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Outline Of the DiscussionSoc io-cu l tural no rms and
gender gap in education
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Socio-cultural norms and Gender Gap in
Education
Socio-culture is the anthropological sense of
broad patterns of thinking, feeling and acting.
More broadly culture can be understood as apeoplesway oflife or tradition.
Gender refers to the socially constructed roles,
responsibilities, identities and expectations
assigned to men and women Gender differs the different ways that men and
women are culturally defined and evaluated.
Gender is a cultural construction.
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Influence of Socio-cultural norms on
Gender Gap in Education (Cont)
Many other theorists such as Kabeer, (2001),
Bisnath and Elson (1999) Sen and Grown( 1987)
and Batliwala (1994) argued that gender issocially and culturally determined.
They suggested that for achieving gender based
equality, fundamental changes are necessary in
the patriarchal social structure.
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Influence of Socio-cultural norms on
Gender Gap in Education (Cont)
The socio-cultural values and norms has a strong
influence on the issue of women education.
Due to traditional socio-cultural practice, women
and girls are discriminated within their household.
Womens discriminations are reinforced by various
institutions-religious and socio-cultural whichemphasize womens discrimination in the
household.
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Factors that influence Gender Gap in
Education (Cont) Son Preference Considering daughter as the non-permanent
family member.
Sons are able to support parents in old age
Traditional duties
Early Marriage
Dowry Purdah
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Son-Preference Son preference is well-known to India
Bangladesh, Pakistan and Malaysia .
Due to socio-cultural practice, the socialsystem has given high value to sons as potential
providers and perpetrators of family names.
It I is also commonly believed sons will provideall supports to parents in their old age. On the
other hand, daughter will marry and move
another family.
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Early marriage as the cultural
practice Early marriage is a common practice in rural
areas of developing countries . It is also one of
reason for gender gap in education.
Daughters are often married of at a very youngage .
A woman, on an average, is married before
reaching the age of 20 years . Most of the
parents do believe in early marriage due to
daughters safety.
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Daughter as the non-permanent family
member
Non-permanent family member: In many
families, daughters are considered as the non-
permanent family member. Because aftermarried women will move another family . They
will eventually live with theirhusbands families,
and the parents will not benefit directly from
their education.
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Support in old age
Many parents view educating sons as aninvestment because the sons will beresponsible for caring for aging parents. On the
other hand, parents may see the education ofdaughters a waste of money. Because aftermarriage they will move another family. Thisnegative parental attitudes toward educating
daughters is a barrier to a girls education .
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Traditional Duties
An important reason for gender bias ineducation is womens traditional role insocieties. In developing countries, womensduty are vowed to carry out mainly domesticwork. For these tasks do not need particularknowledge and families perceive girlseducation as a waste of time.
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Dowry as the social cultural
practiceDowry: In developing countries, parents invest
the same amount of money in sons and
daughters. But girls receive less educationbecause the money is used to endow them with
a dowry, On the other hand, parents educate
boys in order to assure them of higher incomes
and better wives (with higher dowry).
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Dowry as the social cultural
practice (Cont..)Daughters with higher levels of education will
likely have higher dowry expenses as they will
want a comparably educated husband.However, education sometimes lowers the
dowry for a girl because it is viewed as an assetby the husbands family.
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Purdah Practice (veil)
Another socio-cultural and religious practicePurdah that influence on gender gap in
education in many developing and Muslimcountries.
Many research show that the poor educational
achievement of the girls may be attributed to the
prevailing Purdah system in many countries.
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Purdah Practice( Cont)
In many countries, due to Purdah related norms
women's mobility is limited.
In rural areas due ofPurdahpractice womensmovement is limited within the confines of the
homestead.
These limit womens education opportunity
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