Gendered storm and stress. Dutch educationalists on the psychology, pedagogy and education of adolescent boys and girls (1898–1925)

In this article we examine how early twentieth-century psychological theories of adolescence reshaped debates on gender and secondary education in the Netherlands between 1898 and 1925. We focus on the reception of Stanley Hall’s Adolescence (1904) and the empirical surveys of Dutch professor in psychology Gerard Heymans to analyse how developmental psychology constructed puberty as a period of gendered “storm and stress”. Drawing on pedagogical manuals and advice literature we show how Dutch educators increasingly framed adolescence as morally and psychologically distinct for boys and girls. While earlier Dutch feminist and pedagogical movements had championed coeducation, psychological constructions of sex difference contributed to a growing preference for gender-specific schooling at the secondary level. We argue that empirical psychology did not merely describe adolescent development but actively redefined educational norms, embedding gendered assumptions about morality, intellect and social roles in Dutch educational theory and practice, even as coeducation continued to expand in everyday schooling.