ABSTRACT
In Chapter 1 we argued that ‘the needs of capitalist industry do exercise a major influence on the character and the structure of the education system’. 1 We also stressed the importance of the family and of sex—gender relations more generally as a further set of powerful determinations on schooling. 2 We now look more closely at these influences. We are especially concerned with the questions posed at the end of the last chapter: what are the limits of educational reform under capitalist and patriarchal conditions? How in practice are these limits imposed?
