Mothers’ empowerment and children education gender gap in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper provides new evidence on the association between mothers empowerment and educational gender gaps in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), for a range of empowerment indicators related to women’s mobility, violence, early marriage, and power in household expenditures based on data from 34 SSA countries. Also, I investigate the role of community lack of empowerment on educational transfers. Estimates indicate that gender inequality is still a significant barrier in SSA compounded by weak mother’s empowerment for educational access for girls in comparison to boys, with low empowerment at the community having detrimental effects on intergenerational education transfer from mothers to daughters. The analysis underlines the need to tackle different barriers behind weak women agency to boost gender inequality within SDG4.