Binders of Women and the Blinders of Men: Feminist Critique of Education Policy

• In Event: Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Gender, Culture, Justice, and Policy

Abstract

This paper uses feminist theory to address educational problems by examining women’s roles in political arenas where they face a wave of backlash against the pursuit of equality. We raise questions about the “war on women,” men in power blind to women’s realities, why some women comply with institutional and political norms that limit their choices, and about the potential for grassroots activism for altering dominant agenda-setting. Former Massachusetts’s Governor Mitt Romney’s approach, keeping “binders full of women” he could tap for state positions, doesn’t solve deeper gender issues. When talented and accomplished women are only names in binders, their potential for alternative framing of politics and priorities go to waste. This paper offers feminist insights into alternative policy directions.

Authors

• Catherine Marshall, University of North Carolina

• Lois Andre Bechely, California State University - Los Angeles

• Brooke Midkiff, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill