Gender has been shown to affect teacher-student interactions and expectations. Brophy and Good (1970) found that boys received more behavior criticism than did girls. Rich (1975) found that unattractive girls were blamed less frequently for a misbehavior and received more lenient recommendations for punishment than did unattractive boys.
(Allen & Eicher, 1973) found that in a school, dress that conforms to peer expectations may enhance social acceptability and opportunities for social interaction with peers. They found that friendship choice and choice for peer group membership as a function of violation of dress norms.
The courses presented in school during the time the respondent attended school conformed to gender expectations. The respondents' background in woodwork which caused her to join the woodwork course has caused the respondent to non-conform to the female gender role and conform to the male role. At first after joining the woodwork course as a female, the teacher demonstrated disapproval of being a female in a male course as demonstrated by respondents words "Teacher not happy about having a girl in the class and wasn't nice to me". The boys in class reacted similarly by implying that the respondent's was funny as quoted by the respondent "Boys were great they thought I was funny at first".
After theAfter the respondent demonstrated her skills in crafting their first wood project, the boys did not like her more and the teacher was less hard on her even though he did not accept her mentally in class. Thus the more the female respondent did not conform to the female gender role, the more dislike she gained as quoted by the respondent "Boys didn't like it when I was I was good at woodwork".
After time in the woodwork course, it was decided that the female respondent was not a typical female. The female respondent was thought more of a male rather than a female which was why she was not asked out on dating as quoted by the respondent "when I got interested in dating some of them they didn't see me in that way".
The female respondent did not conform to the female role in her school by joining the woodwork and metal work courses. As an initial reaction to this non-conformity, the course teacher demonstrated dislike and the boys in class never thought the female was funny. Later on the boys in class showed more dislike of her non-conformity to gender roles as the female demonstrated skills in woodwork. As time passed, the female respondent was more thought of as a male rather than a female which caused fewer boys to ask her out for dating.
The female respondent was further influenced by her social image as more belonging to the male group rather than female as she quoted "I was a tomboy and I never really followed the latest fashion" and "I was never a very feminine girl, often mistaken for a boy in junior years".
After the female respondent graduated from school, she started to conform towards the female gender role. The pressure from school conformation to gender roles was removed and she became more feminine as she quoted "I am a lot more feminine now than I was then".
Schools cause pressure to conform to gender roles as
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