that gender inequality in education has an adverse impact on rural poverty in
Pakistan.
Figure 11.7 shows that the female-to-male ratio in enrollment rates for both
primary school and secondary school in the PRC and India increased very rapidly
during the period between 1981 and 2010. In 2008, the female-to-male ratio in the
enrollment rate for primary school had reached 100% in both the PRC and India;
in the case of secondary school, the ratio also reached 100% in the PRC, but it was
only 88% in India.
Figure 11.8 reports the average number of years of schooling for the female
population as of 2010. As can be seen, the female population has fewer years of
schooling compared with the total population in both countries. However, such
a gap appears bigger in India than in the PRC. When these two countries are
compared with the Republic of Korea, women in both countries stay in school for
fewer years than in the Republic of Korea.
Many reports acknowledge that gender equality, not only for education but also
for employment and political empowerment, among others, is an important means
of fostering economic growth and poverty reduction (e.g., Morisson et al. 2007;
World Bank 2008). Klasen and Lamanna (2008) updated the results of previous
studies on impacts of education gaps on growth and extended the analysis
to employment gaps using panel data. They found that gender gaps in education
and employment significantly reduced economic growth.