Educating Girls: Gender Gaps and Gains
February 5, 1998The world has made remarkable progress towards expanding access to education over the past several decades, a formidable achievement given the growth of the school age population during this period. Historically, girls have lagged behind boys in school enrollment; women represent two-thirds of almost one billion illiterate adults worldwide. Although school enrollment rates have increased for both sexes, in many countries girls still lack equal access to education.
Yet access to education is key to women¹s equal participation in every sphere of activity, from family decision making to economic and political life. Whether girls go to school or not has a profound impact on the future course of their lives, in part because education influences patterns of childbearing. Girls with little or no education are more likely to bear a child in their teens and to live in poverty; girls with more schooling marry and have children later, and lead healthier, more prosperous lives. To achieve these benefits, girls need to complete at least six to seven years of schooling.
Educating Girls: Gender Gaps and Gains assesses the extent to which girls enjoy equal educational opportunity relative to boys, ranking countries by a Gender Gap Score reflecting the difference between school enrollment rates for girls and boys in 1995. The study also evaluates the progress made towards ending gender disparities in school enrollment between 1985 and 1995, highlighting impressive gains in some countries but a lack of change or even backsliding in others. It underscores the need to accelerate action to meet the international community¹s goal of closing the education gender gap by 2005.
The study, the eighth in a Population Action International (PAI) series titled Progress Towards World Population Stabilization, covers 132 countries representing 95 percent of the world's people.
