barbararead35

I am a sociologist of education, with an interdisciplinary background in history, social anthropology, and women's studies. I am currently Reader in Gender and Social Inequalities at the School of Education, University of Glasgow. My main research interests are:
gender and educational cultures (in both compulsory and post-compulsory settings), and children's and adults' peer group/friendship cultures at school and university. One aspect of my research interests is gender and students' subject choice and participation, particularly at HE, and particularly in relation to girls/women's participation in STEM. I am especially interested in the ways cultural conceptions of 'ideal' masculinity and femininity influence children's peer group hierarchies, cliques, and notions of who is un/popular amongst their peers - and how this may influence student subject choice and participation in particular disciplines.