Education in Africa 
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| Title: | Competing Gender Ideologies: A Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of Education amongst Batswana of Botswana, c.1840-c.1994 |
| Author: | Mafela, Lily |
| Year: | 1997 |
| Periodical: | Pula: Botswana Journal of African Studies (ISSN 0256-2316) |
| Volume: | 11 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 155-165 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Botswana Southern Africa |
| Subjects: | gender relations women's education Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration Education and Oral Traditions Women's Issues Cultural Roles Historical/Biographical Education and Training Sex Roles education Tswana (African people) Gender-based analysis history |
| External link: | https://d.lib.msu.edu/pula/255/OBJ/download |
| Abstract: | This article presents an analysis of the way in which precolonial, colonial and missionary gender ideologies have determined gender dynamics which have influenced and directed the education of women in Botswana. The precolonial and missionary concepts of gender were at times congruent and at times conflicting in their perception of men and women's roles. The Victorian notion of domesticity affected Tswana women's lives. To some extent, the Tswana sociocultural structures overlapped with Victorian perceptions of women's work. Although it remained domestic oriented, missionary and colonial education provided women with opportunities to move out of the household and into the public domain of the Western milieu. This paper deals with two main conceptual issues relating to ideology. One relates to the ideologies of gender that are associated with Tswana precolonial society and the ways in which Tswana society, colonial government officials and missionaries perceived women's work, and women's roles. The other relates to the institutionalization of these ideologies, notably the ways in which these notions of gender were played out in traditional and colonial Tswana society. In missionary and colonial eras, domesticity achieved institutionalization through both informal village work with women, and formal domestic training in Western educational institutions. By the 1940s, domestic education was no longer desired or studied for its domesticating effects alone. Increasingly, Tswana saw it as a viable economic option. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. |
