Chapter 8: Fighting for Gender Equity in Curriculum

The story of curriculum change and equity related to girls and women is, in many ways, the story of the women’s rights movement from its earliest days to modern times in the United States. Efforts of determined women and their male allies have brought about huge changes from the early Colonial Era when few White girls and virtually no girls of color received any kind of public education at all. The prevailing ideology of females as the weaker and less cognitively capable sex has been very slow to change, yet progress has been made. The public school curriculum today from prekindergarten to graduate classes reflects a more balanced gendered representation, is more available to both sexes, and is influenced to a great degree by spokespersons from a wide range of cultural groups. More must be done, however, to ensure equity regarding curriculum issues for both females and males.