ABSTRACT
If sexism were a simple and straightforward issue and if there were close links between the rhetoric and the reality, or the adoption of a strategy and the achievement of its ends, then Australia, contrary to the popular stereotype, might be considered a benchmark of enlightenment in its attempts to eliminate sexism in schools. From the report by a study group to the Australian Schools Commission in 1975 which proclaimed that 'Sexist education is a contradiction in terms' (Girls, School and Society, 1975), to a recommendation such as that of the Victorian Education Department to principals of schools in February 1983 which reminded them that 'Combating discrimination based on a person's sex is an Education Department priority' (and which went on to outline a host of steps schools might be expected to take in regard to this), there has been a considerable increase in official recognition of sexism as an issue and the granting of resources to do something about it. At grassroots
level, too, teachers concerned about sexism attempt to develop new ways of teaching and organizing in schools, hold conferences, staff resources centres, and put the issue as a continuing and prominent feature of the work of their unions. Even in the fields of research which feed on and help direct education, it is now almost mandatory for any academic conference to have at least one section devoted to work on sexism, and for bodies funding and promoting school-based developments to selfconsciously employ workers to make sure the area of discrimination on the basis of gender is not overlooked. And yet, despite all this, evidence of achievements in terms of outcomes is rather more difficult to point to, and it seems reasonable to continue to ask whether this flurry of activities has really permeated the structures and processes which constitute Australian schooling.
