Gender Roles and the Single-Sex Environment: The Effects of Single-Sex Schooling on Gender Role Attitudes and Life Plan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether or not the single-sex environment has an effect on the gender role perceptions and life paths of young women. Students were selected from two urban high schools, one all-girls and one coeducational. The schools themselves are located a short distance from each other to ensure consistency in regards to socioeconomic status. This study used a mixed methods analysis. Female students in their senior year of high school were surveyed using a gender role perception inventory (Prasad & Baron, 2009). Ten students from the original sample, five from each site, were then selected for in-depth, face-to-face interviews. Results indicate that there is little difference in gender role perception and life path between the two samples. The only exception is in the area of gender role reversal, which favors the single-sex school. As such, students from the single-sex school are more likely to indicate comfort with the inversion of conventional gender roles. In terms of life path, no significant difference between the two groups was found in terms of traditional, non-traditional, and gender-neutral career plans. Interviews with students from both sites reveal two major differences thematically. Students in the single-sex school reported that the decision to attend an all-girls school was mostly made by their parents, while students in the coeducational school reported making the decision themselves. The second difference between the two environments is that students in the single-sex school reported that they and their peers in the school feel quite comfortable acting “themselves” because of the lack of males in the environment. The students in the coeducational school corroborated that sentiment by expressing the tendency of their female peers to act differently in the presence of male peers. The results of this study do not conclusively prove that the single-sex environment is beneficial for the formation of non-traditional gender role perception and life path, with the exception of the reversal finding. The interviews, however, may indicate that the students in the single-sex environment have an advantage in terms of comfort because of the absence of their opposite sex peers. Indisputably, this study confirms that more research is needed in the area of single-sex education for females.