Gender inequality in education: Political institutions or culture and religion?
Introduction
Education or human capital is a prominent positive influence on economic growth and development. In particular, educating girls increases human capital and growth (Schultz, 1994, Knowles et al., 2002, Klasen, 2002, Dollar & Gatti, 1999). Educating girls is doubly advantageous. As with males, increased human capital of females directly increases incomes and growth; however, there is a further benefit of educating girls because of the positive influence of mothers on the education and health of their children (Schultz, 2002, Doepke & Tertilt, 2009).
Education of girls is therefore important for economic development because of the human-capital transmission through mothers.1 However, political elites in autocratically ruled societies have incentives not to encourage education and investment in human capital because economic development will give rise to a middle class that will seek democratic institutions and accountability from government (Bourguignon & Verdier, 2000, Welzman, 2010).2 If education of girls is in particular conducive to economic development, self-preservation of political elites in non-democratic societies is a suggested explanation for gender bias against girls in education in government schools.3
An investigation of the reasons for gender inequality in education should therefore consider the role of political institutions.4 An alternative hypothesis is that culture and religion determine attitudes to education of girls. For example, a report on democratization in Afghanistan (Larson, 2009) states that:
“Afghanistan is not democratic due to the lack of these key factors: Is this a democracy, when girls can't go to school to read, when violence against girls takes place in many provinces like Kandahar and Faryab? When acid is spread on the faces of girls, where is democracy? When girls are poisoned in the schools of Parwan how we can say that we have democracy?
The respondent was here referring to a series of incidents across the country in which acid has been thrown at schoolgirls by extremists ideologically opposed to girls' education. In Parwan province in May 2009 there were reports of toxic gas being dispersed in girls' school playgrounds by fundamentalist groups also.” (Larson, 2009: 13).
Section snippets
Prior studies
Prior studies have provided mixed empirical evidence regarding the influence of democracy on gender equality in education. Brown (2004) used the data of Barro and Lee (1993) on educational attainment, with the dependent variable the average number of years women attended school divided by the average number of years that men attended school in 1990. Democracy was measured by the sub-indicators of POLITY III; the independent variables were mean values for each country between 1960 and 1990; and
The present study
The empirical strategies of the above studies on democracy and gender equality have shortcomings that we have aimed to correct. We depart from the previous studies in three ways. First, we use the new Democracy–Dictatorship (DD) variables from Cheibub et al. (2010) and the POLITY IV sub-indicator “Constraints on chief executive”. Second, we use enrolment ratios disaggregated at the primary and secondary, and tertiary levels to measure gender inequality. Third, we focus on the recent past from
Background
Democracy is expected to promote gender equality for several reasons. Women can better express their views and interests in democracies; democracies promote gender equality through an educated middle class; democratic governments spend on educating girls; income redistribution and public good provision in democracies reduce pressure on sons to take care of their parents in old age and illness (when parents expect their sons to take care of them in old age, incentives of a family to invest in
Data
We use data on enrolment ratios of boys and girls in education at the primary and secondary, and tertiary level, from the World Bank Development Indicators. Enrolments at the primary and secondary level are measured by one variable. The dataset contains up to 157 countries. We employ a cross-section for the year 2006. For some countries, most recent data are not available for 2006 but for 2005 or 2007. We in these cases use the data for 2005 or 2007 to include as many countries as possible.
The
Basic results
Table 2 shows the regression results for education at the primary and secondary level. The control variables mostly display the expected signs and are statistically significant in most cases. The regional dummy variables are statistically significant at the 1% or 5% level in columns (1) and (3) and have positive signs. The Middle East regional dummy variable is also statistically significant at the 5% level in columns (2) and (4). The regional dummy variables indicate that the girls-and-boys
Conclusion
There have been numerous studies of government decisions in countries with limited democratic institutions. Such governments have incentives to resist economic development in various ways (Hillman, 2007). Most prominently, aid given to such government does not improve the well-being of the general population (Doucouliagos and Paldam, 2008). We have investigated whether political institutions affect gender equality in education, with the counter explanation being culture and religion. The
Acknowledgements
We thank three anonymous referees, Christian Bjørnskov, Arye Hillman, Winfried Pohlmeier, Heinrich Ursprung and the participants of the Far East and South Asia Meeting of the Econometric Society, Tokyo, 2009, the Australasian Development Economics Workshop, Sydney, 2010, and the International Society for New Institutional Economics, Stirling, 2010, for the useful hints and suggestions.
References (55)
- et al.
International comparisons of educational attainment
Journal of Monetary Economics
(1993) - et al.
The effect of Protestantism on education before industrialization: evidence from 1816 Prussia
Economics Letters
(2010) - et al.
Why is the world short of democracy? A cross-country analysis of barriers to representative government
European Journal of Political Economy
(2007) - et al.
Ruling elite, democracy, inequality and growth
Journal of Development Economics
(2000) On the distribution of education and democracy
Journal of Development Economics
(2008)- et al.
Education policy and inequality: a political economy analysis
European Journal of Political Economy
(2009) - et al.
As bad as it gets: well-being deprivation of sexually exploited women
European Journal of Political Economy
(2009) - et al.
Aid effectiveness on growth: a meta study
European Journal of Political Economy
(2008) - et al.
Modelling the effects of trade on women, at work and at home
World Development
(2000) - et al.
A farewell to critical junctures: sorting out long-run causality of income and democracy
European Journal of Political Economy
(2009)
Economic and social factors driving the third wave of democratization
Journal of Comparative Economics
From education to democracy
American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings
Colonial policies and women's participation in public life: the case of British Southern Cameroons
African Studies Quarterly
Fractionalization
Journal of Economic Growth
State, difference, and diversity: toward a path of expanded democracy and gender equality
Gender inequality and growth: Evidence from Sub-Saharan and Arab countries
World Christian Encyclopedia
Determinants of democracy
Journal of Political Economy
Powerful women: does exposure reduce bias?
Quarterly Journal of Economics
Luther and the girls: religious denomination and the female education gap in nineteenth-century Prussia
Scandinavia Journal of Economics
Was Weber wrong? A human capital theory of Protestant economic history
Quarterly Journal of Economics
Democracy and gender equality
Studies in International Comparative Development
Democracy, colonization, and human capital in Sub-Saharan Africa
Studies in Comparative International Development
Democracy and gender inequality in education: a cross national examination
British Journal of Political Science
Feminization of the labour force: the effects of long term development and structural adjustment
World Development
Democracy and dictatorship revisited
Public Choice
Cited by (124)
Energy poverty and gender equality in education: Unpacking the transmission channels
2024, Technological Forecasting and Social ChangeGender gaps in labor market outcomes in a resource-dependent country
2024, Resources PolicyUnderstanding the educational disparities between Han and Muslim Chinese: The roles of gender, ethnic salience, and residential concentration
2024, Research in Social Stratification and MobilityWhy does the schooling gap close while the wage gap persists across country income comparisons?
2024, Journal of Economic Dynamics and ControlSpatial inequality of opportunity in West Africa
2023, Journal of Public EconomicsFrom natural risk to social justice: The influence of natural threats on gender inequality
2023, Environmental and Sustainability Indicators