Early Childhood and Adolescent Education
The School of Education
Daughters of the Tharu: Gender, Ethnicity,
Religion, and the Education of Nepali Girls
Publisher: RoutledgeFalmer
New York, NY
2003, 213 pages
Girls in the emerging world do not enroll in and graduate from
school at the same rate as boys. This book, primarily addresses two
themes: the general factors that influence Tharu ethnic minority
girls’ educational participation in Nepal, and the process of the
educational decision-making by parents for their daughters. Based
on data gathered during a series of field visits from 1997 through
2001, her book not only identifies the most important conditions in
the educational decision-making process for Tharu parents, namely,
ethnicity and religiosity, but also examines the conversations
discussions in the household, which reveal ways in which power
influences the decision to educate a girl in the Tharu
community.
“Maslak introduces her study with a summary of gender disparity
in education in South Asia, where the gap between girls’ and boys’
enrollment in primary and secondary education is among the largest
in the world. She investigates critically the household and school
factors that contribute to educational participation for girls,
exposing the sociocultural forces that perpetuate women’s
subjugation….[she] explores the ways in which constructions of
culture and ethnicity, gender and class push the boundaries of
feminist theoretical positions. . . .”