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Women as Leaders in Mexican Education

In Mexico, the creation of public institutions for training teachers at the end of the nineteenth century was accompanied by a new rhetoric of opportunity for women. When it established the first of such institutions in 1890, the Mexican government placed great symbolic value on the training of female teachers. The director of the normal school said at the opening ceremony, "I am certain that just as the eighteenth century granted liberty to men through education, so the nineteenth century will give women equality through the same means."' Women responded to the call of educational opportunity and quickly became a majority of the students in the normal schools; by 1907 they were 78 percent of normal school students.2 In contrast, the participation of women in universities remained quite small during those years. Nearly a century after the inception of the first teacher-training institution, teaching continues to be an occupation open to women in Mexico, but the reins of power in the educational system are still held by men. As in the past, women form a majority of educational employees, yet they are a small minority in leadership and decision-making positions within the national ministry of education, Secretaria de Educaci6n Puiblica (SEP), and the national teachers' union, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educaci6n (SNTE). The Mexican experience reflects a larger continuity in the professionalization of education throughout the world. The expansion of public systems of education has indeed opened avenues for the professional employment of women. Women today constitute the majority of employees in the field of education both in industrialized and Third World nations. In most countries, however, gender differences have been institutionalized in teacher education and employment.3 As a result, women exercise little influence on policy-making and the daily management of the schools in