Educating Women: the political economy of patriarchal states

ABSTRACT This study reviews available evidence on the educational conditions of women and policies enacted by states throughout the world regarding education and gender. It focuses on two extremes of the educational continuum ‐ illiteracy and higher education ‐ in an effort to detect not only state behaviours toward women but also the interaction between gender and class. The evidence suggests that states, regardless of type of governance and mode of economic production, engage in activities that either continue to assign domestic responsibilities to women or leave undisturbed social representations of women's ‘proper role’ in society. These representations, though maintained through ideological forces, have a clear material foundation and are supported by an implicit coalition of men and women of upper‐and middle‐classes that permits wealthier women to share some benefits with men while extracting resources from lower‐class women.