Closing the Gap: Creating Opportunities for Females in Bangladesh

Abstract

Data on Bangladesh show that over the past few decades, young women consistently do not stay in school for as long as young men. With a discrepancy in literacy, enrollment, and retention rates among males and females within the same environment, education attainment outcomes reveal that young men and women do not perform at the same level in Bangladesh. All things being equal, women face challenges to education attainment that men do not. In this paper, I explore the ways in which women face obstacles that prevent or hinder them from completing as much schooling as their male counterparts. The focus of this paper rests on secondary education, as the largest drop-off among young girls occurs at this stage of schooling. The importance of this study is to highlight the various obstacles women face to influence policy making in terms of increasing access to education for women and closing the education gap between Bangladeshi boys and girls by overcoming such obstacles. By closing this gap and improving the prospects for female education in Bangladesh, I argue that political, economic, and social development can occur.