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Falling behind in school: Mother’s economic empowerment and its association with children’s grade progression in Malawi

Falling behind in school: Mother’s economic empowerment and its association with children’s grade progression in Malawi
Falling behind in school: Mother’s economic empowerment and its association with children’s grade progression in Malawi
Malawi has experienced slow and uneven progress in school progression and completion rates, thus there is need to rethink the approaches needed for reforming education systems. Mothers are more likely to invest in children’s nutrition and well-being and take primary responsibility for children’s education. However, the association between women’s economic empowerment and their offspring’s school progression rates is not systematically understood in Malawi, or elsewhere. We investigate how economic empowerment of mothers is associated with children’s progression through grades at appropriate ages. Using the 2016/17 Malawi Integrated Household Survey data, we show that women’s economic empowerment is positively associated with being on-time for grade, with a steeper slope for girls than boys, particularly at secondary school level. The stronger association for girls in secondary school, who otherwise typically experience a higher risk of dropping out of school than boys, implies higher education attainment, and probably lower teen pregnancies and early marriage. We conclude that investment in women’s economic empowerment can significantly enhance school progression and completion rates and can contribute to human capital development and poverty reduction in Malawi and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.
Education, Malawi, Maternal, Women empowerment, integrated household survey, Education outcomes, Women's economic empowerment, Grade progression, Sub-Saharan Africa
0738-0593
Williams, Eunice Mueni
7a9afbb7-b595-49e9-b86b-d77efa441009
Padmadas, Sabu S.
64b6ab89-152b-48a3-838b-e9167964b508
Väisänen, Heini
ee5b9497-7825-4fd8-8b7e-3d5d2b164766
Williams, Eunice Mueni
7a9afbb7-b595-49e9-b86b-d77efa441009
Padmadas, Sabu S.
64b6ab89-152b-48a3-838b-e9167964b508
Väisänen, Heini
ee5b9497-7825-4fd8-8b7e-3d5d2b164766

Williams, Eunice Mueni, Padmadas, Sabu S. and Väisänen, Heini (2024) Falling behind in school: Mother’s economic empowerment and its association with children’s grade progression in Malawi. International Journal of Educational Development, 106, [103022]. (doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2024.103022).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Malawi has experienced slow and uneven progress in school progression and completion rates, thus there is need to rethink the approaches needed for reforming education systems. Mothers are more likely to invest in children’s nutrition and well-being and take primary responsibility for children’s education. However, the association between women’s economic empowerment and their offspring’s school progression rates is not systematically understood in Malawi, or elsewhere. We investigate how economic empowerment of mothers is associated with children’s progression through grades at appropriate ages. Using the 2016/17 Malawi Integrated Household Survey data, we show that women’s economic empowerment is positively associated with being on-time for grade, with a steeper slope for girls than boys, particularly at secondary school level. The stronger association for girls in secondary school, who otherwise typically experience a higher risk of dropping out of school than boys, implies higher education attainment, and probably lower teen pregnancies and early marriage. We conclude that investment in women’s economic empowerment can significantly enhance school progression and completion rates and can contribute to human capital development and poverty reduction in Malawi and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Accepted/In Press date: 24 February 2024
e-pub ahead of print date: 11 March 2024
Published date: April 2024
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors
Keywords: Education, Malawi, Maternal, Women empowerment, integrated household survey, Education outcomes, Women's economic empowerment, Grade progression, Sub-Saharan Africa

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 488285
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/488285
ISSN: 0738-0593
PURE UUID: c2275428-1a3c-41e0-bd21-3cc4af9801cc
ORCID for Eunice Mueni Williams: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6657-4889
ORCID for Sabu S. Padmadas: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6538-9374
ORCID for Heini Väisänen: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5494-0415

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Date deposited: 19 Mar 2024 18:01
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 01:54

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