Not being able to read or write is a significant barrier for underprivileged women, since this can lead to their failure to make use of even the rather limited rights they may legally have to own land or other property, or to appeal against unfair judgment and unjust treatment.
There are often legal rights in rule books that are not used because the aggrieved parties cannot read those rule books. Gaps in schooling can, therefore, directly lead to insecurity by distancing the deprived from the ways and means of fighting against that deprivation.
While a moral and political argument can continue to be made for the education of girls and women, some facts speak powerfully to the issue at hand. Girls accounted for 53 per cent of the 61 million children of primary school age who were out of school in Girls accounted for 49 per cent of the 57 million children out of school in In surveys of 30 countries with more than , out-of-school children, 28 per cent of girls were out of school on average compared to 25 per cent of boys.
Completion of primary school is a particular problem for girls in sub-Saharan Africa and Western Asia. Surveys in 55 developing countries reveal that girls are more likely to be out of school at a lower secondary age than boys, regardless of the wealth or location of the household. In developing regions, there are 98 women per men in tertiary education. There are significant inequalities in tertiary education in general, as well as in relation to areas of study, with women being over-represented in the humanities and social sciences and significantly under-represented in engineering, science and technology.
The education of girls and women can lead to a wide range of benefits from improved maternal health, reduced infant mortality and fertility rates to increased prevention against HIV and AIDS. Children of mothers with secondary education or higher are twice as likely to survive beyond age 5 compared to those whose mothers have no education.
A child born to a mother who can read is 50 per cent more likely to survive past age 5. In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 1. In Indonesia, 68 per cent of children with mothers who have attended secondary school are immunized, compared with 19 per cent of children whose mothers have no primary schooling.
Wages, agricultural income and productivity—all critical for reducing poverty— are higher where women involved in agriculture receive a better education. Each additional year of schooling beyond primary offers greater payoffs for improved opportunities, options and outcomes for girls and women.
In the varied discussions on the post education related agendas, there was strong consensus that gender equality in education remains a priority. Various inputs noted that inequalities in general, and particularly gender equality, need to be addressed simultaneously on multiple levels—economic, social, political and cultural.
Other inputs highlighted the importance of ensuring access to post-basic and post-secondary education for girls and women. Gender-based discrimination in education is, in effect, both a cause and a consequence of deep-rooted differences in society.
Disparities, whether in terms of poverty, ethnic background, disability, or traditional attitudes about their status and role all undermine the ability of women and girls to exercise their rights. Moreover, harmful practices such as early marriage, gender-based violence, as well as discriminatory education laws and policies still prevent millions of girls from enrolling and completing their respective education. Additionally, given the extensive and growing participation of women in income generating activities, education for girls and women is particularly important, especially in attempting to reverse gendered patterns of discrimination.
Not only is it impossible to achieve gender equality without education, but expanding education opportunities for all can help stimulate productivity and thereby also reduce the economic vulnerability of poor households. Equity is the strongest framing principle of a post rights-based agenda, and underlines the need to redress historical and structural inequalities in order to provide access to quality education at all levels. This heralds what was effectively one of the strongest themes that emerged in the post education consultations, i.
This implies that all aspects of education should be considered from a rights perspective, including structural features of education systems, methods of education, as well as the contents of the education curricula. Indeed, overcoming structural barriers to accessing good quality education is vital for realizing education rights for all. In related post consultations, equity is affirmed as a fundamental value in education.
Several inputs noted that inequality in education remains a persistent challenge. This is connected to a focus in the Millennium Development Goals on averages without an accompanying consideration of trends beneath the averages.
There is a small but increasing number of female presidents. Women are moving into jobs that used to be done by men. Even those women working in factories or sweatshops have more choice and independence than if they remained at home. But their experience is contradictory, as feminist economist Ruth Pearson points out:. This contradiction is widespread — although more women are working, they are often still worse paid than men, in part-time jobs or in the huge informal employment sector with little protection and few rights.
In many places, the increase in women working is simply driven by the necessity of having two wages to make ends meet. And at the top of industry and government, the faces remain stubbornly male.
In fact, there is some evidence that the numbers of women are actually decreasing. It is true that progress in terms of gender equality is uneven, but the proponents of the argument that women are taking over the world at work need only look at statistics on employment, equal pay and political representation of men and women to see just how wrong they are.
The number of women owning small and medium-sized businesses is estimated to be between 8 million and 10 million, and although this is still far fewer than that for men owning similar enterprises, numbers are slowly growing. In most countries, the informal sector is far larger than the formal one. There are also more women in formal paid work today than at any point in history.
While they cannot be said to be representative, the highest positions are even more elusive for women: only seven of elected heads of state in the world are women, and only 11 of heads of government. The situation is similar at the level of local government: female elected councillors are under-represented in all regions of the world and women mayors even more so. And many of the women in top positions are already lined up for success.
The few women in the Forbes rich list mostly come from rich families or business dynasties such as Walmart or Apple. In the private sector, women are on most boards of directors of large companies but their number remains low compared to that for men. While women have made substantial gains in the workplace in recent decades, there is clear evidence that women remain underrepresented at the top levels of American business and politics. According to recent research from Catalyst, women currently hold 4.
Views on this issue have changed significantly in recent decades. Today, men and women have very different views on this issue. Among men, the balance of opinion is different. Women across generations agree about the ability for women to get top executive jobs these days.
The education gap on this question is particularly wide—for both men and women. Overall, college-educated adults are much more likely than those without a four-year college degree to say men have an advantage when it comes to hiring for executive-level positions. This is relevant, because college-educated women are more likely than their counterparts with less education to be competing for top-level jobs. In spite of the general perception, especially among women, that men have an advantage in terms of earning power and access to top jobs, relatively few employed adults report these types of inequities at their own workplace.
Among those who are employed, blacks are about twice as likely as whites or Hispanics to report that women are paid less in their workplace. One-in-five blacks say women are paid less than men where they work. This compares with one-in-ten of both whites and Hispanics. Just as most employed adults say there is no gender wage gap where they work, a solid majority say men and women have about the same opportunities for promotions or advancement.
Men and women have similar views on this issue. Perceptions do not vary depending on whether women have themselves sought out a raise or promotion.
Roughly equal shares of women who say they have asked for a pay raise or promotion and those who say they have not done so report that, at their workplace, men and women have about the same opportunities for advancement.
As the economic data in Chapter 1 make clear, there is a gap in wages between men and women. It may be shrinking, but it still exists, and a variety of factors may contribute to this gap. Respondents were asked to evaluate the importance of a few of these factors. The most compelling explanation for the wage gap, according to the public, is that men and women make different choices about how to balance work and family.
Four-in-ten adults say the fact that men and women work in different occupations is a major reason. There are significant gender gaps on this question, particularly with regard to the choices men and women make about balancing work and family and differential treatment by employers. Women are much more likely than men to see both of these explanations as major reasons for the wage gap. Economic data confirm that women work fewer hours per week, on average, than men.
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