1. Week 3: Gender Diversity
Rebecca Walker, Elise Howard, Joanne
Cooper, Alexandra Pulsford, Suzette Borg

2. Introduction
 What is Sex?
“Sex Refers to a whether a person is
considered female or male based on the
type of body they have.” (Holmes)
 What is Gender?
“Gender describes the ideas and practices
that constitute femininity and masculinity”
(Holmes)
THEREFORE SEX AND GENDER ARE
NOT THE SAME!

3. YouTube video
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
VqsbvG40Ww

4. …That Gender is a choice, or
that gender is a role, or that
gender is a construction that
one puts on, as one puts on
clothes in the morning, that
there is a „one‟ who is prior to
this gender a one who goes to
the wardrobe of gender and
decides with deliberation
which gender it will be today.

5. Seminar Outline
 Introduction to Gender
 Birth and Early Years
 Early Stage 1
 Stage 1
 Video and Class discussion
 Stage 2
 Stage 3
 Beyond Stage 3/ Adulthood
 Conclusion

6. Birth and Early Years
 Gender role standards and
stereotypes
 Parents influence on children‟s
gender- typed choices
 Parental behaviour toward girls and
boys

7. The rituals of gender
 We are not born with a gender, that is
culturally formed. There are people
and institutions that police the way we
act as a female or male, but that there
should be a domain of agency or
freedom of how we act as ourselves.
– J. Butler (2011)

8. Early Stage 1 (KINDERGARTEN)
 Age 4 - 5
 Decision making and personal
choices:
◦ belongings
◦ uniform
◦ stereotypical colours
 Pressure to belong

9. Stage 1 (YEAR 1 & 2)
• Children are aware of their perceived
gender
• This is dominated through society
constructing the idea of gender and the
schooling environment being structured to
separate the sexes.

10. Video
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srna
XW9ZgZc

11. Class discussion
 Do you think giving children toys that do not
adhere to their gender will effect their sexuality in
the future?
 Do you agree with parents who are letting their
children decide their own gender?

12. Stage 2 (YEAR 3 & 4)
 Age 7- 9
 Participation in team sports
 Self image
 Competitiveness and masculinity
 Boys Investment in Football Culture –
A.Keddie.
 They wont let us play, unless you're
going out with one of them. – E.Renold

13. Stage 3 (YEAR 5 & 6)
 Pressure to conform to gender roles
 Failure to meet gender stereotypes
can result in bullying
 Gender and sexuality become
intertwined

14. Beyond Stage 3 & Adulthood
 Importance of discussing gender roles
and sexuality in Primary Education
 Implementation of rules and activities
into the school and classroom
 Promotion of the idea of gender
equality

15. Bickmore says-
Discussing sexuality and gender
roles with elementary students
is risky- but necessary-
because it is very important to
their personal and political lives

16. Refrencing
Bickmore, K. (1999). Why discuss sexuality in elementary school?,.Queering
Elementary Education. Geelong: Deakin University
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New
York, NY: Routledge
Butler, J. http://bigthink.com/videos/your-behaviour-creates-your-gender. (2011).
Retrieved Tuesday 5th March 2013
Casper, V. Cuffaro, H. Schultz, S. Silin, J. Wickens, E. (1998). Towards a more
thourough understanding of the world: Sexual orientation and early childhood
education. Gender in Early Childhood. London: Routeledge.
Keddie, A. (2003). Boys Investments in Football Culture: Challenging Gendered
and Homophobic Understandings. Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender
Studies. University of Southern Queensland
McInnes, D. Couch, M. (2004). Quiet Please! There‟s a Lasy on the Stage-
Boys, Gender and Sexuality Non-conformity and Class. Discourse: Studies in
the Cultural Politics of Education. Doi: 10.1080/0159630042000290937
Palotta- Chiarolli, M. (1995) Can I use the word „gay‟?. Boys in Schools. Lane
Cove: Finch Publishing.

17. Referencing
Renold, E. (2006). They wont let us play…unless you‟re going out with one of
them: girls, boys and Butlers „Heterosexual Matrix‟ in the primary years.
British Journal of Sociology of Education. Doi: 10.1080/01425690600803111
Renold, E. (2007). Primary School “Studs”: (De)Constructing Young Boys
Heterosexual Masculinities. Men and Masculinities. Doi:
10.1177/1097184X05277711
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072820144/student_viewo/chapteris