Women, Gender and Education in Britain, c.1850-2000
| Module title | Women, Gender and Education in Britain, c.1850-2000 |
|---|---|
| Module code | HIH1142 |
| Academic year | 2025/6 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Dr Eve Worth (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 10 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 20 |
|---|
Module description
The expansion of access to education has been at the heart of changes to women’s lives and feminist movements in Modern British History. This module examines key moments in the history of women and girls’ education in Britain from the pivotal Victorian movement for women’s education to the so-called ‘gendered revolution’ in education at the turn of the millennium. The module explores the interrelationship between education and gendered norms. We will engage with a range of primary source material to analyse the history of women and gender in education: including oral histories, autobiographies, policy documents and statistical data.
Module aims - intentions of the module
This module aims to:
• Introduce you to the range of sources that can be used to understand the history of women, gender and education in Modern Britain;
• Provide you with the tools that women and gender historians use to approach and analyse source material in complex ways;
• Help you examine why education is so central for understanding women’s and gender history more broadly in this period;
• Introduce you to the ways in which gender intersects with race and class in education.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Understand and assess the nature of education in Britain and its relationship to gender, and the changes in education for women and girls since mid-nineteenth century
- 2. Work critically with a range of written and visual sources for the history of women, gender and education in Britain
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Identify the problems of using historical sources, e.g. utility, limitations, etc., and compare the validity of different types of source
- 4. Present historical arguments and answer questions orally
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 5. Conduct independent study and group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
- 6. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
- 7. Write to a tight word-limit
Syllabus plan
Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will use a range of primary source material to cover some or all of the following topics:
1. The Victorian movement for women’s education
2. Gender and elite education
3. The meaning and purpose of education
4. The education of working-class women and girls
5. The ‘gendered revolution’ in education
6. The expansion of the university and its relationship to feminism
7. Sociological theories of gender and education
8. Race, gender and schooling
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | 130 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 2 | Workshop |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 18 | 9 x 2-hour seminars. |
| Guided Independent Study | 80 | Reading and preparation for workshops and seminars |
| Guided Independent Study | 48 | Reading and preparation for assessments |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group presentation (3-4 students) | 5 minutes per student | 1-6 | Oral |
| Source commentary | 850 words | 1-7 | Oral |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source commentary 1 | 33 | 850 words | 1-3, 5-7 | Written |
| Source commentary 2 | 33 | 850 words | 1-3, 5-7 | Written |
| Source commentary 3 | 34 | 850 words | 1-3, 5-7 | Written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source commentary 1 (850 words) | Source commentary (850 words) | 1-3, 5-7 | Referral/deferral period |
| Source commentary 2 (850 words) | Source commentary (850 words) | 1-3, 5-7 | Referral/deferral period |
| Source commentary 3 (850 words) | Source commentary (850 words) | 1-3, 5-7 | Referral/deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Madeleine Arnot, Closing the Gender Gap: Post-war Education and Social Change (1999)
- Phillida Bunkle, ‘1944 Education Act and Second Wave Feminism’, Women’s History Review 25/5 (2016)
- Carol Dyhouse, Students: A Gendered History (2006)
- Ellen Jordan, ‘“Making Good Wives and Mothers”? The Transformation of Middle-Class Girls Education in Nineteenth Century Britain’, History of Education Quarterly, 31/4 (1991)
- C Leathwood and B. Read, Gender and the Changing Face of Higher Education: A Feminized Future? (2008)
- Sue Sharpe, Just Like a Girl: How Girls Learn to Be Women from the Seventies to the Nineties (1994)
- Dale Spender, Elizabeth Sarah (eds), Learning to Lose: Sexism and Education (1980)
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 4 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 11/04/2025 |
| Last revision date | 11/04/2025 |
