Women Education and Social Structure

Availability of educational structures affects women’s education significantly. While availability of schools, adequate number of teachers, facilities, etc. affects both boys and girls, the constraints operate more effectively in the case of girls. Quite a few studies have shown that lack of middle schools at walking distance, unavailability of women teachers, sub-standard teaching, and absence of certain support structures like creches, have led to dropping out of girls from the education system.

            Educational institutions reflect and reinforce gender differences in various ways. Separate schools and classes for girls and boys, content of the syllabi and textbooks in which the dictomy of masculine and feminine roles is projected and, finally, encouragement given to the study of certain subjects like home science and discouragement of girls going in for the science stream or plying football are few examples which indicate the strengthening of sex stereotyping at the school level.

            Though studies on students belonging to coeducational and single- sex schools are available, most are descriptive and do not investigate why girls in co-ed schools behave in a docile manner and why they are aggressive in single-sex schools. Vibha Parthasarathy’s experiment on generation of a non‑discriminatory atmosphere is worth noting. She says, 1396 Neera Desai.