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The American adult education system has become an alternative for school dropouts, with some state welfare policies requiring teen mothers and women without high school diplomas to participate in adult education programs to receive aid. Currently, low-income women of color are more likely to be enrolled in the lowest levels of adult basic education. Very little has been published about women's experiences in these mandatory programs and whether the programs reproduce the conditions that forced women to drop out in the first place. Lorna Rivera bridges the gap with this important study, the product of ten years'active ethnographic research with formerly homeless women who participated in adult literacy education classes before and after welfare reform. She draws on rich interviews with organizers and participants in the Adult Learners Program at Project Hope, a women's shelter and community development organization in Boston's Dudley neighborhood, one of the poorest in the city. Analyzing the web of ideological contradictions regarding'work first'welfare reform policies, Rivera argues that poverty is produced and reproduced when women with low literacy skills are pushed into welfare-to-work programs and denied education. She examines how various discourses about individual choice and self-sufficiency shape the purposes of literacy, how low-income women express a sense of personal responsibility for being poor, and how neoliberal ideologies and practices compromise the goals of critical literacy programs. Throughout this study, the voices and experiences of formerly homeless women challenge cultural stereotypes about poor women, showing in personal and structural terms how social and economic forces shape and restrict opportunities for low-income women of color.

One civil rights-era law has reshaped American society—and contributed to the country's ongoing culture warsFew laws have had such far-reaching impact as Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Intended to give girls and women greater access to sports programs and other courses of study in schools and colleges, the law has since been used by judges and agencies to expand a wide range of antidiscrimination policies—most recently the Obama administration's 2016 mandates on sexual harassment and transgender rights.In this comprehensive review of how Title IX has been implemented, Boston College political science professor R. Shep Melnick analyzes how interpretations of'equal educational opportunity'have changed over the years. In terms accessible to non-lawyers, Melnick examines how Title IX has become a central part of legal and political campaigns to correct gender stereotypes, not only in academic settings but in society at large. Title IX thus has become a major factor in America's culture wars—and almost certainly will remain so for years to come.

This book will examine the problem of under-represented populations (URPs) in the so-called “STEM” fields: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, this problem is especially acute in computer science. Who are these under-represented populations? What creates them? And finally, why should there be concern about URPs in STEM? This book brings to light the crisis of a dearth of women, especially minority women, in STEM. The text highlights what has combined to create the perfect storm of impending economic stagnation, impoverished populations, diminished innovation, and lack of interest in choosing these fields. The author discusses what must be done to correct this social injustice and stave off losing America's status one of the leaders in technological innovation and economic opportunity.

“Who educates a woman, educates a race.” There seems to be at present no subject more capable of exciting and holding attention among thoughtful people in America, than the question of the Education of Girls. We may answer it as we will, we may refuse to answer it, but it will not be postponed, and it will be heard; and until it is answered on more rational grounds than that of previous custom, or of preconceived opinion, it may be expected to present itself at every turn, to crop out of every stratum of civilized thought. Nor is woman to blame if the question of her education occupies so much attention. The demands made are not hers—the continual agitation is not primarily of her creating. It is simply the tendency of the age, of which it is only the index. It would be as much out of place to blame the weights of a clock for the moving of the hands, while, acted upon by an unseen, but constant force, they descend slowly but steadily towards the earth. That this is true, is attested by the widely-spread discussion and the contemporaneous attempts at reform in widely-separated countries. While the women in America are striving for a more complete development of their powers, the English women are, in their own way, and quite independently, forcing their right at least to be examined if not to be taught, and the Russian women are asserting that the one object toward which they will bend all their efforts of reform is “the securing of a solid education from the foundation up.” When the water in the Scotch lakes rises and falls, as the quay in Lisbon sinks, we know that the cause of both must lie far below, and be independent of either locality. The agitation of itself is wearisome, but its existence proves that it must be quieted, and it can be so quieted only by a rational solution, for every irrational decision, being from its nature self-contradictory, has for its chief mission to destroy itself. As long as it continues, we may be sure that the true solution has not been attained, and for our hope we may remember that we “have seen all winter long the thornFirst show itself intractable and fierce,And after, bear the rose upon its top.” We, however, are chiefly concerned with the education of our own girls, of girls in America. Born and bred in a continent separated by miles of ocean from the traditions of Europe, they may not unnaturally be expected to be of a peculiar type. They live under peculiar conditions of descent, of climate, of government, and are hence very different from their European sisters. No testimony is more concurrent than that of observant foreigners on this point. More nervous, more sensitive, more rapidly developed in thinking power, they scarcely need to be stimulated so much as restrained; while, born of mixed races, and reared in this grand meeting-ground of all nations, they gain at home, in some degree, that breadth which can be attained in other countries only by travel. Our girls are more frank in their manners, but we nowhere find girls so capable of teaching intrusion and impertinence their proper places, and they combine the French nerve and force with the Teutonic simplicity and truthfulness. Less accustomed to leading-strings, they walk more firmly on their own feet, and, breathing in the universal spirit of free inquiry, they are less in danger of becoming unreasonable and capricious.

Revisiting Gender examines the changing role of women and men in shaping American life in education, work, and public and private life. This collection begins with articles covering the status of girls and boys in public education. Studies reveal a change in the gender divide with girls raising the bar on success rates in the classroom. The ratio of men to women in politics continues to shine a light gender perspectives of both politicians and voters. This chapter looks to the most interesting stories on the dynamics of gender on the state and national level. Another chapter will cover the status of women and gender equality in the corporate realm, a subject much covered in the last year. In our media-rich society, the power of images continues to be a fascinating subject on how gender is represented. The final chapter turns to the dynamics of home life, questioning the roles women and men hold in traditional and non-traditional forms.

This is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary survey of the education of girls and women in the United States from the Colonial period to the present. After identifying historical themes in the education of women, beginning in Greece and Rome, and later in medieval and Enlightenment Europe, this source book discusses the education of women in Colonial and Revolutionary times. The book concludes with material on transforming school and college curricula, on feminist pedagogy, and on research opportunities for the future. Each chapter is followed by an annotated bibliography of English-language books and articles. Indexes are provided.

Using a unique data set comparing mothers and daughters who attended Douglass College—the women's college of Rutgers University—twenty-five years apart, Krista Jenkins perceptively observes the changes in how women acquire their attitudes toward gender roles and behaviors in the post-women's movement years. Mothers, Daughters, and Political Socialization examines the role of intergenerational transmission—the maternal influences on younger women—while also looking at differences among women in attitudes and behaviors relative to gender roles that might be attributed to the nature of the times during their formative years. How do daughters coming of age in an era when the women's movement is far less visible deal with gendered expectations compared to their mothers? Do they accept the contemporary status quo their feminist mothers fought so hard to achieve? Or, do they press forward with new goals? Jenkins shows how contemporary women are socialized to accept or reject traditional gender roles that serve to undermine their equality.

During the twentieth century, opportunities for exercise and sports grew significantly for girls and women in the United States. Among the key figures who influenced this revolution were female physical educators. Drawing on extensive archival research, Active Bodies examines the ideas, experiences, and instructional programs of white and black female physical educators who taught in public schools and diverse colleges and universities, including coed and single-sex, public and private, and predominantly white and historically black institutions. Working primarily with female students, women physical educators had to consider what an active female could and should do in comparison to boys and men. Applying concepts of sex differences, they debated the implications of female anatomy, physiology, reproductive functions, and psychosocial traits for achieving gender parity in the gym. Teachers'interpretations were conditioned by the places where they worked, as well as developments in education, feminism, and the law, society's changing attitudes about gender, race, and sexuality, and scientific controversies over the nature and significance of sex differences. While deliberating fairness for their students, women physical educators also pursued equity for themselves, as their workplaces and nascent profession often marginalized female and minority personnel. Questions of difference and equity divided the field throughout the century; while some teachers favored moderate views and incremental change, others promoted justice for their students and themselves by exerting authority at their schools, critiquing traditional concepts of'difference,'and devising innovative curricula. Exploring physical education within and beyond the gym, Active Bodies sheds new light on the enduring complexities of difference and equity in American culture.

From two leading scholars in the field comes this landmark assessment of the shifting terrain of feminist rhetorical practices in recent decades. Jacqueline Jones Royster and Gesa E. Kirsch contend the field of rhetorical studies is being transformed through the work of feminist rhetoricians who have brought about notable changes in who the subjects of rhetorical study can be, how their practices can be critiqued, and how the effectiveness and value of the inquiry frameworks can be articulated. To contextualize a new and changed landscape for narratives in the history of rhetoric, Royster and Kirsch present four critical terms of engagement—critical imagination, strategic contemplation, social circulation, and globalization—as the foundation for a new analytical model for understanding, interpreting, and evaluating feminist rhetorical inquiry and the study and teaching of rhetoric in general. This model draws directly on the wealth of knowledge and understanding gained from feminist rhetorical practices, especially sensitivity toward meaningfully and respectfully rendering the work, lives, cultures, and traditions of historical and contemporary women in rhetorical scholarship. Proposing ambitious new standards for viewing and valuing excellence in feminist rhetorical practice, Royster and Kirsch advocate an ethos of respect and humility in the analysis of communities and specific rhetorical performances neglected in rhetorical history, recasting rhetorical studies as a global phenomenon rather than a western one. They also reflect on their own personal and professional development as researchers as they highlight innovative feminist research over the past thirty years to articulate how feminist work is changing the field and pointing to the active participation of women in various discourse arenas and to the practices and genres they use. Valuable to new and established scholars of rhetoric, Feminist Rhetorical Practice: New Horizons for Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy Studies is essential for understanding the theoretical, methodological, and ethical impacts of feminist rhetorical studies on the wider field. Winner, 2014 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award

Failing at Fairness, the result of two decades of research, shows how gender bias makes it impossible for girls to receive an education equal to that given to boys.Girls'learning problems are not identified as often as boys'areBoys receive more of their teachers'attentionGirls start school testing higher in every academic subject, yet graduate from high school scoring 50 points lower than boys on the SATHard-hitting and eye-opening, Failing at Fairness should be read by every parent, especially those with daughters.

Despite decades of effort to create fair classrooms and schools, gender bias is alive and well, and in some ways growing. School practices continue to send boys and girls down different life paths, too often treating them not as different genders but as different species. Teachers and parents often miss the subtle signs of sexism in classrooms. Through firsthand observations and up-to-the-minute research, Still Failing at Fairness brings the gender issue into focus. The authors provide an in-depth account of how girls'and boys'educations are compromised from elementary school through college, and offer practical advice for teachers and parents who want to make a positive difference. The authors examine today's pressing issues -- the lack of enforcement for Title IX, the impact of the backlash against gender equity, the much-hyped'boys'crisis,'hardwired brain differences, and the recent growth of singlesex public schools. This book documents how teaching, current testing practices, and subtle cultural attitudes continue to short-circuit both girls and boys of every race, social class, and ethnicity. Hard-hitting and remarkably informative, Still Failing at Fairness is'a fascinating look into America's classrooms'(National Association of School Psychologists).

Women in America have come a long way in the last hundred years, from lacking the right to vote to holding some of the highest profile positions in the country. But this change has not come without struggle. More Than Title IX highlights the impact of one of the most powerful instruments of change—education. The book takes readers behind the scenes of some of the most influential moments for gender equity in education and tells the dramatic stories of the women and men who made these changes possible. The narrative blends historical analysis with dynamic interview excerpts with people whose actions made a difference in both educational equity and in the country as a whole. By showing how hard-won changes in education have improved life for women and men in America over the past century, the authors remind readers not to take freedoms for granted.

The United States economy relies on the productivity, entrepreneurship, and creativity of its people. To maintain its scientific and engineering leadership amid increasing economic and educational globalization, the United States must aggressively pursue the innovative capacity of all its people—women and men. However, women face barriers to success in every field of science and engineering; obstacles that deprive the country of an important source of talent. Without a transformation of academic institutions to tackle such barriers, the future vitality of the U.S. research base and economy are in jeopardy. Beyond Bias and Barriers explains that eliminating gender bias in academia requires immediate overarching reform, including decisive action by university administrators, professional societies, federal funding agencies and foundations, government agencies, and Congress. If implemented and coordinated across public, private, and government sectors, the recommended actions will help to improve workplace environments for all employees while strengthening the foundations of America's competitiveness.

Drawing on interviews and an array of scholarly work, Beth Daniell maps out the relations of literacy and spirituality in A Communion of Friendship: Literacy, Spiritual Practice, and Women in Recovery. Daniell tells the story of a group of women in “Mountain City” who use reading and writing in their search for spiritual growth. Diverse in socioeconomic status, the Mountain City women are, or have been, married to alcoholics. In Al-Anon, they use literacy to practice the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous in order to find spiritual solutions to their problems. In addition, Daniell demonstrates that in the lives of these women, reading, writing, and speaking are intertwined, embedded in one another in rich and complex ways. For the women, private literate practice is of the utmost importance because it aids the development and empowerment of the self. These women engage in literate practices in order to grow spiritually and emotionally, to live more self-aware lives, to attain personal power, to find or make meaning for themselves, and to create community. By looking at the changes in the women's reading, Daniell shows that Al-Anon doctrine, particularly its oral instruction, serves as an interpretive tool. This discussion points out the subtle but profound transformations in these women's lives in order to call for an inclusive notion of politics. Foregrounding the women's voices, A Communion of Friendship addresses a number of issues important in composition studies and reading instruction. This study examines the meaning of literacy within one specific community, with implications both for pedagogy and for empirical research in composition inside and outside the academy.

In the past 25 years there has been an enormous increase in the amount of research exploring issues of gender and schooling. New journals have been established, and in the older journals, special issues have been devoted to addressing gender equity in education. For the editors this has raised some questions and concerns as we organized the topics for this first volume of the Research on Women and Education book series.

The issues explored in The Feminist Classroom are as timely and controversial today as they were when the book first appeared six years ago. This expanded edition offers new material that rereads and updates previous chapters, including a major new chapter on the role of race. The authors offer specific new classroom examples of how assumptions of privilege, specifically the workings of unacknowledged whiteness, shape classroom discourses. This edition also goes beyond the classroom, to examine the present context of American higher education. Drawing on in-depth interviews and using the actual words of students and teachers, the authors take the reader into classrooms at six colleges and universities - Lewis and Clark College, Wheaton College, the University of Arizona, Towson State University, Spelman College, and San Francisco State University. The result is an intimate view of the pedagogical approaches of seventeen feminist college professors. Feminist scholars have demonstrated that American higher education has long represented a white, male, privileged minority. The professors here bring together the twin upheavals that have challenged this tradition: namely a rapidly changing student body and the more inclusive knowledge of feminist and multicultural scholarship. They uncover the voices, concerns and experiences of groups hitherto marginalized in higher education: women, people of color and working class students. Through concrete examples of classroom practice, the work of these professors challenge the traditional split between knowledge and pedagogy that has long characterized higher education.

Most educators might agree that the hidden agendas on class, race, and gender, to a large extent, condition and determine the form and the content of schooling. But, how much of this situation is due to school factors, and how much to social background factors, is heatedly discussed and debated by scholars working within both the mainstream and critical traditions in the field of education. Class, Race, and Gender in American Education represents a groundbreaking overview of current issues and contemporary approaches involved in the areas of class, race, and gender in American education.In this book, the first to combine a consideration of these issues and to investigate the manner in which they connect in the school experience, authors consider the particular situations of males and females of divergent racial and class backgrounds from their earliest childhood experiences through the adult university years. While providing valuable original in-depth ethnographic and statistical analyses, the volume also incorporates some of the important current theoretical debates; the debate between structuralists and culturalists is highlighted, for example.Lois Weis is Associate Professor of Sociology of Education and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Educational Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

This book addresses race, class, and gender in education in the United States. It debates the issues of institutionalized power and privilege, and the policies, discourses, and practices that silence powerless groups.At the center of the silence are the most critical and powerful voices of all — children and adolescents with their relentless desire to be heard and to survive. Weis and Fine go beyond examining policies, discourse, and practices to call up the voices of young people who have been expelled from the centers of their schools and our culture to speak as interpreters of adolescent culture — among them, lesbian and gay students who have been assaulted in their schools; adolescent women burying their political and personal resistances the moment their bodies “fill out;” young men and women struggling for identities amid the radically transforming conditions of late twentieth-century capitalism; and Native American college students almost wholly excluded from the academic conversation.Lois Weis is Professor and Associate Dean in the Graduate School of Education at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is editor of Class, Race, and Gender in American Education; Crisis in Teaching: Perspectives on Current Reforms; Dropouts from School: Issues, Dilemmas, and Solutions; and Critical Perspectives on Early Childhood Education, all published by SUNY Press. Michelle Fine is Professor of Psychology at the City University of New York Graduate Center. She is author of Framing Dropouts: Notes on the Politics of an Urban High School, also published by SUNY Press.

What can schools do to eliminate sexism and racism? By the 1990's with shifting demographics, disillusionment with conventional liberal policies and new political coalitions, the politics of race and gender requires new analyses. The chapters in this book demonstrate how the politics of race and gender enter into proposals for parental choice, business involvement in schools, definitions of good leadership, special schools for minority children, curriculum debates, and debates about testing and accountability. Catherine Marshall provides the political historical context of race and gender politics in schools, and the following eighteen chapters provide a greater in-depth analysis. The chapters include work of scholars and policy analysts focusing on policy and policy implementation at all levels of school politics in the US, Australia and Israel. The book ends with critical policy analysis, raising deep theoretical questions and pulling out the chronic race and gender issues in education politics.