Patriarchy and Women's Gender Ideology: A Socio-Cultural Perspective

Problem statement: This research was designed to examine women’s gender ideology in educating their children. It attempts to understand women’s gender ideology as articulated by the women themselves based upon their own point of view. The study highlights that patriarchal norms has an influence on women’s attitudes regarding their privilege rights and responsibilities towards educating children. Women’s gender ideology appears to be constrained by patriarchal ideology that give priority to the masculine over the feminine in almost all environments, that is to say school, household, labor market and community. Due to patriarchal belief, parents give less priority on daughter’s education. Approach: The objectives of this research are (a) to determine women’s gender ideology concerning children’s education; (b) to examine the influence of patriarchal norms on women’s gender ideology. Results: Employing detailed descriptive quantitative results, the work suggests that in Bangladesh most of rural women tended to follow traditional ideology regarding daughter’s education. Conclusion: The study was conducted in one of the districts of Dinajpur in Bangladesh. Three villages namely Mashimpur, Mohiskotha and Jugibari which are situated under the Union of Auliapur at Sadar thana (sub-district) were chosen as study areas. The respondents of the study consisted of 340 women from the selected areas.