‘We understand better because we have been mothers': teaching, maternalism, and gender equality in Bolivian education

Abstract

This article explores Bolivian schoolteachers’ attitudes and practices surrounding gender in the context of a national educational reform law that mandated gender equity. Teacher interviews and primary school classroom observations indicate teachers’ discourses and practices reflect a sometimes paradoxical blend of advocacy for gender equality and reinforcement of existing traditions of patriarchy. Specifically, long-standing cultural assumptions that essentialise women's maternalism were common within schools and supported by both teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices. While this served to reinscribe gender inequality and women's subordination, teachers’ discourses also drew upon ideals of maternalism as a basis of women's strength and empowerment in opposition to sexism. In this article, we explore the tensions that arise as teachers negotiate their own staunch support for girls’ rights alongside their assumptions about gender differentiation.