greater than men's. In addition, educated women tend to have more stable employment
than uneducated women., but many educated women end up in the informal sector of
the economy.
Catanzarite's study calls for a reformulation of economic theory to include women's
particular role in family survival. It challenges the notion that education will facilitate
women's incorporation into the labour force and generate greater income. Neither of
these claims is true when women face unstable employment, a strong feature of
informal-sector participation. In consequence, the improvement of women's conditions
lies not in greater education but in the improvement of wages and the creation of more
stable jobs for women, many of whom find their incorporation in the labour force
precarious. (Stromquist)
FINK, Marcy (1992) Women and Popular Education in Latin America, in:
STROMQUIST, N (ed) (1992) Women and Education in Latin America.
Knowledge, Power and Change, Lynne Rienner, London, 171-193.
Marcy Fink's chapter examines the concept of nonformal education and particularly
"popular education". It maps both conceptually and descriptively the features and
achievements of popular education-a type of education that is expanding and becoming
more refined in Latin America and yet remains relatively unknown in the United States.
In a detailed description of popular education programs, Fink notes the variety they
offer in characteristics, content, and strategies. Notwithstanding this variability, they all
share the objectives of providing women an educational alternative to that provided by
the formal educational system, which tends to be prescriptive of women's traditional
norms and roles. Whether using games, theatre, or more common didactic approaches,
popular education for women seeks their acquisition of emancipatory skills.
Fink provides various arguments to support the case that adult women's education must
be central in the process of social transformation. It must affect domestic relations and
mothers in them. Intervening for adult women will accelerate the process of social
change by creating a new socialisation process for children, by encouraging mothers to
reduce their enforcement of the sexual division of labour at home, and by evincing new
forms of questioning of male power, thereby renegotiating domestic relations.
This chapter also highlights the major tensions within popular education. A key
weakness so far has been the lack of linkage between local activities and social
policy. Yet from a feminist perspective, this may also be a strength. By conducting
work in areas in which the state does not intervene, popular education has opened
spaces for contestation that will make the state respond not by policy but through the
acceptance of new issues. (Stromquist)