Policy impacts on schooling gender gaps in developing countries

How do gender neutral education policies effect girls' schooling?

By: Glick P
Published by: Cornell Food and Nutrition Policy Program (CFNPP), Cornell University , 2006
Via: Eldis

This paper reviews the evidence on the effects of policies in the education sector and outside it on household schooling investments in girls and boys, distinguishing between policies that are gender neutral and those that explicitly target girls.

The study finds that the demand for girls’ schooling is more responsive than boys’ to gender neutral changes in school cost or distance as well as quality. The paper shows that this can be explained within a human capital investment framework through assumptions about the nature of schooling cost and returns functions.

Other policies, such as subsidised childcare or flexible school scheduling that address the opportunity costs of girls’ time, hold promise but for the most part have yet to be subject to rigorous assessment. The paper discusses methodological problems in such assessments and suggests some future research on policies to close schooling gender gaps.

The author states that increasing the physical accessibility of schools emerges as a measure that is likely to result in disproportionate enrolment gains for girls, and recommends that where gender gaps are large or persistent, direct targeting of girls is probably necessary.