Gender differentiation in young people's: orientations towards school: Key findings of a social survey in Northern Italy.

In the light of the increasing differentiation which affects every kind of socialisation process, that of gender divisions appears as an issue of great importance, although it’s difficult to read. During the adolescent phase of growth, and parti-cularly among students, we can talk of a double situation. On the one hand, observing daily life, young people seem to adopt certain uniform behaviour (i.e. in dressing, eating, consumer styles), as if they ignore their gender belonging. Al-so the school organisation seems indifferent to the student’s (and teacher’s) gender, acting mainly under the “equality” principle that is, to avoid discrimination between females and males in education. On the other hand, if we analyse so-me statistics in education, it is easy to grasp how the gender differences influence a number of factors, such as school choice, school results, motivation to study and job aspirations, which will condition the future achievement goals of the young, in terms of social opportunities and well being. A recent inquiry in Northern Italy (carried out last winter in Lombardy) provides a series of data, which I use to describe how adolescents (14-15 aged) perceive and put under fo-cus their gender belonging and, more generally, gender differentiation; how differently females and males describe their school experience (particularly their relationship with fellows and teachers), and which are the main gender-linked fac-tors affecting their choice of secondary school.