Feminist Analysis of Gender and Schooling

Misogynist- hate toward women or negative attitude towards women! Misandry- hate toward men or negative attitude towards men!

I wanted to start off this blog with a couple of key terms I learned this past week. They both are a good segway to help us understand the Feminist Analysis of Gender and Schooling. The theories that will be explored are grounded on Socialist Feminism and Critical Educational Theory "Schooling of girls is a complex process that contains contradictions and points of resistance which must be analyzed in each particular historical instance" (Weiler, 2009).

Weiler identified three stages dealing with Feminist Reproduction Theory. Stage 1 is that people have the capacity to make meaning of their lives and to resist oppression (McRobbie, 1978). According to Claire Thomas the rejection of school ideology leads them to a definition of their own sexuality that leads back to the oppressive sexism of working-class culture. As a result girls were able to combat the oppressive features of schools by asserting their femaleness. They did so through demonstrating their success and competencies in education.

Stage 2 was the period when people were starting to understand and resist the oppression of women. They understood that such oppression also was specific to class, race and gender positions. Fuller (1983) that black females were able to meet their needs and assert their humanity by focusing on academics. He also described a term known as triple oppression (gender, race, and class). During this period, Anyon (1984) stated that to combat the oppression of women could not be fragmented and isolated from group efforts. It must be public and become a culture of resistance in order to be effective.

Stage 3 as stated before, resistance can not be an individual effort. Schools can now be a sphere for change and encouragement to resist oppression of women and could be a catalyst for building a critical counter-hegemony via critical pedagogy. Unfortunately, at this stage, the oppression of others has become much more covert and subliminal. It comes in a deeper form of domination that is embedded in sexist, racist and classis society!. Therefore, the effort to eliminate the oppression of others has become even more complex. However, programs such as the University of Redland's Educational and Social Justice Doctorate program is such a place that has become a safe haven against any type of oppression or injustices. Further, it has become a program and a leader in the community to create systemic change. It will take time, but the one constant is that it has started and nothing will stop our movement now!