No Boy Left Behind? Single-Sex Education and the Essentialist Myth of Masculinity
No Boy Left Behind? Single-Sex Education and the Essentialist Myth of Masculinity
David S. Cohen, Indiana Law Journal, Forthcoming Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1116785
In late 2006, the Department of Education changed the Title IX regulations to broaden the permissibility of single-sex education in primary and secondary schools. The changes took place in the context of a growing concern over the performance and well-being of boys in American schools. This article describes, dissects, and critically analyzes the narrative about boys, masculinity, and single-sex education that surrounded these changes . . .
The article argues that the Title IX regulatory change that allows for the expansion of single-sex schooling can actually work to further empower and entrench the essentialist myth of masculinity, thus violating its own prohibition on sex stereotyping . . .