Home Base: Policy on the Education of Women as Adults

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with the development of policy in post-school education. In particular, I illustrate the general argument by taking adult education as an example of educational provision for adults as distinct from further and higher education. (See for example Blunden, pp. 153–62, in Acker et al., 1984; Thomas, 1990) Women have been accorded a different status to men both in policy and practice by both default and design. Adult education has been referred to as a ‘women’s service’ (Keddie, 1981). Traditionally, it has confined women’s horizons to the home. I will argue that it is a service for women but not a service of women. I will consider, in particular, whether adult education for women has really been non-vocational and a leisure-time activity as it has been assumed commonly to be. In addition, I want to consider the meaning of adult in the term adult education in relation specifically to women.