FEMALE EDUCATION AND ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMS - A CROSS-COUNTRY STATISTICAL-ANALYSIS

In countries that have undertaken World Bank-supported adjustment programs, a slow-down in the increase in average female combined first- and second-level gross school enrollment rates is observed between the preadjustment and adjustment phase. Furthermore, there has been an absolute decline in female enrollment rates in a number of adjusting countries over this period. The gap between male and female enrollment rates has narrowed on average for both the group of countries that have undertaken adjustment programs and for their control group that have not. For the adjusting group of countries, however, the closing of the gender gap is due to the average male enrollment rate falling toward the lower average female enrollment rate, whereas for the nonadjusting group of countries the gap has narrowed due to an increase in the averages of both male and female enrollment rates.