Blogger: Izlem Adanir (Sociology)
Gender Inequality is a big issue not only in Education but in different institutions in society such as the workplace, religion, family, economy etc. The fight for gaining equality for women is a fight that has been going on for a long time. Even though many laws have been implemented in order to gain equality between two genders, the two are still not equal which can be observed through the news as well. In this blog, gender inequality in education is evaluated.
Most women and girls are being held off of education around the world by factors such as their families, religion, or their significant other. By quoting UNICEF we can support the fact that women or girls are disadvantaged and are unequal in education whether it is within the school system or even getting into a certain type of education.” Around the world, 129 million girls are out of school, including 32 million of primary school age,30 millions of lower-secondary school age, and 67 million of upper-secondary school age.” (Unicef, 2019). The base of this inequality might be society's constructed gender roles. In general, the two genders are given different roles which are the breadwinning for men and the caregiving role for women. To conform to these roles, parents play a big role to make their children adapt to society to accomplish “harmony” in society. Linking to the topic, because of the given role to women, families suggest and compel their daughters that they do not need education as they would not be taking on the breadwinning role but instead would stay at home and take on the part of caregiving and housework which might not be the preference of the child. As we live within patriarchal societies equality is not desired and an effort to make equality is not made because gender equality is seen as insufficient and not ideal. Gender inequality in education leads to many struggles and problems. Firstly, the biggest and the most basic problem of women or girls not being provided with education is the deprivation of the freedom of choice that every human being should have. Secondly, suggested by Lagerlöf, gender inequality in education could raise the problem of low economic growth, high fertility, and a continuing problem of gender inequality which results in a poverty trap and an ongoing cycle of inequality overall. According to a study made by Caroline Beer, Nations with longer-term a majority rules government and longer length of women's suffrage had higher extents of female to male life expectancy and higher workforce support rates, because of the capacity of women to propel their inclinations through voting. However, both a load of a vote-based system and the year in which women gained suffrage affected orientation uniformity in education, so going against a conjectured positive connection between democracy and gender inequality in education.
The findings shown and the arguments made above show that there must be a change and the issues and struggles that are resulting from gender inequality in education are not also affecting the person itself but also help to continue this ongoing cycle of gender inequality.
Source;
Unicef (2019). Girls’ education. [online] Unicef.org. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/education/girls-education#:~:text=Worldwide%2C%20129%20million%20girls%20are,cent%20in%20upper%20secondary%20education. [Accessed 9 Mar. 2022].