China has seen dramatic transformations in ideals of femininity since the 1970s. This article explores what it entails for young women of the only-child generation to construct "modern" womanhood within a context of multiple and conflicting gender discourses. Based on life history interviews in Beijing, the article shows that both a…

In this article our focus is on the persistent gendered divisions in educational routes of young people who choose a vocational path after compulsory education in Finland. We analyse how gendered subjectivities are constructed within the practices of educational and vocational guidance and within student cultures in the comprehensive school, as…

This article draws on data collected during a pilot study conducted in two west London schools exploring young people's understandings of success. It considers ways in which "discourses of success," as part of New Labour's project of re-inventing schooling, may shape young people's subjectivity. The article examines articulations between…