In 1985 the council of Ministers of Education of the European Community agreed upon a Resolution containing an action programme for equal opportunities in education for girls and boys. One element of that programme was the inclusion of equal opportunities in the curriculum of teacher education. This thesis represents a series of developments in research and curriculum development which have resulted in a Community wide Action Research programme by the Commission of the European Communities to implement the terms of the action programme in all member states. The thesis examines the social and occupational status of women in the Republic of Ireland in the light of the differential education received by boys and girls. The participation of women in mathematics. Science and Technology in particular is examined, and, drawing on the author's own data from a sample of girls in second-level schools, conclusions regarding the nature of teacher education programmes are drawn. The central part of the thesis examines the structure of teacher education in Ireland and the place of equal opportunities in the curricula of all the institutions offering pre-service teacher education. This data is evaluated against the available data from the member states of the European Community and leads, in the final part, to a presentation of a model curriculum for the integration of equal opportunities in both pre- and in-service teacher education. Examples of the integration of gender issues in teacher education are provided from the author's own courses, and the thesis concludes with a proposal for an Action Programme to give expression to the model curriculum design presented in the thesis.