Role of Government in Women's Education

Officially the government of Pakistan is committed to provide every citizen an access to education, but critics say that its budget allocation towards education does not correspond with its former commitment. The expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP was 1.82% in 2000-2001, while it has been raised slightly in 2006-2007 to 2.42%, and it is still relatively lower than most neighboring countries. Feminist economists argue that the government of Pakistan needs to fully address and resolve the gender concerns that exist in the educational sector. They suggest that one of the ways to improve this situation is by increasing funding for women's education, encourage and financially incentivize people in the rural areas to send their girls to schools. In the apprentice of gender studies, the gender division of labor is considered patriarchal, and feminists argue that it can be consciously neutralized by the public policies, i.e. encouraging girls to study mathematics, science, computers, and business administration etc. This way, girls will specialize in higher paying fields (jobs) instead of solely focusing on care work.