Women and Education

Abstract

It is now widely acknowledged that, in the sociology of education, as indeed in many other areas of sociology [1], sexual differentiation has been grossly neglected. In the enormous literature that has grown up in the post-war years demonstrating the existence and persistence of educational inequalities and searching for their explanation, the emphasis has been almost wholly on either social class or, particularly in the United States, race. It is true that girls have usually, if not always, been included in such studies as a normal part of the sample. Similarly, the documentation of social class and racial inequalities as well as regional variation has often thrown up evidence on sexual inequalities as well. There have also been times, as in the case of the Plowden Report as early as 1967, when special emphasis has been laid on the wastage of ability amongst girls [2]. The charge of neglect should not, therefore, be taken too far. Nevertheless, it remains true that little attention has been paid to sex as a principle of educational discrimination and that little effort has been made to search for the explanation of such discrimination as can be found. An examinaton of any standard text-book in the field will demonstrate this clearly enough. So will a look at the most prominent theorists working in this area [3]. This is not the place to consider in detail the reasons for this neglect, but perhaps most fundamental of all has been the absence of any serious questioning of the pattern of sexual differences whether in education or elsewhere. Indeed this topic perhaps more than any other demonstrates the truth of the observation that changes in direction within a discipline are due to new questions as much as, if not sometimes more than, new answers. Just as social class inequalities seemed 'natural' to nineteenth century observers, rooted as they were believed to be in the nature of the working classes and in the nature of society, so sexual inequalities in the educational and the occupational systems seemed 'natural' to those who accepted a Parsonian interpretation of the position of women in the family and society [4]. To those inclined towards a conflict model of society, and particularly to those influenced by Marxism the central position given to class relationships within these