The International Handbook of Women's Education focuses on the history, current status, and outcome of women's schooling. The book provides comparative information about women's education across a broad spectrum of 23 countries. Each essay considers the history of women's education, ideological, and religious beliefs as well as cultural and political traditions which account for the pace of development of women's education and the particular forms that education has taken. The historical context each essay provides serves as a basis for understanding the extent of sexual inequality in school and society which has characterized the world in the past and persists in the present. The major focus of each essay is the state of women's education today. A central concern in each is to chart enrollment patterns and how educational, social, and economic policies affect these patterns. Each essay also considers the content of women's education as well as the outcome of education on women in the labor force, in the political system, and in the family. Finally, each chapter considers contemporary government policies which seek to redress inequalities in education and/or the outcome of education, and the role of the women's movement in seeking change. A bibliography of approximately 1000 items on women's education world wide completes the volume.
The descriptive and analytical essays contained in this Handbook provide as comprehensive a picture as possible at this time of women's educational enrollment patterns and also seek to explain why the pattern is as it is. This new handbook is an important addition to the literature of women's studies and education.
