ABSTRACT
Any examination of participation in lifelong learning across the world reveals a highly segmented system, with men predominating in vocational education, technical courses and work-based learning, and women more likely to participate in community education and the caring fields. While such patterns are globally evident, there are, of course, many differences between countries. In the UK, for example, women now outnumber men in further education colleges and university undergraduate study, while some other countries are still struggling to ensure children’s, and especially girls’, access to primary education, never mind to technical education and training. Yet as the chapters in this book ably demonstrate, gendered patterns of access, participation and outcomes, albeit differently configured in different contexts, remain stubbornly persistent across the field of lifelong learning.
