Recently loud voices have proclaimed that boys nowadays fail in the (Swedish) school. The reasons are often sought in traditional and limited explanations. One kind of explanation is that boys are not allowed to do what they can do in schools and that the teachers are suffocating the boys with their feminine values. Another is that of the "failing schools". The pedagogy in schools is wrong and should be more about structures and control. This is closely related to the concept of school effectiveness. The third explanation focuses the biologically based view that "boys will be boys", and that they will anyhow win in the end. (Epstein et al, 1998). In international educational research focused on gender, deeper and more contextual studies are called for. A study conducted in a rural area in Sweden provides a background to illuminate in a broader perspective the complexity of this issue (Härnsten et al 2005). In this paper the focus is on exploring and discussing how the historically and culturally based male hierarchical order is made visible and challenged.