Gender roles more strongly policed at all-girl schools. More evidence that the feminist concept of patriarchy is wrong.

dejour · 2013-12-12T14:23:10+00:00

The study shows that all-girls schools put more pressure on girls to "behave like a girl".

The feminist conception of patriarchy is that gender roles are mostly imposed by men, and mostly for the benefit of men.

This model would predict that girls left to their own devices, would break down gender roles. At the very least, they'd impose less rigid gender roles than what boys would impose. But this study shows the opposite, and that's hard to explain.

I view it as confirmatory evidence for the theory that men and women are equally likely to impose gender roles on others.

2013-12-12T16:43:40+00:00

I have 2 daughters that go to or went all girls schools. I can confirm the research findings. For the past week they have been decorating the classroom. It is quite bitchy and they all wear makeup everyday. It is extremely feminine. The altimate insult is to call somone a lesbian.

CosmicKeys · 2013-12-13T06:54:09+00:00

More evidence that the feminist concept of patriarchy is wrong.

I'm kind of on the fence.

On one hand, there are women's only colleges. Kind of a strange outlier to this discussion though because they are normally (afaik) liberal arts colleges and hence not going to be full of women promoting traditional views of men and women. And yes, I very much agree that it's a vital point that women enforce gender roles as much as men.

On the other hand, we're talking about single sex schools vs. co-ed. Feminist theory has always been pressuring public schools to be co-ed and that single sex schools promote the gender binary, exactly as this study says. Here for example, read this slate article:

Feminists tend to be of two minds about single-sex schooling. One group thinks single-sex classes are wonderful (for girls) because they provide a protected environment in which girls can learn without playing dumb to attract boys, focusing on their appearance, being distracted by (hetero)sexual attraction to classmates, dealing with male classmates’ sexist behavior, or competing with males for leadership opportunities. (This camp tends to be more ambivalent about single-sex schooling for boys, given that elite all-male academies were formerly bastions of privilege.) Such advocates rattle off an impressive list of female leaders, including Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, who attended all-female high schools or colleges.

Another group of feminists views single-sex environments as harmful because they provide an artificial world in which gender differences are reified as legitimate bases for disparate treatment, and males and females are both left unprepared to negotiate egalitarian relationships. This group points to the impressive educational gains made by women since the 1972 passage of Title IX, which outlawed sex discrimination in federally funded schools. As proof of coeducational schooling’s merits, they note that women have since advanced to the point where they now make up 57 percent of college students, 44 percent of college math majors, and 47 percent of medical students, among many other accomplishments.

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/10/the_single_sex_school_myth_an_overwhelming_body_of_research_show.html

So I'm agreed that the strength of gender enforcement by girls reinforces MRAs conceptions about gender relations. Feminists seem to have always been arguing about this for a long time though.

talkingpiano · 2013-12-12T15:53:49+00:00

Girls at both single-sex and mixed-sex schools were given the same questionnaire. When the results were tallied, researchers found that the students at all-girls schools were much more likely to answer ‘yes’ to questions such as “most kids would think it is weird if I did something that boys like to do” or “kids in my class don’t like girls who act like boys.”

At the same time, however, when girls had no boys in their class, they were much less likely to report overt instances of bullying or name-calling, answering “no” to questions such as “others treat me badly.”

In other words, girls force gender roles on other girls and boys are nasty bullies.

whatwatwhutwut · 2013-12-12T16:37:47+00:00

I think you've jumped to some conclusions that aren't particularly evident. What this study has shown is that gender roles are more strongly-policed at all-girl schools in Colombia. The study did not assert how or why this is the case. You're drawing conclusions from the study for which the study wasn't designed. Additionally, there are any number of potential confounding variables that could account for the results, up to and including the stronger Colombian cultural emphasis on gender roles. Even the article cites machismo:

The location was incidental, said Mr. Bukowski, but the study noted the “advantages” studying in a region in which gender roles are so much starker.

The researchers credited this to a “stronger emphasis on machismo among Latin American men compared with men from North America and Europe.” Colombian single-sex schools are also more common, leading to a wider sample size.

If the country at large is very much into policing gender roles, then members of that gender would presumably be better at policing behaviour.

Whether or not patriarchy is a fabrication, this is not evidence in support of its non-existence.

humanityisavirus · 2013-12-12T18:13:28+00:00

If feminists had to admit that not all their problems are a result of 'teh evil menz' they would probably have a mental breakdown and eat their arms.

HalfwySandwch · 2013-12-12T13:59:22+00:00

You've asserted something, but haven't argued why. So how is this evidence that the feminist concept of patriarchy is wrong?

TheIdesOfLight · 2013-12-12T16:36:56+00:00

Gender roles more strongly policed at all-girl schools. More evidence that the feminist concept of patriarchy is wrong.

....Nope. That's evidence that the Feminist concept of patriarchy is right. Please learn what "patriarchy" means before you strain your little heart out trying to invalidate it.

This shit's weak as hell.

kinderdemon · 2013-12-12T20:17:11+00:00

You are an idiot/misinformed if you think the patriarchy exempts women from training and participation in the patriarchy

Title	Gender roles more strongly policed at all-girl schools. More evidence that the feminist concept of patriarchy is wrong.
Author	dejour
Upvotes	39
Comments	47
Date	December 12, 2013 1:50 PM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1sps2i/gender_roles_more_strongly_policed_at_allgirl/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/gender-roles-more-strongly-policed-at-all-girl.1156346 https://theredarchive.com/post/1156346

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