Abstract
This paper argues that gender-related inequalities in education (and other areas) are most crucially understood as embedded in ideology about the family, and that that ideology is at least partially reproduced through the education system itself. The prevalent ideology about the family corresponds to the nature of the political economy and works to maintain and reproduce the social and sexual division of labour both within the family and in the society at large. This study describes one period of educational reform, 1900–1929 in Western Australia, and examines the ideology about the family that was perpetuated by the state through the formal education system at this time. However, social reproduction is seen as a complex process and subject to human mediation Consequently resistance to the state ideology is described, as are contradictions within the ideology itself. It is hoped that, by looking not only at reproduction but also at resistance and contradiction, the entire process will be seen as a more dynamic one.