This paper explores the educational policies adopted in Peru in the 1990s and the first years of the XXIst century (1996-2003), from a gender point of view. Reviewing and analyzing the standards and documentation from that period, it shows how educational policies claiming an equality paradigm did not explicitly incorporate gender issues. Some individual and singular actions that were not necessarily linked took place, such as educational curriculum policy guidelines, some primary level educational materials and some initiatives in teacher training. However, whenever the gender concept in education is referred to, it is assumed that there are no major gender breeches since the male school registration is as high as the female one. Finally, the gender perspective only reappeared, although, once again, under the label of vulnerable population, during the early XXIst century, and within a new paradigm of policies of equality. © 2006 CEDES.