Typically many schools practised sharp gender separation in the manifold tasks that were subsumed under the heading of work. At school after school almost all the work in the kitchen and laundry, as well as cleaning most areas of the school buildings, fell to the female students. Generally speaking, the boys did most of the work out of doors, in the barns and stables, and in strenuous activities such as cutting and hauling wood for the stoves and furnaces.


The carpenter's shop at Lebret: male territory

At every turn, students were confronted with sharp differences of treatment of the sexes.