EDUCATIONAL SITUATION OF WOMEN

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CONTENTS

Page

Introduction 137 A. FEATURES OF THE EDUCATIONAL SITUATION OF WOMEN, 1960-1970 .. 139

1. Literacy 141 2. Educational attainment 145

(a) Primary level 148 (b) Secondary level 155 ( c) Higher level 155 3. Co-education .. 159

4. Content of education 159 B. THE SITUATION SINCE 1975 .... 161

C. PRINCIPAL PROBLEMS ... 163 D. RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR ACTION 166

/Introduction

, • • • Introduction

Thè aim of this study 'is to appraise- the present conditions of education for-women' in Latin'America and the Caribbean. This requires a description of the existing situation and-then its comparison with the

desired objectives to determine whether what exists is adequate, and if not, in what sense it requires modification, with' a proposal of the relevant measures for making the change; The objectives were defined in the Regional Plan of Action, henceforth referred to as the"Plan, and have a double task:

they constitute the pattern used to appraise What exists and a guide for selecting the variables which will-bé empirically-studied.

The Plan states that "éducation is an essential factor in the economic and social development of peoples and a basic right of men and women as

social beings; to receive it is therefore a principle of equity'and justice...".

It may be deduced from this paragraph that education is important because it fulfils two functions. It is an instrument for"the training of qualified human resources, i.e. capable of undertaking efficiently the tasks of production and taking part in decision-making. It is also an essential factor for the development of human beings. The first of these links education With the activities of production-and economic growth, with

reference to such matters as the relation between the educational levels of the labour force and the needs of the apparatus of production. The second of the" two confers on 'education a value per se in that it serves to develop the potentialities of human beings, permitting the full realization of the individual as a person. This is reinforced and complemented when it is established that society is just in so far as it enables all its members to put into effect their right to obtain education. -

The relation existing between the two functions of education can be clarified by reference to the International.Development Strategy, which states that, although it is indispensable for the countries to possess a system of production capable of generating the goods required to meet the needs of the population, this is only a means to bring about "sustained improvement in the well-being of the individual and bestow benefits on all".

> , ' . , , /Once the

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Once the role played by education in development is thus defined, it must be specified how the Plan expresses the problem of women in the region in relation to education and the measures it proposes for dealing with it. The Plan begins by mentioning the inequality which affects women adversely in terms of their access to education and the nature and content

"of the education received.1/ It presents a group of action proposals for dealing with this situation, of which the following may be noted:

(a) to eliminate illiteracy; (b) to increase women's incorporation into secondary and higher education; (c) to bring the supply of those leaving the educational system into line with the needs of the production system;

(d) to modify both the content of the programmes and school texts so as to provide a response to production activities and the daily requirements of women from rural areas and marginated urban areas; (e) to establish coeducation and modify the image of women in a positive sense.

Having thus considered the definition of the role devolving on education and the Plan's action proposals for improving the situation of women, some characteristic trends of the education system in the region 2/

during the period 1960-1970 should be reviewed:

(a) Its high growth rate, in terms of the.decline in illiteracy among the population of 15 years of age and over (from 42% in 1950 to 34%

in 1960 and 24% in 1970) and coverage of the school-age population.

(b) Its notable absorption measured by the progress achieved in the incorporation of the population into the education system. A polemic subject is whether the opening-up of education has or has not a real impact as a channel for social promotion. It suffices to say that whatever its 1/ In paragraph 25 the Regional Plan of Action notes that in the region

women represent a high percentage of the illiterate population and a low percentage of the population with secondary and higher education.

2/ See Desarrollo humano, cambio social y crecimiento en America Latina, Cuadernos de la CEPAL, No. 3, Santiago, 1975. Desarrollo y cambio

social en America Latina, Cuadernos de la CEPAL, No. 16, Santiago, 1977.

German W. Rama, Notas sobre la educacion para la evaluacion internacional del desarrollo, CEPAL, Social Development Division, 1975 (typescript).

Carlos Filgueira, EkpansiSn educacional y estratificaci6n social en America Latina, DEALC/4, Buenos Aires, 1 9 7 G e r m a n W. Rama, Educaci6n, imSgenes y estilos de desarrollo, Cuadernos de la CEPAL, No. 31, 1979.

/specific effect,

specific effect, access to secondary and higher education is generally

regarded as a means of advance, hence social pressure to increase enrollment in these levels.

(c) Despite its tendencies to grow, the education process maintains elitist and exclusive traits. While enrollment in secondary and higher education increases rapidly, a considerable proportion of the population of 10 years of age and over continues to be illiterate.

In this general context, the situation of women in the different countries of the region will be analysed with a view to discovering which action proposals have made most progress and which should be reinforced, and in which countries of the region the situation of women is most

discriminated against and is most unfavourable.

Before presenting the empirical data a proviso must be made. It should be noted that in order to propose policies it is essential to explain the situation in education, since this will allow it to be established what key factors have to be manipulated if it is to be altered in any specific sense. This requires not a sectoral analysis but an analysis of the global situation. Although there is awareness of the need to proceed in this form, this analysis will be approached sectorally and is therefore restricted to describing existing conditions so as to evaluate how much progress has been made in achieving the objectives proposed by the Plan. Since it is more specific, the study sets itself to compare the situation of men and women among countries and within each country, with a view to discovering which countries have the worst educational conditions, in which aspects of the educational system the greatest inadequacies are to be found and in which the differences between the educational situation of men and women are most pronounced.

A. FEATURES OF THE EDUCATIONAL SITUATION OF WOMEN, 1960-1970