|
|
WHY GIRLS' EDUCATION? EDUCATION FOR GIRLS CAN... ...RAISE LIFETIME INCOME LEVELS FOR GIRLS, THEIR FAMILIES AND THEIR COMMUNITIES. The need: Women account for 70 percent of the 1.4 billion people worldwide living in extreme poverty. This is because of the systematic discrimination women face in education, health care, employment and control of assets. Also, women are the sole income providers in 25-33 percent of all households. How educating girls can help: Women's incomes have been shown to be more likely than men's to go towards food, education, health, and other family needs. Providing girls with even an extra year of schooling increases eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent; a secondary school education can increase eventual wages by 15-25 percent. Education empowers women to become better decision-makers and advocates for themselves and their families. Additionally, an increase in the proportion of a nation's women with a secondary school education also boosts that nation's annual per capita income. ...LOWER FERTILITY RATES AND SAVE MORE MOTHERS AND BABIES. The need: More than 268,000 women in Africa die during pregnancy and childbirth. For each woman who dies, 20 others suffer from serious complications. Most of these deaths and complications are preventable. Girls under age 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. How educating girls can help: Every year of education delays marriage for girls, lowers their risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth, and reduces the number of children they are likely to have. Education informs girls about health issues for both themselves and their children. Each year a woman spends in school reduces both fertility and child mortality by 10 percent. ...SAVE CHILDREN'S LIVES. The need: In West and Central Africa, more than 150 of every 1,000 children born will die before age five. How educating girls can help: Children of mothers who have even a primary school education have a 50 percent more likely to survive past the age of five. This is because educated women have more access to the resources she needs to better feed and care for her family. For example, the children of a mother with even just one year of primary education have shown a 43 percent decline in malnutrition. ...PROTECT WOMEN AND GIRLS FROM BECOMING VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE. The need: Globally, up to six out of every ten women experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime, making the risk of violence greater for women than the risk of cancer, motor accidents, and malaria. How educating girls can help: Educated women are better empowered and better equipped to combat abuses such as domestic violence, trafficking, and discrimination at home, in society or in the workplace. Girls receiving an education are also less likely to be subjected to female genital cutting and four times more likely to oppose female genital cutting for their daughters. ...REDUCE RISK FOR HIV/AIDS. The need: Women are more vulnerable than men to HIV infection for biological, economic and cultural reasons (such as discrimination, gender inequality and violence). Of the estimated 39.5 million people living with HIV, 48 percent are women – nearly 19 million people – and half of all new infections occur among women. In sub-Saharan Africa, 57 percent of all people living with HIV are women. How educating girls can help: Every year of education for a girl increases awareness and lowers her risk of infection. Young people who finish primary school are 50 percent less likely to become infected with HIV/AIDS as those who don't finish primary school. Education also increases overall health outcomes for women and their families for the rest of their lives. ...IMPACT THE NEXT GENERATION. Educated women are more likely to send their own children to school, be more active in their communities, be advocates for other women and girls, and are better equipped to build their own bright future for themselves and their families. Sources: Council on Foreign Relations, International Center for Research on Women, Population Resource Center, United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNICEF, United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS, United Nations Population Fund, World Bank, World Health Organization WHY EDUCATION FOR GIRLS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD: Read the research on GIRLS' EDUCATION and Issues of Global Poverty "SAVING THE WORLD'S WOMEN: The Women's Crusade" --The New York Times Magazine In a large slice of the world, girls are uneducated and women marginalized, and it’s not an accident that those same countries are disproportionately mired in poverty and riven by fundamentalism and chaos. There’s a growing recognition among everyone from the World Bank to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations like CARE that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism. This August 23, 2009, special edition of The New York Times Magazine examines why women's empowerment can help solve many of the world's problems, from poverty, to child mortality, to terrorism, and why women's rights are the cause of our time. “Investing in education for girls is the most profitable investment for a country.” --The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative at the Commission on the Status of Women Approximately 93 million school-age children worldwide are out of school, the majority of them girls, with drop-out rates alarmingly high among girls who do enroll. Investment in girls' education is key, according to UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hilde Johnson: “There is ample evidence that investing in education for girls is the most profitable investment for a country.” "Girls Count: A Global Investment and Action Agenda." Center for Global Development One in 8 persons of the global population is a young woman age 10-24, and young women represent one of the fastest growing population segments in developing countries. With these girls facing systematic disadvantages over a wide range of welfare indicators, including health, education, nutrition, labor force participation, and the burden of household tasks, investment in the welfare of girls is critical to achieving development goals. United Nations calls for investment in girls and women to achieve peace and development Greater investment in women and girls will help further economic growth and advance development, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “I am deeply convinced that, in women, the world has at its disposal the most significant and yet largely untapped potential for development and peace." UNAIDS' Global Coalition on Women and AIDS: Educate girls and fight AIDS Growing evidence shows that getting and keeping young people in school, particularly girls, dramatically lowers their vulnerability to HIV. World Bank: Gender equality in education key to economic development Girls’ education yields some of the highest returns of all development investments, yielding both private and social benefits that accrue to individuals, families, and society at large by reducing women's fertility rates, lowering infant and child mortality rates, lowering maternal mortality rates, protecting against HIV/AIDS infection, increasing women's labor force participation and earnings, and creating intergenerational educational benefits. World Bank: Directions in Development--Girls' Education in the 21st Century Gender equality is not just a women’s issue, it is a development issue. Women’s economic empowerment is essential for economic development, growth, and poverty reduction not only because of the income it generates, but also because it helps to break the vicious cycle of poverty. For developing countries in particular, women represent a previously untapped source of human capital, and countries that have adopted aggressive policies to promote gender equality in education can be expected to reap higher social and economic benefits. Greater investment in girls’ education is vital for increasing female participation and productivity in the labor market, especially in nonagricultural wage employment. Female education creates powerful poverty-reducing synergies and yields enormous intergenerational gains. It is positively correlated with increased economic productivity, more robust labor markets, higher earnings, and improved societal health and well-being.
|
Home / Our Work / About Us / News and Resources / Get Involved / Contact Us |
 |
|
Women's Global Education Project |
|
|
