Postfeminist Education?: Girls and the Sexual Politics of Schooling

by Ringrose; Jessica

• ISBN13: 9780415557481
• ISBN10: 0415557488
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-08-29
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

What are the effects of post-feminist, neo-liberal politics and practices, and for which girls? Can we better understand the current gender and educational climate through making post-feminist discourses our object of critical inquiry? Contemporary post-feminist politics are grounded in assumptions that gender equity has now been achieved for girls and women in education, the workplace and the home. Discourses now promote the idea that women have total equality or have even surpassed boys and men “ at the expense of men “ and that feminism has gone too far ", is obsolete and out of touch. Using feminist post-structuralist and Foucaldian frameworks this book is a first in its explicit exploration and critique of how educational discourses have directly contributed to post-feminist notions about female power and success. Indeed, some educational research even posits as normative the new super ", alpha girls ", who have overcome all obstacles and combine feminine qualities of adaptation and learning with masculine practices of rationality and assertion to become the new successful citizens. This book explores the formation of this new ideal feminine educational subject and the core contemporary dilemma foisted upon girls to somehow balance particular versions of masculinity and femininity to be a successful girl ". Mapping how gender is constructed in international educational policy and research, the author explores how research and policy influences the globalised media and popular culture on discourses about girls. She uses a feminist critique, and applies recent feminist psychosocial approaches, to present a methodological framework to understand how girls negotiate and challenge post-feminist formations of sexism. With a focus on educational discourses as distinctly post-feminist, the book uses original research and interviews with teenage girls to explore their own perspectives and responses to post-feminist structures, looking for ways forward in the subject through an examination of how girls re-work, challenge and critique current post-feminist discourses within schools and beyond.