Jean Rudduck explores how secondary schools have tried to build concern for gender equality into whole-school structures and practices. Taking such a step requires strength of commitment and purpose. Gender equality, when raised as a whole-school issue, often proves to be controversial and divisive. The book reflects the experience of a number of comprehensive schools which were moving towards a whole-school policy for gender.

The schools all serve urban communities of moderate to more severe social and economic disadvantage.

The book opens with extracts from conversations with individuals, both women and men, who talk about the origin of their commitment to working for equality. This is followed by the stories of a number of 'gender leaders' - the people whose vision and commitment helped to launch work on gender in their schools. The stories recall the periods of frustration, the critical incidents, the excitement of progress.

The next section of the book examines different approaches to starting work on gender; and it concludes with a substantial case study reflecting the experience of one comprehensive school over a period of three years.