1. Week 3: Gender Diversity
Rebecca Walker, Elise Howard, Joanne
Cooper, Alexandra Pulsford, Suzette Borg
2. Introduction
What is Sex?
“Sex Refers to a whether a person is
considered female or male based on the
type of body they have.” (Holmes)
What is Gender?
“Gender describes the ideas and practices
that constitute femininity and masculinity”
(Holmes)
THEREFORE SEX AND GENDER ARE
NOT THE SAME!
4. …That Gender is a choice, or
that gender is a role, or that
gender is a construction that
one puts on, as one puts on
clothes in the morning, that
there is a „one‟ who is prior to
this gender a one who goes to
the wardrobe of gender and
decides with deliberation
which gender it will be today.
5. Seminar Outline
Introduction to Gender
Birth and Early Years
Early Stage 1
Stage 1
Video and Class discussion
Stage 2
Stage 3
Beyond Stage 3/ Adulthood
Conclusion
6. Birth and Early Years
Gender role standards and
stereotypes
Parents influence on children‟s
gender- typed choices
Parental behaviour toward girls and
boys
7. The rituals of gender
We are not born with a gender, that is
culturally formed. There are people
and institutions that police the way we
act as a female or male, but that there
should be a domain of agency or
freedom of how we act as ourselves.
– J. Butler (2011)
8. Early Stage 1 (KINDERGARTEN)
Age 4 - 5
Decision making and personal
choices:
◦ belongings
◦ uniform
◦ stereotypical colours
Pressure to belong
9. Stage 1 (YEAR 1 & 2)
• Children are aware of their perceived
gender
• This is dominated through society
constructing the idea of gender and the
schooling environment being structured to
separate the sexes.
11. Class discussion
Do you think giving children toys that do not
adhere to their gender will effect their sexuality in
the future?
Do you agree with parents who are letting their
children decide their own gender?
12. Stage 2 (YEAR 3 & 4)
Age 7- 9
Participation in team sports
Self image
Competitiveness and masculinity
Boys Investment in Football Culture –
A.Keddie.
They wont let us play, unless you're
going out with one of them. – E.Renold
13. Stage 3 (YEAR 5 & 6)
Pressure to conform to gender roles
Failure to meet gender stereotypes
can result in bullying
Gender and sexuality become
intertwined
14. Beyond Stage 3 & Adulthood
Importance of discussing gender roles
and sexuality in Primary Education
Implementation of rules and activities
into the school and classroom
Promotion of the idea of gender
equality
15. Bickmore says-
Discussing sexuality and gender
roles with elementary students
is risky- but necessary-
because it is very important to
their personal and political lives
16. Refrencing
Bickmore, K. (1999). Why discuss sexuality in elementary school?,.Queering
Elementary Education. Geelong: Deakin University
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New
York, NY: Routledge
Butler, J. http://bigthink.com/videos/your-behaviour-creates-your-gender. (2011).
Retrieved Tuesday 5th March 2013
Casper, V. Cuffaro, H. Schultz, S. Silin, J. Wickens, E. (1998). Towards a more
thourough understanding of the world: Sexual orientation and early childhood
education. Gender in Early Childhood. London: Routeledge.
Keddie, A. (2003). Boys Investments in Football Culture: Challenging Gendered
and Homophobic Understandings. Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender
Studies. University of Southern Queensland
McInnes, D. Couch, M. (2004). Quiet Please! There‟s a Lasy on the Stage-
Boys, Gender and Sexuality Non-conformity and Class. Discourse: Studies in
the Cultural Politics of Education. Doi: 10.1080/0159630042000290937
Palotta- Chiarolli, M. (1995) Can I use the word „gay‟?. Boys in Schools. Lane
Cove: Finch Publishing.
17. Referencing
Renold, E. (2006). They wont let us play…unless you‟re going out with one of
them: girls, boys and Butlers „Heterosexual Matrix‟ in the primary years.
British Journal of Sociology of Education. Doi: 10.1080/01425690600803111
Renold, E. (2007). Primary School “Studs”: (De)Constructing Young Boys
Heterosexual Masculinities. Men and Masculinities. Doi:
10.1177/1097184X05277711
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072820144/student_viewo/chapteris
