“The man is always in front while the woman is at the back”: gendered attitudes towards education in rural Sierra Leone

Abstract

ABSTRACT Our research from Sierra Leone shows how the schooling experience presents new gender puzzles. Since the end of the civil war in 2002, serious efforts have been made to improve access to education and enhance gender equality in schools as part of the Education for All agenda. However, despite enhanced educational opportunities for girls and rising school enrolment rates, girls are still more likely to drop out from school than boys especially in rural areas. This paper examines the impact of the gendered attitudes towards girls’ education and highlights a clear disconnect between high aspirations towards girls’ education and low expectations of their success in schools. Drawing on rich ethnographic data, we demonstrate that gender can be seen as an important factor that frames perceptions of education and can negatively affect girls’ abilities to access quality education and complete school.