Don't be too polite girls!: Women, work and vocational education and training - A critical review of the literature

The literature relating to women and vocational education and training (VET) generated over the last decade (1987-mid-1998) is extensive. It is drawn from many different academic disciplines, from both within Australia and from overseas. It includes the work of individuals, research teams, diverse community groups and government and nongovernment organisations. It concerns women from a wide variety of backgrounds.

The literature reviewed both shapes and indicates a substantial body of knowledge in relation to women and VET. However, much remains unpublished, obscures authors' names, and is difficult to locate. The difficulties associated with ready access to literature in the latter category limits its potential as a resource for policy-making and strategy-planning.

The literature reveals considerable research activity concerning women and VET. It is noted that equity-related research is not accorded the same significance as so-called 'mainstream' research in VET. While it can be argued that equity-related research has resulted in a positive impact on localised pedagogical and practice issues for women, there is little evidence of significant policy or structural systemic outcomes. Most equity research is funded from government-related sources. Most often, this research:

• is undertaken to inform or support policy decisions and therefore is driven and framed by political and ideological agendas. As such, it has been more reactive than proactive
• is piecemeal, so that it is difficult to assemble a comprehensive picture of change
• tends to consider women as 'other', while normalising the experiences of men
• lacks a perspective of 'advantage' as opposed to 'disadvantage'

A full understanding of the impact and implications of social and economic change on, and for VET would benefit significantly from attention to women, for:

Women's experiences are a mirror to the future. Women experience first hand the extent to which the current institutional framework? including labour market structures and the social infrastructure? has failed to keep pace with the changing technological, economic, social and political realities (OECD 1994, p.13).

Women have clearly articulated what they want from VET. Women's goals recognise both the 'education' and the 'training' aspects of VET and often reflect a lifelong learning focus. Since they comprise half the population, women are not content with being second-best, but seek acknowledgement as legitimate clients whose needs are considered equal to those of advantaged groups. This means ceasing to make 'arrangements for young men and then making unsatisfactory running repairs to the system to accommodate women and other equity groups' (Connole 1997,p1).

The business of equity has never been central to the 'real' business of VET. There is little understanding of what equity means at a national level and there is a reluctance among policy-makers to act on recommendations of equity-related research which call for structural or systemic changes that would see equity become a central organising principle within the VET system.

Aggregated participation data for the VET sector indicating that women's participation in VET has improved in the past decade hide many continuing problems, including clustering in fields of study and at lower levels, less employer support for external training, under-representation and low completion rates in apprenticeships in non-traditional areas and lower retention rates in traineeships in group training companies.

These problems, and the stronger preference by women than men for VET courses in the 'personal enrichment stream' are partially explained by qualitative data indicating that women in VET continue to experience a highly gendered culture that fails to take adequate account of the complexity of their lives and experiences and to recognise their commitment to employment. Particularly in non-traditional areas, women continue to have to deal with unacceptable and inappropriate behaviour from employers, students and teaching staff. In addition, some of their difficulties have been compounded rather than ameliorated by reforms to, and in VET, such as 'flexibility', which disadvantages some women by giving a higher priority to prioritising the needs of industries and enterprises. Even in the female-dominated Adult and Community Education (ACE) sector, specific strategies to meet the needs of particular groups of women receive low priority or follow-through.

Diminishing commitment to equity in the contemporary marketised VET system will continue to present even greater challenges, including that, in an environment increasingly dominated by 'user-pays', women's lower-level incomes will inevitably wind back the small participation gains observed.

The literature review reveals a consistency in research findings and recommendations that seek structural systemic change in the VET system, including the political will to position equity as a central organising feature. Such an endeavour is increasingly urgent for the development of a dynamic and rigorous VET system able to position itself proactively in times of rapid global change. Another necessary feature is that of consistent policy which links VET and other related economic and social policy areas.

Ongoing collaborative and participative effort, including that of effective research activities to shape an inclusive VET community and sector might be shaped around seven themes:

• Globalisation and change
  The changing nature, organisation and distribution of work; the 'feminisation' of work; interrelationships between global/local, labour market and vocational education and training implications for women; the 'imperative' of change in VET?a gender analysis; the continuation of enduring patterns of segregation and emerging new divisions; shifts in concepts of knowledges, skills and training for work for women; and the role of the state, and equity for women.

• Social, cultural and demographic changes
  The implications for, and impact on women and VET, of changes in the lives of women produced by political and cultural 'homogenisation'; ageing of workforces; the marginalisation of youth; changing work/family relationships; and changing patterns and locations of 'class'; the role of VET in creating social capital.

• Policies, politics and VET
  Changing shapes of institutions of the state, and implications for women and VET, including 'big picture' research of significance to women; the interrelationships between other sectors, disparate policies that need connecting (for example, industry policy, economic policy, social policies, industrial relations, rural and regional development); policy-making processes and outcomes within VET, including analyses that consider issues related to politics, privilege and power; the positioning of equity within VET (as in any of the other categories); and consultation that ensures a difference for women.

• Marketisation of VET
  Regulation/deregulation, and implications for women/equity groups; the interrelationships between markets and equity contracts; the implications of national 'market' policies and practices for local practices; feminist/womenfriendly economics and VET; the relationships between accountability, measurement and equity; policy and practice accountability for women as clients of VET.

• Economic and social policies and practices for VET
  The role of women in economic and social development; the interplay between paid and unpaid work in the labour force and VET; VET, women and sustainable economic and social growth; compound disadvantage, women and VET; the interrelations between social, cultural and economic capital, women and VET; women, intellectual capital and VET; and futures for women in and through VET.

• Gender issues in VET
  Structural and systemic transformation of the institution of VET to inclusivity rather than exclusivity; a gender analysis of the structures and systems of VET bureaucracies; conceptual/policy frameworks for equity, women and VET; equity, difference/s and public goods in VET; the relationship between advantage and disadvantage; men and women; differences and diversity within VET; shifting to 'equity imperatives' as well as 'economic imperatives'; the shifting interrelationships between masculinities and femininities in VET; the relationships between VET for women and girls in schools, ACE, post-compulsory education and work; and men, masculinities and VET.

• Curriculum, pedagogies and practices in VET
  This continues as a significant area for ongoing, women-centred and feminist research, much of which has already established a significant 'baseline' for ongoing critical work.

1. The establishment of a funded and accessible 'mainstream' collection point, archive and clearing house for research that covers the broad area of women and VET.

2. A major research project updating the comprehensive and informative work undertaken by Pocock (1987a, 1987b; 1988, 1992).

3. The establishment of a scheme providing untied research grants for VET operating in a similar fashion to the grants awarded by the Australian Research Council.