“Women made it a home”: representations of women in social studies

This article explores recently published P-12 social studies lesson plans that include women to examine how attending to women is “getting done” in the field and how the lessons represent women and women’s experiences. Using discourse analysis methodologies, the author demonstrates that women have been included as topics in ways that do not work toward disrupting problematic discourses about gender norms. Through their avoidance of issues of power and patriarchy, most of the lessons fall short of addressing gender inequity – in the past or the present – in a significant way. More critical attention to women and gender in lessons, as well as in other curricular spaces, are important steps toward harnessing social studies’ potential to engage students in the meaningful consideration of inequitable gender relations.