Abstract
The paper is based on research into the position of women academic staff in a sample of colleges of higher education in England. This reveals a pattern of entrenched sexual inequality in these institutions, especially at middle and senior management levels. A similar pattern has been found in the university and polytechnic sectors of higher education. However, in the colleges there is an even greater disjunction between the sexual distribution of students and staff. The research is related to recent literature on equal opportunities in education. It is argued that the formal curriculum of equal opportunities is continually subverted by a hidden curriculum of unequal opportunities. Finally, several approaches to positive intervention are suggested.