Berkeley Review of Education

Today, women across race and class categories graduate high school and college at higherrates than men (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). According to Marxist reproduction theories, schoolsmaintain social hierarchies by academically rewarding the elite. Yet, despite educational gains,women remain materially and symbolically unequal, proving to be exceptions to reproductionframeworks (Fraser, 2009). This paper examines females’ anomalous success through a feministpoststructuralist lens (Weedon, 1987). It critiques Marxist and feminist approaches to educationalinequality for narrowly defining academic achievement and missing the effects of genderreproduction in schools. It presents an alternative understanding of academic success, one thatincorporates gender performance, by examining how the discourse of “separate spheres” informsthe dialectical relationship between schools and labor. By reviewing the theoretical, empirical,and historical accounts of schools and the labor market, the paper concludes that academicallysuccessful women perform and help reproduce a narrow version of White femininity.