The search for gender equity and empowerment of Caribbean women through education has yielded mixed opinions. On one hand it is felt that social mobility for women is best realised through education, while on the other hand it is believed that current academic curriculums simply reinforce the subordinate, inequitable role for women to fulfil.
At women’s conferences around the world, many ideals have been targeted for actualization. Among them, the need to improve the quality and relevance of education for girls, ensuring equitable representation of women at all levels of the political process, and encouraging and enabling men to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behaviour. According to Bailey (2003), be it the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CDAW), or the World Conference on Women, education was highlighted as a ‘vehicle’ for change. Thus, the 1990 World Conference on Education for All admonished world governments to deconstruct “cultural barriers” to women’s education (Bailey, 2003; p. 109).
In spite of these advancements, Bailey’s argument is that the increased participation and performance in education as a guarantee for women’s empowerment and equitable status with men is a misguided assumption; highlighting the Caribbean context, Bailey exposes this reality.
Research has shown that women outnumber, and quantitatively outperform men at the tertiary levels of the education system. At the Secondary level, data from the 1996 UNESCO Statistical Yearbook indicate that female enrolment exceeded male enrolment in a vast majority of the Caribbean countries that were analyzed. Furthermore, data from a regional Statistical Bulletin shows that, in one year (1999), females dominated both in terms of participation and performance in subjects offered at the Basic and General Proficiency levels.
Despite this