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Chapter FiveChapter Five

Diversity and Equity:

Schooling Girls and Women

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Major ThemesMajor Themes

• What dominant ideology(-ies) legitimized the subordination of women/African American/Native Americans in the past?

• What dominant ideology(-ies) legitimize(s) the subordination/exploitation of segments of the population today?

• What were called “radical proposals” to reform society and education in the past?

• What may be called “radical proposals” to reform society and education today?

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Gender & Education in Colonial Gender & Education in Colonial AmericaAmerica

• First 150 years– mostly barred from public schools– unnecessary to educate girls in

agrarian/frontier society– females “unsuited” for intellectual activities

• Some private schools focus on “polite accomplishments”

• The Revolution and the “cult of domesticity”

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Competing Ideological Competing Ideological PerspectivesPerspectives

• “More effective” female rolesConservative position– women’s place is in the home; no education

necessary

Liberal position– women’s place is in the home; education helpful

• Gender EqualityRadical Position– equal rights and educational opportunities

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Higher Education for WomenHigher Education for Women• Academies

– focus on “ladylike” subjects– charged tuition– Troy Female Academy most famous

• Normal schools– focus on teacher training

• High Schools– free public education– retained focus on domestic concerns

• Colleges– Antioch and Oberlin (Ohio)– Vassar College as exemplar

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Women and Vocational EducationWomen and Vocational Education

• Domestic science training– 1910 NEA report– ethnic and class bias inherent in curriculum

• Commercial education

• Responded to changes in labor market and need for cheap source of clerical labor

• Class biased as well as sex-segregated

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ConcludingConcluding Remarks Remarks • Intellectual subordination of women supported

by a religious interpretation of humanity• American Revolution fostered increased

educational opportunities, with continued emphasis on preparation for marriage and motherhood

• Transformed in Progressive Era to “domestic sciences”

• Teaching as appropriate vocation for women• Conservative, liberal, and radical positions still

evident today in discussions of social and educational policy

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Legal Protection from Sex DiscriminationLegal Protection from Sex Discrimination• Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 -- P.L. 92-318 (see full text

at http://www.dol.gov/oasam/regs/statutes/titleIX.htm).• North Haven Board of Education v. Bell , 456 U.S. 512 (1982): Congress

had intended Title IX to cover employment practices of schools and colleges.

• Johnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara , 480 U.S. 616(1987): employers, both private and public, voluntarily can adopt hiring and promotion goals to benefit women, even at the expense of more-qualified men. By permitting self-imposed affirmative action plans when women are under-represented, the decision sends a strong signal to men who are inclined to sue for reverse discrimination

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: prohibits unequal treatment with respect to "conditions of employment." Title VII applies to sexual harassment on the job (see full text at http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/vii.html).

• Under Title VII, a male teacher may be eligible for child-rearing leave • Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978: this act is an amendment to Title VII.

It states that employment discrimination "because of sex" or "on the basis of sex," as prohibited by Title VII includes discrimination "because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions." A woman unable to work for pregnancy-related reasons is entitled to disability benefits or sick leave on the same basis as employees unable to work for other temporary medical reasons.

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Title IXTitle IXTitle IX, is a 37-word United States law

enacted on June 23, 1972 that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of gender, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” (see full text at http://

www.dol.gov/oasam/regs/statutes/titleIX.htm)

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• Chodorow, Nancy J, The Reproduction of Mothering – Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender

Why Women Motherp.39Women’s capacities for mothering and abilities to get

gratification from it are strongly internalized and psychologically enforced, and are built developmentally into the feminine psychic structure. Women are prepared psychologically for mothering through the developmental situation in which they grow up, and in which women have mothered them.

Psychoanalysis … suggests that major features of the social organization of gender are transmitted in and through those personalities produced by the structure of the institution – the family – in which children become gendered members of society.