Women and Children in Poverty - Education: A Tool To Lift Women Out Of Poverty

The Beijing Platform declared that education is an essential human right that contributes to economic development at all levels of society—a declaration that has been supported by the UN, UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Bank, and most nongovernmental organizations. However, according to the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2006: Literacy for Life (2005, http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID1/443283&URL_DO1/4DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION1/4201.html), at least 771 million adults over the age of fifteen—one-fifth of the world's adult population—cannot read or write at a functional level; at least two-thirds of them are women.

In its State of the World Population 2002: People, Poverty, and Possibilities (2002, http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2002/english/ch1/), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reports that 31% of women had no formal education in 2000, versus 18% of men. There are many reasons for this disparity, and poverty is chief among them: although women are almost universally less likely to attain high levels of education, being female and poor is, according to the UNFPA report, a "double disadvantage." In rural areas the long walking distances to schools discourage families from sending girls because they fear girls will be sexually assaulted on the way. Fees for attendance, books, and uniforms can also affect whether girls are sent to school. Again, girls in some regions are vulnerable to sexual exploitation from wealthier men who offer to pay for girls' schooling in exchange for sex. Early marriage and pregnancy also cause millions of girls to drop out of school every year. Many families decide to keep daughters at home to help tend and harvest crops, do housework, and care for elders and young siblings. The costs associated with educating girls are generally not seen as worthwhile because girls are not expected to continue their education or earn a living when they grow up. More simply, in many cultures girls are not valued in the same way that boys are, so to many impoverished families educating them seems like a waste of time and money—and in some places it is altogether forbidden.

Barbara Herz and Gene B. Sperling report in What Works in Girls' Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World (2004, http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/Girls_Education_full.pdf) that education for girls in developing countries is essential for economic success at all levels of society. The benefits of educating girls are seen from families to nations, in the forms of higher wages, faster economic growth, and more productive farming. This in turn results in decreased levels of malnutrition; women having smaller, healthier, more educated families; reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS; reducing rates of violence against women; and fostering democratic participation in society.

According to Herz and Sperling, when girls attend school just one year beyond the average, they eventually earn 10% to 20% more than average as adults. On the macroeconomic level, even modest increases in the number of women receiving a secondary education can lead to an increase in annual per capita income of 0.3%; likewise, as per capita growth continues, more girls achieve higher levels of education—a cycle that is beneficial, ultimately, for everyone. Similarly, the more education women have, the lower their rates of fertility will be. In Brazil, for example, illiterate women have an average of six children each, whereas literate women average 2.5 children each. Lower overall fertility rates lead to healthier, better-educated children. In fact, infant mortality rates are between 5% and 10% lower among girls who stay in school just one year longer than average. In countries where girls receive as many years of schooling as boys, infant mortality rates are 25% lower than in countries that do not have educational gender parity (equality).

Herz and Sperling conclude that governments of low-income countries can encourage families to educate their daughters and increase overall educational gender parity by eliminating school fees, providing local schools with flexible schedules that are safe for girls, and focusing on providing a quality education that realistically takes into account the needs of girls and their families.

Table 7.7 shows which countries achieved the Millennium Development Goal of gender parity in education as of 2002, those that are likely to achieve the goal by 2005, those that are likely to achieve the goal by 2015, and those countries that are in danger of not achieving the goal by 2015.