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Gender Equality and Inequality in Numeracy: The Case of Latin America and the Caribbean, 1880–1949

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Kerstin Manzel  and
Jörg Baten
Kerstin Manzel
Affiliation:
University of Tuebingena
Jörg Baten
Affiliation:
University of Tuebingen and CESifob
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Abstract

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This article outlines the development of gender disparities in education for 28 Latin American and Caribbean countries for the period from 1880 to 1949, using age heaping techniques. We explore in particular the hypothesis of a U-shaped development of women's education during economic development, i.e., a decrease in gender equality at lower levels of overall education, and increasing gender equality at higher levels. For the downward sloping part, we find some evidence, although this part is relatively small. The upward sloping part is strongly confirmed. We also find that non-Hispanic Caribbean countries had substantially lower gender inequality rates than Latin American countries. A second major contribution is to document the development of average numerical abilities (of both genders) in these 28 countries.

Resumen

En este artículo se estudian las disparidades de género en numeracy para veintiocho países de América Latina y el Caribe en el período de 1880 a 1949. Con este propósito, el trabajo explora el alcance del denominado «age heaping», el cual suministra una valiosa información sobre la tendencia de las personas a redondear su edad lo cual, indirectamente, proporciona información sobre los cambios en el nivel educativo de un país en el largo plazo. En particular investigamos la hipótesis de un desarrollo en forma «U», es decir, el incremento de las disparidades de género para niveles de educación bajos y la reducción de estas disparidades para niveles de desarrollo más altos. En este sentido, la parte superior de la curva está plenamente xsconfirmada, sin embargo, en la parte inferior con una trayectoria relativamente pequeña, encontramos sólo débiles evidencias.

A partir de esta nueva línea de investigación, los resultados del estudio evidencian que por un lado, los países del Caribe no hispánicos tuvieron tasas de desigualdad educativa sustancialmente más bajas que los países latinoamericanos y, por el otro, que la totalidad de los veintiocho países de la muestra ofrecen un incremento en la media de las «habilidades numéricas» para ambos sexos en el período.

Keywords

human capitalage heapingeducationgender inequalitynumeracyLatin Americacapital humanoage heapingeducacióndisparidades de géneroAmérica Latina
Type
Artículos/Articles
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , Primavera 2009 , pp. 37 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2009

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