Vancouver Women's Caucus PLE wh C
Miscussion Paver A WON ver Be"

“PAT HOFFER SOUCATION AS A PRIORITY saat
MARCY COHEN |

oe The women's wovement as a revolutionary force must turn its attention to the
schools. It is in the schools that children are socialized’ to play the roles essen~
tial to the continuance of the cavitalist state. It is in the schools that chilcren
are deprived of their humanity. Through a relatively arbitrary and inflexible sys-
tem, personality traits are assigned to girls simoly bacause they are girls, anc to
boys simply because they are boys. Girls are taught to be passive, submissive anc.
supportive; boys are encouraged to be more competitive, aggressive and authoritative.
In concrete tems, these traits are reflected and reinforced in play activity, in
school curricula, and channelling.

The little girl playing with her dolls is practising the role that she is later
expected to assume. The directing of girls into home economics and boys into incus-

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trial arts further reinforces the role differentiation.
ents |

Job chamelling is most clearly reflected in high schools, in vocational and
commercial courses, and more subtly in the expectation that girls will do better in
courses such as English and French, and boys will do hetter in the sciences. The
self-fulfilling prophecy becomes realized at the university level, where the major-
ity of women go into arts, education, and nursinc. The vast majority of women who do
not go on to university, take low-paying service or auxilliary jobs. “hether they
axe professionally trained or not, many wormen regard their jobs as temporary, as a
stoo-gan measure before marxiags. | ,
; For most women, their primary source of identity lies in their role as wife and
other. In many reseects, the kinds of occumations that women take are simply exten-
sions cf this nurturing and suoportive role: as a nurse rather then a doctor; as a
etary rather than a lawyer; and as a teacher rather than a principal.

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Teaching as a Profession for Women.

Even ii education, where women are in the majority, their previous socializa-
tion affects their stecus within the orofession. Men are considered’ professional and.
women are’ considered sorvice staff. It is the men who control the schools and the
WOM WhO Work Jar them eee | |

\fications put forward to exolain this situation is that women
ssicn as long. Statistics show, however, that women remain
“in the prore: wuyer than men, even though they rarely get oromotions, anc in
spite of the that prejudicial recqulations seriously Cisadvantage women who be-
coms pregnanc. c example, in Vancouver, women cannot comtinue to teach beyond
their fourth mowth. of oregnamcy, and are not allowed to return to teaching until
one full year after the birth of their child. During this time; there is absolutely
no compensation, nor is there any guarantee of being rehired.

Another justification for keeping women in the lowest echelons of the profess-
ion, and hence in the lowest salary ranges, is that men need higher salaries because
they are susnorting theix families. Howaver, the number of women who are heacs of
family is : rt
husband's

jouer

cr

inceaasing, and even when married women work, it is often because their

salary is insufficient. : ee
it is true that women teachers are often less qualified than their mle’ col-
leagues. This can, cnly be understood in the context that women find it much more
difficult to Finance their own education, since they cannot get well ‘paying part-
time jobs. Furthermore, they are generally not cncouraged to further their ecluca~
tion: they “price themselves out of the market” if they become “too qualified’. In
some British Columbia elementary schools, for example, third-year Education students
are hired in preference over aqraduates.