Gender And Education Research Articles

Predictors of the gender gap in household educational spending among school and college-going children in India

Though India has achieved near-universal primary school attendance and bridged the gender gap, secondary and technical education schooling remains low. Household ability to pay for education and gender norms at the household and societal levels are possible reasons for variations in school attendance and quality of schooling. Although various studies have examined the gender gap in enrolment and school discontinuation, there are limited studies on gender differentials in educational spending in Indian households. Using data from 174,810 school and college-going children aged 6–22 years from the 75th round of the National Sample Survey Organization, this paper explored the gender gap in household educational spending in India. Descriptive statistics, relative gap, and the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method were used in the analysis. The results suggests that school attendance was 82.7% (95% CI 82.0–83.3) among boys and 78.9% (95% CI 78.1–79.7) among girls aged 16–17 years and 63.1% (95% CI 62.6–63.6) among boys and 51.3% (95% CI 50.7–51.9) among girls aged 18–22 years. The difference in the average per capita educational spending between boys and girls was ₹828 at the primary level (ages 6–10), ₹935 at the middle/secondary level (ages 11–15), ₹3189 at the higher secondary level (ages 16–17), and ₹3813 in higher education (age 18–22). The results obtained from the Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition analysis show that type of educational institution (public or private) contributed more than half of the variation in household educational spending among 6–10- and 11–15-year-old children and was the strongest contributor at every age. The education of the household head considerably reduced the gender gap in higher education. Locational disadvantage and the uniformity in the gender gap across all levels of the economic hierarchy suggest a behavioural bias in the intra-household allocation of educational resources across the states of India.

Uncovering sex/gender differences of arithmetic in the human brain: Insights from fMRI studies.

Over the long run, STEM fields had been perceived as dominant by males, despite that numerous studies have shown that female students do not underperform their male classmates in mathematics and science. In this review, we discuss whether and how sex/gender shows specificity in arithmetic processing using a cognitive neuroscience approach not only to capture contemporary differences in brain and behavior but also to provide exclusive brain bases knowledge that is unseen in behavioral outcomes alone. We begin by summarizing studies that had examined sex differences/similarities in behavioral performance of mathematical learning, with a specific focus on large‐scale meta‐analytical data. We then discuss how the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach can contribute to understanding neural mechanisms underlying sex‐specific effects of mathematical learning by reviewing structural and functional data. Finally, we close this review by proposing potential research issues for further exploration of the sex effect using neuroimaging technology. Through the lens of advancement in the neuroimaging technique, we seek to provide insights into uncovering sex‐specific neural mechanisms of learning to inform and achieve genuine gender equality in education.

The Impact of Gender in Learning With Games

There is an established gender gap in middle school math education, where female students report higher anxiety and lower engagement, which negatively impact their performance and even long-term career choices. This work investigates the role of digital learning games in addressing this issue by studying Decimal Point, a math game that teaches decimal numbers and operations to 5th and 6th graders. Through data from four published studies of Decimal Point, involving 624 students in total, the authors identified a consistent gender difference that was replicated across all studies – male students tended to do better at pretest, while female students tended to learn more from the game. In addition, female students were more careful in answering self-explanation questions, which significantly mediated the relationship between gender and learning gains in two out of four studies. These findings show that learning games can be an effective tool for bridging the gender gap in middle school math education, which in turn contributes to the development of more personalized and inclusive learning platforms.

Gender in Civil Engineering Education: A Case Study of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and Institut d’Enseignement Superieur de Ruhengeri, Rwanda

Engineering and technology are basic in any country’s development. Addressing the gender gap in civil engineering education will help to narrow the gender pay gap, enhance women’s economic security and ensure a diverse and talented STEM workforce. This paper focuses on gender disparity in civil engineering education at Institut d’Enseignement Superieur de Ruhengeri (INES), Rwanda, and the University of Ibadan (UI), Nigeria. Data were sourced from the graduating records of the Departments of Civil Engineering, INES Ruhengeri, Rwanda, and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, covering a period of 5 years (2016 - 2021). Data were analysed using excel tools. The Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ibadan, recorded a slight increase in the number of female graduating students from 5 in the 2015/16 session to 6 in the 2020/21 session, representing a 20% increment and a slight reduction in the number of male graduating students in the department from 37 in the 2016/17 session to 28 in the 2020/21 session representing a 32% reduction. At INES, Ruhengeri, the number of male graduating students in the Department of Civil Engineering increased from 46 in the 2016/17 session to 145 in 2020/21, showing a 215% increment, and the number of female students increased from 18 in 2016/17 to 23 in 2020/21 showing an increment of 28%. The overall percentage of females in civil engineering education is below 20% compared to over 80% of males in the two institutions. Although the number of male graduating students decreases as the year progresses, the increase in female graduating students is not significant. Hence the gender gap seems to remain with year progression. The study proposes an improvement in motivating female students by providing scholarships, including pedagogical motivation in science courses

The portrayal of women in history curricula and textbooks in Lebanon: A history of systematic exclusion

The discipline of history has been largely dominated by men who were shaping the narratives. This gender inequality has been also reflected in history education, particularly in national history textbooks. Attempts to reinstate women in the field of history have emerged with the feminist movement particularly in 1960s to date. In this study we examine women in Lebanese history textbooks. Whilst Lebanon has not been able to develop a new history curriculum since 1960s, there are currently a few series of textbooks published by different private publishers. Through a content analysis of two of the main textbook series, the study found that women were almost fully absent except for a few minor appearances that often appeared in passing and a few images. Their presence was often related to their relationship with men (wife, mother) who were deemed to be of historical significance. Women were also excluded from authoring the textbooks. More remarkably there were only a few studies examining gender in Lebanese textbooks. Addressing this long history of marginalization of women in the Lebanese curriculum and textbooks, including in history, requires efforts on various levels of the Ministry of Education, including the representation of women in history education curriculum committees, a feminist perspective on history and a study of women in history. Finally, historians as well as higher education institutes have a major responsibility in deconstructing the gender gap and bias in history education.

Gender Equality In Education

In fact, gender differences are not a problem as long as they do not give birth to gender inequalities in social life. However, in reality these gender differences have given rise to various injustices, not only to women but also to men. Men who have roles as breadwinners and protectors are required by culture to be strong, able to work hard, and be rational so that they lose the sides of gentleness and an attitude of peace which are other needs in human life. Perhaps this is the main factor causing the low life expectancy of men compared to women.

I am done with this! Women dropping out of engineering majors.

Women are still underrepresented in STEM careers (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). One of the possible drivers behind this gender gap in the labour market is the female dropout from STEM education. The causes of the gender differences in the persistence of pursuing STEM studies have been explained by multiple factors related to interest and resolution in this type of career. The goal of the present research is to study the Engineering persistence gender gap in higher education by exploring the main factors underlying the leakage in the pipeline of Engineering fields. Our study reports the results of 34 qualitative in-depth interviews where internal barriers, stereotypes and external obstacles are assessed by women who have left their university degrees, compared with men who have withdrawn and women who have persisted. Results from the content analysis suggest that the undermining of persistence in Engineering fields is related to factors such as the chilly and hostile environment in classes or the workload from an excessively demanding curriculum. Other factors affecting women’s withdrawal are the lack of role models and the perceived incongruity between the female gender role and STEM roles in society, leading to a weakening of female students’ self-efficacy and eroding their sense of belongingness, even making them consider dropping out of their Engineering degree. These findings provide information for the design of future STEM interventions aimed to enhance women’s persistence in STEM university studies.

Trends in Female Education in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Coherence across Data Sources

Educational expansion and the closing of gender gaps in education are key objectives in national and international policy agendas. Monitoring progress towards these goals requires comparable data across countries and over time. The availability of international census and survey microdata allows for cross-national comparisons of education participation and completion. However, we lack systematic analyses of how trends vary across data sources and of the extent to which these data sources offer a consistent account of progress in education. In this paper, we examine coherence in estimates of educational attainment among women aged 25 to 29 in 75 countries across the three main repositories of international population microdata: IPUMS International, the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). Coherence analysis of 535 census and survey observations from 1960 to 2017 shows high levels of consistency overall but also identifies observations misaligned with trends. Results provide practical information to the research community about the validity of comparative investigations using three important data sources for demographic studies. The data also serve as benchmarks for assessing the quality of education information obtained in data sources not included in our analysis and the trend alignment of future estimates.

What is behind the gender gap in economics distance education: Age, work-life balance and COVID-19.

There is an ongoing debate about whether gender equality in education has been achieved or not. Research efforts have focused on primary and secondary education, while there are fewer studies on higher education, and few studies refer to distance education. To contribute to address this gap, this article presents a gender analysis of educational outcomes in economics at Spain’s leading distance university, UNED, which is also the largest university in the European Union in terms of enrolment. The aim of the article is to assess whether there is a gender gap in academic results and to identify the sociodemographic and academic variables that may be causing such a gap by analysing how they shape such differences. Finally, the impact of COVID-19 is also considered. The results confirm that women underperformed significantly in our sample in terms of passing and scoring, especially among those between 30 and 45 years of age, who are more likely to have young children. When considering a distribution of family tasks biased against women, along with the higher average age of distance learning university students, gender gaps could probably be greater in nonface-to-face education. COVID-19 narrowed the gender gap during the lockdown period, as some men and women staying at home together were able to improve task sharing capabilities. After the lockdown, however, women’s results worsened compared to pre-COVID-19 levels. A possible explanation is that they had to continue performing the same family duties in addition to substituting education and caring services (e.g., nurseries and day centres for the elderly) that did not resume activity immediately or continuously.

The change in educational assortative mating in Serbia and Slovenia, 1970–2020

This paper explores marital matching patterns from the perspective of the partners' educational attainment, focusing on the link between gender asymmetry in education and educational hypergamy. In order to assess to what extent the tendency for women to marry men of higher educational status is related to the educational gender gap in Serbia and Slovenia, we calculate an index for women's educational advantage, and an index for the prevalence of educational hypergamy. Our results confirm the following: the growth of education is associated with an increase in female educational advantage; the relationship between female educational advantage and educational hypergamy is strongly negative; and there are no significant differences in assortative mating patterns between Serbia and Slovenia.

Gender Inequality in Education and Regional Economic Growth in Indonesia

Gender equality, particularly in the areas of education, health, and employment, also serves as a stimulant for faster growth. In Indonesia, attempts to integrate gender equality into development are yielding positive outcomes, with national gender equality indicators improving. However, Indonesia's global standing remains poor, as judged by the Woman, Business, and Law (WBL) Index for 2021, which ranks it 149th out of 190 countries. To promote growth, initiatives to increase the number and quality of human resources, including providing persons with the chance to obtain the broadest possible education, are continuing. This study explores the attainment of gender equality in education, as well as how it relates to economic growth as a metric of progress, using district/city fixed effect panel data for the period 2011-2020.The study's findings show that during the observation period, there was still a gender gap in educational achievement, particularly outside of the Java-Bali region. Increasing gender equality through the ratio of women's years of schooling, as well as the ratio of women to the workforce with a junior high school education that is in line with the needs of the workforce, especially in the industrial sector, contributes positively and significantly to regional economic growth.

“Gendered differences versus doing gender”: a systematic review on the role of gender in CSCL

Gender equity in education is an essential UN sustainable development goal. However, it is unclear what aspects of gender are important to consider in regard to research outcomes as well as how findings can be interpreted in the context of gender stereotypes and bias. This lack of clarity is particularly salient in the STEM field. Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is a group learning method where learners work together on group tasks that aim at the sharing and co-construction of knowledge. Aside from the cognitive learning gains, the literature reports that CSCL can bring social and psychological benefits, such as fostering positive mutual relationships and increased understanding of equity and diversity. In order to elaborate on the assumed potential of CSCL to support equity and diversity goals in education, this systematic literature will focus on the role of gender in CSCL. Although gender issues in CSCL have been examined before, a comprehensive overview is still lacking. Based on the PRISMA method, the current systematic review considers 27 articles, and explores (1) how gender is addressed, (2) what findings concerning gender are reported, and (3) the potential of CSCL to create more gender inclusive learning contributing to the UN SDGs. Our findings show that most studies addressed gender as a binary predictor for participation, communication, or attitude. Less than half of the studies treated gender more nuanced by defining gender as a social construct. This review highlights the need for additional research on the role of gender in CSCL, alongside more methodologies that can account for the complexities this entails. It is estimated that there is some potential for CSCL to decrease gender stereotypes and gender bias in STEM education.

Does Friend Support Matter? The Association between Gender Role Attitudes and School Bullying among Male Adolescents in China.

This study investigated the association between gender role attitudes, perceived friend support, and school bullying among male adolescents from 11 schools in two cities in China. A total of 3172 Chinese adolescents between 12 and 20 years of age (48.80% girls and 51.20% boys) completed questionnaires that included measures of bullying, gender role attitudes, and perceived social support. In terms of outcome measures, the Chinese version of the Illinois Bully Scale (IBS), Attitudes toward Women Scale for Adolescents (AWSA), and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) were used to assess bullying perpetration, gender role attitudes, and perceived friend support, respectively. Based on masculinity theories and the stress-buffering theory, the study found that male adolescents held more traditional gender role attitudes (t = 30.78, p < 0.001) and reported higher prevalence of bullying behaviors (36.02%) than girls (31.20%). In addition, boys’ bullying behaviors were significantly predicted by gender role attitudes through perceived friend support. That is, male youth with more conservative gender role attitudes reported less perceived friend support (adjusted OR = 1.055; SE = 0.013), which elevated their risks of bullying perpetration (adjusted OR = 2.082; SE = 0.302). These findings have critical implications for bullying intervention and prevention through gender equity education.

Gender equality in Catholic religious and character education: A multiculturalism perspective

Gender equality continues to be important because it strengthens society. One of the efforts to promote gender equality in Indonesia is gender equality education. For Catholics in Indonesia, the existence of the 2013 Curriculum Ethics and Catholic Education (PAK Kurtilas) had a strategic role in mainstreaming gender equality education. This research used library sources to research these textbooks with adequate ethical and multicultural analysis. Here, information was conveyed through a qualitative approach through annotations and descriptive data on the texts studied. According to this study, the curriculum offers instructional materials on the value of gender equality in intercultural education, which used the critical discourse analysis (CDA) technique. The textbook analysis also recommended using gender-responsive learning approaches and methods so that students could comprehensively understand the material on gender equality.Contribution: This article uses a textual analysis with a religious socio-ethical viewpoint. This study could help to solve social problems through theological education.

Gender and Intersecting Inequalities in Education: Reflections on a Framework for Measurement

ABSTRACT This article considers how useful measurement and indicators are in developing insight into a problem as complex as gender injustice and education. It poses the question about what we ought to evaluate with regard to individuals, institutions, discourses and countries when we make assertions about gender inequality in education and how to address this. The paper provides a way of thinking about gender and education that highlights how inadequate existing measures are. It sets an agenda for future work outlining the AGEE (Accountability for Gender Equality and Education) Framework. This draws on the capability approach and identifies domains where indicators can be deployed. The discussion highlights how multiple sources of information can be used in a well-organised yet adaptable combination, taking account of the complexity of the processes in play, to develop guidance on practice for transformational and sustainable change that can support work on women’s rights and gender equality in education.

Internal migration, children’s schooling and gender gaps in education

ABSTRACT In many sub-Saharan African countries, a large number of people migrate internally due to economic, demographic and political factors. We ask whether household mobility affects child educational outcomes and in what direction. Because girls and boys face different challenges in achieving education, and families often underinvest in girls’ human capital, we focus on gender differentials. We study the case of Uganda, a country where universal basic education and gender equality are still complicated goals. We use the National Panel Survey of 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011 to develop fixed effects models of the relationship between mobility and children’s educational outcomes: school delay and attendance. We find that moving with the family during primary or lower secondary school decreases delay in schooling and increases school attendance for boys, while we do not find any significant effect for girls. We argue that our results confirm pro-male preferences of families, where girls do not benefit equally from the opportunities offered by internal migration. Expanding girls’ opportunities, as well as providing adequate services, are crucial steps in achieving gender equality in education.

Social norms and the gender gap in labor force participation: Evidence from Turkey

ABSTRACT We use a novel two-step empirical strategy to examine the relationship between social norms and the gender gap in labour force participation (LFP) across provinces of Turkey. In the first step, we identify the unexplained part of the gender gap in LFP that remains after accounting for differences in observed characteristics between women and men for each province by implementing a decomposition method. In the second step, we investigate the role of social norms in explaining cross-province variation in the unexplained part. The results reveal that more egalitarian gender role attitudes, smaller gender gap in tertiary education, lower fertility and consanguineous marriage rates, and lower level of religiosity significantly predict a smaller unexplained part of the gender gap in LFP favouring males.

Maternal mortality in the Middle East and North Africa region – how could countries move towards obstetric transition stage 5?

BackgroundMaternal mortality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region decreased significantly between 1990 and 2017. This was uneven, however, with some countries faring much better than others.MethodsWe undertook a trend analysis of Maternal Mortality Ratios (MMRs) of countries in the region in order to understand differences in reduction across countries. Data were extracted from several databases for 23 countries and territories in the region on measures of women’s empowerment, availability of vehicles and human resources for health (as a proxy to the three delays model). We identified factors associated with MMR by grouping countries into five different Stages (I-V) of obstetric transition from high to low MMRs.ResultsAmong the four Stage II countries, MMR is associated with “antenatal care coverage (% with at least one visit)” and “medical doctors per 10,000 population”. Among the eight Stage III countries, MMR is associated with “Gender Parity Index in primary and secondary level school enrolment” and with “nursing and midwifery personnel per 10,000 population”. Among the 10 countries and one territory in Stages IV and V, MMR is associated with “GDP per capita”, “nursing and midwifery personnel”, and “motor vehicle ownership/motorization rate”. Two factors were associated with changes in MMR from the period 2006–2010 to 2011–2015: 1) change in adolescent birth rate (r = 0.90, p = 0.005) and 2) Gender Parity Index in primary level school enrolment (r = − 0.51, p = 0.04).ConclusionThough impressive reductions in MMR have been achieved across countries in the MENA region since 1990, governments should realize that there exists an opportunity to learn from each other to bring MMRs as close to zero as possible. Immediate steps in the right direction would include investment in human resources for health, particularly nurses and midwives; measures to improve adolescent sexual and reproductive health; and greater investments in achieving gender equity in education.

Issues and challenges of women in career advancement in higher education

Since times immemorial we have been hearing about the women empowerment in discussion forums and events. Much hype is created on Gender equality in education, career and society. Much of it reflects upon the point that women is the weaker section who needs special attention right from education to career advancement. Government has imposed Equal opportunity laws to favour equal treatment of women at employment and avoid exploitation of women by the employer. But much of the issues are pushed under the carpet and much of it go unnoticed and submissive. Literacy, socioeconomic status and family support has been major challenges for women to overcome the issues faced in the society. Present study focuses on exploring the obstacles coming in way of career advancement of women. Study relies on secondary data gathered from various sources to arrive at findings. Possibilities of overcoming the hurdles are explained as an outcome of the research. Emphasis is on throwing light on the pain points of the women in career advancement

Gendered representations in Jordanian textbooks: A combined quantitative and qualitative analysis based on UNESCO guidelines for the promotion of gender equality

Recent studies describe Jordan as a context where the encounter between modernity and tradition in the framework of neo-liberal transformations in the labour market have brought about paradoxes affecting women’s lives. Despite several policies to implement gender equality introduced by the government, the rapid reduction of the gender gap in education experienced in the last decades is slow to be carried over into areas of social and economic life. Stemming from this backdrop, this article aims at contributing to the scholarly discussion about the influence of patriarchal constructs in Jordanian educational and labour market. The article considers textbooks as tools for social change and focuses on qualitative and quantitative analysis of a sample of most recent student books addressing the entry, middle and final stages of primary education in mathematics. By providing a detailed analysis of gendered representations in the sample, the article highlights the implementation of relevant strategies to safeguard gender inclusion and equity. At the same time, it points at the underrepresentation of female role models and at the reiteration of some stereotypical social constructs, especially representing women as alienated from specific working sectors as the vocational one.