Irish young people’s narratives: the existence of gender differentiated cultures?

There is frequently an assumption that fixed dualisms are no longer relevant (Thorne, 1993) so that socially constructed and differentially valued gendered cultures no longer exist. Gender however has not been consistently referred to as an outdated or zombie category (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002), while a variety of evidence suggests that male priorities, choices and life-styles are differentially valued (UN, 1995; O’Connor, 2000). Drawing on a national one in ten random sample of 4,100 texts written by Irish young people, typically aged 10-12 and 14-17 years, in response to an invitation to describe ‘themselves and the Ireland they inhabit’, this article suggests that aspects of their narratives (relating to relationships and life styles) reflect the existence of gender differentiated cultures, although these ‘two cultures’ are much less apparent in their narratives about time, space and consumption. Finally, the paper touches on the implications of these trends for understanding contemporary Irish society.