Practicing Gender: A Feminist Ethnography of an All-Girls After-School Club

• In Event: Roundtable Session 66
  In Roundtable Session: Studying Young Girls in Diverse Learning Contexts

Abstract

The institution of schooling is one of the most formative spaces in which young people learn about gender norms and expectations. This study was a year-long ethnography during which I observed an all girls after-school club. The club included 15 girls who were in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. The majority of the club’s participants were African American girls. This ethnography utilized participant observation, interviews, and document analysis. My primary research question was: How is girlness conceptualized, perpetuated, and performed in an after-school club for middle school girls? Using critical theory and feminist poststructuralism, I investigated the work that goes into creating and maintaining current binary gender formations, and how this is related to race, class, and sexuality.

Author

• Alison Happel, The University of Memphis