Presentation given in class on the 2nd of February 2017 – Click on the following Link to access the file Gender Equality as a Norm in the Higher Education Reform Narrative in Asia: the Case of Pakistan
Here you find an updated version of the presentation with additional readings if you are interested in learning more – Bajwa _Presentation_HigherEduinAsia_ February 2 2017 Additional Readings-21y9uun
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Thank you for the great presentation. I want to make a brief comment on this gender issue. I think setting specific goals to solve gender issues is important. For example, in Japan, we have the same kind of problem that the female researcher percentage in the natural science field was only 23% in 2008, but the Japanese government set a goal to increase the ratio by 25% in 5 years, which was achieved in 2012. Then, the government set the next goal to increase the ratio by 30% by 2017. Although these goals do not seem challenging but gradual ones, attaining goals on a step-by-step basis are essential in this field.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts Sho! It is very interesting to learn that female participation in the natural sciences seems to be low across south East Asian and South Asian countries at the graduate level. I wonder if it is the same in Europe and US? ,Your example of the the Japanese government setting small achievable goals is an excellent one – for issues such as equalizing gender participation in specific fields, the approach has to be practical and achievable. In Pakistan, educational policy goals are generally too ambitious, and are largely influenced by what international donors that fund Pakistan’s educational sector development wish for the country to achieve, rather than the resources the government has on hand to achieve goals. For higher education, there is a very limited focus on gender equality by international donors so the government is not pushed to pursue it. I’d also like to add here the major donors for educational development in Pakistan are the US and UK – at the higher educational level their interest in improving it is rather limited. They are happy to offer higher education scholarships to Pakistani students to study in the US/UK (these scholarships are disbursed through the Pakistani Higher Education Commission), rather than building the capacity of Pakistani universities.
Very impressive and informative presentation, Wajeeha. For China’s case, different regions now have very different situations and topics of gender issues. For the rural area of China, girls/women are still on their way to fight for the equal opportunity to go to school. I visited one home in Xiji Ningxia Province that the family has 7 girls and 1 boy at the end, only 3 girls have the opportunity to go to school. Public-Private Partnerships (university-government-private sector) are used widely in the rural area of China to address this issue. For those mega cities in China like Shanghai, the situation could be successful and highly educated women lose out in the marriage market or are called as “the third gender”.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and analysis Chaoyi! Its very interesting to learn that such issues persist even in countries like China where I would gender binaries are not as strong as they are in Pakistan and makes me wonder what the implications of higher education will be for women with university degrees (in the long run, will China face problems like Japan in terms of a declining birth rate if even rural women are successfully integrated in the educational system?). I also noticed that China had a lot of fluctuation in female staff serving in higher educational institutes between the early 2000s and 2014 (its graph 2 on the handout and presentation) and was wondering what some reasons could be behind that!
Yes. I think the higher education gender issue will also influence the birth rate. The increasing number of people choosing DINK lifestyle may hasten the growth of China’s aged population society while advancing elder care. The developed areas of China also face the problem called “Feminization of Higher Education” which means that there are more females than males in the universities (also perform better).
Thank you so much for sharing such valuable information Chaoyi!I will be keeping an eye on China’s experience to see how the feminization of higher education plays out!