Gender and schooling : still making the difference?

This chapter analyses contemporary political responses to the perceived academic success of girls as compared with boys, and the motivations behind what they call the \u27what about the boys?\u27 lobby. It argues that the growth of this influential lobby group is emblematic of a feminist backlash in western societies. By exposing some of the theoretical problems with the construction of difference upon which the \u27boys in education\u27 case is based, the author constructs an alternative relational approach which urges that the school curriculum should encourage all students to deconstruct gender, and particularly the ways in which hegemonic masculinity is formed and shaped in our societ