Latinos, Gender, and Education

In much of the literature on Latinos and gender, gender and ethnicity are conceptualized as providing identities that shape the behavior of individuals. Often, those identities are discussed as if they are clearly separate. While the importance of the socially defined identities that flow from the categories of gender and ethnicity are acknowledged by scholars in women's studies, in the multicultural education literature there is a clear understanding that gender and ethnicity—as well as race, class, immigration status, citizenship, and disability—are significant because they are categories that mark sites of power differentials in society. This entry provides an overview of significant dimensions in the education literature that pertain to Latina or Latino students or that are based on the intersection of gender and ethnicity in the lives of these students. In this entry, “Latina/o/s” is used to refer to both Latinas and Latinos, “Latinas” for material that applies only to females, and “Latinos” for material that applies only to males.

In using the umbrella designation of Latina/o/s, a primary consideration is, Who are Latina/o/s? Most definitions of Latina/o/s include geographical markers, but geographic indicators alone obscure diversity among populations from South and Central America as well as the Caribbean. Are we speaking of first-generation Colombian immigrants or are we speaking of fifth-generation Mexicans who have been living in the Southwest for more than a century? Are we speaking of middle-class Argentineans who come to the United States to study or are we speaking about undocumented Guatemalans who are fleeing oppression in their country? Are we speaking of Puerto Ricans who are American citizens or of Cubans who are granted refugee status? Are we speaking of Spanish-speaking Mexicans or of Mixtec-speaking ones? Each of the distinctions noted above mark identities that carry political histories both within the countries of origin and in relation to the United States. In the U.S. context, those identities may resonate in ways that extend or disrupt previous histories and have implications for education. These distinctions do not include other identities such as gender or race because much of the scholarship on Latina/o/s treats issues of race as not pertinent and gender issues as relevant primarily in male–female comparisons. Even as marked in Spanish language (Latinos, Latinas), gender is usually understood to mean the legally recognized and socially defined identities of male and female, with no acknowledgment of how this dichotomy does not capture the whole spectrum of gender identity. There is very little scholarship available on Latina/o/s about disability and sexual orientation.

In education research, gender and ethnicity are usually discussed in the context of disparities in educational outcomes, access to opportunities, and in relation to individual characteristics that are used to explain behavior in educational settings. Reports that specifically focus on Latinos and Latinas provide a more complete and nuanced [Page 1350]picture because gender and ethnicity are considered jointly.