A Review of Schooling and Sex Roles, With Particular Reference to the Experience of Girls in Secondary Schools

After leaving primary school, most girls experience an ever decreasing set of possibilities so that they gradually become channelled into the traditional female occupations of teaching, nursing, catering, office work, retailing or hairdressing. The secondary years of schooling would appear to be crucial in defining a girl's future, since this is when the selection of subjects to study is made, and decisions are taken about staying on for 'A' levels and eventually about entry for further education.The feminist propositions that our society has institutions and attitudes intentionally or unintentionally harmful to both the self concept of women and their life chances, may well include schools. On the evidence so far, there appears to be a strong possibility that in secondary schools in particular, this is the case, and that a complex web of influences is involved.