This article is based on a research that aimed at understanding the role of family socialization in the construction of gender-biased educational trajectories from the point of view of 25 children from low-income families of a public school of São Paulo. Information regarding the participation of girls and boys in housework, leisure practices and circulation in the public space were gathered through observation and interviews. It can be concluded that family socialization tends to stimulate a better performance of girls through the construction of femininities rooted in responsibility and discipline, as well as through the positive significance of the school as a recreational and sociability space, in view of the several restrictions that girls endure in their daily lives, at home and on the street.
Academic Achievement; Femininities; Masculinities; Sociology of Childhood