Premium
‘If the Teacher were a Man’: Masculinity and Power in Stalinist Schools
Author(s) -
Ewing E. Thomas
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
gender and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-0424
pISSN - 0953-5233
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0424.2009.01537.x
Subject(s) - masculinity , agency (philosophy) , identity (music) , subjectivity , context (archaeology) , politics , power (physics) , gender studies , political subjectivity , sociology , political science , social science , aesthetics , law , epistemology , history , philosophy , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics
This article explores questions about identity among Soviet men teachers, about the construction of masculinity in the Stalinist context and more broadly about the significance of power in structuring gender identities. By examining the personal experience, classroom practices and political perspectives of a man teacher in a ‘women's profession’, this article demonstrates how masculine identity involved the exercise of power even in the context of a repressive political system. Focusing on the multiple layers embedded in the identity of one teacher makes possible a gender analysis of the political processes, social relations, and educational practices characteristic of the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Using an interview to understand the formation of masculinity illustrates how individual agency and subjectivity shaped and were shaped by the broader patterns and processes characteristic of Stalinism.