Cultural and Social Norms as Barriers for Female Education

In South and West Asia, the role of women in social, political and economic life was strongly influenced by the Hindu and Muslim religions – and still is today. Most Hindu and Muslim families did not invest in a girl’s education because the expected returns to sending a daughter to school did not exceed the costs of doing so.⁷³ The benefits would go to the future husband’s family with whom the woman would reside after marriage.⁷⁴ Furthermore, the opportunity costs of sending a girl to school were too expensive for many families, as daughters assumed a great deal of domestic tasks in contrast to their

70 Kazemzadeh, Iran, pp. 177-8.

71 UNESCO, UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1963, p.104, 138.

brothers.⁷⁵ Early marriage was common and presented another barrier to female education, even after the British colonial government set the age for marriage at 14 years for girls in 1929.⁷⁶ Subordinate to a man’s will, wives were not supposed to have a higher education than their husbands. This made the education of girls ‘socially costly’.⁷⁷ Since Hindus and particularly Muslims adhered to female seclusion and veiling, girls were usually not sent to co-educational schools or to schools lacking female teachers.⁷⁸ This norm further restricted educational opportunities for girls, as girls’ schools were rare at that time and mostly located in the cities.⁷⁹

Figure 4.8: Gender Equality index of numeracy in East and South East Asia, birth decades 1900s-60s

-30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5

1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s

birth decade

gender equality index

Hong Kong Indonesia Cambodia Federation of Malaya Sarawak Philippines Thailand

Although the above holds true for most of South and West Asia, Southern India and Sri Lanka stand out. The Indian state Kerala had the lowest gender gap in literacy

75 Chowdhury, Pakistan, p. 202.

76 Gulati, Impact of the Development Process, p. 298.

77 Chowdhury, Pakistan, p. 199.

in India; additionally, female work participation was higher in South than North India.⁸⁰ Ghosh and Talbani attribute this incidence to the matriarchal system, a dominantly Christian population, and the absence of purdah (veiling) in the Muslim communities. Compared to Hindu and Muslim women who usually did not participate in the organised labour force, Sri Lankan (and mostly Buddhist) women traditionally worked with men in the agricultural and industrial sectors.⁸¹ In Sri Lanka, missionary education constituted the official school system and influenced society insofar that Saram speaks of a ‘Protestant Buddhism’ that shaped Sri Lankan social life.⁸² These attitudes towards the role of women likely influenced the positive educational progress in Sri Lanka: it virtually achieved gender equality in education in terms of enrolment rates and numeracy by the midst of the 20^th century (see Table 4.1 and Figure 4.7), similar to the Philippines and Thailand.

In Southeast Asia, women enjoyed a relatively higher status in society and had more legal rights than women in South Asia. They were not concerned by seclusion and separation but managed household finances, had command over productive resources and participated in market activities.⁸³ In Vietnam for example, daughters could inherit land, and wives were allowed to hold a share in family property and participate in religious rituals.⁸⁴ In 1932, Thailand was one of the first Asian countries to introduce universal male and female suffrage in 1932. Buddhism, the major religion in most of the Southeast Asian countries, prescribed – unlike Hinduism – duties for both marriage partners. Not only dowries were paid, but also bride prices, hence enhancing women’s self-confidence. Also, women were given a say in the choice of their future husbands. Although education was mainly provided for boys in monastic

80 Rajeswari, Demographic Perspective, p. 341.

81 Mittra and Kumar, Encyclopedia of Women in South Asia, pp. 33-8.

schools until its secularisation in the late-19^th century, sophisticated Buddhist monks did not oppose female education in general.⁸⁵

Not all countries in Southeast Asia are characterised by a Buddhist tradition.

Filipinos are largely Roman Catholic, whereas Indonesia and Malaysia⁸⁶ are predominantly Muslim. The Muslim societies in Indonesia and Malaysia differed in several ways from those in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. First, Indonesia was a secular state where women were active and financially-independent members of society.⁸⁷ Second, the Muslim population in both countries did not practice veiling.⁸⁸ And third, Indonesia and especially Malaysia became multiethnic countries through the influx of immigrants, particularly from China, who supported their children’s educational aspirations, regardless of gender.⁸⁹ The plurality of Malaysian society produced a variety of school types, from public schools to Christian missionary schools and Chinese schools.⁹⁰

In summary, we observe that the numeracy level of both men and women rose in almost all countries during the first half of the 20^th century. But even though women’s legal and social status improved in some countries, the overall demand for the education of girls was low and gender inequality persisted during the period under study. Interestingly, high gender equality is also evident in the countries with very low overall numeracy levels, e.g. in Pakistan and India. We can take this incidence as a hint of the applicability of the U-hypothesis that we will investigate in the next section:

We anticipate that the numeracy level of men increases more rapidly relative to the

85 Buddhist countries promoted co-education and trained women as teachers and administrators; they did so even better than India, Muslim countries, and many Latin American countries. See Carroll, Women, Religion and Development, pp. 89-104.

86 This paper distinguishes between the Federation of Malaya and Sarawak. Sarawak became part of Malaysia in 1963. If we speak of ‘Malaysia’, we refer to the Federation of Malaya.

87 Oey-Gardiner and Suprapto, Indonesia, p. 95.

88 Tilak, East Asia, p. 269.

numeracy level of women in the first stages of development, which will be reversed later.