textbooks and then gives a detailed account of one carefully conceived intervention
that, although time-intensive, was not expensive in terms of the resources required.
That this intervention took place in Argentina, a country with a strong belief in its
gender progressiveness, makes it all the more interesting because the intervention
confronted its participants with evidence of inequality and subordination that
contradicted prevailing perceptions of gender equality in that society. The intervention,
in the hands of a skilful psychologist, shows that well-conceived treatments- even
though brief in comparison to the whole of experiences and situations that women
teachers undergo in their everyday life- can be powerful in creating modified
perceptions and attitudes. The in-service training implemented by Bonder also shows
that technologies such as audiocassettes can be used effectively to provide stimuli for
group discussion and that these group discussions can result in significant and stable
changes among the participants.
An additional important contribution made by Bonder lies in the identification of the
fears and conflicts that emerged among women teachers as they moved from a
traditional to a more progressive, emancipatory view of gender relations. As described
in her study, concerns about engaging in "a war between the sexes", creating domestic
conflicts, and losing their "power in the domestic sphere" were troubling the teachers as
they went on to implement changes in their individual lives. One inference from this is
that women cannot readily change; in their everyday practice they will encounter
transactions with men and family that make them unhappy and uncertain about the new
terrain they are entering. Bonder's study, when juxtaposed with that of Sara-Lafosse,
suggests that students in both coeducational schools and single-sex schools may be
facing teachers who are themselves very uncertain about altering their own notions of
femininity and masculinity. (Stromquist).
BRASLAVSKY, Cecilia (1992) Educational Legitimation of Women's Economic
Subordination in Argentina, in: STROMQUIST, Nelly (ed) (1992) Women and
Education in Latin America. Knowledge, Power and Change, Lynne Rienner,
London, 47-66.
Braslavsky's study combines census data and survey data. Her analysis of macrolevel
census data is juxtaposed with the current socio-economic structure and the social
functions of education. She connects the presence of sex stereotypes in textbooks to the
existence of social norms about women's proper role at home and in society.
Although Argentina has extremely high levels of women participating in education,
Braslavsky explains that their participation in a school system that continues to present
images of women as passive and devoted to home and family has not eroded the
existence of a type of domesticity that functions to exclude women from the public
sphere. Her cross-sectional research, which observes students at two points in their high
school experience- the first and the last year of studies-provides evidence of disparate