User:EmmaJohn121/Socioeconomic impact of female education

Limitations of impact
There are some cases in which women's education has less of an effect on development. Economically, the benefits of investing in women are much smaller in areas facing high levels of poverty. Also, in some cases the education women receive is of much lower quality than what men receive, lowering its effectiveness. This phenomenon can be accompanied by the so-called hidden curriculum in schools, where certain values are reinforced. Emphasis on the superiority of boys can cause educated women to pass up economic opportunities in favor of lower-paying traditionally female jobs, with poor economic and social consequences. '''In other cases, curricula can differ based explicitly on gender. For example, in Saudi Arabia, curriculum differentiation for men and women is backed by government policy that creates differentiated access to fields of study. These policies also promote ideas of stereotypical gender roles by using educational environments and texts to enforce gendered ideas of women's duties to the family above all else, including their own work and education. In primary school, female students study needlework, domestic science, and child welfare while male students study wood and metal crafts. In secondary school, male students are given access to technical and vocational training that female students are not. '''

There are also situations in which women's education helps development on the macro-scale but is inefficient for a family. '''For example in Saudi Arabia, the rise in female employment as well as the developments in female education have not had much of an impact on the gender division in the Saudi workforce. The majority of working women in Saudi Arabia work in traditional female occupations for example teaching, medicine, nursing, and social work. This causes the workforce to be segregated and makes it difficult for women graduates to find employment. As a result the country suffers a major problem, which is a high unemployment rate of educated women'''.In societies where women are married off and leave the family while men stay back and take care of their parents, investing in sons is more valuable to parents. Additionally, while investing in women's education has a higher overall return when looking at all levels of education, through primary school investing in men has a higher rate of return. This gives families who are only planning to send their children to primary school incentives to invest in their sons' education over their daughters' education. Socially, societal gender roles may stifle the ability of women's education to improve gender equality for women. This is particularly the case when education for women is only seen culturally as a tool for making women more attractive wives.

Some researchers don't claim that women's education necessarily has little effect on development, but instead question the methodologies of the research showing that it has a sizable effect. One issue that researchers acknowledge is the difficulty in comparing education levels. The same number of years of schooling in two different countries may have very different educational content. Similarly, what is termed ‘primary school’ in different country may vary widely. Also, while extensive information for education in developed countries exists, data is only available for a small number of developing countries. This brings into question to what extent the results can be generalized for all developing countries. Additionally, while the pure economic benefits are relatively uncontroversial, there is some discrepancy over how to measure the social benefits, with some variability between studies.