ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a selected review of literature on gender and learning with a specific focus on adults. The analysis draws on feminist perspectives that have explored whether or not women have a particular learning preference or way of acquiring knowledge. Whilst feminism takes many perspectives, the emphasis here is on a poststructural stance that
recognizes the complexity of gender analysis and tries to avoid creating fixed, binary divides between males and females. Particular knowledge perspectives are introduced, such as subjectivity, standpoint theory, and knowledge itself, before looking in more detail at the focus of many studies on gender and learning – that of the distinction between separate and connected knowing. Finally, some suggestions for further research are made, with reference to practice theory and its potential contribution to a more holistic understanding of the relationships between learning, gender and context. The core argument of this chapter is that gendered positions on learning are not fixed. They are mediated by time, space, situation and power relations.
