the religious order for women accommodated a novitiate for young girls admitted to this religious order for women – the so-called habitki (from the habit of a member under vows), i.e. candidates for the convent. The present article provides the reader with some detailed information on the mentioned group of candidates in relation the period covering the years from the establishment of the convent to the end of the seventeenth century. Habitki’s cells were located in the part of the convent that also accommodated nuns, wore habits and participated in regular religious services and prayers with nuns. As a rule, they were usually minors up to girls of several years of age or older. They were supervised by a master-nun, appointed by Mother Superior, who took care of them, while a special rule of conduct determined their duties and responsibilities in the convent. The reasons behind a decision to send little girls to the nunnery varied. At times, still unborn babies were sacrificed to God even before delivery, a custom to be found in particular within families where children were long in coming or where successive deliveries were death experiences for parents. Girls in the convent usually had both parents, but oftentimes they were orphans, disabled, hated by their parents or came from large families. By sending a daughter to a convent parents believed that her future was somehow secured. Occasionally, by doing so they simply got rid of a crippled child that often required extra care, or cleared the situation in prospective property settlement agreements in the family. More often than not, the plans conceived by parents, or foster parents, were not in line with intentions or expectations of girls. A decision to stay within the confinement of the convent, however, was up to a candidate, who, after reaching the age of 15, was entitled to seek for admittance to the full novitiate and, at the age of 16, could take simple vows. Between 1658 and 1697, the Warsaw-based convent had 23 habitki. Only 7 of them took vows. At the time, no other religious order and convent had such a specific rule for child.

Education for an ex-role: Perceptions of schooling from the newly un-orthodox

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to demonstrate that in the burgeoning spiritual memoir literature of those leaving Ultra-Orthodoxy, scant attention is paid to the negative impact of schooling, yet it may be a significant contributing factor to the decision to leave traditional practice and community. Differing educational expectations for girls and boys—an amplified focus on modesty for females and scholarship for males—can become constricting and, ultimately, oppressive. Highlighting these inequities in other similar parochial systems or traditional but more progressive schools may shed light on how specific messaging may work counter to desired educational outcomes.

At the intersection of idealized youth and marginalized almost-adulthood: how girls negotiate young motherhood in London, Ontario

ABSTRACTThis article discusses how young mothers in London, a mid-size city in Canada, utilize a drop-in centre service while attending an alternative programme to acquire secondary school credits. The central arguments made here are informed by key concepts in the field of girlhood studies. With its attention to the interconnections between gender, age, and generation as well as other aspects of social identity, girlhood studies provides crucial insight into the lived experiences of young mothers who straddle the space between girlhood and adulthood. We interpret the experiences of the young mothers who participated in this study in light of shifting meanings and expectations of girls and girlhood in the neoliberal era. Drawing on the concept of the ideal neoliberal girl subject embodied in the ‘can do’ and ‘at risk’ girl, this paper highlights the tensions in accessing a drop-in centre, which functions as both a site of security and surveillance, for a group of young mothers receiving social services. The findings revealed how girls who are mothers struggle to live in the present to assert a legitimate maternal identity even as they are prepared for the future through neoliberal public policies and other disciplinary practices.

How Help-Seeking Expectations Are Associated with Relational and Physical Victimization among Japanese Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between help-seeking expectations and school bullying. Japanese students (N = 532; 53% boys, about 12 years-old) were asked to fill out a questionnaire including help-seeking expectations scale and bullying scale. Help-seeking expectations were composed of two kinds of expectations; responsibility expectations and accessibility expectations. Relational victimization on girls was positively associated with help-seeking in both responsibility and accessibility expectations. Higher relational victimization was associated with higher responsibility expectations for girls. For boys, there was a u-shaped relationship between relational victimization and responsibility expectations. There was a reversed u-shaped relationship between relational victimization and accessibility expectations. In sum, much more relationally victimized boys may expect their friends’ help (responsibility expectations), but their accessibility expectations may be rather pessimistic.

Teachers’ Expectations of Girls’ Classroom Performance and Behavior: Effects of Girls’ Race and Pubertal Timing

Experiencing an early pubertal transition has been shown to increase the risk for internalizing and externalizing outcomes among girls. It is less clear how the expectations of other individuals can be critical determinants of vulnerability for early developers. This study used an experimental design to examine whether the expectations of teachers might be influenced by girls’ pubertal timing (early, on-time, late) and race (Black, White). Elementary school teachers ( N = 220; Mage = 43 years; 91% female; 84% White) were randomly shown behavior vignettes consisting of drawings of girls in varying stages of pubertal development. They then rated each girl’s future academic/social functioning. Results demonstrated that teachers expected White and Black early developers to have more academic/social problems. Teachers also ascribed more academic/social problems to Black early developers relative to White early developers. The findings offer new insights into the synergistic linkages between pubertal timing and teachers’ expectations, with girls’ race accentuating this relationship.

A generational divide within the class-based production of girls in American youth soccer

By building upon earlier research on social class and soccer, the following study specifically provides insight into American, adolescent girls’ experiences with youth soccer (Swanson, ‘Complicating the “Soccer Mom”’; Swanson, ‘Soccer Fields’; Andrews, ‘Contextualizing Suburban Soccer’; and Zwick and Andrews, ‘The Suburban Soccer Field’). Driven by Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts regarding social class reproduction, I engaged in ethnographic-style conversations regarding recreational youth soccer with girls ages 11–14 and their Baby-Boom-Generation mothers in order to further understand how the American, middle-class habitus may be contributing to a particular gender-based path in youth sport (Bourdieu, Distinction). Additionally, Grossberg’s and Giroux’s literature on youth and politics of culture informed my understanding of the discrepancies between parents’ views and their children’s views on youth soccer experiences (Grossberg, ‘Cultural Studies’; Giroux, Stealing Innocence). In this paper, I recognize American involvement in youth soccer as a class-based form of childrearing as I describe parents’ expectations of girls in youth soccer. The participants’ thoughts on race, social class, gender, and today’s youth as related to their soccer experiences are provided.

“Sometimes One Does That With Blinders On”: Revisioning Care for Violent Girls

When girls use violence to discharge their rage, the first response by law enforcement and treatment providers is to stop the behaviors through control of the offender. This article examines extant juvenile justice and child welfare policies and practices that function as social control and surveillance mechanisms of girls who violate behavioral expectations and/or social norms through violent behaviors. Case studies reveal tensions between punishment and mental health and underscore compounded psychological trauma, when girls’ behaviors are considered within a psychodynamic theoretical framework that explains cognitive impairment and other traumagenic effects that challenge providers’ expectations of girls’ normative behaviors. Dynamics of vicarious trauma among staff suggest the perilous impacts of trauma upon the quality and duration of attachments that troubled workers are able to form and maintain with their clients. Instead of a policy framework of social control and top-down silos of prescriptive services (protocols like dialectical behavior therapy), responses to girls and violence as a public health problem must be grounded in developmental theory and within realities of social-cultural context.

Exploring the Contribution of Teaching and Learning Processes in the Construction of Students’ Gender Identity in Early Year Classrooms

The present study explores how gender identity construction takes place in a single gender classroom in early years. Qualitative research guided the study design which was conducted in two public sector single gender schools. The data were collected through observations of the teacher-student interaction, student-student interaction, focused group discussion, and semi-structured interviews. The study found that teaching and learning is gendered in single sex settings as gender messages are passed on to the students, who play an important role in the gender identity construction of these children. The study also indicated that the teachers’ personal experiences greatly affect their perceptions regarding gender identities. There was also evidence of teachers having different expectations for girls and boys. Schools were hence found promoting stereotypes regarding gender roles and responsibilities in a social context.

Surrendering expectations of the girl in Julia Leigh's Sleeping Beauty

Following a screening of Julia Leigh's Sleeping Beauty (2011) at the Sydney Film Festival in 2011, I was surprised by the antagonism in questioners' responses to the main character Lucy which appeared to reify the ‘girl’ within conventional expectations of feminine behaviour. Lucy is a young university student who, as one of many part-time jobs, is voluntarily drugged so as to sleep naked and peacefully in bed with older men who may do with her as they wish, so long as they do not penetrate her. Identifying Lucy as ‘girl’ highlights both the space of liminality in which she exists and the desire for her to transition through this stage of her life to become a responsible woman. I examine the expectations of girls produced in the media and society and the contradictions they entail, the vulnerability that Lucy's employment as a sleeping beauty represents, and the ways in which the character encourages viewers to rethink what constitutes passivity. I argue that Sleeping Beauty highlights the importance of placing aside such expectations and accepting the challenge of confused and imperfect representations. Indeed, surrendering such expectations enables recognition of the heteronormative constraints that structure society.

Navigating Gender Expectations for Girls in Coeducational Physical Education

In today's society, it is almost impossible to turn on the television, open a magazine, or surf the Internet without being exposed to cultural representations of femininity. Young women are constan...

Boarding School Fictions: schoolgirls' own communities of learning

This article explores the fictional world of the schoolgirl annual in the interwar period and the significance of the imagined girls'-only spaces for their intended readership. The article takes the year 1929, the year of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, and focuses on two annuals designed for the 12–15 market: School Friend and Schoolgirls' Own. The annual compendium of stories, a very British invention, drew on characters whose adventures were followed in the weekly schoolgirl comics and was published at Christmas, a time when there was little personal space available as families gathered together. The imaginary world of boarding schools such as Cliff House or Morcove offered readers an escape from the hierarchy of family life and expectations of girls' participation in the home. Using the background of Woolf's feminist polemic and a framework informed by the theoretical framing of space by feminist geographer Linda McDowell, the article teases out the meaning of the multilayered nature of stories created by men with no experience of single-sex girls' school, writing as women.

Why George? Hagiographic Elements in Matute’s Primera memoria

Since its publication in 1960, Ana Maria Matute’s novel, Primera memoria, has earned substantial amounts of scholarship and a place in the canon as it pertains to Spanish Peninsular literature of the twentieth century. Its continued relevance has much to do with its discursive and thematic richness, fruitfully explored by readers. Primera memoria takes place on the island of Mallorca during the first months of the Spanish Civil War. Among other topics, its fourteen-year-old narrator, Matia, alludes to class tensions, youthful rivalries, feelings of estrangement, her love of fairy tales, mysterious adults, the conversos known as chuetas, expectations for girls, and unsettling violence. Studies of the text have examined it principally as a bildungsroman and a political allegory, centering on aspects such as Biblical motifs, symbols, archetypes, myths, female adolescent development and so on. One prominent element, however, has not received sustained attention—the legend of St. George, both as set forth in medieval hagiography and as manifested in folk customs. The present article seeks to pursue this line of inquiry: in view of the enigmatic character named Jorge de Son Mayor and the repeated references to San Jorge at the local church: how does parsing the saint’s tradition inflect and enrich our readings of Matute’s book? In other words, why George?

Playing with Gender: Girls, Dolls, and Adult Ideals in the Roman World

This study examines the socio-cultural significance of dolls as Roman girls' toys. It focuses on a sample of ivory, bone, and cloth dolls, many of which have ornate hairstyles, molded breasts and, in some cases, delineated genitalia. As the only explicitly gendered toys from the Roman world, these constitute unique bodies of evidence for exploring questions of socialization and identity formation, and assessing ancient ideals. Often treated as relatively straightforward objects that prepared girls for futures as wives and mothers, this study argues instead that they were more complex and conveyed mixed messages to their young owners. By isolating three specific features of the dolls (an emphasis on adornment, capacity for movement, and resemblance to imperial figures), situating these in their historical and ideological milieux, and linking them with expectations for girls known from literary sources, the dolls' multivalence as artifacts of gender and status is revealed.

Changing Perspectives: Exploring a pedagogy to examine other perspectives about stem cell research

This study explores how teachers developed and critically evaluated a range of teaching strategies that could support the discussion of a socio-scientific issue (SSI) that had the potential to be controversial. The issue was stem cell research and six New Zealand teachers of senior biology students (grades 12/13) took part in an action research project that was situational, collaborative and self-evaluative. The focus of the research was to identify communication barriers that interfered with classroom discussion and how teachers could help students cross cultural borders when they discussed SSIs that were outside their life worlds. The barriers to communication were access to relevant science knowledge, religion, language, an inability to question issues and cultural expectations of girls. Teachers trialled and adapted two discussion strategies, ‘Drawing the Line’ and ‘Diamond Ranking’ that provided a vehicle for their students to explore and discuss this issue from a range of perspectives. These discussion strategies enabled their students to take part in a dialogue where reciprocal conversation could occur because they had opportunities not only to explore their own perspectives but also other people's viewpoints.

Girls’ Socio-Economic Rights in South Africa

This article explores girls’ socio-economic rights fulfilment in South Africa. After setting out the international law context, the article turns to the lived reality of girls in this country through an examination of their rights to healthcare services, nutrition, social services and security, and shelter. The research indicates that whilst girls are babies and young children they enjoy relatively equal access with their male counterparts to socio-economic services made available to children by the state. However, during pre-puberty and adolescence girls face barriers in accessing their socio-economic rights. The challenges are linked to girls’ biological and economic vulnerability, the relationships of power and difficulties in the negotiation of sexual relationships, lack of access to reproductive health rights, and the expectations of girls being caregivers. The article concludes with a consideration of how solutions might be developed, together with girls, to assist them in the achievement of their socio-economic rights. It further recognises that girls belong to the broader groups of both women and children, and that solutions should reflect a relational approach to rights.

D’une approche nosographique catégorielle à une approche dimensionnelle des troubles mentaux : intérêt de la différenciation sexuelle

A strong prevalence of females or males is often found in mental disorders. Based on examples of anorexia (90% females) and autistic disorder (80 to 90% males), arguments that allow a better understanding of these different sex ratios are presented. The role of certain sociocultural factors in the onset of anorexia is developed. The predominance of males in autistic disorder has led to genetic and hormone-based biological hypotheses. However, it is also possible that the cultural representation of sex roles and its effects (expectation, different attitudes and behaviors depending on the child's gender) influence the development of social interaction and communication domains which are impaired in autistic disorder. Indeed, according to most studies, parents solicit and stimulate more social interaction and communication (eye contact specially during the first months of life, vocalizations then verbal language, emotional expression) in girls than in boys during the first three years of life, which corresponds to the period when autistic disorder appears. It is possible that because girls are more solicited than boys in social interaction and communication domains, during a sensitive (or critical) period of development, we may observe that girls show less autistic impairment in reciprocal social interaction and verbal or non-verbal communication, which are two of the three main domains of autistic disorder. It is also possible that impairments in social interaction and communication may be identified earlier for girls than for boys, which could lead to earlier therapeutic care for girls. Indeed, if parents have greater expectations for girls in social interaction and/or communication domains, they may worry more for their girl than for their boy with regard to developmental delay in these domains, and then may ask for professional advice earlier. This is what we have observed in our clinical practice and research, in which we conducted a follow-up in young girls showing autistic disorder aged two and half years old and who evolved positively; in contrast we have observed that parents bring their son for professional advice later, after kindergarten begins. Finally, a more complex, non-linear model is proposed in which biological genetic factors (such as sex-linked chromosomes) and/or hormonal factors (such as sex hormones) may play a role in differentiation of girls' and boys' behavior from birth. These different behaviors would induce differentiated expectations and attitudes in parents depending on the child's gender, which in turn would reinforce sex-related characteristic behaviors in the child. Thus, there may be a continuum in different behavioral domains (for example, boys would interact and communicate less than girls, and girls would express more their emotions), with mental disorders occurring at the extremes of this continuum (for example, autistic disorder for certain boys and anxiety disorder for certain girls). This hypothesis fits within an integrated psycho-biological approach that takes into account sex differences in mental disorders; it stems from a model in which a dimensional conception of mental disorders replaces a categorical nosographical one. New perspectives could be envisioned concerning the identification, follow-up and treatment of mental disorders (or sub-types of mental disorders), which are currently considered to belong to different nosographical categories, but which could overlap through shared common dimensions.

‘She doesn't shout at no girls’: pupils' perceptions of gender equity in the classroom

Based on a larger, cross phase study investigating underachieving boys, this article explores pupil's responses to a single interview question inviting pupils to articulate their perceptions of whether teachers treat boys and girls the same. The article records that the predominant perception is that teachers treat boys more negatively than girls, and that this perception increases with age. Pupils speak of teachers' expectations of boys and girls as being different, more being expected of girls both in terms of achievement and behaviour. Unsolicited, the pupils make reference to the gender of the teacher as pertinent, female teachers being perceived as less influenced by gender expectations. The article raises concerns as to the role of education in amplifying society's stereotypes rather than challenging them and aiming for a climate of gender equity in the classroom.

A Vision for Girls: Gender, Education, and the Bryn Mawr School (review)

Reviewed by: A Vision for Girls: Gender, Education, and the Bryn Mawr School Pamela L. Eddy (bio) Andrea Hamilton. A Vision for Girls: Gender, Education, and the Bryn Mawr School. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. 237 pp. Cloth: $39.95. ISBN: 0-8018-7880-2. In the tradition of research on women's colleges, historian Andrea Hamilton investigates the experience of girls at one of the first all-girls' schools. Hamilton follows the creation of Bryn Mawr School, established in Baltimore in 1885, and traces its evolution to the present. The work is set in the context of changing historical norms and expectations for the precollegiate education of girls. The publication of the book is as noteworthy as the actual content of the book. Two years prior to final publication, the author was involved in legal wrangling with Bryn Mawr over publication rights. The Johns Hopkins University Press rescinded its offer to publish under threat of lawsuit from the school. Shortly after articles appeared about Hamilton's troubles in both The Chronicle of Higher Education (Ruark, 2002) and in the Baltimore Sun (Bowler, 2002), Bryn Mawr trustees ultimately permitted the book's publication with [End Page 128] an inserted caveat that the book was not a sanctioned history and did not represent the opinions of those associated with the school. Despite the rocky road to publication, the book provides a significant missing historical perspective regarding the role of all-girl schools in American public education. The book highlights the influence of society's gendered roles and expectations regarding careers for girls and how this perspective has changed over time. At its inception, the school's founders envisioned an institution that would academically prepare girls for higher education with the same rigor with which boys were prepared. In current times, this goal may not seem significant, but at the time of Bryn Mawr's founding in 1885 the roles and options for girls were severely restricted and defined by domestic pursuits. The book is set in six stages ranging from the inception of the idea for the school and the establishment of the school in the late 1800s, to the transformation of the original vision and establishment of a new image in the early to mid-twentieth century, to the challenging of historic norms and reinvention of a new guiding paradigm in the last half of the twentieth century. The first third of the book is particularly rich in painting a portrait of the early days of the school and in providing insight into the roles of women founders and headmistresses. The original conception for the school germinated with a group of five women. Martha Carey Thomas (also president of Bryn Mawr College), Mary Elizabeth Garrett (daughter and beneficiary of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad mogul John Garrett), Mary Mackall Gwinn (daughter of a prominent Baltimore family), Elizabeth Tabor King, and Julia Rebecca Rogers. Bryn Mawr School was established to act as a feeder school for Bryn Mawr College—one of the "seven sister" women's colleges. Not only did the school allow for the education of precollegiate girls, but it also provided an opportunity for employing the early graduates of Bryn Mawr College and other colleges. This school was frame-breaking in that it was more than just an expansion of public education. Rather the founders sought to provide parity for academic pursuits for women. Ironically, as the school changed over time in response to community and parental demands, the country day-school model of the school in the 1950s in fact reified roles for women in ways that were antithetical to the intentions of the school's founders. The school went from being a trend-setter and leader in pushing the boundaries for girls to more of a follower of currently accepted practices regarding expectations for girls. Over time, the privileged status of the families using the private school established the grounds for tensions as the Bryn Mawr School sought to redefine its mission and vision for educating a more inclusive group of girls and to bridge the school with the surrounding community. Men took on an increased role in the operations of the school, in particular regarding...