ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses what woman's place in education is - once we have challenged the myths, dispelled the misapprehensions, and learnt to avoid the monsters. Opponents of women's education believed that the female reproductive system made her health so precarious that she could not study Greek or Algebra without the risk of brain fever or sterility. Both sides of the struggle to gain women's entry to academic secondary education, university degrees and the liberal professions during the 1850-1950 periods appear absurd. The chapter argues that few qualitative researchers have lived up to the standard set by Becker and Young, and focuses on gender can help them deal with the familiarity problem and provide important data. It suggests to combat the familiarity problem: Studying unusual classrooms in our own culture, studying schools and classrooms in other cultures, study non-educational settings, and adopt gender as the main focus.
