ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book talks about the ideas and experiences of women in order to involve the reader, as well as the adult educator, in fresh ways of educational thinking, seeing and doing. It focuses on four strands in women's education: extending traditional subjects both male and female; education that is positive discrimination; women's studies/feminist studies classes for women about women and by women; and a feminist dimension in all education and its practices. It is not just a question of simple equality or more access to more of the same education, but a qualitative change of emphasis where the many dimensions of women's experiences and knowledge, alongside those of other races and cultures, are taken as natural, normal, and universal. For the last two hundred years education has been linked to the needs of an industrial, work-directed and individualist consumer society where technical and economic needs were paramount.
