ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a different approach by looking at a major area of policy and practice attention: gender and education. It outlines what is still essentially the gender, education and development orthodoxy. This draws on a wider women in development tradition as well as human capital accounts to put the focus tightly on girls' schooling. The chapter describes insights from post-structural feminism. Randa Hilal's work on Palestine is a particularly rich exploration of how vocational education and training can support greater gender equality. The issue of girls' education was given renewed public prominence globally in 2014 when Malala Yousafzai was the joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize reflecting her role as an activist on girls' education. The women in development – human capital – girls' schooling orthodoxy has played a crucial role in placing girls' access to schooling at the centre of the overall official development debate.
