To best comprehend the reasons for this statement, one should simply look at the intents and consequences of past events within the sector of adult education. In this order of ideas, regardless of the form of approach, most academic studies have revealed men's intent to create a credible educational environment. At the basis of such an environment would stand the representatives of the male gender, which were given easier access to educational resources and their path to professional formation would be made easier. Therefore, the combination of a wide series of forces generating gender inequality, mixed with the intent to create a credible educational system resulted in the women's invisibility within the field. As such, based on men's intent, the consequence was that the women were excluded from the educational system, or at least their access was limited. Historically,...

The contemporaneous consequence of these historical approaches and these past events materializes in the still existent cases of gender discrimination. And however the number of females working as leaders in higher educational institutions is increasing, it has yet to equalize that of men. The situation is similar in the cases of minorities groups.
Today's communities strive to correlate the intent to the desired consequence. Following the example above, educational institutions intend to offer equal opportunities to both genders and all ethnicities, with the desired consequences of creating skilled and capable individuals, regardless of social or demographic features that may differentiate the individuals.

Reference:

Thompson, Women in Adult Education History