Paper short abstract

This paper examines whether state capacity delivers inclusive development when women’s property rights remain weak. It shows that state capacity improves growth and education outcomes more strongly where female, not only male, property rights are protected.

Paper long abstract

Despite sustained global commitments to gender equality, women and girls in many low- and middle-income countries continue to face persistent disadvantages in access to education, particularly under conditions of economic stress, conflict, and political uncertainty. This paper argues that gendered property-rights regimes shape whether state capacity can effectively translate into inclusive development outcomes.

The study examines whether the effect of state capacity on economic growth and human capital formation depends on the relative strength of female versus male property rights. Using cross-country panel data covering 1972–2023, the empirical analysis estimates interaction models that allow the growth and education returns to state capacity to vary with gender-disaggregated property rights. Baseline specifications employ country and year fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity, while dynamic panel GMM estimators are used as robustness checks to address potential endogeneity. Education outcomes are examined explicitly as a key human-capital channel linking state capacity to long-run development.

The findings show that state capacity is associated with significantly higher growth and educational returns in countries where female property rights are relatively stronger. By contrast, in male-dominated institutional environments, the developmental effects of state capacity are substantially attenuated, particularly with respect to girls’ access to education. These patterns suggest that even administratively capable states face binding constraints when women lack secure economic rights, limiting household investment in girls’ schooling and weakening the transmission of public policy into human capital formation.

By highlighting when state capacity fails to reach girls, the paper underscores the need for institutional reform.

Paper short abstract

Drawing on a qualitative study of higher education access in Nigeria, this paper examines how high-stakes, 'gender-neutral' national admissions policy and practice reproduces gendered inequalities and undermines inclusive development and social justice.

Paper long abstract

Despite decades of global and national efforts to expand girls’ access to education, women in many low- and middle-income countries remain disproportionately disadvantaged at critical points of educational transition. While policy attention has focused on participation disparities in basic education, less is known about how gendered inequalities are reproduced at the point of entry into higher education - an increasingly consequential site for social mobility in massifying systems.

Drawing on in-depth qualitative data from a study of university access in Nigeria, this paper examines the everyday realities of young women navigating high-stake national entrance examinations. Focusing on the account of a rural female school-leaver, the analysis shows how a 'gender-neutral' policy intersect with gendered family support, digital inequalities, and patriarchal expectations to shape who can compete - and on what terms. Using feminist conceptualisations of intersectionality and marginalisation, the paper approaches academic achievement not as a neutral indicator of ability, but as a socially and relationally produced outcome shaped by gendered and socio-economic conditions.

The analysis highlights how girls’ educational trajectories are constrained not only by structural barriers, but by moral and affective labour in contexts of scarcity and uncertainty. In foregrounding lived experience, the paper challenges technocratic development frameworks that cast inclusion as a technical policy adjustment rather than a relational and situated process. It also demonstrates why higher education warrants closer attention as a critical site of gendered access inequalities, and how these inequalities reproduce - and rework - broader concerns about social justice across the life course.

Paper short abstract

This presentation explores how education finance empowers women school leaders in rural Pakistan, enabling them to improve learning environments, strengthen school sustainability, increase community trust, and create wider social and economic opportunities for women.

Paper long abstract

Women play a pivotal role in expanding educational opportunities in rural Pakistan, yet many female school leaders face significant financial barriers to improving and sustaining their schools. This presentation explores how the Kashf School Sarmaya programme supports women-led educational development by combining affordable finance with leadership capacity-building.

Drawing on thematic analysis of interviews with programme beneficiaries, the study demonstrates how access to finance has enabled women school leaders to transform learning environments, invest in educational resources, and improve the quality of education in underserved communities. Beyond physical improvements, participants described increased confidence in their leadership, greater capacity for long-term planning, and stronger recognition within their communities. The investment also strengthened parental trust, increased student enrolment, and enhanced the financial sustainability of their schools.

Importantly, the findings show that the benefits extended beyond education. Several participants described creating employment opportunities for local women, contributing to household livelihoods and community development. The experiences of the respondents illustrate how supporting women educators generates wider social and economic impact by strengthening female leadership, expanding opportunities for girls, and reinforcing schools as centres of community development.

The presentation argues that education finance should be recognised not only as a mechanism for improving school quality but also as a powerful strategy for women's empowerment. Investing in women school leaders can produce lasting benefits for learners, families, and communities while advancing broader goals of gender equality, educational access, and sustainable development.

Paper short abstract

The paper examines how educating girls and women could allow for overcoming the incessant and widely prevalent patriarchal-violence through altering attitudes in times when rural and urban divide is growing and patriarchy remains a social challenge with all its power hierarchies, in Punjab.

Paper long abstract

Violence-justifying-attitudes' constitute sticky harmful gender norms and provide a premise for violence-against-women, perpetuate gender-based inequalities and continue to disrupt social-justice and hinder equitable pathways to development. The situation is even worse in the Punjab region of Pakistan where the widening rural-urban divide is furthering disparities, while the cultural roots embedded in patriarchy lend to pervasive patriarchal-violence with all its complex power-hierarchies. More women than men justify and accept violence by men as a norm and for their social survival. This paper taps into the potential of Equal access to Education to shift the (negative) societal norms (UN, ADB, UNDP, 2019). In Punjab, only 28% of rural girls access high school despite 65% of the population living in rural areas. This paper, examines how education of both rural and urban men and women may allow significant reduction in acceptance of patriarchal violence with more pronounced

impact of education on attitudes of women than men at all primary, secondary and higher levels. Interestingly, despite rural marginalisation, rural women when educated exhibit as significant and somewhat symmetric patterns in their attitudes as urban women. The impact remains profound for women and grows with their education levels. Attitudes of men exhibit no change at primary and middle levels but are significant at the high-school level, lending to policy implications.

Paper short abstract

Education does lead to increase in women's employability however, cultural and social norms may hinder this process. This paper investigates the critical role of technology in overcoming these restrictive norms thus realizing the true potential of women's education on employability.

Paper long abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the women's education and employability nexus in patriarchal society and further investigating the critical role of Technology. To this extant, we exploit data of 15,068 women from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2017–18. Our empirical results suggest that Women's education do significantly contributes towards their employability however this relationship weakens in the wake of restrictive social and cultural norms. And despite the presence of technological advancement, these cultural beliefs and attitudes continue to inhibit women’s employment. Further, women’s access to financial institutions combined with the use of Technology, makes them more capable of capitalizing on their education and eventually has a positive impact on employability. These findings reflect on the traditional, cultural, and social factors prevalent in Pakistan’s patriarchal society, where women face restricted mobility and limited access to economic resources despite being educated. Nonetheless, access and use of technology have opened innovative opportunities for women, to make the best use of their education in their quest for economic empowerment. Based on the findings, the paper proposes key policy recommendations and future research directions to improve women’s economic empowerment primarily their increased employability and other life choices through education and technology, despite persistent cultural and social barriers.