A world policy agenda for gender equality in education now exists, realising the idea of earlier reformers such as Kartini. This agenda, however, makes assumptions that are strongly contested by research and policy debates in national forums. This essay urges shifting the framework of gender analysis to global scale. It outlines what is involved in thinking about gender as a worldwide structure, and reconstructing gender theory to include the intellectual work of the global periphery. It explores problems in theorising education on a world scale, as a process deeply linked with gender, and related dilemmas in policy thinking. Finally, it offers suggestions about the role of researchers on gender and education, and the importance of building an educational case for gender justice. (Contains 1 note.)