Recognizing Development beyond Economic Growth: By analyzing impact of Inequality on Development

The idea of development has transformed in recent decades from measuring per capita income to improving quality of life of the people. The traditional advocacy for Western models of development has proven to be futile when many developing countries (especially East Asian Tigers) have shown that one size does not fit all and there are other ways to achieve growth as well. However, global economic development also accompanied with another incidence called inequality through distributional bias and limited opportunities in last few decades. When national income is not distributed proportionately to non-economic sectors, the economic success fails to benefit sustained development in a country. This paper focuses on impact of such inequality on human development, poverty and growth. Countries with high ranks in Gross National Income (GNI) often turn into lower rankings in Human Development Index (HDI) when distribution is below the standard in health and education due to lack of pro-poor policy measures. On the other hand, poverty reduction slows down and incident of extreme poverty also rises in regions where inequality is high. Besides, rising inequality with declining share of bottom 40% of population results into inability of economic system to create jobs and such weak growth governance leads to lowering of growth rate in the long run. This paper is articulated based on secondary materials from different sources in order to study impact of inequality. It provides further opportunity to work in this subject with much broader and primary data in future

Gender stereotypes and education: A comparative content analysis of Malaysian, Indonesian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi school textbooks

Using government secondary school English language textbooks from Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, we conducted a quantitative content analysis in order to identify gender stereotypes in school education. In total, 21 categories of exclusion and quality of representation were used to study gender stereotypes. Our analysis confirms a pro-male bias in textbooks: the aggregate female share is 40.4% in textual and pictorial indicators combined. Female occupations are mostly traditional and less prestigious while the characters are predominantly introverted and passive in terms of personality traits. Women are also shown to be mostly involved in domestic and in-door activities while men have a higher presence in professional roles. Systematic underrepresentation of females is evident regardless of whether we look at the text or pictures. A cross-country analysis shows that the female share in picture content is only 35.2% in Malaysia and Bangladesh. Overall, the proportion of female to male characters (text and pictures combined) is balanced in Malaysia and Indonesia (44.4% and 44.1% respectively) while this share is only 24.4% and 37.3% in Pakistani and Bangladeshi textbooks respectively. The finding of underrepresentation of women in Pakistani textbooks, in terms of quality and quantity, is robust to the selection of province-, grade- and subject-specific textbooks, as well as the range and type of categories used

Women’s development indicators and policy provisions.

<p>Women’s development indicators and policy provisions.</p

Female exclusion in text and illustrations by country.

<p>Female exclusion in text and illustrations by country.</p

Subject-wise analysis of female presence in grade 9 textbooks in Pakistan (the Punjab province only).

<p>Subject-wise analysis of female presence in grade 9 textbooks in Pakistan (the Punjab province only).</p

SDG 4 mid-point challenge:fixing the broken interlinkages between education and gender equality

While the UN's SDG Summit 2023 marks the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda, many of the SDGs are moderately to severely off-track. In this commentary, we place emphasis on addressing hidden quality gaps that can help fix broken interlinkages, and in turn create positive correlations and harness untapped synergies, across goals. To illustrate broken interlinkages between SDGs 4 and 5, we focus on the puzzle of “education without employment” in South Asia. We argue that a hidden form of gender inequality in education quality – gender stereotypes in learning materials – potentially undermines interlinkages between SDG targets in the region, among other factors. If gender inequality in educational production is overlooked, a focus on enrolling more girls will not fix the broken links between SDGs 4 and 5. Addressing hidden gaps in public service quality should be a priority during the final half of the SDG campaign.</p

Overall representation of women (in percentage), sample composition and indicators used in selected published studies^a^,^b.

<p>Overall representation of women (in percentage), sample composition and indicators used in selected published studies<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0190807#t005fn002" target="_blank">^a</a>^,<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0190807#t005fn003" target="_blank">^b</a>.</p

Province-wise results of female presence in the English language textbooks in Pakistan (grade 9).

<p>Province-wise results of female presence in the English language textbooks in Pakistan (grade 9).</p

Breakdown of categories for content analysis.

<p>Breakdown of categories for content analysis.</p

Most stated professional roles/occupations by gender.

<p>Most stated professional roles/occupations by gender.</p