Gender Regimes in High Schools

Abstract

This article presents the results of an author’s study of various forms of prejudice in the sociocultural space of schools in Nizhny Novgorod. Using the mix method (questionnaire survey of 600 high school students, in-depth interviews and ‘garfi nkeling’), the author has identifi ed the two most explicit types of gender regimes in schools: liberal and conservative gender regimes that determine the structure of interaction between students, including violence. Thus, the aim of this study is to characterize these gender regimes of various groups of schoolchildren and demonstrate their key role in diff erent forms of discrimination in schools. As a theoretical basis for the work, the author uses the concept of Raewyn Connell’s gender regimes, but the regimes are examined not so much at the institutional level, but rather at the individual / group levels. The results of the research showed that the hegemonic gender regime of the modern school is conservative. It is characterized by a patriarchal model in the relationship between genders, strict prescriptions for appearance and behavior depending on the biological sex, gender polarization in the context of violence, a high level of intolerance to alternative lifestyles and identities. At the same time, students with a conservative regime have understated indicators for a number of socio-cultural characteristics. The liberal gender regime of students has diametrically opposite characteristics, being a minority, and ‘liberal’ students are at risk in the context of violence and social exclusion. The position of schoolchildren with different gender regimes at opposite poles of sociocultural space makes it possible to talk about the presence of a wide social distance in the school conditioned by the totalitarianism of the dominant gender regime, functioning on the principle of dividing the subjects into ‘we’ vs. ‘them’ and prescribing ready sets of behavior and values for young people, ignoring individual characteristics and needs.