Female Autonomy and Gender Gaps in Education in Pakistan

The study aims to understand the implications of female headship in house on gender bias in education by distinguishing between various types of households including ones that are headed by men and those that are headed by women that are either widowed or exercise autonomy due to a migrant husband. Application of probit and Linear Probability Models on data generated from Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS 2002) reveal that although pro male bias in terms of enrollment is significantly higher in male headed houses as opposed to female headed houses, female headship does not consistently result in more equitable allocation to girls as opposed to boys.

Econometric findings indicate that married women tend to gender discriminate in a similar manner to males whereas widow heads show a less biased attitude against girls education although the later finding is not statistically significant. Furthermore, analysis reveals that educated women tend to show less bias attitudes against girls enrollment as opposed uneducated female heads and male heads. The study concludes that educated female headship results in better opportunities for education of females in a given household.