Adult Education History and the Issue of Gender: Toward A Different History of adult Education In America

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Abstract
Adult education history suffers from gender bias. Historians of the field have marginalized or written women out of the historical narrative. Arguing for the inclusion of gender as a category of historical analysis, this paper first compares the visibility of women in the historical research literature with their visibility in field-sponsored publications drawn mainly from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Second, it identifies mechanisms within the field that fostered women's invisibility in adult education histories. To move toward a more inclusive historiography, historical researchers can take a compensatory approach to women's marginalization or a critical approach that makes the interplay of gender and education problematic and thus the source of new research questions.