Considering the role of women as educational policy-makers, and in particular focusing on 29 women members of the London School Board, this book examines the link between private lives and public practice in Victorian and Edwardian England. These political activists were among the first women in England to be elected to positions of political responsibility. Key concerns in the book are issues such as gender and power, and gender and welfare.

Women and Education, 1800-1980 examines and celebrates the lives, aims, and achievements of six British women educational activists within nineteenth- and twentieth-century history: Elizabeth Hamilton, Sarah Austin, Jane Chessar, Mary Dendy, Shena Simon and Margaret Cole. Employing a biographical approach, Jane Martin and Joyce Goodman adopt existing feminist and historical models to explore how these women resisted gender roles and combined their public lives with private commitments. As individuals, these women were very different personalities: as a group they show how organised women made a substantial contribution to public life and changed philosophy, policy and practice. Women and Education is situated within the tradition of feminist engagements with recovering and reclaiming 'forgotten' female figures in history. By bringing the lives and actions of these female reformers to the forefront, Martin and Goodman not only offer fresh perspectives on the relation between theory and practice in education, but also give a critical new insight into the accomplishments of women in the past.

This study, first published in 1980, argues that higher education for women was accepted by the end of the nineteenth-century, and higher education was becoming a desirable preparation for teachers in girls’ schools. By accepting the opponents’ claim that higher education for women had the potential to revolutionise relations between the sexes, this fascinating book demonstrates how the relevance of the nineteenth-century serves to enhance our understanding of the contemporary women’s movement. This title will be of interest to students of history and education.

In Education in China, ca. 1840–present the authors offer a description of the Chinese education system. In doing so, they touch upon various debates such as on educational modernization and the role of female education. Relevant statistical data is provided as well.

This volume presents new perspectives on the history of higher education for women in the United States. By introducing new voices and viewpoints into the literature on the history of higher education from the early nineteenth century through the 1970s, these essays address the meaning diverse groups of women have made of their education or their exclusion from education, and delve deeply into how those experiences were shaped by concepts of race, ethnicity, religion, national origin. Nash demonstrates how an examination of the history of women’s education can transform our understanding of educational institutions and processes more generally.

Examines how the teacher feminisation debate applies in developing countries. Drawing on the experiences of Dominica, Lesotho, Samoa, Sri Lanka and India, it provides a strong analytical understanding of the role of female teachers in the expansion of education systems, and the surrounding gender equality issues.