Girls' and women's education within Unesco and the World Bank, 1945-2000

Rosie Peppin-Vaughan

University of Bedfordshire

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 1 No Poverty
SDG 5 Gender Equality

Abstract

By 2000, girls’ and women’s education was a priority for international development organisations. While studies have examined the impact of recent campaigns and programmes, there has been less exploration of ideas about girls’ and women’s education within development thought in the immediate post‐colonial period, and the political mechanisms through which this came to be a global concern. Through a study of policy documents, this paper investigates how the education of girls and women came to be prioritised within the two principle UN agencies involved with education since 1945, the World Bank and Unesco. A shift in priorities is evident, from ensuring formal rights and improving the status of women, to expanding the productive capacities of women, fertility control and poverty reduction. While the ascendance of human capital theory provided a space for a new perception of the role of women’s education in development, in other policy arenas women’s education was central to exploring more substantive, rights‐based notions of gender equality. Ultimately, the goal of improving girls’ and women’s education fitted into diverse development agendas, paving the way for it to become a global development priority.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 405-423

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Compare (Volume 40, Issue 4)

Publication milestones

Published - 17/05/2012

Publication status

Published - 17/05/2012

ISSN

0305-7925

External Publication IDs

handle.net: 10547/224398
Scopus: 77954072614

Access to documents

10.1080/03057925.2010.490360

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