gender and educational choice-making in contemporary cyprus

8/17/2019 gender and educational choice-making in contemporary Cyprus

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Gender and Education

Vol. 19, No. 1, January 2007, pp. 93–107

ISSN 0954–0253 (print)/ISSN 1360–0516 (online)/07/010093–15

Struggling between tradition and

modernity: gender and educational

choice-making in contemporary Cyprus

Marios Vryonides*University of the Aegean, GreeceTaylorandFrancisLtd CGEE_A_208726.sgm10.1080/09540250601087827GenderandEducation0954-0253(p rint)/1360-0516 (online)OriginalArti cle2007Taylor&Francis191000000January [email protected]

This article investigates the role of gender in educational choice-making for post secondary school

destinations in contemporary Cyprus. More specifically, it examines the cultural and ideological

mechanisms that produce gender differentiation in the way educational choices are made by

secondary school students and their families. Drawing on evidence from a qualitative investigation

of parents of students graduating from secondary schools it supports that the unequal patterns

observed can be partly explained by the diverse ways Cypriot parents perceive gender roles which

in turn influence their willingness to invest economic and non monetary resources to support their

children’s choices.

Introduction

Over the past three decades the numbers of female students progressing to higher

education in Cyprus1 has shown a remarkable increase. Data published by the

Department of Statistics (2003) show that currently more female students move to

higher education than male (Table 1). Moreover, recent national university entrance

examination results show that female students achieve much more highly compared

to male students2 (Phileleftheros, 2004, p. 1). It is, however, a familiar finding in soci-

ology of education that nowadays, injustices do not lie in exclusion from highereducation but are found in the unequal pattern with which choices are made in terms

of gender, social class and ethnic background (Hodkinson & Sparkes, 1997; Reay,

1998). The growing ranks of students, male and female, coming from families with

different sociocultural characteristics have different options available, resulting in

distinctly different social outcomes. In these terms, while this paper assumes that

gender is expected to play an important role in the life chances of young individuals,

*Department of Sciences in Pre-school Education and in Educational Design, University of the

Aegean, Dimokratias 1, Rhodes 85 100, Greece. Email: [email protected]


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94 M. Vryonides

the focus is on the processes and structures, which constitute the structuring of

choices that lead to these patterns. Focusing on the mechanisms that provide expla-

nations about the unequal patterns of choice-making in terms of gender3 is essential

in every society as these procedures often operate in culturally complex ways that

conceal the existence of wider social inequalities. Consequently, these unequal

patterns of educational choice-making sustain women’s position in society whereby

they lag behind men in many walks of social life such as that of paid employment

(Rees, 1992; Monk & Garcia-Ramon, 1996; Desai et al., 1999).

This paper focuses on perceptions, beliefs and attitudes of parents in relation to

their expectations for their children’s future prospects. Drawing on evidence from

interviews with a group of 28 parents who had children at the crucial stage of second-

ary school graduation and were about to make choices about where to go next, this

study explores the ways with which parents regarded their child’s sex as influencing

the particular choices made. The study of educational choice-making needs to takeinto account the overall sociocultural environment within which it occurs, as often

there are forces and dynamics there that shape frameworks or ‘horizons for social

action’ (Hodkinson, 1998, p. 558). The particular society under investigation here,

Cyprus, has often been characterized as a society that strives to define its contempo-

rary identity, struggling between ideological antagonisms and tensions that are

created by modern and traditional elements and perspectives (Green & Vryonides,

2005; Argyrou, 1996). In this social environment, issues are raised on educational

opportunities and equity when studying the actions of individuals and families in their

attempts to secure the best possible outcomes for their children. Individuals and fami-lies from different social positions make choices based on their attitudes and beliefs

relating to the way they view the whole gamut of social relations including gender

issues. The argument put forward here is that gender has a major influence in shaping

the structuring of opportunities for choice-making regarding post-secondary school

educational and occupational destinations which is significant for the changing

context of social justice in Cyprus.

This paper begins with a presentation of the situation regarding educational

choice-making and gender in contemporary Cyprus. It then moves to describe the

sociocultural environment within which educational practices, and thus educational

choice-making, occur. Then, it describes the sample interviewed and the proce-dures through which the research was carried out. Through the analysis of the data,

Table 1. Third level students per 100,000 inhabitants, 1970–2000

Year Male students Female students

1970 3035 1024

1980 3358 20551990 2930 2380

2000 3267 4055

Source: Department of Statistics and Research (2003).


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Struggling between tradition and modernity 95

an attempt is made to present the various attitudes that exist in relation to gender

and to provide explanations for the gender differentiation observed in educational

choice-making.

Gender and educational choices

It is often reported that even though, nowadays, girls seem to be doing equally well,

if not better, in school in terms of academic achievement this is not reflected in the

general position that women occupy in modern societies (Meighan & Siraj-Blatchford,

1997, pp. 316–321). There have been many explanations as to why girls tend to follow

different trajectories in education. Explanations that focus on psychological elements

such as that of abilities or personality traits are not expanded upon here, nor are

schooling processes and the different ways in which boys and girls experience educa-

tion, which many would argue are among the sources that generate unequal outcomes

in education. Rather, the focus here is on explanations that derive from the explana-

tory concept at the level of culture and the definitions that are attached to gender,

which have implications for the way different familial resources are mobilized for the

benefit of sons and daughters.

At the end of their secondary education young people are faced with different

options as to what they will do next regarding further education or training or whether

to enter the labour market. Foskett and Hemsley-Brown (2001, p. 174) cite some

recent trends in the labour market in Britain for young people as described by Roberts

(1995). Roberts argues that even though there have been changes in the labour

markets with female school leavers attaching the same importance to occupationalcareers as males, traditional gender patterns persist in employment, with males domi-

nating management and high-status professions, and women dominating lower-

status and lower-paid sectors. This is partly the product of different patterns in the

way male and female students make their choices for post secondary school educa-

tional destinations. In Cyprus according to the official statistics published by the

Department of Statistics (2003), as far as gender is concerned there are some notice-

able patterns in the higher education population. Female students focus more on

education, fine arts, humanities and law whereas male students focus on economics

and business studies, IT, medicine and engineering and technologies. These patternsin higher education have consequences in the eventual positions men and women

take up in the labour market in a fashion described by Rees (1992) and Desai et al.

(1999) for Britain and also by Monk and Garcia-Ramon (1996) for the European

Union, thus accounting for much of the picture of social injustice in relation to the

position of women in the labour market.

Part of the answer for the above should be sought in the way family based choices

are made for post secondary school destination. The empirical investigation of the

social context within which choices are made at the level of culture and the different

ideologies that are produced in relation to gender roles can offer some explanations.

In societies such as Cyprus, boys and girls have traditionally been socialized to fitgendered expectations leading men and women to different social positions that have


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96 M. Vryonides

sustained and reproduced gender inequalities. Over time, however, as a result of

general structural changes resulting from modernization processes these expectations

started to evolve towards more meritocratic trends. Consequently, these changes led

many women, over recent years, to better-paid and better-recognized positions in the

changing social structure. Overall, however, they still lag behind men in most areas of social life.

Between ideological antagonisms

In a recent article, Green and Vryonides (2005) argue that educational choice-

making in Cyprus, as with other social activities, takes place within the context of

what many characterize as a modernizing society. In a space of just three generations

Cyprus has transformed from a traditional society to a society that today exhibits

many characteristics found in developed western societies in the structure of its econ-

omy and in its social and political organization. Green and Vryonides (2005) further

argue that modernization had by no means been a linear development replicating a

simplistic and idealized model of western social, political and economic transforma-

tion. Rather, numerous features of traditional attitudes and practices are still present

among many ‘modern’ Cypriots. Part of the reason for this is that, whereas in the west

the transition to modernity, had been a cumulative process of two or three centuries

whereby ‘old habits, old patterns of authority, old relationships and old values were

challenged, disrupted and replaced’ (Shipman, 1971, p. 13),4 in Cyprus, the transi-

tion to modernity was a product of an identified, named and systematically pursued

effort by Governments. Importantly, as observed by Argyrou (1996), culturalpatterns change less quickly than political and economic phenomena. Thus, during

this rapid transition to modernity a quite complex combination of elements of both

traditional and modern perspectives in the practices of Cypriot families within and

between social classes has emerged. In this social framework, different sections of the

Cypriot society approach several social issues in distinctive ways. Argyrou (1996)

argues that, generally and as a way of establishing a distinct cultural identity, the

working classes in Cyprus tend to associate more with traditional ideas and the

middle classes with modern ones.

Gender roles often tend to be regarded differently from traditional and modernperspectives. The extent to which a person adheres to one or the other perspective has

effects on his/her attitude on issues relating to gender. On the one hand, the tradi-

tional perspective sees women as being primarily mothers, wives and supporters of the

traditional Cypriot family values of housekeeping and raising children. If women can

accommodate the above roles and at the same time contribute to the family income

it is considered to be a bonus for their family and not a primary objective on their part.

Their potential working life, in other words, should not get in the way of fulfilling

their roles of wives, mothers and child carers. In contrast, modern views advocate that

women should be regarded as individuals with the same potential and rights in the

workplace as men. According to this viewpoint, women should be considered as part-ners in a household, sharing domestic responsibilities equally with their husbands.


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98 M. Vryonides

of the data from the questionnaires an 11-point scale was normally used. In the cross

tabulation and presentation of data, however, some of the categories were merged to

create a three-point scale which included: professional middle class, intermediate

lower middle class6 and working class (hereafter PMC , LMC and WC , respectively).

For interview purposes, cases were selected following a theoretical purposivesampling strategy in order to include parents from all three social groups. In the end,

eight interviews were arranged with parents from each one group (24 in total).

Parents of male and female students were equally represented in the sample. Also, an

effort was made to have parents whose children attended all kinds of secondary

schools, public (19 cases) and private (five cases).

When contacted over the phone about the prospect of an interview in relation to

their children’s education and future plans, most parents from the PMC and LMC

groups responded positively, whereas from some WC parents there was a cautious

and in some cases reluctant response. Furthermore, when three working class fathers

were asked to take part in an interview they responded that it was difficult for them

to do so either because of their work load or because they thought that the mothers

would be more helpful as they thought that they (the mothers) were more knowledge-

able about the education and the schooling of their children. In the end, 14 fathers,

6 mothers and in 4 cases both parents, were interviewed. Even though both parents

were invited to participate in the interviews the fact that, in the end, significantly more

fathers were interviewed than mothers should be attributed to the fact that fathers

were intentionally targeted for interview. As was said above, it was thought that

fathers would be in a better position to talk about their families’ relations with the

kind of social capital networks and connections that could realize their children’sprospects; an issue that was key in the overall investigation. Interviews were tran-

scribed and then analysed trying to construct categories that would best describe the

full range of attitudes towards gender and how these, in turn, influenced children’s

educational choice-making.

Parental attitudes towards gender and educational choice-making

Contrary to Argyrou’s (1996) assertion that overall in Cyprus middle classes appear

to adhere more to modern attitudes while working classes to traditional, this was notconfirmed in the present study, at least on the particular issue of gender. Parents’

social class did not prove to be distinctive in the pattern of the answers they gave in

the interviews. Parents’ attitudes towards gender appeared to emerge in a manner

that cut across the social class divide. On the one hand, there was a group of parents

who were endorsing ‘modern’ attitudes that did not appear to differentiate children

on the grounds of their gender. On the other hand, there were parents whose ideas

were more or less ‘traditional’. These parents argued that male and female students

had to fulfil different roles in society and, as a result, their choices should reflect that.

However, often the picture was not as clear-cut as the above distinction might

suggest. In fact, not only did the degree of adherence to one position vary consider-ably, but, importantly, there were many parents who were adopting a mixed stand


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advocating for one position but in practice doing the opposite. This indicates that

often broader explanatory models are required to capture the hybrid of culturally

controversial attitudes. Next, parents’ expectations of their sons and daughters,

which connect to their attitudes and beliefs about the role of men and women in

Cypriot society, are presented. A summary of all cases can be seen at Table 2.

Expectations of parents with traditional attitudes

In general, what can be said about the parents who tended to adopt this stand is that

they clearly had different expectations for boys and girls. This was often reflected in

the ‘gendered’ manner with which choices of specialization in secondary education

had been made previously (i.e., choosing specializations that traditionally attracted

boys or girls) but also in their choices of future educational and occupational destina-

tions. Part of this, may be attributed to the fact that there was a strong belief among

them that the primary wage earner in a future family should be the man. This, on the

one hand exerted pressure on boys to make ‘pragmatic’ choices that would offer real-

istic possibilities of leading to secure employment and, on the other hand, it allowed

girls to make their choices flexibly as the prime expectation from them was to fulfil

the role of a wife/mother/woman and not necessarily to pursue studies leading to

highly desirable jobs.

Nearly half of the parents interviewed could be classified as having traditional atti-

tudes and beliefs about the role of gender in society which was reflected in the way

choices for future destinations were made. Some parents held very strong views about

it as shown in the case of Mr Paris (PMC ) , Mr Nikolaou (LMC ) and Mr Kosta(PMC ) , who expressed similar views:

Interviewer: Would you have different expectation if your child was a girl?

Mr Paris: Yes there is a differentiation in the choices of education and sector. But

it is not a rule.

Interviewer: What would you personally have done if your child was a girl?

Mr Paris: It is a matter of character I think. That if it’s a son you push him towards

your business activities. For the daughter I believe you put her on a differ-

ent level. You see her tendencies and wishes as well. You are not so

demanding of a daughter. Because, for the financial needs of a future

family we still see that the weight falls primarily on a man rather than ona woman. Anyway, a woman may contribute but the main responsibility

is in the hands of a man. That is how we still see this… so, the plans could

be different for a girl.

Similar views were expressed by Mr Nikolaou (LMC ) who expressed his belief that

men and women are expected to perform different roles in the Cypriot society:

Interviewer: Did the sex of your child play a role in the choices that you made?

Mr Nikolaou: Yes definitely. I would never send my daughter to become a civil engineer.

Interviewer: Why not?

Mr Nikolaou: Not that it is bad, but it would sound strange to me. It would be one of

the things that you rarely hear about… There is a difference between boys

and girls. For a girl it doesn’t matter if she earns £300 a month. It is


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100 M. Vryonides

T a b l e 2 . S u m m a r y o f g e n e r a l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f t h e i n t e r v i e w

c a s e s

C a s e n u m b e r

I n t e r v i e w e e ( p s e u d o n y m s

)

S t u d e n t

g e n d e r

S t u d e n t

s c h o o l

P l a n s t o s t u d y

P l a c e

o f s t u d y

1 .

M r s D i m o u , b a n k m a n a g e r

M a l e

P r i v a t e

E c o n o m i c s

B r i t a i n

2 .

M r a n d M r s Y i o r g i o u , l a w

y e r , i n t e r i o r d e s i g n e r

F e m a l e

P r i v a t e

L a w

B r i t a i n

3 .

M r P a r i s , o w n e r o f l a r g e i m p o r t s c o m p a n y

M a l e

P r i v a t e

L a w

B r i t a i n

4 .

M r K o n s t a n t i n o u , s e n i o r

s a l e s m a n a g e r

M a l e

P u b l i c

A c c o u n t a n c y

C o l l e

g e i n C y p r u s

5 .

M r F o t i o u , d o c t o r

F e m a l e

P u b l i c

E n g l i s h l i t e r a t u r e

B r i t a i n

6 .

M r L o i z o u , s e n i o r c i v i l s e

r v a n t

M a l e

P u b l i c

A p p l i e d m a t h e m a t i c s

G r e e c e

7 .

M r S i m o u , d e p u t y h e a d t e a c h e r , s e c o n d a r y s c h o o l

M a l e

P u b l i c

P r i m a r y t e a c h e r

C y p r u s

8 .

M r a n d M r s K o s t a , s e n i o r c i v i l s e r v a n t , b a n k c l e r k

F e m a l e

P u b l i c

G r e e k l i t e r a t u r e

G r e e c e

9 .

M r N i k o l a o u , f o o d s h o p o w n e r

F e m a l e

P u b l i c


C y p r u s

1 0 .

M r a n d M r s A n d r e o u , p e

t r o l s h o p o w n e r , b a n k c l e r k

F e m a l e

P u b l i c


G r e e c e

1 1 .

M r A t h o u , s a l e s m a n a g e r

i n s e m i - p u b l i c o r g a n i z a t i o n

M a l e

P r i v a t e

B u s i n e s s l a w

B r i t a i n

1 2 .

M r K o s t a k i , a s s i s t a n t a c c o u n t a n t

F e m a l e

P u b l i c

P s y c h o l o g y

U S A

1 3 .

M r a n d M r s S o t i r i o u , s e c r e t a r y i n c i v i l s e r v i c e , b a n k e m p

l o y e e

M a l e

P u b l i c

M a t h e m a t i c s

C y p r u s

1 4 .

M r s M i c h a e l , j u n i o r c i v i l

s e r v a n t

M a l e

P u b l i c

E l e c t . e n g i n e e r

G r e e c e

1 5 .

M r D a n i e l , t e c h n i c i a n i n s e m i - p u b l i c o r g a n i z a t i o n

F e m a l e

P u b l i c

S p e c i a l e d u c a t i o n

C o l l e

g e i n C y p r u s

1 6 .

M r C h r i s t o d o u l o u , o w n s

f u r n i t u r e w o r k s h o p

M a l e

P u b l i c

S p e c i a l e d u c a t i o n

G r e e c e

1 7 .

M r s A n t o n i o u , h o u s e w i f e

F e m a l e

P u b l i c

–

–

1 8 .

M r s T e r e s a , h o u s e w i f e

M a l e

P u b l i c

–

–

1 9 .

M r A r g y r o u , b a r b e r

F e m a l e

P u b l i c

–

–

2 0 .

M r s A g a p i o u , h o u s e w i f e

F e m a l e

P u b l i c

N u r s e

C y p r u s

2 1 .

M r s L i t s a , h a i r d r e s s e r

F e m a l e

P u b l i c


C y p r u s

2 2 .

M r M i c h a l i s , t r a d i t i o n a l c

o n f e c t i o n e r

M a l e

P u b l i c

–

–

2 3 .

M r A n a s t a s i o u , f a c t o r y w o r k e r

M a l e

P u b l i c

J o u r n a l i s m

C y p r u s

2 4 .

M r A p o s t o l o u , o f f i c e w o r k e r

M a l e

P u b l i c

G r e e k l i t e r a t u r e

G r e e c e


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bonus for her family. The fewer qualifications she has the easier it is to

get employment. She doesn’t have the pressure that she should support a

family. If she has her house [he refers to the issue of dowry]… For a son

things are different. He cannot support a family with a salary of 300 and

350 pounds. I would not accept this for my son. The son is under a lot of

pressure.

Even though Mr Kosta (PMC ) did not have a son he acknowledged the fact that

there were different expectations of men and women in the Cypriot society. Asked if

he would have treated a son differently, he said:

I don’t think I would have treated a son differently [he had two daughters]. Even though

gender plays a role, especially in our society, because you expect a man to get a better job

to do better studies… he is the provider in a family whereas you can’t have the same expec-

tations of a woman because if she totally devotes herself into her career she will leave her

family out. So, you make a compromise there. You are not so demanding of a daughter.

You have higher expectations of a son.

The above views reflect the position that men are the ones who should have the

responsibility of being the primary wage earners in a family. According to this line of

thinking a woman’s main responsibility should be with her house and her potential

income should be regarded as a bonus for her family rather than an ‘obligation’ on her

part. This attitude was the main reason that drove three WC mothers in the sample

interviewed to leave their jobs and stay at home to raise their children as soon as they

had them.

Three LMC families made different choices for the secondary education of their

sons and daughters that reveal a typical traditional ‘gendered’ attitude. These threefamilies sent their sons, but not their daughters, to English speaking private schools.

These schools in Cyprus serve as preparatory institutions mostly for British higher

education, which is widely perceived as prestigious in relation to other higher educa-

tion destinations. In fact, this is not just a perception but is reflected in the earnings

of British university graduates, which, according to Demetriades (1993), is 117% of

the average earnings of other university graduates. Mr Daniel (LMC ), for example,

admitted that, initially, when his children were younger, he held some very traditional

ideas about the opportunities he would give to his older son and younger daughter.

However, at the point of interviewing he appeared to be reconsidering his ideas, even

though he had made different plans for his son and his daughter. His son attended aprivate school and was about to go to the US to study genetics with a partial scholar-

ship. His daughter was directed to attend a local college in Cyprus to study a special

education course which led to a diploma:

I must admit that when they were younger I could say that I wanted my son to become

something like this [geneticist] … because I could see that he had the potential I may have

had different thoughts in my mind. But now that my daughter is graduating too I do not

want to distinguish between them at all because every child has its personality. (Mr Daniel)

Another example of son/daughter distinction was the case with Mr Athou’s (LMC )

children. Even though he expressed some liberal views on the issue of both sexesbeing given equal opportunities, what he actually did with his children contradicted


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102 M. Vryonides

these views. In particular, his son attended a fee-paying private English-speaking

school that he considered as being of a better quality than public schools, whereas his

daughter attended a public lyceum. Similarly, Mrs Andreou’s son (LMC ) also

attended a private English speaking school while they had different plans for her

daughter. For her son she said: ‘Yes sending my son to the English school meantfuture studies in Britain but because he was a son and you think a bit differently’. For

her daughter she commented: ‘If she follows economics [in a public school] for me a

bank is ideal [place for employment] for a woman’.

The three parents presented above exemplify the traditional expectations that male

children should be given priority over female as to the kind and quality of resources

that are mobilized for them to secure the best possible future educational prospects

and thus be in a better position to fulfil their expected role in a society where patriar-

chical social structures are thought to better preserve traditional family values (i.e.,

raising children ‘properly’).

Other parents appeared to distinguish between their children in terms of their

gender on other grounds. Mr Konstantinou (PMC ) and Mr Argyrou (WC ) both

argued that technical education suited male children better:

If I had a son I would have sent him to follow a technical job. My father was a tailor. He

wanted me to become a fashion designer or a tailor. (Mr Konstantinou)

If I had a son I would send him to the technical school to learn a trade [techni ]. Everybody

wants to have higher studies, nobody wants to go to learn trade any more. And there are

jobs in this field… there is money. (Mr Argyrou)

For Mr Simou (PMC ) too certain fields were gendered. He had this to say aboutthe issue when talking about the fact that both his son and daughter followed primary

school teaching. He seems to suggest that primary school teaching is more suitable

for a daughter rather than a son:

I honestly tell you I would prefer my son to choose something else, one other study to go

and study abroad since he is a son. Now you will tell me how about your daughter? She

was an excellent student as well but… she is a daughter. (Mr Simou)

Overall, regardless of social class background traditional ideas about the role of

gender in contemporary Cypriot society put male students under more pressure to

make more ‘pragmatic’ choices than their female counterparts. That is, choices that

would offer better prospects of securing employment, steady income and ideally, if

possible, high social status. Compared with male students within the traditionalist

framework, female students appeared to have more flexibility in their educational

choice-making. In this framework the expectation for young women was primarily to

get married and start a family. In this sense, in relation to educational choice-making

they were in a better position to follow their inclinations and make educationally and

occupationally ‘riskier’ choices so long as they did not contradict the expectations

cited above. This mode of thought maintains that women, more than men, can afford

to make choices that run high risks of unemployment or part time and occasionalemployment. As a result these choices are often less ambitious and for many bright


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young women they constitute a compromise in order to accommodate a potential

career with the role of mother/wife. As will be seen later on, the teaching profession

was considered to be ideal for girls by parents who adhered to traditionalist ideas. The

above ideas, however, were regarded as outdated by other parents who were adopting

more progressive ideas in relation to gender.

Expectations of parents with modern attitudes

The parents who appear to have modern attitudes (10 out of 24 cases) did not seem

to distinguish between their children in terms of their gender in the opportunities that

they intended to provide to them. These parents appeared to be equally prepared to

support their sons and their daughters in their chosen future educational and occu-

pational endeavours. It has to be said that this approach tends to be gaining grounds

in contemporary Cyprus and should be viewed in relation to the changing position of

women in society over the past few decades. Most of the parents who endorsed such

ideas suggested that even though in the past there had been discrimination against

young women from within their families, nowadays parents should provide their

daughters and sons with equal opportunities. Mrs Dimou’s (PMC ) comments were

typical of the answers that progressive minded parents gave: ‘I believe that it is unfair

what some parents do… to distinguish between boy and girl. I believe that parents

should give the best educational provision to their children whether they are boys or

girls’.

Mrs Litsa (WC ) also had similar attitudes towards giving the same opportunities to

her daughter (she had a younger son) and she appeared determined to support herdaughter in order to reach the highest possible levels of education:

Interviewer: Up to what level of education would you be prepared to push your

daughter?

Mrs Litsa: I won’t deprive her if she wants to. If she succeeds in passing teacher, she

plans to work for a few years and then study history or political science.

She is telling us that she will be studying until she is 30… it is not as it

used to be some years ago when you would push the son higher and give

priority to a son. I see all of them the same way.

In general, parents who expressed ideas such as the above were seeing their views

as better fitting the needs of a modern European society8 characterized by rationality,

meritocracy and fairness. It should be noted that, as was mentioned right from the

start, parents, regardless of their social class, were adopting traditional and/or more

progressive ideas towards gender and education often in complex ways that did not

fall into clear-cut categories. Thus, parents’ attitudes could be placed in a continuum

ranging from very traditional to very progressive ideas with cases of parents who

seemed to argue for one position on the matter whereas in reality their practices did

not support those views. This was clearly demonstrated in the case of three LMC

parents who were acknowledging what was perhaps ‘politically’ correct to say in terms

of providing equal opportunities for all but the fact that they were investing more fortheir sons’ education rather than their daughters’ was indicative of the fact that deep


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104 M. Vryonides

down they were more influenced by what had been the traditional practice on the

matter, which was to favour male children over female.

Extended or restricted horizons for choice-making

As indicated by previous studies (David et al., 2003; Ball et al., 2002; Reay, 1998) this

paper, too, argues that gender plays a central role in the formation of distinct ‘hori-

zons for action’ for educational choice-making as described by Hodkinson and

Sparkes (1997). The present study also argues that educational choice-making is

shaped by the way gender is perceived within a particular social and cultural context.

In this vein, the whole process is in line with what Hodkinson and Sparkes (1997)

have described when they talked about ‘pragmatically rational decision-making’

within the context of what Bourdieu has called ‘the subjective expectations of objec-

tive probability’. Similarly, Ball et al. (2000, p. 22) in their study of choices of further

education, argue that ‘horizons for action’ are both material and perceptual. Indeed,

as the present study argues perceptions in relation to the role of gender and parents’

willingness to invest available forms of capital (real and symbolic) shape habituses of

success or compromise, accordingly.

Parents’ attitudes towards gender issues in a semi-peripheral society still on its

route to modernization such as Cyprus (Green & Vryonides, 2005) have the poten-

tial to expand or to restrict opportunities for choices for male and female students.

This is because attitudes towards gender often affect the way available familial capi-

tals (economic, cultural and social) are mobilized/ invested to influence the future

educational and occupational prospects of young people. It is important to point outthe importance of non-monetary forms of capital because often economic capital,

even though very essential, does not always exclusively mould future destinations as

higher studies in the public institutions in Greece and Cyprus are free at the point of

delivery.8 Thus, the importance of symbolic, non-monetary forms of capital becomes

pre-eminent, particularly, cultural capital circulating in the home environment

(Bourdieu, 1986) as well as social capital in the form of social networks and connec-

tions, often referred to as mesa in Greek (Vryonides, 2003b). Traditionalist attitudes

towards the roles of gender in contemporary Cyprus shape an environment where

male children are given priority in the amount and quality of capital that is intention-ally or unintentionally mobilized to facilitate their choice-making for higher status

professional positions. So, even though it appears that female students tend to

pursue higher education in higher numbers than male students thus giving a picture

of relative equality of opportunity for both sexes, when the kinds of choices that male

and female students make are looked at more closely, another picture is revealed.

Male students tend to be oriented in greater numbers to courses leading to ‘tradi-

tional’ high professions (engineering, medicine, etc) whereas female students are

more likely to be drawn to social sciences, humanities and, in particular, to primary

school teaching. For many, teaching is a compromising choice as Mrs Litsa (WC )

very vividly points out when she described why she thought so many students wereinterested in becoming teachers:


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Because they [parents and children] feel that the only thing that if you manage to enter,

there aren’t any mesa, it’s becoming a teacher. And then the competition is very fierce. And

what kind of job is a teacher? It is not that important. My daughter has so much knowledge

and abilities that her teachers don’t agree that she should go to become a teacher… She

should have gone to political studies. But who is going to help her from then on?

For Mrs Litsa and other parents in her position a realistic way for her daughter to

‘exchange’ her high academic achievement was to choose to pursue school teaching.

This indicates the clear distinction that exists in the way certain professions are

perceived. Some are considered as having higher status than others and better fitting

men who, after all, are bestowed with the responsibility of providing for their family,

while other jobs are thought of as having lower status which better fit women who

have to perform, simultaneously, different and often conflicting roles. These conflict-

ing perceptions shape extended or limited ‘horizons for choices’. In other words the

horizons for action for educational choice-making are shaped by perceptions, atti-

tudes and beliefs relating to gender and the subsequent application of available

resources in materializing future prospects. Thus, parents with traditional views are

more likely to mobilize more resources for sons rather than daughters in relation to

the kind and level of education they are expecting them to achieve and thus ‘unwill-

ingly’ contributing to the formation of a habitus of high aspirations for male children.

At the same time, by offering girls some kind of compensatory support (e.g., some

form of dowry for marriage9) to make up for the less favourable treatment they

contribute towards the formation of a habitus of lower educational aspirations which

lead to gendered choices, thus sustaining the reproduction of existing inequalities in

relation to the position women occupy in the Cypriot society.

Conclusion

This paper has examined issues of gender and educational choice-making in contem-

porary Cyprus. Even though official statistics published annually by the Department

of Statistics of Cyprus present a picture of relative openness in higher education in

terms of gender, a close examination of the way educational choices are made and the

social forms within which this process is embedded, reveals a complex picture. As

indicated in the introduction inequalities today are found in the unequal pattern with

which educational choices are made. Different families employ distinct practices and

are differentially willing to ‘invest’ available resources for the education of their sons

and daughters. The various strategies different families employ are heavily influenced

by cultural ideological perspectives of gender which produce diverse patterns of

educational choice-making. These perspectives, in other words, function as a covert

mechanism that sustains gender inequalities even though today, girls seem to be

achieving academically better compared with boys. This challenges the meritocratic

rationale which advocates that education offers equal opportunities to everybody and

that academic achievement is a path to social success. Education is not an institution

that is isolated from the society in which it is set and thus is deeply affected by intrinsicsocial inequalities.


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106 M. Vryonides

Where traditional attitudes prevail over more modern ones, they guide families,

regardless of their social class status, to make unequal investments of their various

resources for the benefit of their male and female children. These, on the one hand,

allow male students to make choices within a ‘context of certainty’ (Reay, 1998) offer-

ing them better prospects for social and occupational success. On the other hand,they shape a framework whereby female students make flexible choices but within a

‘context of compromise’ which restrains them from achieving their true potentials.

This situation, to those who support further rationalization of the Cypriot society,

constitutes a major impediment to achieving true social justice.

Notes

1. When reference to ‘Cypriot’ society is made we refer to the Greek Cypriot society.

2. Out of 16 top achievers in various field of study in the 2004 exams 14 were female.

3. As well as social class and ethnicity.

4. The transition to modernity in the west has not been a smooth transition but rather a process that

unfolded in the mist of class antagonisms and conflicts. Within this changing environment educa-

tion as an institution emerged often as a response to the needs of ‘modern’ capitalist societies.

5. It must be pointed out that familial resources often have either positive or negative unintended

consequences.

6. Moshonas (1993, pp. 273–276) describes this social group in the modern Greek society as the

product of the mass transition of the agrarian population to the urban centres whereby the popu-

lation took up paid employment in middle position, white collar occupations in the state and

private sectors as well as self employed sub-professionals and owners of small–size enterprises.

In the context of the Cypriot society the lower middle class corresponds to a similar description.

7. Green and Vryonides (2005) argue that ‘Europe’ often appears in everyday discourse in thepublic and private spheres as a label, an ideal to which the Cypriot society should aim in order

to appear ‘modern’. Argyrou (1996) further argues that for the media, the press, the politicians,

and so on, Europe sets the standards of ‘quality’, ‘rationality’ and ‘progress’.

8. It is certainly a constraint for other routes namely studies at British and American universities,

which are mostly available to high-income professional middle class families (and to a lesser

degree to lower middle class families) who can afford the high costs of such an endeavour.

9. One may make an observation at this point, which suggests that regarding the practice of offer-

ing a ‘dowry’ to daughters there is a ‘traditional’ versus ‘modern’ perception of how best to fulfil

that obligation. Working class families may be more inclined to resort to traditional forms of

dowry, e.g., providing for a house, whereas middle class families may make alternative provi-

sions, e.g., financing higher education. This may be interpreted as putting different values onthe priorities that different families set for their children. However, despite the fact that many

would argue that dowry is an out-of-date practice, there is a strong sense of obligation among

many parents originating from tradition to offer as much help as possible to facilitate their

daughters in getting married.

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