The Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Adolescents’ School Attendance in Sub-Saharan Africa

As the COVID-19 pandemic led to a historic and widespread shutdown of schools across theworld, including in Sub-Saharan Africa, there were general concerns that girls would be disproportionately affected.This study analyzes the effects of the pandemic on the school attendance of adolescent girls and boys in sixAfrican countries. The study uses individual-level data on children’s school attendance collected as part ofhigh-frequency phone surveys. Contrary to expectations, the study reveals that there is no evidence to suggest thatgender gaps widened during the pandemic. If anything, gender gaps appear to have narrowed in some countries. Furtherin-depth analysis shows that while being a descendent of the household head, having parents with at least primaryeducation, and above-median household wealth were associated with a higher probability of school attendance amongadolescents before the pandemic, these factors lost their salience in explaining school attendance in the aftermath ofthe pandemic. These results suggest that some traditionally protective forces were eroded during the COVID-19 crisis.