The Gender Gap Discrimination in Education and Health

Lecture Notes and Documents

BS accountancy (University of Cebu)

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 The Gender Gap: Discrimination in Education and

Health Education and Gender

Educational gender gap is a male-female differences in school access and

completion. We all know that women used to have no rights in terms of education, but in today's
generation, more and more countries are making strides toward equal rights for men and women,
particularly in education.

However, there are still countries where

women are illiterate and unable to attend school,
particularly in Africa, such as Niger, Mali, Guinea,
and Benin, where the rate of illiteracy among adult
women is high. The gap is also relatively large in
South Asia; in India and in Pakistan. This proves
that young females receive less education than
young males in nearly low and lower-middle
income developing country.

Millennium Development Goals also promotes gender equality, empowering women

and eliminates gender disparity in education preferably. Women are a minority, if not a
small minority, in education in many low- and middle-income countries. However, in middle and
higher-income countries, women outnumber men in terms of education. Empirical evidence
indicates that educational discrimination against women impedes economic development while
also perpetuating social inequality. Closing the educational gender gap through increased
educational opportunities for women, a key plank of the Millennium Development Goals, is
economically desirable for these reasons:

1. Social rate of return on women’s education is higher than that of men in developing countries

2. Education for women increases productivity, lowers fertility

3. Educated mothers have a multiplier impact on future generations

4. Education can break the vicious cycle of poverty and inadequate schooling for women

5. MDG on parity being approached, progress in every developing region

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Health and Gender

Girls also face discrimination in health care in many developing countries. Women
are often denied reproductive rights, whether legally or illegally. And in many countries, such as
Nigeria, health care decisions affecting wives are often made by their husbands.

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a health and gender tragedy, explained

in the 2005 UNICEF report Changing a Harmful Social Convention: Female Genital
Mutilation/Cutting. FGM/C is most widely practiced in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East
and is believed to have affected about 130 million women. This practice, which is dangerous and
a violation of the most basic rights, does not only result from decisions made by men; many
mothers who have undergone FGM/C also require their daughters to do so. If most other families
practice FGM/C, it becomes difficult for any one family to refuse to take part, to avoid the
perceived resulting "dishonor" to the daughter.

In an encouraging sign of progress, there are a growing number of experiences of

"mass abandonment" of the practice of FGM/C, sometimes started with an organized pledge
of families in an intermarrying group that they will no longer follow the practice with their
daughters.

Consequences of Gender Bias in Health and Education

Expansion of basic education for girls earns among

the highest rates of return of any investment, much higher,
for example, than most public infrastructure projects,
according to studies from around the developing world.
Inadequate education and health care access for girls
demonstrates the interconnected nature of economic
incentives and cultural context. The gender bias helps to
explain the mystery of the "missing women." The United
Nations has discovered that there are far fewer females as
a share of the population in Asia than demographic norms
would predict.

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 Increases in family income do not always result in improved health or educational
attainment, according to the evidence. Higher income cannot be expected to necessarily lead to
higher health and education, as we will demonstrate in the following sections, and there are no
guarantees that higher health or education will lead to higher productivity and income. Much
depends on the context, including whether the benefits of income growth and public investments
in health, education, and other infrastructure are distributed equitably.

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