Boys' versus Girls' Schooling in Nepal: Does It Vary by the Extent of Mothers' Autonomy?

This paper hypothesises that resource allocation affecting the decisions relating to sons' versus daughters' schooling in Nepalese households is dependent on the extent of the mother's autonomy. Here, we posit that women's autonomy is a relative concept as a woman has degrees of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oxford development studies 2015-10, Vol.43 (4), p.448-465
Main Author: Self, Sharmistha
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access to education
Autonomy
Bias
Boys
Children
Daughters
Decision making
Family relations
Family structure
Females
Girls
Households
Intragroup relations
Mothers
Nepal
Parents & parenting
Policy making
Power
Resource allocation
Schooling
Sexes
Sexism
Sons
Women
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Summary:This paper hypothesises that resource allocation affecting the decisions relating to sons' versus daughters' schooling in Nepalese households is dependent on the extent of the mother's autonomy. Here, we posit that women's autonomy is a relative concept as a woman has degrees of decision-making power within her household. The results indicate that daughters' education is more likely to benefit when mothers solely make the decisions, but when decisions are made jointly with her spouse then the decisions are more likely to be in favour of sons' education. Our results indicate a marked gender difference in parental decisions over children's education, in the direction posited above, and less than 10% of mothers in the sample have complete autonomy over such decision-making. These results are important for policy-makers wishing to decrease gender bias in children's educational outcomes.
ISSN:1360-0818
1469-9966
DOI:10.1080/13600818.2015.1044512