Gender Parity and Equality in the Sultanate of Oman
A Case in Education for the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries
in The International Journal of Social QualitySearch for other papers by Faryal Khan in
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Abstract
This article presents a critical case analysis of gender parity in the Sultanate of Oman. By reviewing policy and practice pertaining to gender parity and gender equality in education in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC), specifically in the Sultanate of Oman, lessons and insights can be drawn to formulate strategies for promoting gender parity and equality that will inform an Education 2030 policy dialogue in relation to achieving the new targets for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focus on Goal 4—quality of education in the next 15 years. Specifically, the article attempts to answer: (1) What are the indicators of progress toward achieving Goal 5 on gender parity? (2) What are the strategies/policies adopted to achieve Goal 5? (3) What are the remaining challenges/obstacles to achieve Goal 5 on gender parity? (4) What are the recommendations to eliminate gender parity and the implications for gender equality reforms?
Contributor Notes
Faryal Khan, EdD, is a Programme Specialist for Education at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Doha Office, covering the Arab States in the Gulf and Yemen. She earned her doctorate in Educational Administration, Planning, and Social Policy (concentration: International Education) from Harvard University (2005). She has two master’s degrees in Education: from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan (1989), and Harvard’s Graduate School of Education (1995). She is responsible for the UNESCO Education Programme in Policy, Planning, Capacity Development, and Evaluation to Ensure Quality Assurance in Higher Education in the Arab States in the Gulf and Yemen.
Maricel Fernandez-Carag is currently a Programme Education Assistant in the UNESCO office in Doha. She has published extensively—having written and coauthored various scholarly articles and chapters in local and international refereed journals and books. She was a university researcher at the University of the Philippines where she served as Managing Editor of the Philippine Journal of Public Administration (PJPA). She finished her Masters in Public Policy at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo, as Mombukagakusho Scholar. She was a recipient of an International Volunteer award from the Philippine Society for Public Administration.