Reversed Gender Disparity in Education: International Comparisons and Philippine Focus

This book investigates the reversal of gender disparity in education, a phenomenon in which boys, particularly from poorer rural households, are increasingly falling behind girls in schooling outcomes. This trend contradicts global development narratives that continue to prioritize girls’ education, often portraying them as the default disadvantaged group. Challenging the adequacy of such a zero-sum framing, the book introduces the concept of the “economics of the reversal.” This perspective examines how gendered educational outcomes emerge from the interaction of household decision-making, comparative advantages, and socially embedded constraints. Using multi-scalar empirical analysis based on national datasets, original survey data, and qualitative fieldwork in three rural provinces of the Philippines, the book explores how both structural factors and cultural expectations contribute to boys’ educational disengagement. Rather than simply documenting this trend, it uses the reversal as a critical lens through which to reconsider assumptions embedded in global education and development discourse. The case of the Philippines, a country often internationally recognized as having the highest level of gender equality in Asia, offers a compelling setting to explore how gender, poverty, and education interact in complex and context-specific ways.