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Abstract
Despite the significant progress American women have made in the last century, even a cursory exploration of women's political, economic, and cultural status, in comparison to mens, yields depressing results. Schools are uniquely situated to have an impact on gender inequity, both as spaces in which children develop a gender identity and where students can develop the capacity to understand, analyze, and respond to gender issues. Within PK-12 education, social studies teachers are responsible for supporting the development of the knowledge and critical thinking necessary to know the facts around gender inequity, to understand the historical context of asymmetrical gender relations, and to analyze the consequences. However, issues around women and gender within social studies PK-12 and teacher education have been largely ignored.The purpose of this research was to try to understand how normalized, problematic discourses about women are distilled within social studies and how they shape the attention that is paid to women and gender in this field. Using poststructural and feminist theories and methods, I analyzed the discourses present in social studies lesson plans and methods course syllabi to identify the way that work around women and gender gets done - or doesn't. The purpose of my text-based research was to both examine and contribute to the existing literature base describing the place and status of gender and women's issues in the field. In exploring the constructions of women and gender in these discursive spaces, I seek to help researchers and teacher educators in the field recognize the variety of ways in which they can exercise power in order to work on the very serious problems that continue to confront women in the world.