EDUCATION FOR WOMEN IN THE 1980's

Abstract

At times of uncertainty, society has seen women — and women have seen themselves — as exemplifying the ‘old’ values. They have tried to hang on to what they had — keeping the home fires burning, conserving traditional attitudes, fighting to keep the familiar pattern going, weeping whilst men worked. These have been women's responses to danger and to change. Few women of the past have breasted danger or given change a nudge forward. When they have — and a glance at the short list makes this very clear — their quality has consisted not only in their personal characteristics but in their utilisation of the opportunity life gave them of acquiring the knowledge which was an essential basis for their action. The tragedy for women, and hence for society generally, has been that so few of them had the chance to acquire that knowledge. Without knowledge and the confidence that comes from it no one can plan for the future in such a way as to conserve what is of value in the past, whilst adapting to the challenge of present and making a constructive contribution to the future. So women have hitherto played little part in the evolution of new social, political and economic responses to challenging situations.