Girls’ and women’s education within Unesco and the World Bank, 1945–2000
- 22 June 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education
- Vol. 40 (4), 405-423
- https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2010.490360
Abstract
By 2000, girls’ and women’s education was a priority for international development organisations. While studies have examined the impact of recent campaigns and programmes, there has been less exploration of ideas about girls’ and women’s education within development thought in the immediate post‐colonial period, and the political mechanisms through which this came to be a global concern. Through a study of policy documents, this paper investigates how the education of girls and women came to be prioritised within the two principle UN agencies involved with education since 1945, the World Bank and Unesco. A shift in priorities is evident, from ensuring formal rights and improving the status of women, to expanding the productive capacities of women, fertility control and poverty reduction. While the ascendance of human capital theory provided a space for a new perception of the role of women’s education in development, in other policy arenas women’s education was central to exploring more substantive, rights‐based notions of gender equality. Ultimately, the goal of improving girls’ and women’s education fitted into diverse development agendas, paving the way for it to become a global development priority.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Global governance, educational changeComparative Education, 2007
- International Organizations, the “Education–Economic Growth” Black Box, and the Development of World Education CultureComparative Education Review, 2006
- Gender equality in education: Definitions and measurementsInternational Journal of Educational Development, 2005
- The United Nations and EducationPublished by Taylor & Francis Ltd ,2004
- Transnational Advocacy, Global Civil Society? Emerging Evidence from the Field of EducationComparative Education Review, 2001
- Educational multilateralism in a changing world order: Unesco and the limits of the possibleInternational Journal of Educational Development, 1999
- Gender, education and training: An international perspectiveGender & Development, 1998
- Taking Stock of Gender Reform Policies for Australian Schools: past, present and futureBritish Educational Research Journal, 1997
- L'action de l'Unesco en faveur de l'education de la femmeInternational Review of Education, 1973
- The UNESCO Long-Range Program for the Advancement of WomenThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1968