How Increased Basic Education Budgets Catalyse Inequality in STEM Careers
Gender-neutral education funding disenfranchises women from access to STEM career opportunities
Key Highlights
This recent research based on a classroom model in Kenya, completed in 2019, found evidence that a girl at the critical transition stages from primary school to secondary school needs at least 1.8 times the budget allocation for a boy so as to ensure fairness and equal chances for accessing quality STEM education.
Equal budget shares for girls and boys, which is the historical gender-neutral per-learner allocation model, adds to the long-standing path dependence expressed through unfavourable socialisation of STEM among girls. This perpetuates the systemic elimination of girls from becoming future women STEM leaders.
On the surface, increased basic education funding is a welcome and empowering idea. In reality, increased basic education budgets that allocate equal shares to girls and boys can lead to unintended consequences and further catalyse gender inequalities in outcomes — a classic case of fuelling structural injustice.
Gender-responsive public expenditure management (GRPEM) matters more in modern education and career development, a critical means to achieving gender equality in STEM careers.
This study has important implications for post-pandemic public education budgeting…
