Education and Gender Related Issues in Latin America and the Caribbeanthe Caribbean

Today, Latin America has a surprisingly low level of gender inequality in education (Figure 4.1). It is the only region in the developing world, in which girls' secondary attainment equals boys' educational attainment (UN 2005). The ratio from female to male adult literacy rates has around the same value as for Central and Eastern Europe. Neverthe-less, there are striking dierences in gender inequality within Latin America. Indigenous women in Bolivia still have signicantly lower education levels than men from the same ethnic group (De Ferranti et al. 2004, p. 96).

So why did gender inequality in education exist at all in earlier times? Explanations usually focus on two dierent subjects: Parental discrimination on the one hand and labor market discrimination on the other hand (Kingdon 1997). These two factors are linked to each other. Higher returns for male education than for women, in terms of higher wages for males are common even in today's industrialized countries, although the wage dierential is much larger in developing countries. The return for sending a daughter to school is therefore lower, especially if we consider that daughters usually marry and leave home, so that they are not able to care for their parents in old age. In addition to this, in rural areas, long distances to the nearest school make schooling of girls less likely than

that of boys. Parents are afraid of sending their daughters to school alone. Therefore, increased availability of schools may have a greater impact on schooling for girls than for boys (Greer 1969).

Emerson and Portela (2003) emphasize a strong persistence of child labor from one generation to the next, but parental schooling inuences child labor decisions concerning sons and daughters in dierent ways. While the father's schooling has a stronger impact on sons' school attendance and child labor, the mother's educational level has a stronger impact on daughters' child labor status.

The social inequality of education is another crucial element, which actually survives until today and which might be correlated with gender inequality. During the colonial period, education was restricted to a small elite and was mainly the church's domain (Kowalewski and Saindon 1992). Engerman and Sokolo (2005, p. 917) note that the franchise criterion of literacy often used in Latin America might have prevented the ruling elites from extending public schooling too quickly, as the poorer strata of voters would have achieved political power. Independence led to changes in the institutions providing education. The new ideas insisted on the modernization of society via education and this also included female education (Miller 2003, pp. 207; Reimers 2006, p. 434). The church resisted this, but its power was diminishing. One ocial Chilean church journal in the 1870s predicted that secondary schooling for women is `nothing more than mere brothels nanced by the taxpayers' (cited in Fisher 1974, pp. 189). This view was not uncommon during the second half of the nineteenth century. While the church worried about female secondary education, only very few women received any education. Even though concern for female education increased, it was never argued that it was desirable for equity reasons. Rather, female education was exclusively intended to create better daughters, wives and mothers (Lavrín 1998, p. 103; Christiansen and Christiansen 2004, p. 47). In order to fulll these roles and to raise children who would constitute the new society of an independent Latin America, female education could no longer be overlooked.

As one of the earliest countries in Latin America, Chile decreed in the organic law of Primary Education as early as 1860 that in all departments exceeding 2,000 inhabitants at

least one school for boys and one for girls had to be established (Schiefelbein and Farrell 1982, p. 229). However such laws were never executed throughout Latin America. Scarce resources and a lack of teachers made female education a dicult task. Discussions about coeducational schools would not rise for decades and few qualied female teachers existed (Kent Besse 1996, p. 133). Domingo Sarmiento, one of the most important leaders in the promotion of education in Argentina, who inuenced the educational debate throughout Spanish America, saw this problem and even recruited female school teachers from the United States (Miller 2003, p. 210). Thanks to these and similar measures, female education progressed slowly but surely.

The curriculum focused mainly on religious catechism, reading, writing and arithmetic.

Girls were taught less writing and arithmetic, while sewing and household duties were included (Vaughan 1990). In particular, in countries specializing in agriculture, and in rural areas, female education was not seen as an important issue because the relevant knowledge could be learned through informal, oral methods (Stromquist 1992).

Total literacy rates in Spanish America increased from under 10 percent at indepen-dence (ca. 1820) to 15 percent around 1850, and to 27 percent in 1900 (Greer 1969).

Nevertheless, regional disparities remained large until the end of the 20^th century and literacy rates were consistently higher in cities than in urban areas (Mariscal and Sokolo 2000, Newland 1994). Vaughan (1990) observes for Mexico: `Whether a region or locality was commercially prosperous [. . . ] was critical to school expansion'. While 45 percent of the population in northern Mexico around 1910 was literate, in the center and in the south only 27 and 14 percent respectively, knew how to read and write (Vaughan 1990).

As expected, gender disparities were considerably higher in the Mexican south and center than in the more prosperous northern regions (Greer 1969).

Mariscal and Sokolo (2000) explore the reasons for the late investment in education in Latin American countries in contrast with the United States and Canada. Although income levels in the Latin New World were relatively high, wealth has traditionally been concentrated in the hands of the elite. The authors' main nding is that social inequality constrained the introduction of tax-nanced compulsory primary education. In Argentina

and Uruguay, in contrast, the desire to attract European immigrants resulted in a special interest on the part of the state in improving education. Immigrants demanded better public services and their higher educational level had a positive impact on the educational level of the whole country. Nevertheless, with the exception of these countries, Mariscal and Sokolo (2000) conclude that social inequality and the concentration of political power in few hands impeded the formation of appropriate institutions to promote education during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Thorp (1998) studies the gender gap in education for Latin American countries and notes that education usually improves rst for boys and then for girls.⁵ Therefore, the gender gap will rise initially until female education catches up and the gender gap declines.

Did dierences exist between continental Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of gender inequality? Ellis (2003) emphasizes that the belief that non-Hispanic Caribbean societies were matrifocal is misleading, because this would obscure the fact that women also suer discrimination in this region. However, gender inequality in education was substantially lower than in the Hispanic Caribbean or Latin America (Ellis 2003). Slavery had, in some cases, a leveling eect between the sexes. Race, color and class always played a more important role in this society than gender distinctions. Rich male and female whites enjoyed similar power over the lower classes. Dierences between male and female slaves were minor. Both worked and both had been torn away from their cultural roots. Practicing the language or culture of their homelands was strictly forbidden. In this institutional framework, traditional gender roles could not develop as strongly as elsewhere (Wiltshire-Brodber 1999, pp.136-138). Moreover, Caribbean women worked outside the home more often than Latin American women and had a greater economic inuence within the family.

Today, these countries even show female education advantages (Ellis 2003, pp. 11) and the expression `marginalization of Caribbean men' (Ellis 2003, p. 147) has become famous.

Caribbean women contribute signicantly to the income of their families. Moreover, males migrated more often in search of employment, leaving wife and children who had to earn

5She denes the gender gap as the absolute dierence between adult literacy rates of males and females.

their own incomes (Brereton 1999, p. 130). The share of female-headed households in the Caribbean is therefore exceptionally high and these households are not as stigmatized as in Latin American societies. Therefore, we might expect lower gender inequality especially in the non-Hispanic Caribbean.

In sum, Latin American educational development was relatively slow, partly due to social inequality, although education developed more favorably in the southern cone coun-tries. Gender inequality was high in earlier times, especially in continental Latin America and the Hispanic Caribbean. Today gender inequality in education is relatively low, so we might expect a more egalitarian labor force participation in the future (Goldin 1995).