ABSTRACT
This paper considers the relationship between physical education (PE) in secondary schools and young women's sub-cultures. The paper provides a brief critical introduction to youth sub-cultural analysis, a more detailed examination of recent work on young women's sub-cultures and their school-based resistances and a consideration of the relationship of PE to this work on young women's sub-cultures. This study of main analyses of youth sub-cultures which developed during 1970's emphasised two main categories age and class. Menstruation was in the past regarded as an inhibition to young women's physical movement and thus a direct restriction on her participation in most physical activity. First, PE teachers attempt to explain why young women tend to lose interest in physical activity during and immediately after puberty. The 'culture of femininity' is based on social construction of women's roles and behaviour. The ideology of biology emphasises women as passive and submissive and presents them in appearance, dress and style in terms of their sexuality.
