Abstract

This lecture covered three aspects of gender disparity, with particular reference to the Commonwealth. The lecture divided into two halves so that the pedagogy as well as the content illuminated gender issues:
– the first, illustrating what are generally accepted as feminine, post-modernist approaches, is on power point and consists of slides shown to the audience without comment. The audience is then asked to share their feelings about the information presented.
– the second is delivered by reading the following paper in authoritarian mode to illustrate what are generally accepted as a masculine, modernist style with a competitive element introduced.

a. data on gender disparities in education around the Commonwealth
b. outline of possible causes
c. should we, and can we do anything about this and if so, what ?
The theme of this paper concerns ‘singing the same song’ in relation to gender disparities, a theme selected because there does seem to be one song emerging. Simplistically: in access to education, retention, school life expectancy and achievements,