ABSTRACT
Feminism and democracy, although apparently having a good deal in common, did not develop in tandem. In fact, it was only by the nineteenth century that the normative ideals of ‘equality’ united feminist and democratic movements in Western Europe and North America. One should not assume, therefore, that concerns about ‘gender equality’ are synonymous with the concept of democracy. Nor can it be legitimately argued that each and any form of democratic education would fulfi l feminist educational ideals. Clearly, much depends on how democratic education and questions of equality are defi ned, conceptualised, and expressed in relation to gender politics and the authentic concerns of feminists. More signifi cantly, some feminist theorising suggests that gender equality, as a goal, serves to obscure more complex explanations about the relationship of women to democratic social formations. Indeed, on such a view far more attention needs to be paid to a consideration of how, theoretically, we might unravel the contradictions which currently manifest the relationship between gender, education, and democracy.
