Journal of Research in Peace, Gender and Development (ISSN: 2251-0036) Vol. 2(2) pp. 018-021, February 2012
Available online@ http://www.interesjournals.org/JRPGD
Copyright ©2012 International Research Journals
Review
Gender educational equality as a gateway to economic
development in Nigeria
Omirin M. S.1 and Faremi Yinusa A.*2
1
2*
Department of Guidance and Councelling, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria
Department of Educational Foundations and Management School of Education Osun State College of Education,
Ila-Orangun
Accepted 04 November, 2011
Gender educational equality as a gateway to economic development in Nigeria, is a study carried out
to address the inequality among the men and women in the society in order to close the gap between
the Sex as a result of equal right to education for everyone in developing the economy. This study
explores topics such as gender equality in education, ways of ensuring gender equality in education,
and women’s empowerment in economic development. Achieving gender equality in education
means that boys and girls will have equal opportunities to realize their full human rights and
contribute to and benefits from the economic development in Nigeria. In conclusion, schooling as a
catalyst for change in gender relations will be more effective only if appropriate attention is also
given to curriculum content and the retraining of those who deliver it.
Keywords: Equality, gateway, economic, gender, and development.
INTRODUCTION
In recognition of the importance of establishing gender
equality around the world, the United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) was
established as a separate fund within the United National
Development Program (UNDP) in 1984. As at that time,
the General Assembly Instructed it to “ensure women’s
involvement with mainstream activities.” The plat form of
action resulting from the 1995 Beijing World Conference
on Women expanded this concept calling of “gender
mainstreaming” i.e. the application of gender
perspectives to all legal and social norms and standard to
all policy development, research, planning, advocacy,
development, implementation and monitoring as a
mandate for all member states (world economic forum,
2005).
Nigeria is a patriarchal society, which places a high
premium on the male populace and relegates to the
background the women folk and their contributions to
national development. Akpan (1996), Olaoye-Williams
(1996) and Imam (1999) in Okiy (2004) stated that right
from infancy, the female child is seen largely by Nigeria
*Corresponding Author E-mail: fayisod@yahoo.com
society as a mistake and an undesirable addition to the
family because she will not be able to carry on the family
name. Okoye (1997) in Okiy (2004) asserted that women
are given fewer educational opportunities than men in
Nigeria, as reflected in the lower literacy rates for the
adult female population compared to men. Factors such
as male chauvinism, child labour, early marriage, religion,
and socio-economic factors combine to increase drop-out
rates of girls from school to as much as 36 percent, even
before completion of primary school education. In the
Nigerian society however, observations show that men
are competent, skilful, assertive, aggressive and able to
get things done. Women on the other hand are warm and
expensive, tactful, quiet, gentle aware of others feelings
and lacking in competence, independence and logic
(Akinleye, 2000).
At the meeting held on 26 February 2008, the United
Nations Commission on the status of women emphasized
the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship development
and access to micro credit illustrated effort to support
women’s economic empowerment. Capacity–building
activities to support women entrepreneurs included
training
in
Marketing,
Leadership,
Networking,
Organizations, including the use of ICTs. In the meeting,
mainstreaming gender perspectives into national budgets
Omirin and Faremi 019
was identified as an important strategy for targeting
resource allocations for gender equality and for linking
resource allocations to gender equality commitments
(United Nations Commission, 2008).
Empowerment of women in science and technology is
heavily concentrated in a few occupations and at low
levels. The roles of women are to work at home and
farms helpers, nurses, lower–school teachers and
secretaries. Compared with men with similar
qualifications, tasks and responsibilities, women are overrepresented in part-time employment or unemployment
and in low–paid and increase jobs (World Bank Group,
2008). Despite genuine efforts by parents and teachers to
create a better environment for girls in the education
system, barriers to learning persist and gender in equality
continues to flourish. Numerous studies show that
teachers often treat boys and girls differently. Male
students receives more of the teachers attention and are
given more time to talk in class from pre-school through
college and the girls are three times less likely to be
praised by the teachers. It was also found that studentteacher interaction in science classes is biased toward
boys that when students are grouped by ability in
mathematics classes, boys are more likely to be assigned
to the high ability group.
Research has shown that education is “one of the
most effective development investments countries and
their donor partners can make”. Adequate investments in
education facilitate the achievement of most other
development goals and increase the probability that
progress will be sustained (United States Agency for
International Development (USAID, 2008). Education
builds the human capital that is needed for economic
growth. It also produces significant improvement in
health, nutrition, life expectancy, and countries with an
educated citizenry are more likely to be democratic and
politically stable.
The issue of gender inequality is one which has been
publicly reverberating through society for decades. The
problem of inequality in employment being one of the
most pressing issues today. In order to examine this
situation one must try to get to the root of the problem
and must understand the sociological factors that cause
women to have a much more difficult time getting the
same benefits, wages, and job opportunities as their male
counterparts. The society in which we live has been
shaped historically by males (Nelson, 2008).
According to Nelson (2008) however, in many parts of
the worlds women receive less attention and health care
than men do, and particularly girls often receive very
much less support than boys. As a result of this gender
bias it was observed that the mortality rates of females
often exceed those of males in Nigeria today. In some
part o f the country the world, inequality between women
and men directly involves matters of life and death and
takes the brutal form of unusually high mortality rates of
women and a consequent preparedness of men in the
total population.
The gender gaps that are under spread in access to
basic rights, access to and control of resources, in
economic opportunities and also in power and political
voice are an impediment to development. The only
solution to this is gender equality which strengthens a
country ability to grow, to reduce poverty and provides its
people-men, women and children - a better life. The issue
of gender equality then, needs to be at the core of
development policies – both in national and international
arenas. Just because gender inequality is inextricably
linked to societal norms, religion or cultural traditions, it
should not be either a deterrent or an excuse to gender
sensitive development planning.
Equal education opportunity has bridge the gap
between the female and male in the society, both boys
and girls having the opportunity of receiving formal
education which provide them the opportunity of gaining
an employment into the economy sector and contribute to
the economy development of a nation.
Gender educational equality
Asia – Pacific Programme of Education for All (APPEAL,
2005) refers to gendered as the social roles,
responsibilities and behavior created in our families, our
societies and our cultures. It is also include the
expectations held about the characteristics, aptitudes and
likely behavior of both women and men (femininity and
masculinity). For example “men as income earners and
women as child caregivers”.
Gender equality means that males and females have
equal opportunities to realize full human rights and
contribute to and benefit from economic, social, cultural
and political development. Party and equity are the
building block of equality in education (USAID 2008).
Equity is the process of treating girls and boys fairly. To
ensure fairness, measures must be available to
compensate for historical and social disadvantages that
prevent girls and boys from operating on a level playing
field.
Equity does not simply treating all learners the same
because many factors could disadvantage students in
having a chance to achieve equitable outcomes.
Responses may include equal treatment or treatment that
is different but which is considered equivalent in terms of
rights, benefits, obligations and opportunities (ILO, 2000
in USAID, 2008). A basic principle of equity is equality of
opportunities among people: “that a person’s life
achievements should be determined primarily by his or
her talents and efforts rather than by pre-determined
circumstances such as race, gender social or family
background” (World Bank, 2005).
Ensuring gender equality for girls and boys means that
they have equal opportunities to enter school, as well as
to participate in and benefit from the range of subjects or
020 J. Res. Peace Gend. Dev.
other learning experience offered in classroom and
schools. Through gender – sensitive curricula, learning
materials and teaching – learning process, girls and boys
become equally equipped with the life skills and attitudes
that they will need to achieve their fullest potentials,
within and outside of the educational system, regardless
of their sex (APPEAL, 2005)
Gender is not synonymous with women, nor is a zero
– sum game implying loss for men; rather, it refers to
both women and men and to their status, relative to each
other. Gender equality refers to that stage of human
social development at which “the rights responsibilities
and opportunities of individuals will not be determined by
the fact of being born male or female” in other words, a
stage when both men and women realize their full
potential (World Economic Forum, 2005).
Ways of ensuring gender equality in education
USAID (2008) points out the equity mechanisms for
achieving gender equality in some selected countries
which can also be applicable to Nigeria in achieving the
stated goals of education and economic development.
•
The uses of scholarship, for example,
USAID/Egypt has provided over 28,000 girls,
scholarships to help alleviate the disparity in boys and
girls school enrolment.
•
Additional equity tools such as math and science
camps for girls have been implemented to increase
achievement and encourage retention. For example,
USAID/Tanzania gave many of the girls their opportunity
to conduct experiments using laboratory equipment.
•
Equity must be reflected in policies and practices
directed toward learners, teachers and the community.
•
Monitoring progress toward achieving gender
equality is also important
•
Measuring changes over time requires that data
be disaggregated by sex to illustrate the differential
impact of activities on males and females.
Women’s empowerment in economic development
The past three decades have witnessed a steady
increasing awareness of the need to empower women
through measures to increase social, economic and
political equity and broader access to fundamental
human rights, improvements in nutrition basic health and
education. The economic participation of women – their
presence in the workforce in quantitative terms is
important not only for lowering the disproportionate levels
of poverty among women, but also as an important step
toward raising household income and encouraging
economic development in countries as a whole (World
Economic Forum, 2005).
The educational attainment of women is without
doubt, the most fundamental prerequisite for empowering
women in all spheres of society, for without education of
comparable quality and content to that given to boys and
men, and relevant to existing knowledge and real needs,
women are unable to access well-paid, formal sectors
jobs, advance within them. Participate in, and be
represented in government and gain political influence.
There is serious problem in the economic opportunity
given to women’s in developed countries, where women
may gain employment with relative ease, but where their
employment is either concentrated in poorly paid or
unskilled job “ghettos” characterized by the absence of
upward mobility and opportunity. Women economic
participation is another issue refuse to close in even the
most developed and developing countries, women are
still averaging slightly less than 78% of the wages given
to men for the same work (World Economic forum 2005).
Women are poorly represented in the lower levels of
government they are rarer still in the upper echelons of
decision of decision making. The absence of women from
structures of governance inevitably means that national,
regional and local priorities i.e. how resources are
allocated are typically defined without meaningful input
from women, whose community needs, concerns and
interests from that of men. Gender equality in education
in term of equal right to education for everyone would
bridge the gap between men and women in the society.
Economics development is the development of
economic wealth of countries or regions for the well-being
of their inhabitants. Development requires the removal of
major sources of unfreedom poverty as well as tyranny.
CONCLUSION
To close the gender gap; schooling as a catalyst for
change in gender relations will be more effective only if
appropriate attention is also given to curriculum content
and the retraining of those who deliver it. Providing
women with a quality of life almost equal to that of men,
with almost comparable levels of political participation
and with relatively equal educational and economic
opportunity and participation of women like their men
gather parts will lead to rapid economic development. By
identifying and qualifying the gender gap, I hope to
provide policy makes with a tool offering direction and
focus for the work of significantly improving the economic
development of Nigeria. In addition, this work will provide
the impetus for policy – makers to strengthen their
commitment to the idea of gender equality and to make
gender equality a reality in Nigeria.
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