Education and European Women’s Citizenship: Images of Women in Bulgarian History Textbooks

Abstract

When speaking about the low level of women’s political participation and gender justice, one should pay special attention to the cultural and institutional factors that propagate the old patriarchal notions about ‘woman’s nature’, ‘woman’s role’, ‘woman’s destiny’ and the discourse of ‘essential difference’. Foremost among these factors of socialisation is the education system which sustains the gender hegemony (in terms of Gramsci and Althusser). Such institutions shape the dominant discourse of the ‘feminine’ woman and posit certain standards and ideals of womanhood.