4. Feminism and Education for Library and Information Work

Since feminism is a political stance which draws attention to the external factors which limit women's lives we can predict that it may be slow to make an impact in a professional group which accepts the mores of conservatism in both its practice and its educational institutions. Nevertheless, in a professional group which has a professional register of 6,890 women there are likely to be some movements or shifts in attitudes leading to changes in behaviour eventually. Library and information work in common with many other service occupations has relied heavily on a female workforce. It has frozen into many of the organisational patterns designed by and for men that are present in both bureaucratic public service and industrial/commercial work organisations.