ABSTRACT
Th is chapter is predicated upon the mission of the Research on Women and Education Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. It asserts the following goals: (a) to promote research concerning the education of women and girls; (b) to provide a mechanism to facilitate communication among researchers and practitioners who are concerned about women in education at the intersection of race, class, gender, and culture; and (c) to support education. Addressing the topic of gender justice is a vast and inclusive undertaking. Gender, like race and social class, is a positionality that intersects with other social justice concerns. One of the tasks of the gender justice educator is to enable all people to understand why it is in the best interests of society to redress the injustices enacted against women. It is important to clarify that whenever any segment of society is oppressed, by extension, the opportunities and privileges that are withheld from that group are implicated in the privileges and opportunities accorded other groups. As we educate students in all facets of the educational arena, we must strive to overcome the temptation to create oppositional stances and competing oppressions. No form of oppression is better or worse than another. Each has its distinct characteristics and the tools and infrastructure that are erected to support one form of oppression inevitably aff ect and support other forms.
