The Dynamics of Gender in Single Sex Schooling: Implications for Educational Policy

Abstract

Analyzing data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), this study compares the conformity of student gender roles attending single-sex and co-educational schools and examines the relationship between gender role conformity and bullying victimization in each educational context. This study is the first to investigate bullying in single sex schools and to use a large scale national dataset to examine student gender role conformity in schooling. Analyses of the base year 10th grade cohort of ELS:2002 reveal that both single sex and coeducational schooling are distinct contexts for student gender roles. Female students in both single sex and coeducational schools were significantly more likely to have higher average gender role conformity than male students in both single sex and coeducational schools. Gender role conforming students were significantly less likely to be bullied than gender role nonconforming students, even when controlling for whether the school is single sex or coeducational. Results also indicate that schools have dominant gender role norms, as students who differ from the average gender role conformity in their school are significantly more likely to experience bullying. Variation from a school-based gender role norm leads to a greater experience of bullying for students, and it is gender nonconforming students that are most likely to experience this increased likelihood of bullying. Despite the fact that female single sex schools are the most gender role conforming educational contexts among all four investigated in this study, gender role nonconforming girls who attend them are significantly less likely to experience bullying. Addressing the conflation of sex and gender underlying the sex-based educational policy of single sex schooling, this study argues that single sex public educational policy can be more carefully crafted with an attention to its theoretical underpinnings by taking into account the dynamics of students' gender roles. Implications for educational policy are discussed with particular emphasis on policy decisions at the district and state levels in addition to federal level policies, laws, and mandates such as Title IX and No Child Left Behind.