"There are huge gaps between
male and female educational access and literacy levels.
These gaps are greater in rural areas, and greatest for the rural poor.
Inequity helps cause inefficiency…"
--Rural Poverty Report, p. 110

THEME: A number of factors operate to exclude girls and women from education and training opportunities.

The 2001 IFAD Rural Poverty Report recognizes the gap between male and female educational opportunities. The report observes that female schooling does more at the margin for income, poverty reduction and child health and nutrition than does extra male schooling. Nevertheless, rural women are often marginalized from both formal and non-formal education opportunities.

Rural girls are less likely to achieve the same level of basic education as boys. If one of the children in a household has to drop out of school because of family (usually the mother's) workload, the cost of schooling or for other reasons, it is usually the girl child. If poverty precludes sending more than one child to attend school in town, then it is the boy who is normally selected to attend.

An IFAD poverty assessment in Asia noted that in China, when women's work burden increases as a result of male out-migration, it is a common pattern for the elder girl to have to drop out of school to help. The effect is similar in many other countries. Cultural concerns over 'excessive' and 'dangerous' education for females are a recognized factor in many Near East and North African countries.

Rural women are less likely to have access to useful non-formal education or training opportunities, with the exception of literacy courses and courses in handicrafts. A recent IFAD/FAO study in Africa notes that women very rarely participate in courses on animal traction. Even training on animal health often excludes women even when they are the ones doing the livestock-raising. Such gender bias may have been justified at one point in time, but now, with large-scale male out-migration, women are performing most farming tasks and therefore need equal access to knowledge.

Two constraints on women's participation that programmes can address are the duration and location of the training. But the social and cultural constraints will be more difficult to change and such change will probably take a long time. Both project staff and the beneficiaries themselves may need to change their attitudes and cultural practices. An IFAD initiative in El Salvador illustrates such efforts. The project area had 21% female-headed households, and women farmers were particularly active in vegetable, soybean and fruit tree production. However, only 4% of the participants for crop-production training were women. There were a number of reasons for this, including the absence of land rights for women, women's workload, lack of husbands' support, the low self-esteem of women, women's difficult access to information on available training, and cultural norms. But gender-biased attitudes and values were found among project staff as well. In an effort to change this, the project introduced gender training, including for project area men and women. At this type of training, the ratios were reversed. Initially, 70% of participants were women and only 30% men. Gradually this pattern changed.

Some of the factors that operate against women's access to formal and non-formal education and training can be modified by development programmes. These include the timing and location of non-formal courses, and the better provision of information to women on what courses are available. Changing cultural attitudes and norms will take longer, particularly with the adult population. Development initiatives will be able only to make a start. But a start is also valuable.

Adapted from:

IFAD. 2001. Rural Poverty Report 2001: The Challenge of Ending Rural Poverty. Oxford University Press. February.

Additional source:

IFAD. 1999. Proyecto de Desarrollo Rural en La Region Central (PRODAP -II); Mission de Evaluation Ex-Ante, Anexo VI, Enfoque de Genero y Equidad. Rome.