THE GENESIS OF GENDER BIAS IN EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY IN RURAL AREAS OF CHARSADDA DISTRICT

This research paper evaluates the male parents’ attitude towards furnishing opportunities to children of two sexes in the sphere of education in Charsadda district. It covers six villages of Charsadda district wherein 60 parents literate and illiterate each in the sampled area were interviewed. Simple Random Sampling was used as a technique for interviewing respondents with interview schedule as tool of data collection. The main purpose of the study was to explore the fundamental causes of discrimination within female education with special reference to analyzing the role of literate and illiterate parents. The findings of the study reveal that illiterate parents are more hesitant in sending their female members to educational institutions for various cultural reasons such as Purdah, status inferiority, superstitious behaviour, non-productive economic status of women, early marriage and girls to be the guests at parents’ homes till their marriages. However, literate parents do not take into consideration such cultural restrictions and the research found that all their children, irrespective of disparity, have access to schools