Socio-economic and institutional factors in female participation in formal education: some neglected dimensions of gender equity enhancement in Africa

Abstract

Of all the world regions, Africa has the lowest literacy rates. Adult female literacy rates in Northern Africa are amongst the lowest and access of girl-children to schooling remains the lowest. The illiteracy rate in sub-Saharan Africa for men is 41 per cent and 64 per cent for women. It is estimated that there are about 26 million girls out of school and over 90 percent of African countries have lower female enrolment rates. This implies that unacceptably high gender disparities in literacy rates as well as in primary, secondary and tertiary education still persists. The main objective of this paper is to examine the socioeconomic, sociocultural and institutional factors in female participation in formal education in Africa.