ABSTRACT
Nursery rhymes and limericks of old are not known for their sensitive or accurate portrayal of social relationships, and the previous sugar and spice characterization may simply appear foolish or humorous now. However, I argue in this article that the essentialism captured by this and other nursery rhymes has also
been a characteristic of many gender analyses and that these may have served to sustain rather than eradicate inequities in schools. I also suggest that as mathe matics educators move from a long tradition of gender research to an emerging focus on the relations between culture, ethnicity, and mathematics achievement, we may learn from the precarious path walked by our predecessors in equity re search. In this article, I present some data and prior scholarship on gender and mathematics to consider the ways in which gender, as a construct, has been lo cated and framed and the implications of such framing for equity analyses more broadly. This uncovers a fundamental tension in equity research, as scholars walk a fine and precarious line between lack of concern on the one hand and essentialism on the other. I argue that negotiating that tension may be the most critical role for equity researchers as we move into the future. Further, I propose that reflexive discussions of the ways in which inequalities are located and framed need to be central to any analyses of equity.
