Caregiving in College: Social Inclusion and the Policing of Femininity

• In Event: 2484 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 08. Higher Education 1

Abstract

Sociologists have documented inequalities in college entry and degree completion, generating debates over the extent to which higher education serves as an egalitarian force or a mechanism for reproducing existing patterns of inequality. However, there is currently little understanding of what happens inside the so-called “black box” of higher education. In particular, while signals of gender inequality in the college setting persist, we know little about how such inequality is produced and experienced. This study seeks to shed light on these phenomena by examining how students use culture to socially integrate in the college setting. In particular, this study asks how college women pursue inclusion and how gendered cultural meanings shape female students’ self-presentation in the college setting. With data from 60 in-depth interviews and a year of ethnographic fieldwork, I illuminate the ways female college students draw on culture as they become part of social groups as well as the ways their self-presentation is policed by peers. Women frequently took on a highly simplistic role as a group caregiver in order to be valued within student communities. However, many subsequently became stuck within the rigid confines of this role, unable to develop more complex or nuanced identities. Their self-presentation was monitored and maintained through a combination of positive reinforcement of expected behaviors and the application of negative sanctions for female students who stepped outside of the caregiver role.

Author

• Blake Silver, George Mason University