[...]... developed independent and autonomous careers, and created an important professional niche for themselves in elementary teaching and teacher training These teachers represented the elite of the elementary teaching profession in terms of status, qualifications, and cultural and intellectual ambition, and a significant number became principals of centres Nevertheless, their careers show intriguing patterns, in. .. than competent to play a role in determining policy Through their negotiation of institutional structures, existing social discourses and power relationships, these extraordinary women from ordinary backgrounds were successful in finding a ‘voice’ for those who were directly involved in the work being discussed Women inspectors, first appointed in 1893, were very much entering a men’s world, unwelcome... women) find they can see but not progress’.3 The 1990s have seen a growing output of books (largely by women) on women in administration and management, especially as regards the ‘glass ceiling’.4 Standard texts on the history of educational policy-making and administration, on the other hand, often omit or marginalise the contributions of women Yet, as Carol Dyhouse’s revisionist account Girls Growing... Gender Matters in Educational Administration and Policy 9 M.Hughes, “The Shrieking Sisterhood”, p 255 10 See, for example, N.Daglish, Education Policy-making in England and Wales The Crucible Years, 1895–1911, London, Woburn, 1996 11 P.Rabinow, The Foucault Reader, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1986, p 64, quoted in S.J.Ball, Education Reform: A Critical and Post-structural Approach, Buckingham, Open University... debate about what constitutes feminist activity and whether recent definitions of feminism can be applied to the past.19 Maggie Andrews notes: What is within the boundaries of the feminine is always considered to have less status and power and is always subordinate and marginal— women always remain as ‘Other’ I perceive feminist history as part of the process of challenging the boundaries of the socially... pp 225–40; J.Martin, Women and the Politics of Schooling in Victorian and Edwardian England, London, Leicester University Press, 1999 F.Hunt, Gender and Policy in English Education 1902–1944, London, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991 7 On the trend to take account of gender, see J.Blackmore and J.Kenway (eds), Gender Matters in Educational Administration and Policy: A Feminist Introduction, London, Falmer,... contained general principles which the women elementary teachers had advocated, and that they had played a part in making social reform an increasingly important item on the education agenda in the 1890s The impact of these schoolmistresses on the commission was an important factor in proving the necessary and valuable contribution made by women within a rapidly developing education system, and in making... actively participate in shaping national character and national interest, at a time when notions of Englishness were being re-defined in the aftermath of the French Revolution and in the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft.5 Women eager to carve out a role in the developing educational provision for the poor claimed that practical experience of education gained in the family provided women with educational skills... to ‘guard, guide and educate, with the aim of transforming individuals into good persons and decent citizens’.10 The pedagogical relations of ‘care’ constructed power in complex ways, empowering women and reworking relations of authority and the institutions of society, both in Britain and the British colonies.11 The work of women school governors was also situated within the shift in the locus of authority... Catharine Cappe recorded how the women of the committee worked unstintingly on a rota that changed every six weeks During their allotted period they visited the school at least once a week, minutely inspecting every aspect of school life, from the girls’ reading, spelling and spinning to the produce grown in the garden and the food served to the girls They recorded their observations in the minute . x0 y0 w0 h0" alt="" Women, Educational Policy-Making and Administration in England The role of women in policy-making has been largely neglected in conventional social and political histories Data Women, educational policy-making and administration in England: authoritative women since 1800/[edited by] Joyce Goodman and Sylvia Harrop p. cm. Includes bibliographhical references and index. 1 Suffrage in the British Empire Citizenship, nation and race Edited by Ian Christopher Fletcher, Laura E Nym Mayhall and Philippa Levine 4 Women, Educational Policy-Making and Administration in England Authoritative