Eating After Boys, Poorer Education: Girls are Disadvantaged Early

Female disadvantage starts young and accumulates over time, spreading across all aspects of a woman’s wellbeing.

The disadvantages for girl children start early.

(Photo: iStock)

Reader’s Blog.

That gender inequality is a problem in our country is not a point of contention. Based on multiple surveys such as National Sample Surveys, Indian Human Development Surveys and National Family Health Surveys, girls are found to be less healthy, have fewer years of education, are less likely to attend higher schooling and college, are likely to get married younger, are less likely to be employed, and are less likely to exercise many kinds of decision-making.

Female disadvantage not only starts young, but accumulates over time, spreading itself across all aspects of a woman’s wellbeing – and at each stage of life, takes away some part of a woman’s capability to be equal to men. The rest of this article discusses the multiple disadvantages girls face in early childhood, and the attitudes creating disadvantage.

“Girls are a Burden, Boys are a Boon”

Girl children are considered a “burden” on their natal families, attributed to the idea that they will be married off at a certain age (and hopefully at a competitive price), while sons will study, become breadwinners of the households, bring home a wife who will take on households responsibilities, and thus support his parents in old age.

Parents often make the informed decision to under-invest in their daughters while investing more in their sons, especially when they are poor. And with dowry culture still going strong, parents might wish to “save” for the girl while they “invest” in the boy.

Female disadvantage starts even before girls are born. It is common knowledge that issues of sex selection through abortions, and of female infanticide continue to be rampant problems in India.

While the ban on identifying the sex of a child has reduced incidence of such crimes, it does not stop households from attempting to control the sex of children they have.

Girls are Born into Poorer Households

Households continue having children until they have a boy child. Girls are thus, more likely to belong to households with more children, and with more mouths to feed. This also means that girls are more likely to belong to poorer households.

As a result of female ‘unwantedness’, girl children are already placed at an economic disadvantage as soon as they are born.

Underfed and Undernourished

The underinvestment in girl-children is not just limited to monetary investment, but rather any sort of resource.

For example, some studies have found that girl children are likely to be breastfed for a lower amount of time than boys. Similarly, many Indian households follow a ritual of feeding the men of the family meals before the women, which includes the children.

As a result of this, girl children might get less food to eat and consequently are more likely to be undernourished than their male siblings.

Then These Disadvantages Multiply...

And, of course, underinvestment in one key area of wellbeing such as health and nutrition has repercussions for the girl child in all other areas, e.g. being able to concentrate in school.

Take the primary education of children, for example. Over the last few years, we’ve learnt about how enrolment of boys and girls in primary schools are almost equal, and both nearing 100%. But does enrolment in schools mean girls can equally access ‘education’? Probably not.

...Poorer Quality Education

There is evidence that girls are much more likely to be attending a school that requires a lower investment. For example, many households might send their daughters to government schools, while sending their sons to private schools (which many consider to be of superior quality).

Parents are often more wary of sending their girls children to schools far away from home because of the disproportionate level of crimes against girl children. For this reason, in a situation where the only good schools accessible to a household are far, parents might choose to put their daughters in schools closer to home even if of poorer quality – or not send them to school at all.

...And the Classic “Boys are Better at all Things Math and Science”

Coupled with this is also the age-old stereotype of boys and girls having “differential abilities”.

A large part of the population genuinely believe that there are biological differences that make boys better at science and mathematics subjects, while making girls better at humanities and languages.

However, studies show that teachers concentrate more on teaching boys sciences and mathematics – and even at home male children are given more attention by parents with respect to their schoolwork. Girls on the other hand, are often told they will not be able to perform in such subjects. Due to this, girls suffer from “performance anxiety” (anxiety or pressure to perform in ways consistent or inconsistent with a stereotype) often resulting in her lower performance and confirming the stereotype for many.

We cannot discount how the stereotype also results in girls and boys having very different childhood experiences.

Girls are less likely to play any sport, and more likely to be involved in helping in home-making tasks – including kitchen work, and taking care of younger siblings. Boys are more likely to play outside the home, or buy things from stores. Just the nature of these activities might impact both cognitive and non-cognitive development in different ways.

Are Girls Less Capable or is it Our Attitude?

Therefore, not only have we been socialised into believing in differential rights and abilities of boys and girls, but we have behaved in ways to ensure this is true – by not providing equal access to all schools, equal access to support and encouragement, and consequently, equal opportunity to perform.

Some part of the way we behave towards girls could be attributed to the idea that they do not necessarily come to school to “learn”/ “score well” / get good jobs, but rather just for a degree. Being educated might have implications in the amount of dowry one would pay in the marriage market where men often want educated wives to take care of his children.

Considering that education is shown to lead to greater empowerment, our attitudes in early childhood mean that even before a girl finishes primary school she has already been disadvantaged – both cognitively and physically.

This disadvantage of girl children in accessing education and health is just an example of how a single gendered attitude can allow for a cycle of disadvantage, that is interconnected to all aspects of her well-being. These same disadvantages then continue to plague the girl child through adolescence and adulthood, and many more accumulate along the way.

(Karan Singhal and Nisha Vernekar work on education and gender at IIM Ahmedabad. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)