Girls' Education Policy and Comparative Results in Azerbaijan: Qualitative Document Analysis

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research in Progress Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: Educational Opportunities of Girls: Transnational Perspectives on Identity, Policy, Mobility, and Safe Spaces (Table 4)

Abstract

Enhancing girls' education and empowering women are one of the main targets of the modern world. So that educated women achieve all kinds of milestones and assist in developing any society. Not a secret that literate, empowered, and motivated women can change the world for a better place. Azerbaijan nation knew this fact many years before all Muslim countries, many European and American countries. It is a fact that the first secular school for Muslim girls (1901), women's equal voting rights (1919), and a ban on early marriages (1919) were in Azerbaijan.
Since its independence in 1991, Azerbaijan has adopted international laws on gender equality, implemented a series of gender-based projects, joined women empowering policies, and ratified almost all essential documents on protecting women's rights. The most critical adopted policies are the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1995 and The Joint Plan of Action on the Prevention of Domestic Violence (2016–2018).
Azerbaijani media nonstop glorified gender equality and women empowerment last ten years, connecting it with the perfect policy implementation and role model theory. I focused on the latest national and international documents/reports in search of female education levels in K-12 and Higher Education. In places, I compared results with the previous years, male education level, and other similar post-soviet countries. The findings are controversial and sparked much debate.

Authors

• Gunel Alasgarova, The Ohio State University
  Presenting Author

• Naila Peken, University of South Florida
  Non-Presenting Author