Children and adolescents educational gender gaps across the lifecourse in sub-Saharan Africa: On the role of mothers' lack of empowerment as a barrier for girls' educational performance

We estimate the impact of lack of mothers’ empowerment on an array of educational outcomes for their children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), focusing on the gender gap. Further, we look into how this operates by the degree of marginalisation of communities and on weakening educational transfers. We find that gender inequality is still a significant barrier in SSA compounded by weak mothers’ empowerment for improving educational outcomes for girls in comparison to boys. Thus, different barriers behind weak women agency need to be addressed to improve gender inequality across SDG4 gender-targets in the region. •Relies on 34 sub-Saharan Africa countries (DHS) to measure educational gender gap.•Examine the role of mother’s empowerment on access and attainment gaps.•Gender gap is widened for access against girls whose mothers have low agency.•Educational transfers are weakened in communities with low empowerment.•The analysis highlights the synergies between SDG5 and SDG4.