GC academic literature

[Rights]

I’m wondering if anyone can offer some guidance: I’m a Master’s student (social sciences) and for my dissertation I’m thinking of looking at how gender is enacted within a particular aspect of school. My stance on gender is critical and I’m interested in this topic because, having previously been a teacher, I’ve seen how gendered expectations within education disadvantage children (girls in particular). However, my supervisor is full-on TWAW (as is, seemingly, my whole dept – aside from those who stay quiet on the matter, of which I suspect there are a few) and I feel that she is pushing me towards adopting an approach in which a 'woman' can be anyone who identifies as such. I am happy to stick to my guns on this, despite what my supervisor and colleagues might think of my views; however, I want to be able to back up the bleeding obvious my stance with research. I’m also mindful of retaining a good working relationship with my supervisor, who is generally very supportive.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some well-regarded peer-reviewed articles that might support a critical approach to gender? I obviously need to do a thorough search for these myself, but if anyone has any pointers/good places to start I’d be very grateful. I started looking at Judith Butler's early work, which seemed to support the idea of gender as a social construction, but her later work seems to contradict this so I'm a bit confused about it all!

I'm no sort of guide to academic literature and I'd first ask to clarify what is it that you are critical of and what do you mean by terms such as 'gender' which many seem to make up their own definitions for - and often use when they actually mean 'gender identity' rather than 'gender', a synonym and often preferred term for 'sex'? And what aspect of gender in school are you thinking about for your study?

I've not read Judith Butler. For some reason, the name Heather Brunskell-Evans comes to mind. I can't recall why it's stuck with me. And what about academics such as Professor Kathleen Stock who has written blogs, articles and a book on this topic? There are others such as Rosa Freeman and Selina Todd whose names are familiar in this context though I can't say what they've written. Maybe something there for you to follow up.

rather than 'gender', a synonym and often preferred term for 'sex'?

Um. Since when? If that’s what you think ‘gender’ means, then would you mind telling all the TRAs who insist that ‘gender’ is a magical inner essence and is absolutely a real thing and not just an ideological construct?

@MidsomerMurmurs

rather than 'gender', a synonym and often preferred term for 'sex'?

Um. Since when? If that’s what you think ‘gender’ means, then would you mind telling all the TRAs who insist that ‘gender’ is a magical inner essence and is absolutely a real thing and not just an ideological construct?

The TRAs mean 'gender identity'.

It depends what you are looking for here. If you need something to back up your use of ‘woman’ or ‘girl’ to mean a person of the female sex, then Kathleen Stock’s book goes through the different uses of the term gender and so could be used as a reference for that. But aside from the current gender debate there’s a large literature on women, girls and education, or feminist approaches to education. I’m not an expert in the field but I’d expect that most of that is actually about women and girls and would be relevant for your project.

There’s also a lot of feminist thinking and theory which isn’t about the gender debate which you might find useful and interesting for your project. Feminism by Deborah Cameron is a good place to start for an overview. Eg there’s a bit literature on care which might be useful for thinking about schools (depending on your topic).

So I’d say think broadly and try not to get too hung up on gender definitions (that’s what they want us to do).