Why Do Daughters Leave School in Southern Africa? Family Economy and Mothers' Commitments

• Published in: Social forces 1995-12, Vol.74 (2), p.657-681
• Main Authors: Fuller, Bruce, Singer, Judith D., Keiley, Margaret
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Africa, Southern; Beliefs; Botswana; Child development; Child. Socialization; Culture; Daughters; Dropouts; Dropping out; Economic aspects; Economic commitments; Economic Factors; Economic models; Economics; Education; Educational Attainment; Educational opportunities; Families & family life; Family (daughters); Family (Sociological Unit); Family economics; Family Influence; Family school relationship; Family Structure; Foreign Countries; Girls; Households; Human Capital; Labor demand; Labor Demands; Labor Market; Labor Needs; Literacy; Mothers; Opportunities; Parent Attitudes; Parent Child Relations; Parent Child Relationship; Parenting Styles; Parents; Probability; Relationship; Schooling; Secondary Education; Secondary School Students; Secondary schools; Social Action; Social aspects; Social Class; Social commitment; Social Mobility; Socioeconomic Factors; Sociology; Sociology of the family. Age groups; Southern Africa; Students; Wages; Womens Education
• ISSN: 0037-7732; 1534-7605
• DOI: 10.1093/sf/74.2.657

By focusing on the family economy and its capacity to mediate broad economic developments, sociologists are beginning to move beneath macrostructural forces to better explain parental demand for schooling and children's attainment. This materialist model focuses on the explanatory power of contextual labor demand and resources internal to the family. Parents' social preferences and commitments, antecedent to “choosing” between work or school for their children, are presumed to covary with economic factors. In contrast, research on family practices within impoverished settings reveals that parents' social commitments linked to child development or schooling can vary independently of the family's economic circumstances. Applying these alternative theories to family behavior in southern African, we assess the relative influence of mothers' economic demands and social commitments on their daughter's probability of staying in school. We find that the risk of daughters leaving school is more strongly influenced by mothers' social commitments than by household economics. Maternal influences do interact with selected family-economy indicators and are conditioned by the level of discretionary time afforded to daughters.