Girls, gender and intersecting inequalities in education: a reflection from case studies in South Africa and Kenya
Abstract
In assessing achievements worldwide in expanding access to schooling for girls, it is evident large challenges remain in relation to inequalities associated with gender, poverty, location, racial or ethnic divisions and disability. The first part of the paper discusses the ways in which gender, girls and education have been written about in some key works on poverty. It raises questions about how poverty, gender and schooling are defined and suggests the concept of intersectionality, may be useful in considering the ways in which inequalities form and are formed by each other. The second part of the paper considers some effects of viewing the relationship of poverty, gender and schooling in static and stereotyped terms. It reports on data gathered regarding engagements with global and national government policy on gender, education and poverty in Kenya and South Africa. In both countries, there has been a government focus on education and poverty with some attention to gender issues, but considering the intersections remains a challenge.
Citation
E4 Engendering empowerment: education and equality, Dakar, Senegal, 17-20 May 2010.
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