Gendered Patterns in Lifelong Learning in Spain in the European Context: The Opening of New Cultural Spaces for Women

Abstract

Starting from the premise that lifelong learning is a significant asset when it comes to enjoying an active ageing process and an important resource for exploring new interests and capacities that were not developed in previous life stages, this contribution explores our findings regarding the participation of older women in higher education in Cantabria, a Northern Atlantic Spanish region. Through analyzing secondary data provided by the main higher education institutions and associations involved with the organization of lifelong learning programmes, it identifies gendered patterns of participation in both the formal and informal educational options. Women's greater involvement in these programmes is analyzed in terms of overcoming a patriarchal traditional culture that in past times had not considered women as active participants in educational spaces. This was particularly clear in the context of the years following the end of the Spanish Civil War and during Franco's dictatorship. Through education, for women, ageing becomes a new life opportunity for self-construction and empowerment as well as for their own decision making in relation to their own life chances. Educational changes implemented in Spain in the last decades have opened up many alternatives to formal education at adult educational centres and university levels. These include informal and semi-formal programmes and educational options opened to people independently of their previous educational backgrounds that provide many opportunities for filling educational gaps to generations of women who could not have consistent access to formal, high-quality training in their youth.