ABSTRACT
By the midtwentieth century, the territory of science belonged to boys. In particular, the physical sciences, once perceived as eminently worthwhile and suitable for females, had become culturally constructed as predominantly male subjects in secondary schools. This gendered transformation mirrored another 180-degree shift in the curriculum, from the colonial perception of the classics as the natural and appropriate domain of males to the twentieth-century opinion that the study of Latin was inherently more appealing to girls than boys.
