Reimagining gender through policy development: the case of a ‘single-sex’ educational organisation

Abstract

In 2005, a feminist educational organisation in the USA for young women, ages 14–21, adopted a policy in order to clarify their target constituency of girls and young women. The policy defined ‘girls and young women’ not as a designation associated with fixed biological sex, but instead as a self-determined identity label creating an explicit policy of inclusion to gender non-conforming students, including transgender youth, who self-identified as ‘girls’ or ‘young women’. This article traces the series of influences that prompted the development of the policy, as well as the learning curves for this feminist educational all-girls’ community, and the discussions that led to both the unanimous adoption of the policy and a subsequent larger cultural shift within the organisation. This analysis seeks to add to an understanding and exploration of policies that address the de facto exclusion of gender non-conforming, intersex, and transgender youth from gender-based educational settings.

Keywords:

• gender
• single-sex education
• transgender youth
• de facto segregation
• education policy

Notes

An institutionalised declaration of access is not the only alteration that is necessary to address systems of exclusion (e.g. representation in staffing and curriculum, etc.), or even sometimes the primary need, yet in this case it was an essential first step in the development of a more inclusive environment.

See Butler's (1990) Gender Trouble for a discussion of how binary biological sex is culturally and politically constructed.

A common misuse or misunderstanding of the term transgender is to assume it means transsexual. While some transsexuals also identify as transgender, transgender is a larger umbrella term, which includes many more gender experiences/identities.

If someone does not fit stereotypical gender expression constructions of ‘man’ or ‘woman’, they can face harassment in gender-specific bathrooms.

See intersectionality theorists such as Hill Collins (2000), Dill and Zambrana (2009), and Weber (2010).