Education, Gender and Development: A Capabilities Perspective

This compelling book takes a novel approach to the complexities of girls’ and women’s education in the global South. To unravel the critical issues and processes behind educational advancement and to identify the factors that support the construction of educational well-being and agency from gender perspective, the book narrates the stories of women who have successfully built their educational careers to higher education. The book creatively applies the human development and capabilities approach to analyze and assess educational advancement and development.

Mari-Anne Okkolin offers a fresh voice to the field of education, gender and development. The book draws on rich, in-depth evidence from Tanzanian women who have reached higher education, placing them amongst the very small percentage of women in the Tanzanian and sub-Saharan contexts. The book explores the women’s school experiences, everyday life practices and familial arrangements, and the values, expectations and assumptions associated with education and the schooling of girls and women.

Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of the book, it will be of great interest to multiple academic audiences: post-graduates, researchers and academics. It is of particular relevance for all those interested in education, sociology, development studies, gender/women’s studies, and qualitative research methodology. The book will appeal especially to scholars working with the capabilities approach. It will also be of value beyond academia, for education practitioners in planning and implementing education and equality policies internationally.

Mari-Anne Okkolin is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Research on Higher Education and Development, University of the Free State, South Africa, and Researcher at the Department of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.