Women and Education. Rev. ed.

Lori A. Dunn is an ESL teacher and editor of the Toronto women’s
magazine Feminie.

The editors have covered a definitive range of educational issues,
ranging from a sex education program in Toronto to an evaluation of the
gender dynamics in a graduate seminar. Broken down into four
parts—“Women as Mothers, Women as Teachers”; “Unequal Access to
Knowledge”; “The Nature of Curriculum: Whose Knowledge?”; and
“Beyond Schooling: Adult Education and Training”—the collection
attempts to give an introduction to the broad scope of the work being
done in the field.

The fourth section is particularly interesting: after covering the
various issues facing the public school system and the university
setting, the book treats readers to some thought-provoking pieces on the
mature student. The first article in that section examines the gender
politics of a woman’s education, and the threat as perceived by her
man. There follows a broad look at the whole realm of skills and
training, wherein the authors question current trends, based as they are
on outdated pedagogical and occupational objectives that fail to take
into account the current economic situation. As well, there is an
in-depth look at the ghetto of clerical work.

The editors and contributors recognize the work being done to
understand and change the system, the brick wall of the ingrained
ideology that has to be dismantled piece by daunting piece. Women and
Education is a great introduction to what feminism has accomplished in
outlining the issues and problems, and it is filled with the sources
needed to continue the research.