ABSTRACT
Nonformal education broadly includes programs delivering eductional services outside of the age-specific, graded school system of primary through university level institutions. It covers extension services, radio and television instruction, short-term courses as well as literacy campaigns. The research on nonformal education and women in the third world has centered, for the most part, on bringing women into the development process. The argument which is made is that since the formal school system has neglected women, nonformal education can provide alternative paths to acquisition of skills and knowledge necessary to maximize women’s contribution to the development process and/or to bring women the benefits of development. Provision of basic literacy to women is not the exclusive goal of nonformal education in much of this literature. Nonformal education is often expected to provide women with income-generating skills and with skills to perform better presumed roles as wives and mothers. Many of the studies focus on fertility control programs and on nutrition and health care. There is a debate in the literature here about whether such programs oppress or liberate women, for so many of the programs, as some of the critiques listed here point out, are designed to convince women of the primacy of the domestic sphere in their lives.
