Women and Education
Out of all the books we looked at, not one showed women as frequently as men in pictures� (One reader) has 25 stories with male leads, 3 with female leads, 7 where leads are shared. The females who take the lead do not always provide positive models either. When you have to count as female leads a princess who stays in bed for the whole story�the old woman who sewed the top of her apron onto the bottom to make it longer�and Cathy who puts the dog�s hair up in curlers, it is obvious that the field is not overcrowded with strong heroines.
- Excerpt from �A Brief on the Presentation of Girls and Women in the Primary and Elementary Curriculum of Newfoundland�, prepared by the Newfoundland Status of Women Council, 1975
Women�s education was an area of concern in the Royal Commission on the Status of Women and was tackled early on in the Women�s Movement. A special Education group of the Newfoundland Status of Women Council was active as early as 1972. Among other things, this group presented a brief to the Provincial Task Force on Curriculum about the need for sex education and wrote a report on Sexism and Sex-role Stereotyping in textbooks.
Other issues in women�s education included the lack of science courses in some all-girl schools; the guidance of young women into traditional careers (nursing, teaching, typing) only; the lack of women high-school teachers and School Board members; and the need for a Women�s Studies program at Memorial University (which was achieved in 1983).