A participant from Costa Rica confided that feminists made her uncomfortable with their insistence on putting gender into every conversation. It appears that in formal education circles, gender is not considered a particularly relevant issue, except for programs to promote indigenous girls' access to schools. Perhaps if the critical issues affecting Central American women were directly addressed in the formal school setting, women would experience fewer severe crises as adults. Researchers, analysts and Central American women themselves point to certain specific areas in which formal education could benefit from using a gender perspective in analysis. Women as teachers.
Women make up the vast majority of primary school teachers in Central America.
They receive salaries far below what almost everyone agrees would be an acceptable wage for a professional. They are expected to attend weekend and vacation in-service training sessions, and are expected to figure out childcare, transportation, and food. In the informal education sector, when developing women-centered professional development programs, women's unique needs are addressed through alternative meeting hours and provision of childcare. Girls are physically and verbally harassed in the school or classroom. Currently, gender theory is looking at the ways that different pedagogies are more effective for some children than others, and in particular at how girls tend to learn in comparison to boys.