Olive Banks' work Parity and Prestige in English Secondary Education made a major and distinctive contribution to the literature on the historical development of secondary education. Her work exemplified a close relationship between sociology and history, examined a vital and enduring theme that continues to be relevant and pervasive, helped to demonstrate the social dimensions of the determinants of secondary education, and raised a significant set of issues in relation to the role of the interconnections between education and occupational groups.