GENDER ANALYSIS ON

There is global progress toward gender equality with 68% of the countries in the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report of 2019. Despite the progress, education and income are among areas in which gender is still not equally enabled in developing regions. As the world is progressing in reaching gender-equal access to education and income some programs appeared in gender equity to wipe out some obstacles faced by girls and women in education and income which may invariably improve the socio-economic status. The quantitative-exploratory-Correlational design was used in a gender-disaggregated form on the parents with children in the Reggio Emilia Early Childhood Development (REA-ECD) centres. The sample size of 405 with 204 females and 201 males was used through multistage-systematic random sampling. The instrument for data collection was adapted, data collection with the aids of trained enumerators and analysed in descriptive and binary logistic regression. The results show a significant improve (44.9%) with tertiary education, mean income N34,572. 840, [USD138.291]and 28.5 times (odds=29.46) more likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance for girls and boys to attend schools. These revealed the need for more programs involving more women as well as laws and policies that enable girls and young women to attend school. More studies in future especially longitudinal to ascertain any dynamism in development over time. Hence, in developing countries, there are still barriers limiting women and girls opportunity.


INTRODUCTION
In the recent global progress in trends toward paradigm shift from gender equality to gender equity, 68% of the world countries were reported with improvements in gender gap parity. However, despite this global progress, gender gap in education and income were still not equally nor equitably enabled in most developing countries, as appeared in World Economic Forum reports of 2019. The women and girls' poor education and income in Africa, particularly West Africa, in particular have strong links with the cultural barriers and state of poverty. These are the greatest obstacles to gender equality and development in northern Nigeria.The situation negatively affecting more women and girls than their counterparts, except with some certain interventions, being made. This paper profiled the socioeconomic backgrounds of the parents (204 female and 201 males). The socioeconomic backgrounds within the scope of this study were age, sex, marital status, years in marriage, occupation and income. Others are education level, the form of education and a secondary source of income. The studies conducted previously related to gender and development in the study area showed that the rural cultural perspective and practices, especially by parents and some teachers affect gender equality in education (Abbas & Bukar, 2017;Aisha, 2016Aisha, , 2017Aisha & Yahuza, 2018;Ibrahim et al., 2015). Furthermore, there were reports of the development agencies and other studies that showed, the development promises cannot be fulfilled unless the gender questions in education are taken seriously into consideration (Abbas & Bukar, 2017;Adamu, 2017;Aisha, 2016Aisha, , 2017Anderson & Hodgkin, 2015;Eger, Miller, & Scarles, 2018;Giora, 2002;Ibrahim et al., 2015;Iversen, Rosenbluth, & Soskice, 2005;Jorge, Heckman, & Ziff, 2017;Legewie & DiPrete, 2012;McLeod, 2016;Sadker, David., Sadker, Myra., Zittleman, 2009;Safuwan, 2017). The current global trends as key to removing such gender barriers are to shift the mindset away from gender equality to gender equity (Abdu et al., 2020;Forum, 2016). The trend target is leaving gender equality to focus on providing men and women with the same and equal opportunities in the legal frameworks(EIGE, 2017)for ownership and school attendance. While gender equity should work on to correct the historical harms (DeLoach et al., 2011) that have left women behind through societal restrictions on various opportunities. Gender equity may also provide women with the tools to succeed through such programs that offer them conditional cash transfers (UNICEF, 2018). The strong focus on gender equity may on time bridges the inequality gaps by the provision of laws and policies on gender-focused programs that level the playing ground and work to change the cultural setting (Shirin & Kihara, 2013), as well as be more supportive of women and girls in education. This cultural shift requires efforts from all stakeholders, leaders and individual community members (Miatta, 2017). Understanding the differences between gender equity and equality is essential in providing supports to girls and women (Pena-lópez & Sánchez-santos, 2017). This is not just by offering the same opportunities with men but recognizing the lingering barriers that prevent those opportunities from becoming a reality for countless females.

Theoretical Base of the Study
The gender role theory of Lindsey & Mize, (2001), was used in this study to explain parents' expectations from their children roles (masculine and feminine) particularly the behaviours portrayed in parents-child-learning. The theory underscores the importance of gender roles in the foundation of this framework. Zumilah, (2010) describes societal expectation from both the parents to be either a masculine or feminine behaviour as constructed by society. The gender role theory was described by societal anticipation as masculinity or femininity behaviours as it as categorized as societal norms. This ascribed that, one being certain sex does not mean he or she might have a self-assured way of living on their choice (Alvergne et al., 2007;Butler, 2004;Carter, 2014;Fasona, 2014;Jorge et al., 2017;Kretchmar, 2009;NECE, 2016;Sumita Parmar, 1996). This shows gender roles are controlled by both individuals but more importantly by society (Butler, 2004;Christman & McClellan, 2012). Therefore, an individual need to portrait independent identity to remain he or she within the societal culture (Carter, 2014). This study adopted Lindsey & Mize, (2001) gender theory to ascertain the psychometric nature of desires that constituted the societal gender roles. The study observes positive impact resulted from difficulty to separate desired life of an individual from the life of a given society (Cockerill et al., 2007;Cox & Heck, 1998;Dannhaeuser, 1993). This issue has perpetuated more in the life of rural society (Ijeoma, 2017;Shen et al., 2010). Probably due to rurality culture, rural poverty, gender favouritism and environmental atmosphere (Gikonyo et al., 2006;Ismail et al., 2015;Mader, 2013). The study besides gender theory, incorporate Vygotsky (1978) sociocultural theory due to its relevance in advancing children development by parents. This development was through social interaction with other people (Simon & Kim, 2016), principally more skilful individuals in the tasks (Turuk, 2008). In other words, Vygotsky theory believed that child development in social context includes general sphere in learning, through which child constructs knowledge actively. Vygotsky's theory was used in this study in the support of the theoretical framework into ways. According to the theory encourages children to learn through social interaction which includes collaborative cooperative and dialogue with others, more preferably who are more skilled in the tasks the children are trying to learn. The theory is related to the study in the REA-ECD acceptance within the Reggio Emilia principle, that encourage partnership with families and communities for children learning (Coşkun & Durakoğlu, 2015;Gandini, 2011;Malaguzzi, 1998;Patricia, 2016;Turuk, 2008). In Vygotsky sociocultural theory, the high skilful people like parents have been identified as important and interacted with children as reported by Turuk (2008)in the learning. In principles of REA-ECD, these could be teachers, parents, other adults and peers. This is due to their upper skill level than the children in the interaction either by age, experience and exposure (Anna, 2010;Bernhard, 2007;Malaguzzi, 1998;Patricia, 2016;Piaget, 1962Piaget, , 1983Piaget & Cook, 1952;Vygotsky, 1978).

METHODOLOGY
The research design in this paper is exploratory-Correlational as suggested by (Conboy et al., 2012;Gliner et al., 2011;Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007). Conboy et al., (2012), have established that this design is commonly used when collecting data at different layers or cluster from the large geographical area. The design could be adopted to achieve a particular objective in research (Fraenkel et al., 2011). This is one of the justifications for using exploratory-Correlational research design in this paper. The design is appropriate in gathering data from large samples from remote destinations. Based on these it allows the generalization of findings (Creswell & Clark, 2017),to a larger or general population of the study. Therefore, the target population of this study were the parents of children in various rural areas of Katsina state where there are established REA-ECD centres. The population of this study is specifically those who agree with and accepted to enrol their children in the REA-ECD program centres. Therefore, all parents residing and born their children in rural areas, who agree and accepted to enrol the children in the REA-ECD program were considered as a population of this study. However, the parents who do not accept to enrol their children in the REA-ECD program, are excluded from this study. These populations were distributed within various localities across the 34 LGAs of the Katsina three senatorial zones.
The sample size of this study was determines based on the established tables and formula as suggested. The table of Krejcie & Morgan, (1970) was considered on the total population of 49,698 as the required sample size is 388.The Cochran formulae with a defined population presented the sample size of 381.However, this study after examining the samples determinant strategies was oversampled with a samples size of 432. This is to curtail the unforeseen issue of poor return rate of the questionnaires and or incomplete information from the side of some respondents. This consideration was to fulfil the basic principles of research as suggested by Fraenkel et al., (2011). This is in line with minimizing the constraints and limitations that may render the samples inadequate to represents the population under study (Creswell & Clark, 2017). This provides an opportunity for this study to use the good sample size of 432 parents.Most studies were considering a 10-20% margin of a sample size to consider for the unforeseen circumstances in the responses.The multistage systematic random sampling procedure was used to select the number of required sample of the study (Cochran, 1977;Creswell & Clark, 2017;Hashim, 2010;Krejcie & Morgan, 1970;Yamane, 1967) in each local government area. The large area coverage by the research and volume of data collected suggested using multistage systematic random sampling technique (Ary et al., 2006;Creswell & Clark, 2007;Fine, Torre, Boudin, Bowen, Clark, Hylton, Martinez, Roberts, Smart, Upegui, 2003). This is to ensure that, sampling procedure considers every member of the target population to had an equal chance of being selected in the samples (Ary et al., 2006). The study is quantitative with a structured questionnaire as a tool for data collection. The instrument was prepared through adaption from the previously used instruments. The researchers are advised to adopt the use of previously validated instruments (Taherdoost, 2018).The most appropriate instruments for determining reliable information on the data collected was a structured questionnaire (Meyer et al., 1990). The structured questionnaire used in this study consist of socioeconomic backgrounds variables. The socioeconomic backgrounds variables include sex, age, marital status, years in married, occupations, forms of education, monthly income and level of education and secondary source of income. The remaining variables are the household size, the number of children by sex, household monthly income, children school type and age of school enrolment for children by sex. Before the data collection, there is a respondent's informed consent form, which was made available to all identified potential respondents. They are informed that their participation in the research is optional. They have the right to quit at any time they wish to without any prior notice. The respondents were also informed that all information they provided remains confidential during and after this study, and it will only be used purposely for this study. A total of 432 questionnaires were administered for data collection by trained enumerators to the respondents of the 15 study. The data collection was conducted simultaneously in all the selected Local Government Areas (LGAs) by the twelve numbers of the enumerators. The enumerators' teams are divided into six groups based in local governments' areas.
As the respondents of the study were male and female parents; the enumerators' teams were also males and females due to the cultural consideration in the rural society of Katsina. The enumerators were trained on how to administer the questionnaire, interview, and write or tick the appropriate answers and options given by respondents. There two enumerators visiting every selected household in each of the selected community for the research. The enumerators were also adequately trained on the manners of approaching the respondents, and how to assist the respondents who find it difficult to read the questionnaires or write the responses. They were also trained on how to help the respondents (Fraenkel et al., 2011), to clearly understand the questionnaires. The enumerators' team were a school teacher in the respondents' locality, who were known by and interacts with the respondents' children on the daily basis. Therefore, the respondents have full confidence and comfort to fully participate in the study. Some of the data were collected by the enumerators through face-to-face questioning and completion of questionnaires. From the questionnaires administered and filled, there is 405 number of valid that were screened and used in the analyses. The screened questionnaires were subsequently transferred to SPSS version 25 for data analyses. The process of data transfer into SPSS includes coding, which is the assigning codes to each variable in the questionnaires. Descriptive analyses as simple frequency and percentages, mean, and standard deviation, were used were necessary to analyse all the variables. All the analyses were presented in genderdisaggregated forms to capture any difference, in keeping with the aim of this study. The percentages, mean and standard deviation of relevant variables were used to compare the status of male and female respondents for gender comparison. The binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to ascertain that all components in the Wald Chi-Square statistics fit the Model in demonstrating a significant likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance by both male and female parents. Binary logistic regression uses the logit function, which provides the most acceptable explanation of estimated coefficients (Altman & Andersen, 1989;Copas, 1983;Derksen & Keselman, 1992;Hair, Anderson, et al., 2010;Henseler et al., 2014;Huguet et al., 2017). This uses the fact that the odds of a reference event are considered the event to occur or not and assumes all other predictors stay constant (Altman & Andersen, 1989;Copas, 1983;Derksen & Keselman, 1992;Hair, Anderson, et al., 2010;Hamdollah & Baghaei, 2016). The larger the log odds, the more likely the event and the smaller the log odds the less likely the event (Copas, 1983;Derksen & Keselman, 1992;Hair, Anderson, et al., 2010)occurs. Therefore, this by implication is showing that greater positive coefficients are indicating the events become more likely and negative coefficients indicate that the event becomes less likely (Altman & Andersen, 1989;Hair, Anderson, et al., 2010;Henseler et al., 2014). The explained statistics considered by this study in logistic regression models is interesting to know that how much variance in the dependent variable (DV) was explained by independent variables (IV) in the Models (Copas, 1983;Derksen & Keselman, 1992;Hair, Anderson, et al., 2010). The Model's presented IVs (predictors) are represented by eight components variable of education levels and income for both male and female parents. The dependent (DV) variable in the Model is high REA-ECD acceptance estimated as '1' standing for respondents' scores ≥80%.For this reason, BLR statistics are often preferable measurement in reporting these findings. The variables in models have accepted the BLR test based on the model variables, and the logistic equation for the model is as follows: Zn= B0 + B1X1+ B2X2+B3X3…. +BkXk Note: z is the logit and also called the log odds of the dependent variable n is the number of Models -B0is the constant there are k independent variables the "B" terms as the logistic regression coefficient, or parameter estimates -Exp (B) is the odds ratio for each IV. The odds ratio is the factor by which the IVs increases or decreases the log odds of the DV

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
This study profiled the socioeconomic backgrounds of the respondents. The socioeconomic backgrounds of respondents within the scope of this study are age, sex, marital status, years in marriage, occupation and income. Others are a form of education, education level and secondary source of income. There were (n=204) female and (n=201) male, these constituted the total number of respondents (n=405). Socioeconomic backgrounds of respondents are analyses, the results were presented in the Table1 below by frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation (S.D) as were appropriate. However, the focus of this paper was to analyze gender equity in education and income, therefore, only reported and discussed education and income as the core concern of the paper. other supporting variables to the focussed may be highlighted along with these results. Table 1 raw-4 shows that 44.9% of respondents have attended a tertiary level of education. There was 35.6% of the respondents who are atthe secondary level of education and 19.5% who completed only primary level of education. Based on the sex-disaggregated, male respondents with tertiary education level constituted 59.2%, while the female respondents with tertiary education level constituted only30.9%. On the other hand, male respondents with secondary education level were at 26.9%, whereas the female respondents with secondary education constituted 44.1%. Similarly, the male respondents with the only primary level of education constituted only 13.9%, while female respondents in this category constituted 25.0%. The average respondents' monthly income presented as mean= N34,572.840, [USD138.291] was in Table 1 above. By sexdisaggregated, the mean income of male respondents was N38,636.816. This amount was equivalent to USD154.547 when converted in US dollar. The mean income of female respondents was N30,658.628, which in conversion will be equivalent to USD 122.275. The mean income of the male respondents is far above the mean income of their counterpart female respondents. In other words, the male respondents are earning more than what female respondent are earning according to this study.

Binary Logistic Regression Results
BLR statistics obtained p≤0.05 in the Omnibus Tests of Model Coefficient for model indicating that the model fits to predict the likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance. Hosmer and Lemeshow test of goodness of fit statistic at p>0.05, indicates that the variables (predictors) in the model were linearly related with log odds of high REA-ECD acceptance. These also show the models' components variables were sufficient and fit in predicting the likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance. The Model represents eight components variable of education levels and income for both male and female parents. The dependent variable in the Model is high REA-ECD acceptance which was estimated as '1' and standing for respondents' scores ≥80%. The Wald Chi-Square statistics shows that components of education levels demonstrated a significant likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance. Compared to the primary level of education, the tertiary level of education for male parents had 28.5 times (odds=29.46) more likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance. Surprisingly, the female parents with tertiary education level had 77.6 times (odds=78.63) more likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance compared to parents with only primary education level. Similarly, male parents with secondary education level if compared to those with primary education level had 14.2 times (odd=15.2) more likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance. On the other hand, female parents with secondary education level had 16.7 times (odds=17.71) more likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance compared to female parents with primary education level. However, the monthly income of both female and male parents is consistent in this study as significantly predicted the likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance in the same manner with odds=1. 000.Therefore, based on findings it was concluded that Model significantly predicted the likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance. The Model (Table 2, has rejected the Ho that there exist no background variables in the Models predicted the likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance. This study discovered that in the descriptive statistics, the number of male respondents who completed tertiary education level was almost doubled the number of female respondents who acquired the tertiary education level. This type of situation is maybe affecting women and girls' education in many of such a society, except a certain intervention, was made. Interestingly, the female parents' tertiary education level grant them more likelihood of high REA-ECD acceptance (odds=78.63) compared to male parents tertiary education level (odds=29.46). This is because the REA-ECD program was engendered by policy and involves equality in children enrolment and equity for more females among the workforce. By investing in their education, or involving them in the education programs, women and girls can increase their access to education Aisha, 2016;Akunga, 2010;Mohammed et al., 2013;UNESCO, 2019). These would invariably improve their socio-economic status in society and would lead to collective national development.This is because, females' education influences future education, not only for girls but the entire society Aisha, 2016;Aisha & Yahuza, 2018). Though, the findings reported a reasonable number of respondents with tertiary education attainment, still it informed a serious gender imbalance in descriptive statistics results. Most of the female parents with the tertiary education have National Certificate in Education (NCE)as opportunity through the Girls Education Empowerment Program (Ibrahim, 2014), and most of them are now formally working in their various localities in the state.The findings revealed the need for more such programs that involved women and girls in education as well as laws and policies that enable them to attend different level of education. These would ensure continuity in the recent progress in the trends to the paradigm shift to gender equity. In the progress to reaching genderequity, gendered access to education by women and girls that would lead to improvement of their income is necessary. These would invariably improve their socio-economic status in society and would be leading to societal development. Many researchers have explained the importance of upper education levels and its effects among the individuals and families in promoting their general wellbeing Aisha, 2016;Anderson & Hodgkin, 2015;Anikina et al., 2015).Akunga, (2010) ascertains that family saving raised very fast when their educational levels are high. In the related discussion on education and economic development, the work of (Aisha, 2017;Ismail et al., 2005;Miatta, 2017) highlighted that education raises the economy and eliminate poverty. On the other hand, the studies on gender regarding socio-cultural and power relations among husbands and wives revealed significant negative consequences of poor education of female parents even on the accomplishment of children education (Ijeoma, 2017;Jackson, 2003;Mader, 2013;Nura & Adamu, 2017;Shortall, 2014;Shoshana, 2011).
The incomes reflected what was in the occupations and education status of the respondents of this study. Consistently the male respondents are ahead of female respondents in education, income, and white colour jobs. However, as earlier stated, this study reveals some degree of improvement from the previous studies in the socioeconomic gaps between male and female parents in the same study area. The gender gap has been narrow down compared to findings in the previous studies in the same area (Bristish, 2012;Haruna & Liman, 2015;Ibrahim, 2014;Ijeoma, 2017;NPC, 2014;Nura & Adamu, 2017;Olotuah & Olotuah, 2016;Sylvester & Ekpenyong, 2014;UNESCO, 2007;UNICEF, 2018). This study, therefore, concludes that there is strong concord between educations level of parents as respondents, female parents in particular and their female children schooling enrolment, retention and accomplishment. Hence the improved education level of parents, particularly females would be attributed to the high REA-ECD acceptance among the respondents of this study. Therefore, more education opportunities and programs with the policies that elevate the educational status of both the present female parents and that of future one were recommended. This is because of the strong relationship between upper educational level and family wellbeing (Batoa et al., 2018). Besides, the upper education confirmed to had a strong bearing in the democratizing the family structure among households (Ibrahim, 2014). The status of women and girls' education in rural Africa, particularly, West Africa has a strong linkage with the cultural setting. Therefore, solid policy concerning these obstacles of gender and development is also recommended.

CONCLUSION
As Reggio Emilia Approach in Early Childhood Development (REA-ECD) programs appeared in rural northern Nigeria as mean of reducing obstacles faced in educating girls, and improve women's education level and income. Although the REA-ECD program was not quite long introduced in the area, it still required more time and more strategies for its sustainable impact. It suggests the need for such programs that involved women and young girls in education program, and laws and policies that would enable them to attend a high level of education. These would invariably improve their income and socio-economic status in society and would be leading to general societal development. This study was conducted in cross-sectional nature, with data from a single cultural setting though in gender-disaggregated form. Future studies in the longitudinal design and multi-cultural setting are required to ascertain any differences and changes in the development over time. Hence, in rural developing countries, there are still barriers limiting women and girls' education and income from their norms.