Female-Teacher Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Ontario, Canada

[The Romans] created the cult of the Vestal Virgins, high-minded priestesses of the goddess Vesta, Guardian Angel of Mankind and Keeper of the Hearth. These priestesses were educated in special normal training schools, were forbidden to many, were subjected to drastic moral codes, and were accorded social position of preeminence.¹
Spinster teachers were hired so frequently in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that they eventually became an important part of the cultural landscape.²
Single women seem forever to unnerve, anger and unwittingly scare large swaths of the population, both female and male.³     

Pupils,Resistance and Gender Codes: a study of classroom encounters

This paper uses classroom observation in two rural comprehensive schools to examine the issue of why girls appear to contribute to their limited life chances by opting into feminine areas of the curriculum. It is argued that both teachers’ coping strategies and pupils’ opposition to education contribute to the reinforcement of traditional gender codes by drawing on exaggerated notions of masculinity and femininity. The concept of resistance is examined and it is argued that pupils’ manipulation of traditional gender codes to contest teacher authority does not constitute any challenge to the reproduction of existing class/gender relations, but rather reinforces the status quo.     

Autonomy versus affirmative action: What price social justice?

This study measures all the marginal direct and indirect costs of an affirmative action/equal employment opportunity (AA/EEO) program at a single institution through cost analysis procedures identifying cost generating variables in three categories: personnel, operating expenses, and capital outlay replacement value. Costs were weighed against benefits, as measured by number of women and minorities hired. Since costs and benefits should be evaluated only in relation to effectiveness of implementation procedures, program administration was assessed through a series of interviews with faculty chairs. Total compliance costs incurred for the university in one budget cycle amounted to 0.4% of the total institutional budget, and the great majority of these costs were expended indirectly, in faculty time. Representation of women and minorities was increased by approximately 1.9%, despite lack of strong leadership from the central administration and haphazard program administration. Although the costs incurred in implementing AA/EEO are negliglible compared to other social justice legislation, educators still decry its expense. Thus, we argue that educators are not concerned with the actual dollar outlay for AA/ EEO but instead use its intangible educational costs as a symbolic issue in their struggle with the state over university autonomy.     

Childbirth educators, doulas, nurses, and women respond to the six care practices for normal birth

This collection of commentaries by childbirth educators, doulas, a labor and delivery nurse, and a woman preparing for the birth of her second baby provide an overall response to all six of Lamaze International's care practice papers that promote normal birth: Labor Begins on Its Own; Freedom of Movement throughout Labor; Continuous Labor Support; No Routine Interventions; Non-Supine (e.g., Upright or Side-Lying) Positions for Birth; and No Separation of Mother and Baby with Unlimited Opportunity for Breastfeeding. Strategies for using the position papers to facilitate learning in childbirth classes and for helping expectant parents access and understand research are presented. The commentaries describe the value of the position papers as a catalyst for professional growth, a foundation for creating change, a way to encourage reflection among professionals and women planning for the births of their babies, and an inspiration for everyone who advocates normal birth.