Knowledge, Power and Change, Lynne Rienner, London, 107-124.
Women represent the largest group among primary school teachers in many countries
of the world. Although this means that potentially they could play a decisive role within
their profession, this is in fact seldom the case.
A case study of the participation of women teachers as union members and leaders is
provided in Cortina's chapter. Through her examination of the National Union of
Education Workers in Mexico, the largest union and unquestionably one of the most
powerful in Mexico, Cortina explains how the high participation of women in union
membership has not been reflected in leadership positions. This situation is complex
and results not only from women's self-exclusion based on prevailing norms of
"virtuous women" who must refrain from meeting with men in awkward settings, but
also from women's everyday constraints as they feel responsible for the domestic life of
their families. The limitations women face are further fostered by the male leadership of
unions that, consciously or unconsciously, draws upon women's norms of passivity and
devotion to gear their involvement into supportive activities for the union. Thus,
women's units in the union ironically end up playing social auxiliary roles rather than
providing substantive political input. The recent demise of the women's units, however,
might also signal a defensive response on the part of male leadership to preclude the
emergence of effective space for women. Cortina's qualitative investigation provides
insights into how gender as a system of power relations contributes to maintain political
structures and social inequalities. Women teachers show little knowledge of the female
leaders representing them; female leaders, in turn, show little awareness of feminist
ideas or of the need to address problems salient among women. Thus, reproduction of
the status quo continues. (Stromquist)
Peru
SARA-LAFOSSE, Violeta, (1992) Coeducational Settings and Educational and Social
Outcomes in Peru, in: STROMQUIST, Nelly (ed) Women and Education in Latin
America. Knowledge, Power and Change, Lynne Rienner, London, 87-105.
The study by Sara-Lafosse is unusual in that it considers benefits other than academic
achievement for the development of boys and girls in Schools. Her findings have to be
appreciated in the context of a Latin society that is machista in nature and in which
strong beliefs about the sexual division of labour prevail.
Research in other countries indicates that boys tend to benefit from both single-sex and
coeducational schools. They accrue benefit under both settings from the preferential
treatment they tend to receive from both men and women teachers. Research that
controls for factors such as socio-economic status has also shown that in some countries