Teacher Unions and Gender Equity Policy for Education

Abstract

The relationships and networks of teacher unions and the women’s movement helped create the political pressure for the development of policy for gender equity in education. This research, using documents and interviews, shows how, from shared values, the policy discourse and strategies for gender equity opened policy windows for federal and state policies, how the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) created their own strategies (e.g., resolutions, training, and curricular materials), and how the unions and women’s movement activists built social capital from their combined strengths. It also shows that the networks, relationships, and shared values helped maintain some gender policy implementation when governmental attention, programs, and budgets were inadequate. The research illustrates teacher unions as agents for social change. It also expands policy studies by focusing on gender as a substantive policy issue in education. Finally, it demonstrates the possibilities for combining frameworks from policy windows with social capital theory.

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