Constructing Adolescent Sexuality Through Schooling: Analysis on Gender Socialisation in All-girls Schools at the Secondary Level in Kerala

Abstract

This article seeks to understand the processes of gender socialisation in schools. The article endeavours to analyse the construction of normative femininity in the strict contours of schooling and to capture the response of students to it. The context of this article is the critique of the celebrated Kerala development model, suggesting that a better status for women continues to be a challenging process. The research was carried out on adolescents in two all-girls schools in Kerala, a convent private school and a government school. Qualitative research methods were used for the study. The research foregrounds how schooling continues to perpetuate the social control of girls that undercuts the efforts and aims of the curriculum. The article presents key aspects of the socialisation of female sexuality that spawns a stereotypical and rigid femininity.