The right to be
educated has always been among the most emphasized demands of feminists. As
early as 1792, Wollstonecraft argued for a challenging and equal education for
women (Weiler, 2001). Feminists that followed also pursued the demand. In the
early 1970s, the education of girls came to the fore as a political issue based
on the documentation of sex differences both in participation and success rates
at school in late 1960s (Routhledge, 2005 ). The policy was affected by liberal
feminism and sex role theory and put the emphasis on equality of opportunity.
Liberal
feminists have fought for the right of women for education as they contend that
men and women are essentially similar but women are hindered and put to a
disadvantaged position by their lack of access to rational thought, which is
education. For them education is the key to the improvement of women’s position
in the society to become the equal of men so they put emphasis on the field of
education.
In their
attempts they view the state as a benevolent institution, which failed to
correct the disadvantaged position of women in education and demand equal
rights for women especially in the fields of law and education as they think it
is the way to equality for women in the society. “Liberal feminists emphasize
the role of formal legal rights and the provision of equal opportunities
practices in the advancement of women’s educational achievement” (Routledge,
2005: 472). Thus, effective legislation in the field will solve problems.
Liberal feminist claims have found resonance in the state structures and led to
many improvements in the educational opportunities of women. They have been
quite effective and have changed the reality especially with the help of the
refunds they were able to take from the governments but their aim is a reform,
which is not enough to liberate women (Stromquist, 1990). Rather than
challenging the existing framework of the society and the state they wanted to
add women into the paradigm in which the norm was men.
For them the
socialization of women is the problem. During the socialization process of
women both at home and school, sexual discrimination has destructive effects.
Affirmative action or positive discrimination appears as the solution. As
Middleton (1993) states “women were seen as disadvantaged by our socialization
-by sex-role stereotyping- and as in need of measure of compensatory education
and affirmative action”. Through their studies they were able to reveal the
problematic areas for girls in the curriculum, such as math, science or
technological issues. They found that girls and boys are more successful in
different subjects.
As Enns and
Sinacore (2005) point out, gender role conditioning and irrational prejudices
are the basic causes of oppression of women as they resulted in the denial of
women’s educational rights. Therefore, critical thinking and rational analysis
are important skills for the liberal feminist educator. In line with Tisdell
(1998), Enns and Sinacore claim that the maintenance of a classroom environment
that encourages all learners but especially girls to excel in nontraditional
fields is important in this approach.
These feminists insist that the educational institutions need to be
reformed for a gender-neutral education.
The Sex
Discrimination Act in 1975 can be taken as an achievement of liberal feminist
policies. The failure of liberal feminism to address equality in private sphere
that is inside the house is also present in the act. Although the rights
of women in the public sphere, especially for fair wage, were targeted, the
double burden of women was not mentioned (Arnot, 2002). The feminists to come
were to address that point as well as the sexism inherent in the education
system.
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