ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes activities in a number of primary and secondary South Australian schools that focused on physical competence as a way of raising girls' self-esteem. It offers different perspectives on the process of empowering young women. The book describes a rescue operation at the University of Sydney, where young women whose previous schooling in mathematics was lacking are being helped to acquire mathematical skills for the degree courses they have chosen. It addresses some of the issues in the study of school science by girls. The book examines the outcomes of compulsory science in Western Australia. It considers some of the outcomes of single-sex compared to co-educational schooling in a five-year longitudinal study of two single-sex schools that merged to become two co-educational high schools.
