Sex Roles, Education, and Development in Africa

With three-quarters of the twentieth century behind us, throughout most of the world, sex, race, ethnicity, and/or income are s t i l l de facto i f not de jure bases of differential access to opportunities and resources. In the realm of education, sex i s characteristically the primary basis of the inequalities that exist in most countries. In the developing nations,educationaldeliverysystems are directed mainly toward males. Women partake of formal and nonformal education in fewer numbers and for shorter periods of time than do men. At the higher levels of schooling, women and men typically pursue different courses of study. The differences in the availability of education to women and to men,and the different choices the two sexes make as regards educational opportunities that are open to them, are directly linked to the sex role differences that exist in the societies at large, most especially to differences in occupational roles and expectations. Evidence of a division of labor along sexual lines can be found in most countries, but in the non-Western world, this division of labor i s often most pronounced and most pervasive. Africa i s a prominent case in point. Thus, when we approach a discussion of the future of education i n Africa or of education for Africa’sfuture, we must grapple with the question of maintaining a division of labor that utilizes sex as one of i t s underpinnings. Although some writers have answered this question by advocating what one critic termed the “western concept of mechanical equality [between] the sexes,” and others have been equally critical of notions of occupational preserves (or reserves) for one sex or the other, (Boserup 1970) it i s theview of the present author that the discussion of sex role differentiation in education and in occupations must take place within the context of a consideration of the present and projected structure of society in the parts of the world under consideration. In this paper, I examine the question of sex role differentiation in