Gender and the History of Education

About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about the place of gender in the history of education, focusing in particular on: (i) the meaning of the term “gender”; (ii) how gendered expectations limited girls’ educational opportunities in the nineteenth century; (iii) debates regarding which subjects and forms of education were appropriate for girls in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries; (iii) how attitudes and policies changed following the Second World War and the entry of greater numbers of women into the labour market.

About the lecturer

Dr Sam Shields is Lecturer in Education at Newcastle University. She has written on a number of topics within education studies, focusing especially on gendered experiences of education and research methods in educational settings. Her publications include Working Class Female Students’ Experiences of Higher Education: Identities, Choices and Emotions (2021) and Research and Education (2015, co-author).