Failing Working-class Girls

The discussion among the author and her degree-winning working class woman subjects affords insights into the backgrounds of working-class girls. It shows how both mothers and fathers held low expectations of education and what it might offer their daughters, so did little to support their education. It exposes the pattern of early marriage with an unskilled and often exploited partner who, whether earning or not, saw himself as the sole provider and even the possessor of his wife and daughters. It turns a spotlight on teachers and reveals how, instead of encouraging these "misfits" to succeed, they themselves discriminated against the bright working-class girls who managed to gain entry to privileged schools or grammar streams. Not a lot has changed. At a time when all concern is focused on the underachievement of working-class boys, this book exposes the plight of the numerically largest group of children in our schools.