ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I consider the relationship between gender equality, pedagogy and citizenship. Until recently, citizenship studies and the study of gender and education appeared to have little mutual relevance (Dillabough and Arnot, 2001; Dillabough and Arnot, 2003), even though feminist political and educational theorists have addressed similar issues. What unites their interest is the tension between equality and difference. Embedded within the liberal democratic discourse are notions of universalism and undifferentiated abstract notions of citizenship. Feminist political theorists ask how such concepts of citizenship can simultaneously address issues of gender equality and gender difference. At the same time, but often independently, feminist educationalists have considered the same dilemma about how to educate pupils using gender equality as the goal, whilst simultaneously celebrating difference.
