Has gender a future as an educational concept? Gaby Weiner Collegium for Gender in Education Collegium for Sociology of Education Gothenburg University June 2018 January 19 Gaby Weiner

Structure of Presentation Autobiographical snapshot THE START OF THE FIELD Success: new field, journal, professional legitimacy, energy and passion Maturity: complexity, intersectionality, theoreticisation Decay: just another academic field, theory/practice split, collapse of foundational binaries, Anglo-centrism THE END OF THE FIELD? Gender as (just) one of a range of social factors affecting schooling and education generally. January 19 Gaby Weiner

Feminist periodisation/waves ‘Pre-feminism’: struggles over ‘women’ question 1800s-early 1900s: 1st wave: struggle of women for vote, education and work 1970s-1980s: 2nd wave, emergence of gender and education as part of new social movement; focus on education practice and policy 1990s: 3rd wave, growth of theorisation, intersectionality, complexity, influence of gender studies 2000s onwards, 4th wave, conflicts within feminism, collapse of binaries January 19 Gaby Weiner

Authorship on gender 1985 1994 1987 1999 1995 1987 2001 January 19 Gaby Weiner 2001

Start of the field Early success: new field, journal, professional legitimacy, energy and passion Gender and Education journal, first issue 1989 Collective involvement of professionals/academics/state Research possibilities Publishing opportunities (gender sells!) Underpinned by feminism as a social movement (Women’s Liberation) Career opportunities January 19 Gaby Weiner

Feminisms (1994) January 19 Gaby Weiner

Feminisms (1994) Three Dimensions: Political: a movement to improve the conditions and life-chances for women Critical: a sustained, intellectual critique of dominant (male) forms of knowing and doing Praxis-oriented: concerned with the development of ethical forms pf professional and personal practice January 19 Gaby Weiner

Maturity of the field Confidence, recognition, complexity, intersectionality, theorisation Creation of international association (GEA) and website Internationalisation of field Establishment of doctoral studies and programmes Theorisation Onset of neo-liberalism in Higher Education January 19 Gaby Weiner

Problems with/in field Decay? Just another academic field, theory/practice split, collapse of foundational binaries Criticisms – e.g. Anglo-centrism, over-theorisation, distance from practice Academic discipline in neo-liberal times; researchers as scholars not activists Binary gender categories under attack Fragmentation: theoretical (intersectionality) and policy (gender collapsed into social justice framework) January 19 Gaby Weiner

End of the field? Downward spiral? gender now treated as a social justice factor in schooling and education, one of many – ‘race’, ethnicity, class, migrant status, LGBT, faith, urban/rural struggle to stay a single–issue movement/discipline new influences emerging outside current field e.g. impact of violence, warfare and migration impact of neoliberalism = gender as performativity, commodification January 19 Gaby Weiner

Jury is out ‘It has become evident in compiling this overview of the field of gender and equity in education that, even in its short history of 40 years or so, the field has had to incorporate many changed notions of feminism, gender identity and inter- and cross-sectionality, as well as serious challenges to its foundational assumptions about what gender has meant and means now in different educational settings, within and across nations and continents. January 19 Gaby Weiner

Jury is out (2) We have also identified generational tensions among feminist and gender researchers concerning their relationship to political action on one hand, and the theoretical and methodological innovations required by academia on the other. This is the field’s dynamic yet controversial legacy, which will no doubt be taken forward by new generations of researchers in ways difficult for us at this stage to anticipate. (Gender, Justice, and Equity in Education, , Elisabet Öhrn and Gaby Weiner, Oxford Research Encyclopedias, 2017). January 19 Gaby Weiner

References Öhrn and Weiner (2009)  The Sound of Silence! Reflections on inclusion and exclusion in the field of gender and education, Gender and Education, 21, 4, 423-430. Forbes, Öhrn and Weiner (2011) Slippage and/or symbolism: Gender, policy and educational governance in Scotland and Sweden  Gender and Education, 23, 6, 761-776 Öhrn and Weiner, (2017) Gender, Justice, and Equity in Education, Oxford Research Encyclopedias. Weiner and Weiner (2018) ‘You’re trouble you are, just like your mother’. An intergenerational narrative on activism in Higher Education. Pedagogy, Culture and Society. January 19 Gaby Weiner

Contact details Gaby Weiner gaby.weiner@btinternet.com www.gabyweiner.co.uk January 19 Gaby Weiner