Male Hegemony, Social Class and Women's Education

Abstract

The ways in which male hegemony in education has and has not been addressed in educational research concerning women and girls in schools are considered. Two bodies of research in the British sociology of education — the cultural tradition and the political economy tradition — are discussed in terms of the ways in which they address the question of gender. The radical theories of social and cultural reproduction of class structure are then considered. It is argued that it is necessary to include a consideration of gender reproduction in any theory of class reproduction, whether the perspective is from a social or a cultural model. A theory of the production of gender differences inside and outside the schools is contrasted with prevailing reproduction theories. The paper concludes with a call for further research in the field of women's education that will both recognize the existence of class and male hegemony in the schools and will at the same time acknowledge that the constant need to reimpose hegemony entails both struggle and the possibility for change.