essay on importance of female education in pakistan

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Women, girls and Malala: Research on gender and education in Pakistan, and beyond

2014 selection of research that sheds light on many of the challenges women face in Pakistan and the developing world. Studies look at the role of gender, religion, violence and discrimination.

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by Alexandra Raphel, The Journalist's Resource October 10, 2014

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Malala Yousafzai, the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize , has been advocating across the world for girls’ educational rights, even in the face of extremely difficult circumstances in her home country of Pakistan, where gunmen attempted to assassinate her in 2012.

Of course, women throughout the world face a range of challenges, and none more so than in the developing world. Levels of education , health care and political representation can be dauntingly low, and discrimination and sexual violence are all too frequent.

One of the most prominent cases of a country struggling with the competing dynamics of development, modernization, religion and tradition is indeed Pakistan, the sixth most populous country on earth. The World Economic Forum ranks the country as the least gender equitable in the Asia and Pacific region. The 2012 annual report from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan details many challenges women there face, including being “attacked and killed on account of asserting their rights to education, work and generally for choosing to have a say in key decisions in their lives.”

In 2012, UNESCO stated that Pakistan showed the least progress in the region educating low-income girls: “The poorest girls in Pakistan are twice as likely to be out of school as the poorest girls in India, almost three times as likely as the poorest girls in Nepal and around six times as likely as the poorest girls in Bangladesh.” (For additional comparisons between countries and groups within the same country, see the World Inequality Database on Education .) Even when there is the possibility of enrolling in a school, actually doing so can be downright dangerous. In June 2013, militants blew up a bus carrying female university students in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, and the school has since been shuttered. And Malala — the Pakistani schoolgirl and education advocate who was shot by the Taliban for her views — addressed the U.N. in favor of free, mandatory education around the world, adding that she was focusing on women “because they are suffering the most.”

Pakistani women who want to contribute to the economy face other barriers as well. A 2012 World Bank report details the difficulties they face gaining access to capital due to social constraints — needing permission from a male to even qualify for a loan, for example. According to the study, 50% to 70% of microloans given to women in Pakistan may actually be used by their male relatives. For further information on these types of obstacles, see the paper “Gender-Specific Barriers to Female Entrepreneurs in Pakistan: A Study in Urban Areas of Pakistan.” And even something as basic as using public transportation presents a challenge, according to the International Labour Organization.

A study in Comparative Education , “Can Education Be a Path to Gender Equality in the Labour Market? An Update on Pakistan,” finds that “the market rewards women’s education and skills at a higher rate than men’s.” As Esther Duflo, a development economist at MIT and the director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, has noted , there is a close relationship between women’s empowerment and a country’s economic development.

Pakistan’s struggling economy needs all the help it can get. The Asian Development Bank estimates that in 2014, Pakistan’s GDP growth rate will be 3.5%, half the 7% needed just to absorb new workforce entrants. The World Bank notes that the country’s recovery from the global financial crisis has been the slowest in South Asia. According to the Pew Research Center , 80% of Pakistanis say the economy is in poor shape, while a British Council report found that economic factors were the greatest reason for the pessimism of youth on the direction the country is headed.

There are some organizations working to improve gender equality and provide more opportunities for women. The Citizens Foundation , a non-profit organization, runs schools across the country, encouraging female enrollment with the goal of having its campuses gender balanced. The Kashf Foundation , founded in 1996, became the first microfinance institution in Pakistan to target women from low-income communities. The First Women Bank was founded in 1989 to support businesswomen. Pakistan’s Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) also provides support for female entrepreneurs.

Below is a selection of academic research that sheds light on many of the challenges facing women in Pakistan.

“Education System Reform in Pakistan: Why, When, and How?” Aziz, Mehnaz, et al. Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit, Institute for the Study of Labor, January 2014 IZA Policy Paper No. 76.

Excerpt: “While the state of the educational system in Pakistan is dire, and the gap between education providers and the aspirations of the people huge , we believe that a window of opportunity is now open for initiating system-level reform. It is urgent to seize this opportunity, because population dynamics will make education a graver problem in the next decade if immediate steps are not taken. It is also important to recognize that reform must tackle all sectors of the education system — primary/secondary, higher education and vocational education — as Pakistan does not have the luxury to delay reform in one sector until the other sectors improve. Of course, reforming the system poses a great challenge, but strong examples of success within Pakistan remind us that it can be done. This may be the time for public, private, and philanthropic institutions and change — makers to pool their resources and initiate lasting system — wide change, which some of them have achieved, at least partially, in their respective domains.”

“Gender Roles and Their Influence on Life Prospects for Women in Urban Karachi, Pakistan: A Qualitative Study” Ali, Tazan S.; Krantz, Gunilla; Morgen, Ingrid et al. Global Health Action , 2011, 4:7448. doi: 10.3402/gha.v4i0.7448.

Summary: “Pakistan is a patriarchal society where men are the primary authority figures and women are subordinate. This has serious implications on women’s and men’s life prospects. The aim [of this study] was to explore current gender roles in urban Pakistan, how these are reproduced and maintained and influence men’s and women’s life circumstances. Five focus group discussions were conducted, including 28 women representing employed, unemployed, educated and uneducated women from different socio-economic strata. Manifest and latent content analyses were applied. Two major themes emerged during analysis: ‘Reiteration of gender roles’ and ‘Agents of change.’ The first theme included perceptions of traditional gender roles and how these preserve women’s subordination. The power gradient, with men holding a superior position in relation to women, distinctive features in the culture and the role of the extended family were considered to interact to suppress women. The second theme included agents of change, where the role of education was prominent as well as the role of mass media. It was further emphasised that the younger generation was more positive to modernisation of gender roles than the elder generation. This study reveals serious gender inequalities and human rights violations against women in the Pakistani society…. However, attainment of higher levels of education especially not only for women but also for men was viewed as an agent towards change. Furthermore, mass media was perceived as having a positive role to play in supporting women’s empowerment.”

“Negotiating Gender Relations: Muslim Women and Formal Employment in Pakistan’s Rural Development Sector” Grünenfelder, Julia. Gender, Work and Organization , 2012. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2012.00609.x.

Abstract: “ Drawing on evidence from qualitative field research, this article explores how Pakistani female development practitioners experience their work situations as they are shaped both by local sociocultural norms and globalized development agendas. In this context, policies at global and national levels demand that more female development practitioners work in remote rural places in Pakistan, thus creating new employment opportunities for some Pakistani women. This article argues that, in this work environment, these women are exposed to different expectations about their gender behaviour and that they therefore develop physical strategies on the one hand and discursive strategies on the other in order to negotiate gender relations in a way that allows them to engage in formal employment. This article adds to under-researched debates on gender and work in Muslim countries as well as to debates in critical development and gender studies.”

“Religious Values and Beliefs and Education for Women in Pakistan” Bradley, Tamsin; Saigol, Rubina. Development in Practice , 2012, 22 (5-6), 675-688.

Abstract: “This paper explores the hypothesis that Islamic religious values and beliefs are antithetical to women’s education in two cities in Pakistan: Lahore, generally believed to be a socially liberal city, and Peshawar, often regarded as the bastion of conservative values and norms. Leaders and members of selected religious organisations, and some members of women’s rights and development organisations, were interviewed to ascertain their views. While there is universal support for girls’ education, views on the purpose, content and mode of delivery differ between men and women and also depend on respondents’ position on the liberal/conservative spectrum. Some of the policy implications of the findings are discussed.”

“Developing Gender Equality: An Analytical Study of Socio-Political and Economic Constraints in Women’s Empowerment in Pakhtun Society of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan” Chaudhry, Hafeez-ur-Rehman; Naz, Arab. Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing , 2011, 2(1), 259-266.

Abstract: “Socio-political and economic constraints to women’s empowerment exist in most of the world societies. However, the nature and shape of these constraints differ from culture to culture and society to society. This study was undertaken on socio-political and economic constraints in women’s empowerment in Pakhtun Society of Chakdara District Dir (L) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Women in the region have been discriminated in many ways, i.e., at domestic, economic, religious and political levels. To investigate socio-political and economic constraints, the researcher ethnographically selected village Chakdara and a survey of 4,331 households was conducted. Data was collected from 176 educated respondents by systematic random sampling technique using semi-structured interview schedule. The collected information has been classified, tabulated and presented in bar charts, which has further been discussed qualitatively in detail. The study highlights that there exist various social, political and economic barriers to women’s empowerment. However, changes are observable in gender roles towards women’s participation in socio-cultural activities and the need is to provide educational opportunities, gender representation in government policies and programs and socialization.”

“International Transfer of Policies and Practices of Gender Equality in Employment to and Among Muslim Majority Countries” Özbilgin, Mustafa F.; Syed, Jawad; Ali, Faiza; Torunoglu, Dilek. Gender, Work and Organization , 2012, 19(4), 345-369.

Summary: “ This article investigates the premise that it is possible to transpose organizational approaches to equal employment opportunity (EEO) from western countries to Muslim majority countries (MMCs). Drawing on policy interviews and documentary evidence from public sector organizations and international development agencies engaged in the promotion of gender equality in Turkey and Pakistan, we question the effectiveness of diffusion of gender equality policies and practices to and among these two MMCs. Our investigation reveals the primacy of context over essence in developing effective ways to construct EEO policies and practices which can be adopted in MMCs.”

“Discourses of Gender Identities and Gender Roles in Pakistan: Women and Non-domestic Work in Political Representations” Grünenfelder, Julia. Women’s Studies International Forum, 2013, 40, 68-77. doi: 10.1016/j.wsif.2013.05.007.

Summary: “This paper aims to explore some of the manifold and changing links that official Pakistani state discourses forged between women and work from the 1940s to the late 2000s. The focus of the analysis is on discursive spaces that have been created for women engaged in non-domestic work. Starting from an interpretation of the existing academic literature, this paper argues that Pakistani women’s non-domestic work has been conceptualised in three major ways: as a contribution to national development, as a danger to the nation, and as nonexistent. The paper concludes that although some conceptualisations of work have been more powerful than others and, at specific historical junctures, have become part of concrete state policies, alternative conceptualisations have always existed alongside them. Disclosing the state’s implication in the discursive construction of working women’s identities might contribute to the destabilisation of hegemonic concepts of gendered divisions of labour in Pakistan.”

“Violence Permeating Daily Life: A Qualitative Study Investigating Perspectives on Violence Among Women in Karachi, Pakistan” Ali, Tazeen S.; Krantz, Gunilla; Mogren, Ingrid. International Journal of Women’s Health , 2012, 4, 577-585. doi: 10.2147/IJWH.S33325.

Abstract: “This study explored how married women perceive situations which create family conflicts and lead to different forms of violence in urban Pakistan. In addition, it examines perceptions of consequences of violence, their adverse health effects and how women resist violence within marital life. Five focus group discussions were conducted with 28 women in Karachi. Purposive sampling, aiming for variety in age, employment status, education and socioeconomic status, was employed. The focus group discussions were conducted in Urdu and translated into English. Manifest and latent content analysis were applied…. The current study highlights how female victims of abuse are trapped in a society where violence from a partner and family members is viewed as acceptable, where divorce is unavailable to the majority and where societal support of women is limited. There is an urgent need to raise the subject of violence against women and tackle this human rights problem at all levels of society by targeting the individual, family, community and societal levels concurrently.”

“Struggle and Hope: Challenging Gender Violence in Pakistan” Critelli, Filomena M; Willet, Jennifer. Critical Sociology , 2012, 39(2), 201-221. doi: 10.1177/0896920512438780.

Abstract: “Despite the overwhelming media attention to the rise of fundamentalism, Pakistan’s vocal women’s movement has remained unrevealed and unexamined. Gender violence is integral to the agenda of the women’s movement, because of the profound violation of women’s human rights to life and security. This article draws on formal in-depth interviews and participant observation with women’s activists of two prominent women’s nongovernmental organizations in Lahore, Pakistan. Using a transnational feminist framework and feminist social movement theory, it examines the organizations’ strategies for change and how the historical, political and social environments of their fields for protest shape these strategies. The struggles and achievements of women’s activism against gender violence are analyzed with implications beyond the experiences of these organizations.”

“Suffrage, Democracy and Gender Equality in Education” Cooray, Arusha. Oxford Development Studies , 2012, 40(1), 21-47.

Abstract: “Examining the influence of women’s suffrage and democracy on gender equality in education in a sample of 80 countries, covering Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America and Eastern Europe, this study shows that countries with a longer duration of suffrage tend on average to perform better in terms of gender equality in education. The empirical association between democracy and gender equality in education disappears when religion is controlled for. In Asia and Africa, other factors, including income, employment in agriculture and colonialism, also help explain the under-representation of girls in education.”

“A Paradigm Shift in Women’s Movement and Gender Reforms in Pakistan (A Historical Overview)” Naz, Arab; et al. Global Journal of Human Social Science, Sociology and Culture , 2013, 13(1), 21-26.

Abstract: “ A historical analysis of the women’s movement and gender reforms in Pakistan, the study provides an evolutionary perspective on social change and development. Data was collected from PhD dissertations conducted in the years 2008-12 in the Department of Anthropology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. The paper provides detail about gender and women’s reforms and concludes that they are part of a long historic process and that progress has been slowed by multiple factors, including conservative forces. However, the study finds that there is always the possibility of change and development, as is clear from the country’s ongoing gender reforms.”

“Gender Discrimination and Social Identity: Experimental Evidence from Urban Pakistan” Delavande, Adeline; Zafar, Basit. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Staff Report No. 593, January 2013.

Abstract: “Gender discrimination in South Asia is a well-documented fact. However, gender is only one of an individual’s many identities. This paper investigates how gender discrimination depends on the social identities of interacting parties. We use an experimental approach to identify gender discrimination by randomly matching 2,836 male and female students pursuing bachelor’s-equivalent degrees in three different types of institutions — Madrassas (religious seminaries), Islamic universities and liberal universities — that represent distinct identities within the Pakistani society. Our main finding is that gender discrimination is not uniform in intensity and nature across the educated Pakistani society and varies as a function of the social identity of both individuals who interact. While we find no evidence of higher-socioeconomic-status men discriminating against women, men of lower socioeconomic status and higher religiosity tend to discriminate against women — but only women of lower socioeconomic status who are closest to them in social distance. Moreover, this discrimination is largely taste-based. Our findings suggest that social policies aimed at empowering women need to account for the intersectionality of gender with social identity.”

Keywords: women and work, gender equity, South Asia

About The Author

Alexandra Raphel

Facing the Challenges of Girls’ Education in Pakistan

Juan d. barón.

Girls’ education is smart economics , and Pakistan has committed to guaranteeing the right of both girls and boys to access quality education ( SDG 4 ).

In fact, Pakistan has dramatically expanded enrollment for girls and boys in the last 14 years. Net enrollment for both has increased by roughly 10 percentage points (Figure 1). With a school-aged population of around 50 million children, there have been substantial gains in the number of children enrolled in school. However, the country faces a number of challenges in ensuring a quality education for all children: 75 percent of 10-year-olds in Pakistan cannot read a simple text, and that rate may have increased to 79 percent due to COVID-19 and the 2022 floods .

Despite progress, girls in Pakistan face more challenges in accessing quality education and their education outcomes lag boys. Bringing more girls and boys to school will require using data to target interventions to specific challenges. At the current pace (which already incorporates strong assumptions on progress), it will take Pakistan at least 50 years to enroll all girls and 31 years to enroll all boys. Below, we present potential solutions to challenges facing girls access to education.

Figure 1. Net enrollment rates by sex (%)

Challenge 1: 12 million girls out of school

About 2 million more girls than boys are out of school in Pakistan–or about 12 million girls in total—and account for most of the out-of-school population in Pakistan. Estimates of the number of out-of-school children in Pakistan range from 20.3 to 22.1 million children.

Solutions. One solution includes using available data and targeting specific programs to specific types of out-of-school children. For example, bringing back young kids who may have dropped out of primary school is a targeted intervention for young kids who were in school, but not for teenage children who may have left the system years ago. A literacy, numeracy, and life skill programs would be a more targeted approach for this group.

Another solution is increasing school supply: Punjab has done it successfully in primary education with public-private partnerships (PPPs). Expanding PPPs to other levels of education and enhancing regulations can deliver big returns. Expanding and better managing public schools in rural areas is another solution, like the SELECT project in the Sindh Province.

Challenge 2: Girls are more likely to have never been to school

In 2018, 26 percent of girls and 19 percent of boys had never been to school, a 7-percentage point difference (Figure 2). Pakistan has made progress compared to 2004, when the difference was 13 percentage points. The effort, however, has left girls in the same position as before relative to boys. Figure 2 shows that in 2018, the number of girls who have never attended school was the same as the number of boys who never attended school in 2004 (14 years earlier).

Solutions . Expanding conditional cash transfers to incentivize parents to send children to school, with a premium on girls, could be effective to enhance early enrollment and reduce gender gaps. Enrollment drives focused on first grades and pre-K enrollment can also be effective.

Figure 2. Children who have never attended school by sex (%)

Challenge 3: Girls in poor families are less likely to attend school

Poverty is a major challenge for girls’ education. Girls in poor families are 22 percentage points less likely to attend school than boys (Figure 3). This gender gap gets narrower with better-off families, ending with no gap for families in the wealthiest quintile, where enrollment is around 87 percent, for both sexes.

Figure 3. School enrollment by sex and household wealth (%)

Moreover, girls in poor families are 52 percentage points less likely to attend school than girls in well-off households (Figure 3). This highlights what families express as the biggest constraint to sending girls to primary school: the cost of education. Girls in rural areas, who are more likely to be in poor households, are also less likely to be enrolled than any other group, including girls in urban areas and boys in both rural and urban areas (Figure 4). Girls in rural areas are the most disadvantaged group.

Solutions. Pakistan has recently expanded the conditional cash transfer program to all districts in the country and has had girls’ stipend programs with positive outcomes. Expanding and consolidating this financial support to families—differentiating by gender and rural areas—could help in closing these gaps. These financial conditionalities will only work if there are enough schools available, which is not the case in many rural areas of Pakistan. For example, there are nearly 130,000 primary schools in rural Pakistan, but only 33,000 middle schools, leaving many middle school-aged students in rural areas without education options after primary school.

Figure 4. In all provinces, girls of all ages in rural areas are less likely to be in school than boys

Challenge 4: Security of girls and women at school

Girls face harassment in school and on the way to school. They face challenges to their security in public spaces, transportation, and near schools. Girls express anguish at all types of harassment in these spaces, the Center for Gender and Policy Studies reports. Given this, parents in Pakistan either delay girls’ education or prevent them from attending school altogether. The second most important reason parents give for not sending girls to school is the distance to schools, which is a factor that exacerbates parents’ security concerns: the more distant the school, the more risk for girls.

Solutions . Improving transport services for girls and female teachers, as has been done in KP Province , and making school safe for students (for example, building boundary walls in schools).

What’s next?

Pakistan has shown that increased enrollment for girls is possible even in a context of high population growth. To accelerate progress, programs could be based on cost-effectiveness, potential for scale, and new research. For example, countries can advance girls’ education through un-targeted programs as effectively as targeted programs, as outlined in research by Evans & Yuan . This is true in some domains, but targeted interventions would work best for specific constraints faced by girls. The above potential solutions reflect both.

Solutions, however, require adequate and well-executed funding. Pakistan spends 2.5 percent of its GDP on education, far from the 4 percent international average. Reducing gaps and ensuring that all children, in particular girls, have access to quality education would require at least 4.5 percent of GDP, the World Bank estimates.

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Why Women are the Future of Pakistan

Javaid Sofi | May 12, 2020 | Leave a Comment Download as PDF

Girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Image DFID - UK Department for International Development / CC BY-SA

Nafisa (name changed) is a 6-year-old and misses her school friends; her school is shut because of lockdown in Karachi due to coronavirus. However, she may never go to school again, but the reason will not be coronavirus.

Not educating girls costs trillions of Dollars

Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children with about 22.8 million children aged 5 to 16 not attending school, which represents 44% of the total population in this age group. Learning poverty is at 75% which is higher than the average in South Asia of 58%. When education investments do not result in adequate learning parents do not keep their children in school. Both boys and girls are being denied the right to an education; however, girls are disproportionately affected. Limited educational opportunities for girls and barriers to completing 12 years of education cost developing countries between $15 trillion and $30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings. Due to lack of education child marriages are rampant, 21% of girls in Pakistan marry before the age of 18, and 3% get married before age 15. Children born to adolescents are more likely to have a low birth weight, ill-health, stunting, and other poor nutritional outcomes , due to which Pakistan also has the worst infant mortality in the world.

74 percent of married women aged 15 to 49 don’t use effective contraception methods

Social norms act as another impediment for women. There are about 1,000 “honor” killings every year. The abortion rate in Pakistan is one of the highest in the world due to a lack of awareness of contraception. Over 2.2 million women get abortions every year, that’s 350 abortions every hour, and the vast majority of them are married, with three or four children already, who cannot and do not want to have another child. 74% of married women aged 15 to 49 years are not using an effective method of contraception. The charity Marie Stopes, whose clinics provide post-abortion care, has profiled a typical client in Pakistan: aged in her thirties, married at 18, she is poor, uneducated, and already has three children. Hence it is no surprise that Pakistan ranks near the bottom of the 2020 Global Gender Gap Index with only Iraq and Yemen ranking worse.

1 US$ spent on family planning returns US$ 120 of investment

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, Pakistan needs to focus on girls and women. They need to be the engine for the growth of the country. Overpopulation is a big problem in Pakistan with an annual growth rate of 2.4%, threatening any improvements in the living standard in the poor country. The return on investment for meeting the demand for family planning and maternal and newborn services is US$ 120 per every US$1 spent . Empowering women will go a long way in transforming Pakistan. Gender equality goes hand in hand with the economic and social development of any society. Educating girls is one of the most important investments the state needs to make, and it always achieves the objectives. Every 1% increase in women’s education generates a 0.3% increase in economic growth . Educational gender equality decreases national poverty and is the foundation of stable societies.

Education will improve the productiveness of the women which will boost the economy, especially when only 26% of women are active in Pakistan’s labor force. Better educated women are healthier and take part more in the formal labor market. An extra year of primary school education boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10–20% and an extra year of secondary school adds 15–25%. Investing in women empowerment leads to healthier and better-educated children and families as women invest 90% of their income in their households compared to men’s 30 to 40%. Only 5% of Pakistani women over the age of fifteen have a bank account, compared to South Asia’s average of 37%.

The investments that countries make in girls today will shape their lives and those around them for generations to come. Increased education is the reason for half of the economic growth in OECD countries in the past 50 years, and that has a lot to do with bringing more girls to higher levels of education and achieving greater equality in the number of years spent in education between men and women.

30 percent increase in GDP by empowering Pakistan’s women

The empowerment of women is more important than ever in Pakistan because of the recession caused by a coronavirus which will cost more than US$2 Trillion , to the global economy. Pakistan which was just recovering from the external crisis has to go back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for another bailout whose impact is unimaginable. Pakistan’s GDP can increase by 30% if women are more empowered and play their role in the labor force. In Latin America and the Caribbean, women got support in the form of transport facilities and daycare centers by The World Bank, which resulted in more women pursuing their careers. Subsequently, it led to a drop in poverty; the income earned by these women reducing 30% of extreme poverty over 10 years.

Most public schools in Pakistan at the secondary level are at greater distances from one another, which is one reason that by the 9th grade only 13% of girls are still in school. Pakistan is spending less than 2.8% of its gross domestic product on education. Investment in educational infrastructure needs to be increased up to 6% so better facilities could be provided which would increase the number of girl students.

Investing 1 US$ on contraceptive use saves US$ 2.50 in postnatal care

Pakistan’s population is estimated to reach 403 million by 2050 . It would not be possible to integrate all these people into the educational and labor market. Population growth at this level will be disastrous for Pakistan. Information about modern contraceptives needs to be provided to women, particularly living in rural areas. Family planning is one of the most efficient tools with which we can control population growth. Each year in Pakistan, about 9,700 women die from complications in pregnancy and childbirth, for every extra dollar spent on expanding modern contraceptive use, more than US$2.50 on maternal and newborn care will be saved.

Other Islamic countries like Iran and Bangladesh have invested heavily in family planning. In Iran, the average family has halved in size from 5.2 to 2.6 children while in Bangladesh fertility rates have halved from about 6 per woman in the early 1970s to fewer than 3 children per woman today. This population control has enabled Bangladesh to perform better than Pakistan in many development indicators such as education and health.

Pakistan needs to empower its girls so they could also contribute to its economic growth. Greater gender diversity would lead Pakistan towards economic and social prosperity. If women’s participation in Pakistan is equal to men’s we can see a gain of US $251 billion or $1,324 per person.

Javaid Sofi is a Global fellow at Brandeis University and can be reached @Thinking_Sufi.

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Education for Women in Pakistan English essay with quotations

 The students of 2nd year class 12 can see the following essay. It is in the smart syllabus 2020 - 21 for 2nd year English. The essay on the importance of female education in Pakistan has been given here. The essay on education for women in Pakistan is an outstanding version. The is specially written for 2nd year and college level and degree level students.

Impact of internet on youth essay

Education for Women Essay with quotations

The essay includes quotations and an outline. Students can get good marks with an essay including an outline and quotations.

Importance of Female Education English Essay

You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation - Brigham Young

Women should be treated as human beings, not as domestic animals

Seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim (Man and woman).

No nation can ever be worthy of its existence that cannot take its women along with the men.

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The rising voices of women in Pakistan

From registering women voters to negotiating rights, women are redefining roles despite resistance from the state, religious institutions, and other women.

SHAHDARA, Pakistan – Bushra Khaliq stood in the middle of a village home, chin up and shoulders back, holding the attention of fifty women around her. Old and young, they wore Pakistani tunics and scarves; some cradled and fed babies, others shushed children who tugged at their sleeves. Sun from the open roof warmed Khaliq’s face as she looked around, holding eye contact with one woman, then another. “Who is going to decide your vote?” she asked. The women clapped and shouted in unison: “Myself!”

Both Sunni and Shia students study at a girls’ school in Minawar, a village near Gilgit in the province of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Bibi Raj, 22, principal of Outliers Girls School in Minawar, graduated with her master's degree in Education in 2018. She teaches biology and chemistry and hopes her students will attend college, even though some of them are already engaged to be married.

Nadia Khan, a 23-year-old Ismaili teacher, sits among her students. Ismailis are known in Pakistan for supporting female education, but they have limited influence outside of the Hunza valley in Gilgit-Baltistan. The only girls’ school in Minawar village, with 24 students between the ages of 14 and 17, still struggles to keep girls in school instead of leaving for marriage at age 15. “It’s a challenge for me,” says Principal Bibi Raj. “All girls should go to school.”

Khaliq, a 50-year-old human rights defender and community organizer, was holding a political participation workshop session, the first of several that day in the rural outskirts of Lahore. The women attendants were local wives and daughters of agricultural laborers. Many were illiterate, though several worked low-income jobs to send their daughters to school. It was the week before Pakistan’s general election, and Khaliq, who runs an organization called Women in Struggle for Empowerment (WISE) , encouraged the women to vote.

Many rural women are not registered for their National Identity Cards , a requirement not only to vote but also to open a bank account and get a driver’s license. In Pakistan, many women in rural and tribal areas have not been able to do these things with or without the card. In accordance with patriarchal customs and family pressures, they live in the privacy of their homes without legal identities.

Yet Pakistan’s July 2018 elections saw an increase of 3.8 million newly registered women voters . The dramatic increase follows a 2017 law requiring at least a 10 percent female voter turnout to legitimize each district’s count. Pakistan has allowed women to vote since 1956, yet it ranks among the last in the world in female election participation.

Teenage girls from Gulmit load up in a van after an all-female soccer tournament meant to promote gender equality in the Hunza valley of northern Pakistan.

All-girl teams from surrounding villages walk onto the field during the soccer tournament.

The Hunza valley in the northern Pakistan borders China’s Xinjiang region and the Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan. The Ismaili Muslims who live there embrace education rates for girls and religious tolerance.

The remote tribal area that borders Afghanistan, formally called the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of northwestern Pakistan, has traditionally been least tolerant of women in public spaces, some women activists say. Yet registration in 2018 increased by 66 percent from 2013. This rise in women’s votes is a victory for women like Khaliq, who are fighting for women’s inclusion and equality in Pakistan, especially among marginalized communities in rural and tribal areas.

Encouraging more women to vote is only the beginning. Women themselves disagree over what their role should be in Pakistani society. The patriarchal, conservative mainstream dismisses feminism as a Western idea threatening traditional social structures. Those who advocate for equality between women and men – the heart of feminism – are fighting an uphill battle. They face pushback from the state, religious institutions, and, perhaps most jarringly, other women.

There are different kinds of activists among women in Pakistan. Some are secular, progressive women like Rukhshanda Naz, who was fifteen years old when she first went on a hunger strike. She was the youngest daughter of her father’s twelve children, and wanted to go to an all-girls’ boarding school against his wishes. It took one day of activism to convince her father, but her family members objected again when she wanted to go to law school. “My brother said he would kill himself,” she said. Studying law meant she’d sit among men outside of her family, which would be dishonorable to him. Her brother went to Saudi Arabia for work. Naz got her law degree, became a human rights lawyer, opened a women’s shelter in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and worked as resident director of the Aurat Foundation, one of Pakistan’s leading organizations for women’s rights. She is also the UN Women head for the tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA.

An Ismaili bride participates in one of many marriage rituals in the Hunza valley. This bride is marrying for love rather than by family arrangement.

The women in Naz’s shelter are survivors of extreme violence whose status as single women makes them highly vulnerable outside of the shelter. When we met, she brought three Afghan sisters whose brother had killed their mother after their father died so he could get her share of the land inheritance after their father died. Naz also had with her a 22-year-old woman from Kabul whose father disappeared into Taliban hands for having worked with the United Nations. The woman had been beaten, kidnapped, and sexually assaulted for refusing marriage to a Taliban member. Women hidden in Naz’s shelter are relatively safe, but outside its walls Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has high incidences of “honor”-based violence. Last June, a jirga (typically all-male tribal council) ordered the “honor” killing of a 13-year-old girl for “running away with men.” At least 180 cases of domestic violence were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2017, according to Human Rights Watch , including 94 women murdered by immediate family.

Others such as Farhat Hashmi represent women from a different perspective. A scholar with a doctoral degree in Islamic studies, Hashmi founded the Al-Huda movement. The group, started in the 1990s, has gained huge traction among upper-middle class Pakistani women as a women’s religious education system that emphasizes conservative Quranic teachings. The Al-Huda schools drew attention after Tashfeen Malik, a former student who became radicalized soon after, carried out a terror attack in San Bernardino, California, in 2015. While there is no proven connection between the Al-Huda movement and any terrorist organization, the group is one of several “piety movements” that has grown in popularity among Pakistani women.

Women of Pakistan’s Wakhi minority make and sell traditional hand-woven carpets in Gulmit village in the Hunza valley.

Zina Parvwen, 52, sits before a display of the Wakhi traditional carpets that she and eleven other women make and sell in Gulmit.

Bibi Farman, a 32-year-old female carpenter, is one of 40 women who work at a carpentry workshop in Karimabad, a village in the Hunza valley. “I am gaining skills,” Farman says. “I am earning money. I support my family and it built up my confidence. Many girls share their problems here. We are a community.”

Women show their hand-embroidered textiles to Tasleem Akhtar, 55, who runs a vocational center in a village near Islamabad. A women’s empowerment organization called Behbud has trained about 300 women who are working here. The women use their earnings to send their children to school.

The role of women in Al-Huda’s teachings is fundamentally different from the position women like Naz and Khaliq are fighting for: Women are taught to obey and submit to their husbands as much as possible, to protect their husbands’ “ honor ,” and never to refuse his physical demands. As Gullalai, director of a women’s organization called Khwendo Kor (“Sister’s Home” in Pashto) puts it, “What they think are women’s rights are not what we think are women’s rights.”

The debate about whether to pursue women’s rights in a secular or religious framework has continued since the 1980s, when progressive feminism first began to gain momentum in Pakistan. Though women’s movements existed in Pakistan from the country’s beginnings, they mobilized in new ways when Zia-ul-Haq’s military dictatorship instituted a fundamentalist form of Islamic law. Under the system, fornication and adultery became punishable by stoning and whipping, murder was privatized under the Qisas and Diyat law (providing a loophole for perpetrators of “honor killings”), and women’s testimony was only worth half of men’s in court.

These laws spurred the formation in 1981 of the Women Action Forum (WAF), a network of activists who lobby for secular, progressive women’s rights. On February 12, 1983, the WAF and Pakistan Women Lawyers’ Association organized a march against the discriminatory laws, only to be attacked, baton charged, and tear gassed by policemen in the streets of Lahore. The date became known as a “black day for women’s rights,” Naz says, and was later declared Pakistan’s National Women’s Day.

Tourists from Karachi pose for a selfie overlooking the Karakoram mountain range in the Hunza valley. The group of young women came to "escape city life," they said.

Since then, Pakistan’s military has grown stronger and more entrenched in its control of both state and economy. The 2018 elections saw the unprecedented inclusion of extremist and militant sectarian groups running for office, including a UN-declared terrorist with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. At the same time, hundreds of people were killed or injured by a series of pre-election suicide attacks.

Some conservative movements have become far more popular than the progressive women’s movement. Some scholars explain the appeal of these faith-based organizations as a channel for women to exercise agency and autonomy by pointedly embracing a non-Western form of womanhood. It’s a different definition of empowerment. Its adherents also avoid the shame, pressure, and physical threat that secular feminists regularly face. “They have the support of religion and acceptance in society, so they are in expansion—and we are shrinking,” Naz said.

Days before Pakistan’s general elections, 50-year-old activist and human rights defender Bushra Khaliq encouraged rural women to vote. A longtime campaigner for women’s rights and labor rights, Khaliq has survived social and state-level attacks on her work. In 2017, the Ministry of Interior and home department of Pakistan accused Khaliq’s organization of performing “anti-state activities.” Khaliq took her case to the Lahore High Court and won the right to continue working.

Gulalai Ismail, a 32-year-old Pashtun human rights activist, founded Aware Girls, an organization combatting violence against women, at age 16. The group aims to educate and mobilize girls and women against social oppression, especially in her home province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. At the time of this portrait, Ismail and Aware Girls were charged with blasphemy for undertaking “immoral” activities and for challenging harmful religious traditions.

Gulalai, who chooses to go by one name to protest the custom of taking a man’s name, runs a women’s organization called Khwendo Kor in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She conducts weekly feminist reading sessions in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The meetings bring women teachers, doctors, and nonprofit workers together to read and discuss the intersection of gender, class, economic inequality and nationalism. “Living in this part of the world and being a woman, how can one not be a feminist?” Gulalai said. “There is no other option.”

There is a third group of women in Pakistan who don’t connect with either secular feminism or conservative ideology – women who are just trying to survive, said Saima Jasam, a researcher who focuses on women’s and minority rights in Pakistan at the German Heinrich Böll Foundation . Jasam grew up in a Hindu family that decided to stay in Lahore after partition. She witnessed her parents being stabbed to death in her home when she was 15 years old. “The person who stabbed my father said he’d dreamed that he had to kill Hindus,” Jasam said. Though the rest of her family was in India, Jasam insisted on finishing her studies in Lahore, where she fell in love with a Muslim man and converted to Islam to marry him. A year later, he died in an accident. Jasam was pregnant and lost her child. She was 25 years old. At 27, she began working on women’s issues, eventually writing a book on “honor” killings and doing fieldwork.

Jasam’s way of ignoring criticism and conservative pressure is to focus on protecting the vulnerable. “They are facing a different level of patriarchy: food insecurity, health insecurity. They’re just surviving,” Jasam said. Secular women—which, to secular activists, doesn’t mean anti-religion, but anti-conflation of religion and state—are the ones who have secured legislative change to protect women better over the last 20 years.

Rukhshanda Naz, a lawyer and activist who runs a women’s shelter in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, stands with one of the Afghan women in her shelter. The 23-year-old Afghan woman fled Kabul after being beaten, kidnapped, and sexually assaulted for refusing marriage to a Taliban member. “Women’s solidarity should be without ethnicity or borders,” said Naz. “We want to live a life which our mothers didn’t have a chance and their mothers didn’t have a chance [to live], a life with rights and dignity.”

Gullalai, who is originally from FATA and spends much of her time engaging women in the most tribal and conservative parts of Pakistan, said the gap between feminist beliefs and Pakistani reality requires pragmatic compromise. She works to meet women where they are. It’s easy to convince women that they should have inheritance rights, for example, but there are religious texts which state women should have only half a share. “So women will say, ‘Oh, we want half,’” Gullalai said. Personally, she believes women should have an equal share, but she won’t bring it into conversations in the tribal setting. Gullalai said, “At the moment we are even advocating for half!”

Sometimes Pakistani feminists compromise to engage Jasam’s “third group” of women; other times, those women inspire feminists toward more radical activism.

In the rural Okara district of Punjab province, women have long played a leading role in a farmers’ movement against military land grabs. They have used thappas —wooden sticks used in laundry—to face down brutal Pakistani paramilitary forces that have beaten, murdered, detained, and tortured local farmers and their children. Khaliq openly aligned with this farmers’ movement in 2016, speaking up in solidarity with them. In response, the Ministry of Interior widely circulated a letter accusing her NGO of unspecified activities “detrimental to national/strategic security.”

A memorial to Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister, sits at the site of her assassination in December 2007 during a political rally in Rawalpindi, Punjab province. Bhutto was the first woman to rule a democratic Islamic nation and took a stark stance against religious extremism. Throughout her time in politics, she was threatened by the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and local extremist groups.

Members of the Awami National Party (ANP), a leftist Pashtun nationalist party, rally in a rural area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the lead-up to Pakistan’s 2018 election. ANP is one of Pakistan’s most secular, liberal parties. A few days after the rally, ANP leader Haroon Bilous was killed in Peshawar by a suicide attacker. No women were at the rally.

In 2017, Khaliq went to court to defend herself and her organization. Her NGO had been training women to protect themselves against harassment, she argued. How was that detrimental to national security? Khaliq won.

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Women are Khaliq’s inspiration. “These are ordinary and illiterate women who spend their whole lives in homes, but they stand up and fight against army brutalities,” she says. “They are ahead of the men. I feel my responsibility to go shoulder-to-shoulder with them. Their strength gives us more strength.”

Outside the political-participation meeting house in Shahdara, open gutters spilled onto the village streets, flies buzzing around cows and carts moving through the uneven dirt alleys.

Khaliq first met this group of women six years ago, she said, following her usual method of engaging rural women: knocking on doors one by one, asking for the women, bringing them to weekly meetings, building a sisterhood. In the lead-up to the most recent election, her women’s groups went door-to-door throughout small villages, asking women if they had ID cards and bringing mobile vans to register them if they didn’t. They’d found more than 20,000 women unregistered in one district, Khaliq said, and managed to get identification cards for 7,000 of them.

“Ten years ago, we were not aware of our basic rights. Now we know how to work for our own choices,” said 48-year-old Hafeezah Bibi, standing up in a bright teal scarf. She was the only woman on Shahdara’s local council, which rarely addressed what she called “poor women’s problems”: overflowing garbage dumps, broken sewage systems, and exploitative wages. “They don’t listen to us, but we keep asking and arguing,” she said.

Another woman, Parveen Akhtar, said she’d been stitching shoe straps at home for 300 rupees ($2.45) a day, without knowing what others made or whether she could get a higher wage. After joining the group, she’d learned about labor laws and organizing—and demanded a raise. “I only got 5 rupees higher,” she said, “But we have a long way to go.”

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Female Education in Pakistan

• Khush Funer Murtaza
• Published 2013
• International Journal of Management Sciences

6 Citations

Impact of traditional cultural values on female education in sukkur, pakistan., managing educational barriers: innovative solutions for female secondary education in pakistan, a critical review of low school enrollment and literacy rates among girls in khyber pakhtunkhwa pakistan, first‐generation female professors from low‐income families in pakistan: the influence of parents on access to and involvement in higher education, a system dynamics study of pakistan's education system: consequences for governance, spatial and temporal analysis of acute respiratory infections (aris) in southern punjab, pakistan, 2 references, "what works in girls' education: evidence and policies from the developing world", change forces : the sequel, related papers.

Showing 1 through 3 of 0 Related Papers

Importance of Women Education by Ms. Esha Nawaz

Napoleon was once asked what the most important need of France was during his reign. He replied,” Nation’s progress is impossible without trained and educated mothers. If the women of my country are not educated about half of the people will be ignorant.” Education for women is highly imperative as it develops them as an individual who play a pivotal role in a society, are well informed and independent. They are the ones who lead to the upbringing of children and fulfill the duty of educating them along the way. A famous saying is that “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” It means that a mother exercises great influence over the lives of her children. She is able to mold their thoughts and character.

Regardless of this, there is a plethora of people who do not want to educate their women because of the simple fact they think that women do not need and deserve education. It is thought by them that women are to take care of everyone except themselves. That they have to take care of the children and have to stay home due to this, clean up the house, and be the self-denying wife and mother who would have to give up her career for them.

 They think that the life of a woman is mainly based on getting married, having children, and being bombarded by details of domesticity but they do not understand that education is very important for women not only for them but for a whole family because women are the mothers of the future generation. If women are uneducated, the future generations will face numerous challenges.

Women are the soul of a society and the society can be judged upon how they treat their women. History is replete with evidences that the societies in which women were treated equally to men and were educated had prospered and grew economically over time. It would be a mistake to leave women behind in the goal of sustainable development.

There are approximately sixty-five million girls out of school across the globe, majority of them being in the developing and underdeveloped countries. All the countries of the world must take necessary steps to improve their condition of female education as women can play a vital role in the nation’s development and progress. If we consider society as a tree, then men are like its strong main stem which supports the tree to face the elements and women are like its roots; the nurturer and the ones that keep the society together. The stronger the roots are, the bigger and stronger the tree will be.  

With the help of education, women can be aware of their rights and how they should be treated. Women belong to a relatively weaker section of the society as they suffer from many handicaps due to rigid rules on their freedom, outdated social customs and religious practices. An educated woman cannot be exploited as easily, as she knows and is aware of her individuality and rights. She will not be easily suppressed. Education of women can also help in eradicating many social evils such as dowry problems that plague all parents, unemployment problem and others.

Women should be educated so that they are more conscious of the world and know how to solve their problems. It should be compulsory for all women to attend school and get enlightened. Sure enough, most women would excel and prosper. Women in the past have striven to be excellent and they should be considered as a source of inspiration as well. Women like Marie Curie who got the Nobel Prize in chemistry and physics, Rosalind Franklin who as an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer who made contributions to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, Ada Lovelace who was the first computer programmer that made an influential contribution to the analytical engine and others like them that stretched the boundaries laid down on women’s education and are still an inspiration to behold.

As a result, this means that when given an opportunity to learn and grow women could excel and lead to greatness. Women education should be supported as it is equally important and beneficial.  Efforts should be made to disseminate women literacy and awareness. As simply marginalizing or discounting them is not an option anymore. Moreover, an educated woman is better equipped with skills that can help her tackle multiple challenges. Hence, concrete steps should be taken to empower women through education.

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Barriers to Female Education in Pakistan

2018, Sociology Paper: Barriers to Female Education in Pakistan

This paper seeks to discuss the various problems faced by the women of Pakistan in terms of education which has led to some of the lowest literacy rates in the world.

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Hadaitullah B A Q R I (Yugovi)

The right to education is identified as a human right and is understood to establish an entitlement to free for all also compulsory primary education for all children. An obligations to the secondary education accessible to all children as well as access to higher education. The right to education is one of the most fundamental right but also human right. The right to education to eliminate discrimination at all levels of the educational system, to set minimum standards and to improve quality of education. The education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. The human rights shall promoting understanding and friendship among all nations, religious or racial groups and shall further the activities of the united nations for the maintenance of peace. This right to education is most fundamental as a human right. Education promotes a man, as individual freedom, and it shown way of life, change the thinking, and it makes smart. In fact the progress of any society largely depends on the effectiveness of its educational system and the best educational system is that which gives equal opportunities of getting education to all its members. Female literacy plays a very significant and crucial role in the development of nation especially in the economic development of a country. But female education in Pakistan is not good. In other word we can say very bad. Thousands of girls' leace the school because of various socio-cultural and economic reasons and gender prejudices. Due to this reason they are unable to play active role in the development of society. This study reflects the views of women activist about the role of females in national development and suggests necessary measures for improvement of the situation. This research is focusing on women right to education, its importance and its effects on society and socioeconomic as well as socio-political betterment of Pakistan. As for Women education refers to every form of education that aims at improving the knowledge, and skill of women and girls. It includes general education at schools and colleges, vocational and technical education, professional education, health education, etc. Women education is a need of encompasses both literary and non-literary education in Pakistan.

Kiran Jameel

—The women considered to have an important role in building the society. This role of women can be further bettered by educating them so that they can differentiate between the right and wrong and pass only the right thing to their generations. In Pakistan, the population of women was higher than men but as the country was still in the developing phase so the literacy rate of the population was very low which is lower in women of the country. The literature focused on analyzing the situation of women education in Pakistan. The government should allocate more quotas for women in governmental organizations and should try to ensure that all the private sector organizations also work on equal employment opportunities. The girls should be educated to build a better nation.

DR HAMZOKHAN P P P TAGAR

Asian Social Science

Riffat Awan

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences

Muhammad Ijaz khan

Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews

Muhammad Kamran , Roshan saeed

Purpose of the study: This study finds the barriers responsible for females' low literacy in the Balochistan province of Pakistan at the primary school level. Methodology: Qualitative research design was applied to this study. Data were collected through the interview tool and were analyzed through a thematic analysis procedure. Results were given in the form of major themes and sub-themes. Main Findings: This study gave 4 major results, which were in the form of four major themes, i.e., lack of basic facilities, lack of qualified teachers, lack of enrolment, and financial constraints. The major themes were categorized into several sub-themes. Applications of this study: This study is beneficial and applicable in Pakistani society. It attracts the attention of the layman and government to focus on female education to make the females literate at the best level. Novelty/Originality of this study: The new aspect of this study was to show the barriers responsible for females' low literacy. It is aware of the readers that lack of basic facilities, lack of qualified teachers, lack of enrolment, and financial constraints are the barriers to females' low literacy. It also advances the existing knowledge and bridges the gap between past and existing knowledge.

Pakistan Journal of Educational Research

fauzia ghani

Education is a holistic approach for peace, progress and bringing change in a society. Women equipped with higher education play a significant role in development of a country. The socio-economic and political uplift of a society largely depends on women higher education. Almost all the developed countries of the world give equal attention and consideration to boys as well as girls education; however higher education in underdeveloped states including Pakistan is the most neglected sector. In developing countries including Pakistan one of the major causes of lagging behind economically and socially is absence of technically qualified and highly educated women. Since its inception Pakistan has faced many serious issues in education sector and the education system has failed to deliver to the aspirations of the people. However, literacy rate in Pakistan since 2014 has sustainably increased from 56 percent to 59 percent, however the ratio and proportion of girls is 43 percent as compar...

Socio Cultural Factors of Female Literacy

Female literacy is considered lower due to social and cultural factors. The sociocultural factors effect female literacy but the education of females play main role in development of society as well as country. The objective of study was follows; firstly, to explain the social factors that act as barrier to female education. Secondly to investigate the cultural factors responsible for girls education. The methodology for data collection was Descriptive. Methods selected for study was Survey method. The tools used for study was Questionnaire. The sample of 50 students was selected from university graduate from Bachelor and master degree. The unit of analysis was educated females. The study was significant to highlights the importance of female education in relation to their contribution to development. It also explain the main social and cultural constrains that lower female education. It also highlights the importance of female education in the perspective of educated females.

Sultan Alam

This paper reports a study conducted in one of the villages of Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan. The purpose of the study is to explore the perceptions of female students and their parents regarding female education. A qualitative case study method was employed to investigate the subject matter. The participants were selected on the basis of predetermined criteria. The findings of the study showed that female education in the context is influenced by various factors including societal norms, parents perceptions and teachers attitude. It was depicted that female students have adapted such critical circumstances and are motivated to acquire their education. Since the role of society is directly associated with the attitude of female education, and their success depends upon active involvement of whole society, therefore the study recommends that this aspect must be given more attention to further strengthen the female education in our society. This ultimately can improve societal performa...

irum sheikh

Women’s education has been identified as one of the primary agents of transformation towards development. However, illiteracy among women is one of the major challenges facing most of the underdeveloped countries. This study investigates the physical and infrastructural impediments that hamper women’s education. The study was conducted in Amandara; sub-village of Malakand Division Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. A comprehensive survey was made with the help of pre-designed formula with structure questions. The data was collected from 250 respondents (educated female having graduation) with the help of purposive sampling technique. It has been concluded that physical and infrastructural obstacles contributes in women’s vulnerability regarding education. The study recommends that increase in female schools, colleges, transport and infrastructural facilities will promote women’s education in the area.

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Women Education In Pakistan

Women play a great role in the human progress and have an important place in the society. They are not at all inferior to the men. They are fully capable of sharing the responsibilities of life shoulder to shoulder. Men and women have been rightly compared to the wheels of a carriage. In the early days of Islam, women work side by side with men. On the battlefield, they nursed the injured, kept up the supplies, and even fought bravely. But in all such cases, they are one thing that is certainly lacking in women, and that is the education sector. Do all women have equal rights to men then why they are falling behind in the education category? These are some answers that will be there when you grasp enough information about Women’s Education In Pakistan. All the women in Pakistan should be educated at different levels. In advanced countries like Japan, France, Britain, and Germany women enjoy a very respectable position. This education standard gives the woman a sole chance to make her life successful and better. There is no such field in Pakistan that does not open the gateway to success for Pakistani women after completing their education.

“Nation’s progress is impossible without trained and educated mothers. If the women of my country are not educated, about half the people will be ignorant. “To educate a girl means to educate a future family line. It is the mother who is the first teacher of the child. If she no light, how can she light the child lamp.”

In the private sector, there are a maximum of 2,744,303 schools that accompany almost 1,508,643 boys and 1,235,660 girls. This percentage survey surely shows the actual presenting conditions of the education that is a maximum of five percent less than the men. In rural schools, there is an amount of 66% of boys in the schools and almost 62% are girls.

These small teenage girls would definitely be the bread earner of their families in the future and would be a mother and women one day they are less with such a decreased amount of girls in schools. Not just the schools but the degree-level colleges are much less filled with girls. It therefore explained Women’s Education In Pakistan. The government of Pakistan has also passed a bill regarding the education stand of women and each year special funds are allocated for education but still hopelessly no new measures are being taken by the Government. Well, it is undoubtedly a sad condition but if women are supported in Pakistan in the education sector then they will surely beat down every single competitor on an international level.

Moin akhtar

I am committed to helping Pakistani students craft successful career paths by merging their individual passions with market trends. As a career counselor, we'll explore both well-established fields and modern industries to find the best fit for you. With personalized counseling and strategic planning, we aim to transform your educational journey into a thriving professional future.

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National Report on the Status of Women in Pakistan - A Summary

In seeking to uphold its international and national commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE), limited availability and analysis of comprehensive gender disaggregated data remain key gaps that hinder quality reporting as well as priority setting and decision-making. To address this gap, the National Gender Data Portal (NGDP) was established in 2021 by the National Commission on the Status of Women in collaboration with UN Women Pakistan. It is the first effort to consolidate gender data at a national level using digital tools, triangulating data from various official sources. This data will be used to publish periodic reports on the status of women, which will be instrumental for analyzing trends and reviewing progress, and, most importantly, formulating evidence-based policies and programmes to advance the gender equality agenda in the country.

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• Published: 04 September 2024

Does women’s higher education reduce wage inequality? Evidence from Palestine using repeated cross-sectional data

• Najiba Morar 1 , 2 &
• Sameera Awawda 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  1133 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Despite the increase of the share of highly-educated women, gender wage gap remains an ongoing issue in developing countries. The increase in women’s education would provide them with more job opportunities resulting in higher employment rate amongst women and, thus, lower gender pay gap. In Palestine, the share of women with high education is 62% while their labor force participation rate is only 18%. This paper examines the effects of gender higher education on wage inequality in the Palestinian context. The study applied the Mincer equation to study the determinants of wage, while the decomposed Gini coefficient is used to measure the contribution of education and other factors to overall wage inequality. The study used data from the labor force survey (LFS) which is conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) covering the period from 2010 to 2020. Results show that those with higher education have relatively higher wages as compared to those with only high education or with school education. Results also show that gender wage inequality has increased during the study period (2010–2020), but the contribution of both gender and education differences to the overall wage inequality has decreased. In general, the gender pay gap remains a crucial issue in the Palestinian context with a persisting decreasing pay gap over time across all education levels. Policymakers shall orient efforts towards investing in women’s education, thus increasing their empowerment in the labor market, which in turn would improve the level of development and economic growth in the country.

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Introduction.

The human capital theory suggests that education affects individual earnings, countries’ economic growth, and level of development. It highlights the undeniable importance of education as an investment in personal and societal economic growth and development (Gregorio and Lee, 2002 ; Kao et al., 1994 ). Empirical evidence shows that education is a key driver of social mobility as it reduces gender inequality, especially the inequality of opportunities (Adnan, 2015 ; Asadullah and Yalonetzky, 2012 ; Jacobs, 1996 ). The expansion of education has been often viewed as a critical policy instrument for combating rising income inequality over the medium term, not only by promoting economic growth but also by breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty and reducing inequality of opportunity (Coady and Dizioli, 2018 ).

Different studies (Autor et al., 2005 ; Menezes-Filho et al., 2006 ) emphasized that higher education enhances productivity and allows individuals to earn higher incomes, thus reducing the gap between high and low earners (compression effect), as identified by Knight and Sabot ( 1983 ). On the other hand, higher education may worsen income inequality by creating a “skill-biased” technological change, where skilled workers expect a higher wage premium in the labor market, therefore, a greater concentration of income among the higher-skilled and educated individuals (composition effect) (Menezes-Filho et al., 2006 ). The interplay between these effects is complex. Abdullah et al. ( 2015 ) argued that while an initial increase in the number of educated workers might increase inequality (the composition effect), after reaching a certain threshold, the increased supply of skilled workers decreases the wage premium for higher-skill workers, thereby lowering income inequality (the compression effect). Their meta-regression analysis of 64 empirical studies reveals that education affects both tails of the income distribution: it reduces the income share of top earners and increases the share of bottom earners.

The impact of gender and higher education on wage variations has received a great deal of attention in the empirical literature. Women’s higher education leads to lower levels of income inequality or a decrease in the gender wage gap (Seneviratne, 2020 ). The increase in women’s education and the changes in the occupational structure would provide more significant opportunities for skilled women to enter professional jobs and higher-end female-dominated occupations (Harkness, 2010 ). This suggests that addressing wage inequality requires improving women’s education, addressing systemic biases, and promoting equal opportunities for career advancement (Bradley, 2000 ; Farkas et al., 1997 ). Fan and Sturman ( 2019 ) showed that there is a gender wage gap among newly graduated students with the same level of education although the share of women with higher education is greater than that of men in the study sample. Other studies focus on the gender wage gap for particular sectors. For example, Sridadia and Prihantonob ( 2020 ) applied the Mincer equation to measure the gender wage gap in Indonesia. Their results revealed that the gender wage gap is higher in the industrial sector as compared to the service sector. Interestingly, other studies found that the field of study has a significant impact on wage inequality, with those involved in numeracy (scientific) fields of education having higher wages compared to those involved in literacy fields of education (Bol and Heisig, 2021 ). This is explained by the fact that those with a scientific background have more skills compared to those with a literacy background, thus they have higher wages. This result is also confirmed elsewhere (e.g., Altonji et al., 2012 ; Kirkeboen et al., 2016 ).

It is worth noting that the impact of education on wage inequality depends on various factors, including government policies (Abdullah et al., 2015 ). While education subsidies can increase opportunities for poor children, public spending on education, particularly higher education, often disproportionately benefits middle- and upper-class families. This underscores the need for targeted policies to ensure that educational expansion benefits those most in need. This perspective aligns with the findings of Gregorio and Lee ( 2002 ), who reviewed empirical literature across countries using a panel data set from 1960 to 1990 at five-year intervals. Their results emphasized the strong impact of educational factors on income inequality, with higher educational attainments playing a more significant role in income distribution. Those findings illustrate that education plays an indispensable role in shaping wage distribution. Other factors affecting income inequality have also been considered in the empirical literature, such as socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors (e.g., Pattayat et al., 2023 ; Hovhannisyan et al., 2022 ; Wu et al., 2021 ). Moreover, wage distribution has a close association with many other factors, including political upheaval, policy decisions, economic stability, and technological progress (Coady and Dizioli, 2018 ). It is commonly argued that education inequality is positively correlated with income inequality; however, the impact of education might be positive or negative on income inequality depending on time and situation (Abdullah et al., 2011 ). Therefore, policies that reduce wage inequality must consider the multiple channels through which education affects income distribution and address the underlying structural and institutional factors contributing to inequality (d’Hombres et al., 2012 ; Ramadan et al., 2015 ).

Today, women worldwide experience significant barriers to labor force participation and struggle to access better employment opportunities. Unfortunately, the situation is not different in the occupied Palestinian territory. Women encounter numerous challenges that prevent them from reaching certain job positions in both the public and private sectors. Moreover, a research by Albotmeh and Irsheid ( 2013 ) suggested that women face disparities in working conditions, such as inadequate health and safety standards and job security, which in turn force them to work in the informal sector. These disparities also result in wage discrimination between men and women, even with the same qualifications and level of education. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the worldwide annual women’s labor participation rate was 45% in 2020, whereas in Palestine, it was about 18%. The employment rate for women was 4% in Palestine, which is lower than the average global level of 6%. Women’s potential labor force rate was 5% globally and 21% in Palestine (ILO, 2016 ). Al Habeel et al. ( 2011 ) indicated that the Palestinian situation is unique because of the Israeli occupation, which significantly influenced gender roles and identity formation.

The Palestinian labor market confronts structural imbalances as it depends on job opportunities in Israel, which are generally restricted to men. This, in turn, may create disparities in local market opportunities for men and women (Khattab, 2002 ). Cultural differences regarding women’s skills also create obstacles to working in the industrial and service sectors (Hilal et al., 2008 ). Male workers dominate both the private and government sectors. The market generally favors hiring men over women, considering their reproductive roles in the household. There are more female graduates compared to male graduates, but there are still fewer employment opportunities for women. Women often face denial of employment due to cultural differences rather than qualifications. Fear of harassment also deters women from seeking jobs (Harkness, 2010 ). Recently, Daoud and Shanti ( 2016 ) emphasized that the government sector in the West Bank has experienced a slight improvement in women’s participation rates, but the participation rate in the private sector remains low. Furthermore, gender discrimination based on political opinions has also emerged in the public sector (Alkafri, 2011 ).

To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, there is extensive literature on wage inequality and education. However, no previous attempt has been made to assess the impact of women’s higher education on earnings and income inequality in Palestine. Moreover, previous studies relied only on the Mincer equation, the Gini index, or other methods. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of women’s higher education on wage inequality in Palestine using a mixed methodology of the Mincer earnings function and the Gini index. Namely, this study tries to answer the following questions: What is the impact of women’s higher education on wages? And What is the contribution of education to wage inequality? Based on the empirical evidence, women’s attainment of higher education is negatively associated with the gender wage gap. Accordingly, the study tested the following main hypothesis: (i) Women’s higher education in Palestine would reduce gender wage inequality, and that (ii) the contribution of higher education to total wage inequality is decreasing over time.

In this paper, the Mincer earnings function measured the rate of returns on education, while the Gini index measured the contribution of inequality in education (part of the inequality of opportunities) to the overall wage inequality. Total wage inequality has been decomposed using the Gini index to analyze the impact of higher education on reducing wage inequality over the years. It is noteworthy that this study utilized data from the Palestinian labor force survey for the period 2010–2020. The Mincer earnings function is a single-equation model that explains wage income as a function of schooling and labor market experience (Mincer, 1974 ). The equation has been examined using different datasets from various countries (Martins and Pereira, 2004 ; Dakić and Savić, 2017 ). Typically, the logarithm of earnings is modeled with a list of explanatory variables, including educational attainment and experience (Waseema, 2022 ; Gregorio and Lee, 2002 ; Martins and Pereira, 2004 ). The Mincer equation has undoubtedly contributed to the advancement of labor and educational economics. It helps understanding the factors affecting wages, the rate of return on education, enrollment in education, the effects of wage discrimination, and the value of on-the-job training and labor market experience (Martins and Pereira, 2004 ). The Gini index has been widely used to measure income inequality (Trapeznikova, 2019 ). Furthermore, many studies have used the decomposed Gini index to measure the different sources of inequality contributing to overall income inequality (Ramadan et al., 2015 ). Wagstaff et al. ( 2003 ) provide a decomposition of the concentration index (the bivariate version of the Gini index) based on regression analysis applied to health data in Vietnam. This approach computes the share of inequality of each cofactor to the overall inequality of the dependent variable. The method has been widely applied in empirical research to measure inequalities in health (e.g., Doroh et al., 2015 ; O’Donnell, 2012 ) as well as income inequalities (e.g., Devkota et al., 2017 ; Zhong, 2011 ).

The remainder of this article is structured as follows. Section two discusses the methods including the data used and the analytical approach. Section three provids descriptive statistics of the data used, the analysis of wage determinants, and the decomposition of wage inequality. Section four displays the main results, while Section five concludes and provides some limitations and policy implications.

We used the Palestinian Labor Force Surveys (LFS), conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) on an annual basis from 2010 to 2020. The LFS covers the two main Palestinian regions (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), and it includes individuals 10 years of age or older who are out of the labor force, unemployed, or employed in any economic sector. The datasets are harmonized for all years, that is the bulk of the questions as well as the structure of each question are similar in all LFS series. The LFS also provides data on demographic characteristics, such as gender, age, level of education, marital status, locality (place of residence: rural, urban and refugee camps), and region (West Bank and Gaza Strip). The survey also includes a question about the employment type which is composed of four categories: employer, self-employed, wage employee, or unpaid family member. For the current study, we choose a sub-sample focusing on wage employees only which forms about 65% to 70% of total employed individuals. We first estimate the wage equation based on (Mincer, 1974 ) as follows

where \(w\) is the average daily wage obtained by each individual; \(d\) is the set of binary education variables (schooling, high education, and higher education), the level of experience is proxied by the age of the individual, and \(y\) is the set of other explanatory variables. The level of education is the main cofactor in the model which is a represented in three binary variables: (i) School: if the highest level of education obtained by each individual is secondary school; (ii) high education: if the highest level of education is diploma or bachelor, and (iii) higher education: if the highest level of education is masters or PhD. Other variables include gender; locality type (whether living in urban, rural or refugee camps), and marital status (whether married or not). Equation 1 is estimated using the ordinary least square method. It is worth noting that the Mincer equation is one of the most widely used approaches in the empirical evidence that captures the impact of schooling and experience as mentioned at the outset. Thus, it is suitable for the estimation of the effect of women’s higher education on wage differences in Palestine.

Then, total inequality in wages is measured using the Gini index. Furthermore, the contribution of each factor to overall wage inequality is measured using the decomposed Gini index built based on regression analysis (Eq. 1 ). Inequality in wages due to variation in education is referred to as legitimate inequality. Wage inequality due to all other variables—classified as variables beyond individuals’ control—is referred to as illegitimate inequality. The decomposed Gini index of wages can be written as follows (Wagstaff et al., 2003 ):

where \(G\left(w\right)\) is the Gini index of wages measuring the overall inequality in the variable; \(G\left({d}_{k}\right)\) is inequality in the education variables/categories ( \({d}_{k},{k}=\mathrm{1,2}\) and \(3\) ); \(G\left({{age}}_{m}\right)\) is the inequality in experience (age); \(G\left({y}_{j}\right)\) is inequality in other contributing factors \({y}_{j}\) ( \(k=1,\ldots ,J\) ); \({\mu }_{\varepsilon }\) is the mean value of error; \({\mu }_{w}\) is the mean value of wages, and \(G\left(\varepsilon \right)\) is inequality in the error term (unexplained inequality). The contribution of education to overall inequality in wages is calculated as \(\mathop{\sum }\nolimits_{k=1}^{3}{\alpha }_{k}G\left({d}_{k}\right)\) where \({\alpha }_{k}={\beta }_{k}{\mu }_{k}/{\mu }_{w}\) ( \({\mu }_{k}\) is the mean value of \({d}_{k}\) ). Similarly, the contribution of each other explanatory variable \({y}_{j}\) to overall wage inequality is \({\alpha }_{j}G\left({y}_{j}\right)\) where \({\alpha }_{j}={\gamma }_{j}{\mu }_{j}/{\mu }_{j}\) ( \({\mu }_{j}\) is the mean value of \({y}_{j}\) ). The Gini index is the commonly-used measure of income inequality which is easily measurable and decomposable based on regression analysis. The decomposition of the Gini index shows which cofactor is more important than others in terms of its contribution to overall wage inequalities.

This section summarizes main data regarding wages across gender and education groups. Then it provides the main results of the regression analysis and the decomposed Gini index.

Descriptive analysis

Table 1 provides data on the average daily wage—measured in New Israeli Shekel (ILS) – based on gender and level of education. The table also shows the gender wage gap—a widely recognized occurrence that describes the disparity in average earnings between men and women in the workforce. Typically, it is measured as the percentage difference between the average hourly or daily wage of men and women, relative to men’s earnings. Two main observations are worth highlighting. First, the average daily wage for men is higher than that of women for all levels of education across all the years. Secondly, the average daily wage is increasing with the level of education for both men and women. For example, in 2010 the average daily wage was 48.79 ILS for women and 60.72 ILS for men with school education resulting in a wage gap of 19.64%. The gender wage gap has increased to 42.41% for those having only a school education. Regarding men and women with high education, the wage gap has decreased from 21.96% in 2010 to 16.27% in 2020 which is still relatively high. As for the higher education group, generally, the wage gap slightly decreased during the period 2011–2019 from 20.21% to 19.88%. It’s important to note that the wage gap in higher education is exceptional because, in 2010 and 2020, men’s wage was 5.97% and 4.67% respectively lower than women’s wages.

Table 2 explains the percentage of male and female employment status. It shows that the percentage of employed males decreased by 3.52% points in 2020 as compared to 2010. However, the unemployment rate remained at 12% with little variation throughout the years. Also, the share of men who are out of the labour force is stable (46.37% in 2010 as compared to 46.58% in 2020). However, the share of women who are out of the labour force has slightly decreased from 87.4% in 2010 to 86.4% in 2020. On the other hand, the unemployment rate among women has increased from 3.13% in 2010 to 5.29% in 2020.

Results presented in Table 3 shows that the male unemployment rate and employment rate negligibly changed from 2010. However, the unemployment rate among females has increased over time reaching almost 39% in 2020 as compared to 24.85% in 2010.

Wage determinants

The results of this section and subsequent section are provided for 2010, 2015, and 2020. Detailed results are available upon request. Table 4 presents the determinants of wages in Palestine for the years 2010, 2015, and 2020. The results indicate that males generally have higher wages than females, with a decreasing wage gap between 2015 and 2020. In 2020, males earned 23.3% higher than females in terms of average wage, compared to 29.8% in 2010 holding other factors constant. Age was found to have an inverted U shaped effect on wages. However, this effect has decreased in 2020 as compared to 2015. Additionally, being married was found to have a positive effect on wages with married individuals having higher wages of 8.3% in 2010 as compared to non-married individuals. This wage difference has decreased to 5.5% and 3.5% in 2015 and 2020, respectively. Finally, results showed that individuals living in rural areas have higher wages than those living in urban areas. Those living in rural and urban areas have higher wages than those living in refugee camps (50.8% and 14.2% respectively).

Regarding the education variable, individuals with higher education earn significantly more than those with lower levels of education. Specifically, individual with higher education earn wages that is 112.5% Footnote 1 higher than those with high education and 176.7% with only school education in 2010 as shown in Table 4 . In 2020, these two differences have been decreased to 92.1% and 116.3%, respectively. Regarding the difference in wage between individuals with high education and school education, results in Table 4 show that the difference has decreased from 64.2% in 2010 to 24.2% in 2020. Although the wage gap still exists, these results indicate that the wage gap has been decreasing between all education groups.

Decomposition of inequality

According to Table 5 , the overall level of education wage inequality has increased from 32.2% in 2010 to 39.3% in 2020. Regarding the decomposition of the Gini index of wages in Palestine in 2020, the contribution of education as the main factor in the analysis is 29% of which 4.6% are due to differences in higher education. The overall contribution of education to wage inequality has decreased from 37.3% in 2010 to 29.0% in 2020. Moreover, the contribution of the variance in higher education has decreased from 9.4% to 4.6% for the same period. As for school education, the share of its inequalities to overall wage inequality was 18.9% in 2010 and decreased to 13% in 2020. Whereas the inequality of high education is responsible for 11.4% of total inequality in 2020. This share has decreased over years from 18.9% in 2010 to 17.2% in 2015. This means that the legitimate inequality due to differences in education is relatively high but decreasing over time. Gender inequalities explain 7.8% of total inequality of wages in 2020, compared to 12% in 2010, and 2015. The locality factors contribute to 30.0% to total wage inequality in 2020 which has tripled as compared to 2010 (11.7%).

This study investigates the role of women’s higher education in reducing wage inequality in the Palestinian territory. We used the LFS conducted between 2010 and 2020 to estimate wage determinants as well as wage inequality, where gender and level of education were the main cofactors. Further, total wage inequality has been decomposed using the standard Gini index to explore the contribution of higher education to total inequality. Many results of this research are worth highlighting. First, results show that males still have higher wages as compared to females but the wage gap has decreased over the period under consideration (2010–2020). Second, education remains a significant factor in determining wages across time, with higher levels of education leading to higher wages. However, the magnitude of the effect decreases over time, particularly for those with higher education (master’s or PhD degrees). These two results can be explained by the fact that the percentage of educated women has increased over time. For example, the percentage of women with high and higher education has increased from 13.55% in 2010 to 23.25% in 2020. This could also be explained by the extensive work on bridging the gender gap policies or societal attitudes towards gender equality over time. It is evident from the Palestinian government work especially the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in collaboration with UNESCO who worked together to improve 97 policies on gender equality and women’s empowerment during the period of 2011–2017 (Hirsh et al., 2020 ). Further, job opportunities in Palestine have been relatively enhanced for skilled women, i.e., women with higher levels of education. This in line with the results of Hillis et al. ( 2018 ) who found a statistically significant impact of master’s and PhD degrees on the gender wage gap in Palestine by using the ordinary least square method. They showed that Skilled women are often found in specific occupations and sectors more than skilled men. In 2013, only 2.9% of full-time workers in medium-sized private enterprises were women. In 2015, 48% of skilled women worked as teaching professionals, compared to 15.2% of skilled men. The education sector employed 55% of skilled women in 2015. Although the gap has been decreased over time, the gender wage gap still an issue in the Palestinian context. This might be because women are overrepresented in lower-paying fields and underrepresented in higher-paying sectors. This concentration of women in certain occupations limits their access to higher-paying jobs and reduces their potential for upward mobility (Morrar, 2022 ; Loewenthal and Miaari, 2020 ; Calì and Miaari, 2018 ; ILO, 2016 ).

Third, another important result is related to the impact of locality type on wages. Results show that individuals in rural areas have higher wages as compared to individuals living in urban areas and refugee camps. This might not be a surprising result in the Palestinian context because many Palestinian “men” living in rural areas choose to work either in urban areas or in Israel where wages are significantly higher. Fourth, the overall wage inequality has increased over time from 32.2% in 2010 to 39.3% in 2020. Interestingly, the part of inequality due to gender differences or education differences has been decreasing over time. This implies that despite their importance in interpreting wage inequality, education and gender differences are not the main determinants of inequality. Other important factors that contribute to wage inequality with increasing share over time include the locality type which has been previously demonstrated. Moreover, some sensitivity analysis (available upon reasonable request) shows that the shares of gender and education to overall inequality are similar to the results obtained in Table 5 . This validates our conclusions regarding the decreasing effect of both variables on wage inequality and confirms our hypothesis regarding the impact of women’s higher education on wage inequalities. Another important result regarding the contribution of education to overall wage inequality is related to the contribution of each level of schooling to total inequality. As shown in the previous section, in general, the contribution of higher education to total wage inequality is lower than the contribution of other levels of education for all years. This might reflect the higher wage gap among individuals with low levels of education.

The Mincer earnings function was used to measure the rate of returns on education, while the Gini index measured the contribution of inequality in education (part of the inequality of opportunities) to the overall wage inequality. Results showed that there is a persisting but decreasing gender pay gap over time, however male wages have consistently been higher than those of female at all levels of education. Moreover, the contribution of higher education to overall inequality is smaller than the contribution of other levels of education (high and school education) for all years. Therefore, addressing this inequality requires a concerted effort from policymakers, employers, and society as a whole to create a more equitable workplace and to invest in higher education, particularly for marginalized women. This also requires the promotion and enforcement of gender equality in the workplace, and the enhancement of social protection system in the labour market. Promotion of gender diversity in leadership can also create a more inclusive work environment. At the educational level, it is important to adopt and advocate policies and action plans (develop and support educational programs, mentorship and career development, etc.) which can bridge the skills gap and reducing gender disparities in sectors that traditionally dominated by men and to help women to advance in their careers and achieve higher-paying positions.

Empirical evidence demonstrated that developing countries investing in women’s education, thus increasing their empowerment in the labor market, are likely to witness an increase in economic growth over time. This has important implications for countries where income inequality and human capital levels are often low. Policymakers should focus on the provision of quality education for women to help them secure high-paying jobs like men, resulting in a reduction in wage inequality. This evidence supports the efforts of the Palestinian Authority regarding the national employment strategy (NES). The main goal of the NES is to enhance the strategic development of the Palestinian labor market through different mechanisms, including promoting both women’s participation in the labor market and the education system in the country. This may require augmenting the government budget share allocated to the education sector. In addition, the government can provide funds or loans for female students to pursue higher education degrees either in the country or abroad. Creating more job opportunities in partnership with the private sector is another approach to enhance income equity.

Some limitations of the current study are worth stating. Generally, factors affecting wages are not limited to those presented in Table 4 . Other factors may include religion, traditions, ethnic background, age at marriage, occupational segregation, access to professions, ability, institutional discrimination, etc. The authors conducted some sensitivity analyses by adding and removing some variables, such as region and occupation. It is concluded that the results are robust. For example, the contribution of higher education to overall inequality in 2020 is about 4.6% under different specifications of Eq. 1 . However, information regarding other variables, such as age at marriage and access to professions, is absent from the LFS used in this study. Another limitation is related to the sample size of women with higher education. This might be a source of bias. As shown in Table 1 , the wage gap was negative in two periods. This is a misleading result since wages are higher for men. Overall, Future research may consider such types of limitations by developing new detailed qualitative indicators that could help provide an in-depth analysis of the missing variables that account for societal and other economic factors that may affect wage inequality in Palestine. In addition, further studies regarding women’s higher education should account for issues related to women’s opportunities, such as access to higher education, college challenges and experiences, family responsibilities, and job matching issues.

Data availability

The authors used data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) under license for this study and under the condition that they were not allowed to publish the raw data. However, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics website, https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/pcbs_2012/PressEn.aspx , displays all the published reports for that data used, especially the labor market reports, including all labor force key indicators.

This percent has been calculated as the exponential of the difference between the coefficients of higher education and high education. Similar calculations have been done for the other education groups.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been completed thanks to the funding provided by the research committee at Birzeit University, the grant number is 60/2021.

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Najiba Morar

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Najiba Morar & Sameera Awawda

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Theoretical Framework: The two authors contributed equally to this section. Literature Review: The first author contributed 70%, and the second author contributed 30%. Data Analysis: The first author contributed 70%, and the second author contributed 30%. Writing: The two authors contributed equally to this section.

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Morar, N., Awawda, S. Does women’s higher education reduce wage inequality? Evidence from Palestine using repeated cross-sectional data. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 1133 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03620-2

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Received : 28 February 2024

Accepted : 19 August 2024

Published : 04 September 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03620-2

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