Girls, and gender and power relationships in an urban middle school

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the practices employed by middle school girls in New York City to negotiate their postfeminist school environment and considers the contested notion of girls’ agency. Based on an exploratory ethnographic study, the data reveal that girls – to varying degrees of success – enacted a range of practices to gain power over the pervasive sexism as well as the masculine hegemonic behavior that was the norm at their school.

KEYWORDS:

• Girls
• agency
• postfeminism
• secondary school
• ethnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Susan McCullough is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Art and Museum Education program at City College, City University of New York (CUNY). Her research interests include gender equity, informal learning spaces, arts education and teacher identity.

Notes

1. The school name and the names of all individuals are pseudonyms.