The fact that girls on the average seem to do better than boys at all levels of schooling has triggered off a debate on ‘feminization of schools’ as a problem in many Western countries. In this article, a competing hypothesis is proposed, namely the ‘new girl hypothesis’, relating the academic success to the change of cultural as well as psychological positions among young girls of today. The story of schooling gender is told on the basis of data from a three-generational study of girls and their mothers and grandmothers in Norway, interviewed in 1991–92, and with a follow up for the girls ten years later. This story proves to be a rather ‘messy’ one, showing both ruptures and continuities between the generations. To understand this ‘messy story’ the article explores some paradoxes in schooling gender: Firstly, the paradoxes of pedagogy wavering between gender neutrality and gender reproduction, secondly the paradox of the welfare state wavering between individualizing policy and reproductive family orientation, and finally the paradoxes of knowledge-seeking itself, which can be seen as both gendered as well as transgressing gender boundaries.
Bjerrum Nielsen, Harriet
(1998) ‘Sophie og Emile i klasseværelset’ (Sophie and Emile in the Class Room), in
Jens Bjerge
(ed.) Pædagogik — en grundbog til et fag, (Pedagogy — a Basic Reader), pp. 258–93.
København: Hans Reitzels Forlag
.
2.
Bjerrum Nielsen, Harriet
(2004) ‘
Noisy Girls; New Subjectivities and Old Gender Discourses
’, Young12(1):
9–29
.
3.
Bjerrum Nielsen, Harriet
and
Rudberg, Monica
(1987) Historien om jenter og gutter (The Story of Girls and Boys).
Oslo: Universitetsforlaget
.
4.
Bjerrum Nielsen, Harriet
and
Rudberg, Monica
(1994) Psychological Gender and ModernityOslo/Oxford: Scandinavian University Press/Oxford University Press
.
5.
Bjerrum Nielsen, Harriet
and
Rudberg, Monica
(2006) Moderne jenter — tre generationer på vei (Modern Girls — Three Generations on the Move).
Oslo: Universitetsforlaget
.
6.
Bjurman, Eva-Lis
(1993) ‘Hon skal uppfostras icke för staten utan för mannen’ (She should be brought up not for the state, but for the man), in
Kristen Drotner
and
Monica Rudberg
(eds) Dobbeltblikk på det moderne (A Double Glance at Modernity), pp. 23–44.
Oslo: Universitetsforlaget
.
7.
Borchgrevink, Tordis
(1994) ‘Høydeskrekk?’(Fear of Flying?), in
Gro Hagemann
and
Anne Krogstad
(eds) Høydeskrekk: Kvinner og offentlighet (Fear of Height: Women and Public Life), pp. 96–120.
Oslo: Ad Notam/Gyldendal
.
8.
Brock-Utne, Birgit
and
Haukaa, Runa
(1980) Kunnskap uten makt (Knowledge without Power).
Oslo: Universitetsforlaget
.
9.
Brumberg, Joan
(1997) The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls.
New York: Vintage Books
.
10.
Dimen, Muriel
(2002) ‘Deconstructing Difference: Gender, Splitting, and Transitional Space’, in
Muriel Dimen
and
Virginia Goldner
(eds) Gender in Psychoanalytic Space, pp. 41–61.
New York: Other Press
.
11.
Drotner, Kirsten
and
Rudberg, Monica
(eds) (1993) Dobbeltblikk på det moderne: Unge kvinners hverdagsliv og kultur i Norden (Looking Twice at Modernity: Everyday Life and Culture of Young Women in Nordic Countries).
Oslo: Universitetsforlaget
.
12.
Ekerwald, Hedvig
(2002) Varje mor är en dotter (Every Mother is a Daughter).
Stockholm/Stehag: Brutus Östlings Bokförlag Symposion
.
13.
Ericsson, Kjersti
(1999) ‘
Klasserommets sanne ofre — jenter eller gutter?
’ (The True Victims of the Class Room — Girls or Boys?), Kvinneforskning23(3):
70–83
.
14.
Fløgstad, Kjartan
(1994) Fimbul.
Oslo: Oktober Forlag
.
15.
Fox Keller, Evelyn
(1986) Science and Gender.
New York: Yale University Press
.
16.
Frosh, Stephen
,
Phoenix, Anne
and
Pattman, Rob
(2002) Young Masculinities.
Hampshire and New York: Palgrave
.
17.
Hjort, Katrin
(1984) Pigepædagogik? (Pedagogy of Girls?).
Købenahvn: Gyldendal
.
18.
Jensen, Karen
(1997) ‘
Studying Law — A Risky Business. A Study among Norwegian Law Students
’, Young5(1):
21–38
.
19.
Knorr Cetina, Karin
(1997) ‘
Sociality with Objects. Social Relations in Postsocial Knowledge Societies
’, Theory, Culture and Society14(4):
1–30
.
20.
Knorr Cetina, Karin
(2001) ‘Objectual Practice’, in
Theodore Schatzki
,
Karin Knorr Cetina
and
Eike von Savigny
(eds) The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, pp. 175–85.
New York and London: Routledge
.
21.
Mac an Ghaill, Martín
(1994) The Making of Men: Masculinities, Sexualities and Schooling.
Buckingham: Open University Press
.
22.
Rudberg, Monica
(1983) Dydige, sterke, lykkelige barn. Oppdragelse i borgerlig tradisjon (Virtuous, Strong, Happy Children. Ideas of Upbringing in the Bourgois Tradition).
Oslo: Universitetsforlaget
.
23.
Rudberg, Monica
(1995) ‘
Bloody Story? On Bodily Constructions in Young Girls
’, NORA—Nordic Journal of Women's Studies3(1):
32–44
.
24.
Rudberg, Monica
(2002) ‘Helga Eng — Feminist? Kvinne? (Helga Eng — Feminist, Woman?).
Gulserien: Pedagogisk Forskningsinstitutt, Universitetet i Oslo
.
25.
Rudberg, Monica
and
Bjerrum Nielsen, Harriet
(2005) ‘
Potential Spaces — Subjectivities on the Move
’, Feminism and Psychology15(2):
127–48
.
26.
Skrede, Kari
(1996) Kjønn, generation og forandring (Gender, Generation and Change) (A-notat 8).
Oslo: Oslo University, Centre for Women's studies
.
27.
Solvang, Per
(1997) ‘Alle barn er stemplet, utenom Karl, han er normal’ (All Children are Marked, but not Karl — He is Normal) URL (consulted June, 2008): http://www.melbu.vgs.no/samfunnshuset/fagprat/solvang/index.htr.
28.
Strandell, Harriet
(1983) Kvinnosocialisation och lönarbetets beydelse (Socialization of Women and the Function of Labour). Doctoral Dissertation in Sociology,
Helsinki University
.
29.
Thorne, Barrie
(1993) Gender Play: Girls and Boys in school.
Buckingham: Open University Press
.
30.
Yates, Lyn
,
McLeod, Julie
and
Arrow, Michelle
(2003) Self, School and Future. The 12 to 18 Project.
Sydney: Faculty of Education, University of Technology
.
31.
Walkerdine, Valerie
and
Lucey, Helen
(1989) Democracy in the Kitchen.
London: Virago Press
.
