Education research gender, education and development - A partially annotated and
selective bibliography - Education Research Paper No. 19, 1997, 250 p.
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Individual countries
Zimbabwe
Sudan
Niger
Nigeria
Ivory Coast
Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
GORDON, Rosemary (1994) 'Education policy and gender in Zimbabwe', Gender and
Education, 6 (2), 131-139.
This article examines the changes and continuities in education policy with reference to
gender during the colonial and post-colonial periods. Despite the government's stated
commitment to gender equality, there has been little change to reduce sexual
inequalities in education during the years following Independence. Gordon suggests
that "gender neutral" policies may allow a particular state to perpetuate discrimination
against women.
At Independence in 1980, the position of women in Zimbabwe was "the outcome of a
century of patriarchal racist settler colonialism impacting upon indigenous pre-
industrial patriarchal societies", (p131). Black girls had very little access to education.
The post-colonial government gave black women majority status in law for the first
time and created the Ministry of Cooperative and Community Development and
Women's Affairs (MCCDWA). As is often the case when governments set up a separate
ministry for women's affairs, in Zimbabwe says Gordon, the MCCDWA's projects were
neglected and under-resourced. The establishment of the MCCDWA resulted in the
neglect of gender issues in other state organs, including the Ministry of Education. She
shows how girls and boys have not benefited equally from the expansion in educational
opportunities. At primary level fewer girls enrol and drop-out is higher for girls than for
boys; fewer girls make the transition to secondary education and again their attrition
rate is higher. The data at all levels of the educational system, says Gordon, suggests