This book provides valuable insights into the situation of women in distance education around the world. A wide variety of evidence from different countries supports the conclusion that open and distance learning has the potential to provide equal opportunities in higher and continuing education and that these are currently being missed. The author provides conclusive evidence that distance education, while involving a degree of risk to the stability of families and relationships, etc., nevertheless offers women a chance which, on balance, is worth taking. The author says that it is up to distance education policy makers to provide a framework for women students which will limit the risks and maximise the opportunities. Drawing on fascinating case study material, this book presents vital information for these policy makers.

This book provides valuable insights into the situation of women in distance education around the world. A wide variety of evidence from different countries supports the conclusion that open and distance learning has the potential to provide equal opportunities in higher and continuing education and that these are currently being missed. The author provides conclusive evidence that distance education, while involving a degree of risk to the stability of families and relationships, etc., nevertheless offers women a chance which, on balance, is worth taking. The author says that it is up to distance education policy makers to provide a framework for women students which will limit the risks and maximise the opportunities. Drawing on fascinating case study material, this book presents vital information for these policy makers.

Originally published in 1988. This book provides an overview of women's experience, access and needs in distance education. It includes contributions on distance learning programmes in Holland, Canada, the South Pacific, West Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Kenta, Great Britain, India, Papua New Guinea, Sweden and Turkey. Within this diversity are common international themes on the nature of the educational process for women in distance learning, whether the subject is building construction or art teaching. The incorporation of a historical perspective and an evaluation of the prospects for the future contextualises the descriptions of the ways in which women are currently re-defining themselves through distance education around the world.

Annotation. Argues that distance learning has the potential to provide equal opportunities in HE and that it is up to policy makers to provide a framework for women students that will limit the risks and maximise the opportunities.

This book investigates the intersection of gender and distance education from a feminist perspective and explores their contemporary innovative interfaces in Indian and international contexts. The key issues raised here include a re- investigation of the democratizing potential of distance education from a gendered perspective (especially in developing countries such as India), feminist pedagogical perspectives on the notion of transactional distance, the relationship between masculinity and gerontology from the perspective of non- traditional modes, and the interrelationships between gender and social media from a distance education perspective. As opposed to the conventional, physical classroom, the virtual classroom often occupies a de- privileged space in feminist pedagogical discussions, since it appears to align itself less easily with feminist praxes which encourage a free, intellectual exchange between teachers and students. By opening up various facets of the relationship between gender, distance education and feminist pedagogy, the book foregrounds the critical need to re- visit preconceived, unfavourable assumptions about this relationship and proposes mutually productive inter-linkages. It does so in the context of contemporary circumstances defined by the increasing use of virtual technology, the ongoing need for democratization of higher education and the constraints posed by consumerist trends. Lucid and topical, this Focus volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of higher education, open and distance education, feminist pedagogy, gender studies, feminism, masculinity, and women’s studies as well as practitioners and policymakers working in the education sector.