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…

In this article, I explore men's educational experiences and aspirations in the context of UK policy discourses of widening participation and migration. Critiquing discourses that oversimplify gendered access to higher education, I develop an analysis of the impact of masculine subjectivities on processes of subjective construction in relation to…

The prevalence of the discourse of "successful girls" (and failing boys) in Australia and internationally has been widely documented. Against the much-vaunted lifting of barriers to opportunity for girls and women, it might reasonably be expected that their educational experiences and career paths are expressive of wider opportunities,…

This paper reports the results of a small-scale narrative study of men and women who grew up in mid-twentieth-century rural Wales, and their reminiscences regarding women and education. Although the dominant image of Wales during that era is that of a male-dominated society, all of our participants remembered influential independent women and…

Examines relationships between schooling, the economy, and employment for Maltese girls and women. Despite their abilities, girls lower their aspirations to match available jobs or do not enter the labor market. Rising educational standards and social awareness have led to Maltese females' reluctance to participate in the work force. (RLC)

Explores the relationship between education and female sex roles through both the theoretical literature about the reproduction of domesticity in the education system and through a study of mature university women students' attitudes to the role of education in their educational and occupational aspirations and opportunities. (JB)