Assessment of gender gap in Sudan
Samia S. O. M. Nour
#2011-004
This paper examines the gender gap in education and investigates the
related implications on the labour market and returns to education in
Sudan. Our results confirm two stylized facts: first, the incidence of
significant gender gap in education in Sudan and second, the incidence
of gender inequalities and gap in skill level, share of women in
economic activities, labour force participation rate, employment and
returns to education can be interpreted in relation to the incidence of
gender gap in education. We fill the gap in the Sudanese literature by
addressing the gender gap in education and related implications in
labour market and returns to education, since these issues are not
adequately discussed in the Sudanese literature. A novel element in our
analysis is that we use new primary survey data at the micro level to
show the gap and differences in returns to education and correlation
between wage and education, experience and its square defined by gender
in Sudan. Our findings at the micro level imply that the slight gender
gap or difference in the rate of return to education in favour of women
is only 0.2 which is not very noticeable. These findings indicate the
importance of enhancing educational attainment for women to facilitate
improvement of return to education for women. We find that in general
women are likely to be more unemployed than men. The major policy
implications and recommendations from our analysis are that Sudan needs
to reduce the gender gap in education and related implication in the
labour market. By investing large amounts of resources in increasing
women's educational attainment, improving economic participation,
increasing employment opportunities and improving equal and fair returns
to education for Sudanese women to better integrate Sudanese women into
the economy to reap the benefits of investment in empowerment of women.
Keywords: Gender gap, education, labour market, returns to education,
Sudan.
JEL classification: J16, J31, I21