@masterthesis{Hodulik2023,
       author = "Hodulik, Katherine",
       title =  {{Schools: The Gender Playground An Analytic Approach to How Elementary School Children Learn About Gender}},	
       type = {Bachelor's Thesis},

       howpublished = "\url{https://ir.hamilton.edu/do/71e726c7-d4ff-4662-b1c4-bc246415e63a}",
       institution = {Hamilton College},
       year = 2023,
       month = may,
       school = {Sociology},
}

Creator

Date

May 2023

Description

Sociologists emphasize that gender is a social construct so pervasive in our everyday lives that it often goes unnoticed (West and Zimmerman 1967). The two-category system ultimately perpetuates inequalities that don’t regard men and women as equals. In order to further understand how children learn about gender, ethnographic fieldwork was conducted at Hillside Elementary School in a first-grade and a fifth-grade class for three weeks. Results indicate that the formal class curriculum, behavioral sanctions, and the activities that students participate in all perpetuated the gender regime and made the rigid categorical differences of "boys” and "girls” salient in the classroom. My findings mirror previous research while also providing insight into gendered dynamics in a homogenous school district. Both teachers and peers work to upkeep gender norms, and my findings demonstrate how gender remains a taken-for-granted aspect of the social world.

Type of Work

• Thesis

Institution

Hamilton College

Area of Study

• Sociology

Degree

Bachelor of Arts

Advisor

Part of Collection

Senior Theses

Rights Statement

The copyright for this work is held by its creators and Hamilton College. More information