ABSTRACT
Much of the work that has been done to date on the relationship of women and schooling has emerged from liberal feminist analyses of schools. Such work has focused on sex stereotyping and bias. Theorists working from this perspective have outlined and exposed the sexual bias in curricular materials and school practices. While the strength of the liberal perspective lies in its documentation of gender discrimination and the analysis of specific sexist texts and practices, its lack of social or economic analysis limits its ability to explain the origins of these practices or the ways in which other structures of power and control affect what goes on within schools. Although socialist feminist theory has developed rapidly in the last decade, work that explicitly addresses the role of schools in reproducing gender oppression has been somewhat limited.
