A comparison of mainstream and feminist theories to explain women's attainment of education in developed and emerging countries as it relates to individual achievement and life chances is presented. The questions of access to schooling and the years of education attained have become two critical indicators of women's progress. Mainstream theories about inequality are gender-blind and do not attempt to explain gender differences in education. They take social class as the main variable. Feminist perspectives do consider women as a main social construct, but they vary in the role they attribute to the state, the family, and the school system in the process of change. Three feminist theories are examined in detail: liberal feminist, radical feminist, and socialist feminist. The socialist feminist theories appear to offer explanations for the present conditions characterizing women's inequality in education. In conclusion, it is suggested that it is unlikely educational gender inequalities will wither away as long as patriarchy and the capitalist mode of production reinforce each other. Notes and 28 references are attached. (LMS)