Gender and the transition from school to work in Belfast

This article is based on interviews carried out in 1991 with 122 school pup ils between the ages of 15 and 18 from a Catholic working-class area charac terised by high, long-term unemployment located in Belfast. It includes fur ther research carried out in 1998. The article focuses on three main aspect s of young people's lives: their intended career aspirations, their involve ment in term-time employment while at school and their participation in pai d work within the household. The article suggests that the transition from school to work plays a crucial role in the reproduction of gender relations . The article demonstrates the ways in which young people at times accept a nd at other rimes challenge taken-for-granted assumptions regarding traditi onal gender stereotypes. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .