Cultural Bias In Education Essay

11. Cultural Bias and Rigid Gender Roles

Cultural Bias is frequently encountered by girls with disabilities in accessing education. Male children are given preferential treatment and allocation of resources and opportunities to male children at the expense of their sisters. In most of the societies, education is deemed less important for girls, who are expected to become wives and mothers. Boys, destined to become breadwinners, are given priority in schooling.

13. Promising Strategies and Programs

In India, activists for women with disabilities, such as Dr. Anita Ghai, successfully advocated for more positive images of women with disabilities in the media (Hershey, 2002). Similar strategies are under way in Egypt and Lebanon (Nagata, 2003). A New York City-based mentoring project for adolescent girls who are disabled (see below), provides parents with exposure to adult women with disabilities who have completed their education and are employed, thus helping to expand their educational and vocational aspirations for their daughters with disabilities (Rousso, 2001a).

Young role models can be helpful, too. A Save the Children, UK project in Nepal (as reported in Lansdown, in press) found that once some children who are disabled go to school they became role models for other children and their families. Parents of girls who are disabled also

Even if families allow their daughters with disabilities to attend a school away from home, transportation systems may be inaccessible to girls with mobility and other types of disabilities, particularly in developing countries. Community-based schools also may present travel challenges. Walking a mile or two to school may be prohibitive for a girl with mobility impairment or problematic for a girl who is blind, unless assisted by friends or family (Drieger, 1998). Parent availability to transport students is not always possible, particularly where both parents