Between Returns and Respectability: Parental Attitudes towards Girls' Education in Rural Pakistan

Main author: Purewal, Navtej
Other authors: Hashmi, Naimatullah
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-18980
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
topic HM Sociology
description This article focuses upon perceptions of girls’ education in the family context within which decisions around children’s education and opportunities are made. The article presents a framework showing how parental attitudes to girls’ education are shaped by an objective logic framed by the notion of returns, relating to potential benefits of daughters’ education, and respectability, relating to girls’ modesty and threats that education may present to normative expectations for girls. Drawing upon data collected in 2011 in rural areas of the districts of Faisalabad (Jaranwala town) and Chiniot (Tehsil Chiniot) in the province of Punjab, the study highlights how assumptions around the liberating effects of education implicit in global education programmes fail to take into account cultural values around gender norms that are central to informing parental attitudes towards their daughters’ prospects for education.
format Journal Article
author Purewal, Navtej
author_facet Purewal, Navtej
Hashmi, Naimatullah
authorStr Purewal, Navtej
author_letter Purewal, Navtej
author2 Hashmi, Naimatullah
author2Str Hashmi, Naimatullah
title Between Returns and Respectability: Parental Attitudes towards Girls' Education in Rural Pakistan
publisher Taylor and Francis
publishDate 2014
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18980/