Dynamics in Educational Outcomes by Gender: Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

Abstract. There is strong empirical evidence that show females as a marginalized group in many aspect within Pakistan with its education sector being no different. However it is extremely important not only to document this fact but to analyze how such tendencies are evolving over time within society. This paper is an attempt in this direction, whereby in our analysis not only we assess how different are female and male population in terms of their current enrollment and attained education patterns but also in terms of structure of change in their attainment distribution as we move from older towards younger cohorts. Our findings show though gender should remain an important policy concern in domain of education sector given the prominent discrepancies in current enrolment and attained schooling estimates within male and female population, however distributional analysis of attainment patterns over age cohorts show that there is definitely some evidence of structural shifts in terms of changing economic constraints and social norms within Pakistan. This can be inferred from evidence that show much stronger inclination of higher education in younger cohorts within female attainment distribution.

Keywords. Educational attainment, Gender, Age cohort analysis, Pakistan.

JEL. I21, J16.