ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how new comparisons relating to gender have shaped cross-cultural comparative research as well as being shaped by it. It also shows that while comparison has been important in relation to concerns about the education of women, so too has been a critical attention to the frameworks within which comparisons are developed. The 1975 report, Girls, School and Society took a comparative approach to be a central curriculum strategy for a good liberal education. The new comparison of women with other women about their situation as women has had a powerful effect on new practices of research and educational strategy related to non-sexist education. Dilemmas of negotiating comparison with a group who are oppressed, and of negotiating relativism and dogmatism in doing so are also seen in some lines of action in schools attempting to work towards non-sexist education.
