Title
Is there gender bias in participation in early childhood education programs in developing countries? Role of mother's education
Abstract
Gender bias in education is a commonly noted characteristic in developing countries. Most of the research work focuses on primary, secondary and tertiary education. The focus of this paper is on whether or not such gender bias also appears in early childhood education programs. This paper uses household survey data from two northern states in India, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, for the period 1997-1998. The results show no evidence of gender bias in the overall sample. However, there is evidence of consistent gender bias among poor households in the sample. The results also indicate that mother's education has a consistently important positive influence on children's attendance in early childhood programs. However, further analysis reveals that mother's education increases male participation in pre-school, but not female participation. These results remain robust to different model specifications.
Department(s)
Economics
Document Type
Article
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.1730
Keywords
Early childhood education, Gender bias, JEL classification O10; I20; O53, Mother's education
Publication Date
10-1-2011
Recommended Citation
Self, Sharmistha, and Richard Grabowski. "Is there gender bias in participation in early childhood education programs in developing countries? Role of mother's education." Journal of International Development 23, no. 7 (2011): 909-925.
Journal Title
Journal of International Development
