Women's Education - An Overview and Challenges This presentation analyses the achievements in the area of education of girls and women in a global perspective. It includes some relevant Millenium Development Goals (2000-2015), what they are and how much has been accomplished, and what is left. Regions are compared. Reasons for progress given. Further it argues WHY we should assure girls/women get access to education and WHAT can be done to achieve the MDGs relative to education. By Inés Chamarro, President of Zonta Madrid Km 0 and Chair of Zonta Spain's Gender Observatory.

1. OBSERVATORIO DE GÉNERO
ZONTA ESPAÑA
Women´s education
Overview and
challenges
Inés Chamarro Storms
Málaga, may 10th 2013

2. GENERAL OVERVIEW

3. The Development Objectives of
the mIllenium (2000-2015)
• ODM 2: The universal right of elementary education: To ensure that in
2015, infants worldwide, both boys and girls equally, can complete
elementary school.
• ODM 3: Promote equality between genders and women´s independence.
Eliminate the inequalities between genders in elementary and middle
school, preferably for the year 2005 and in all school levels before the end
of 2015
• ODM 5: Provide better maternity health: (i) Reduce maternity mortality by
three quarters, between 1990 y 2015; (ii) Ensure worldwide/global access
to reproductive health
.

4. ELEMENTARY EDUCATION:
WORLDWIDE?
• According to UNESCO, it has not been possible to achieve
globalization yet, nor will it be achieved by 2015.
• The actual worldwide schooling level is 90%.
• There are still 61 million children without schooling. Since 2008 there
hasn’t been any progress.
• 33 million of these children live in Sub-Saharan Africa and they
represent 24% of the infant population in the elementary school ages in
this region.

5. Of the kids without elementary school education:
• 47% don’t have the opportunity to register.
• Some register late.
• Some have already left school
The biggest challenge is to manage children to register at the right time and
complete the schooling cycle in the official period. The more the registration
time gets delayed, the greater the chance that they never attend school.

6. ELEMENTARY TEACHING:
EQUALITY?
In practical terms, gender equality has been reached in the elementary schools:
• In developing countries, the percentage of girls registering increased from 91
girls for every 100 boys in 1999; the ratio was 97 girls in 2010.
• There are 17 countries in which the amount of girls attending school is less
than 90 percent (in Afghanistan 69%)
• In ¾ of the countries in which there is no equality in schools, typically boys
register more than girls from the start; this disparity is maintained during the
whole education process.
• Globally, girls represent 53% of children without schooling (the percentage
increases dramatically to 65% in the Middle East, 79% in Northern Africa).

7. SECONDARY TEACHING
• In 2010, 90% of the schoolchildren population completed elementary school
(81% in 1999).
• Nevertheless, not everyone continues their education:
71 million adolescents are not registered in school (figure has stayed the
same since 2007)
¾ of the children not registered live in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia,
and the Middle East
This situation is being driven by the following risk factors: inner-city, poverty,
ethnic minority, gender.
• 97 countries don’t have equality in middle schools. Curiously,
 In the Arabian countries, Middle East, Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa
there are less girls than boys, (Africa: 82 girls for every 100 boys). But,
 In Latin America, the Caribbean, Far East and Pacific there are less boys
than girls. (e.g. Latin America and Caribbean108 girls for every 100 boys)
• In consequence: neither global education, nor equality accomplished

8. Fuente: Plan International

9. High school teachiing
• In 2010 worldwide equality for high school registration was reached: 98
women registered for every 100 boys.
• Nevertheless this figure is distorted by severe regional disproportions
On one hand in the Middle East the percentage of girls attending high
school is 89%, in Sub-Saharan Africa it is only 63%.
On the other hand, Latin America, Far East, and Northern Africa, North
America and Europe state female overrepresentation (in north America
and Europe women in high schools are the majority: 8 men register for
every 10 women)

10. LITERATION
90% of young adults know how to read and write.
95 women for every 100 men are literate.
Nonetheless:
In 2010, 775 million adults were still illiterate (37% of those in India)
From this number, 122 million are between the ages 15-24: 74 million are
women and 48 million are men

11. DETECTED PROBLEMS

12. FORMAL PROBLEMS
A) Everything that has been said is based on statistics that measure registration
and not effective attendance.
In a study that included 40 developing countries, it was determined that in 24
of the 40 countries, the poor, rural area girls attend school less than 10% of
the time.
B) The children whose births are not registered don´t exist legally and their rights
are denied to them.
Unfortunately, both statistics and the probability of access to education are
solely based on the number of children officially registered.

13. MATERIAL PROBLEMS
A) Economic cost: Elementary education is theoretically free, but still continues to
have costs (school materials, uniforms, transportation, food). In middle school the
costs are 3 to 5 times more than in elementary school.
B) Distance: In rural areas, normally there is a local elementary school nearby, but
there are fewer middle schools and they are located farther away. This leads to
more travel costs, more time outside of the house and more unsafe walks.
C) Health Problems: Among girls, malnutrition and anemia due to menstruation
cause more fatigue, bad concentration, and inefficient cognitive abilities.
D) Domestic work: Traditionally the following task are done by girls: cook, collect
water and firewood, care for kids, go to the market. These duties take time and
energy away from school work.

14. SOCIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
A) Family Burdens: In many countries, the burden of caring for a family goes to
women, especially adolescent women. Having young siblings adds to the
chances that the older girl drops out of school.
B) Family prejudices: There are many prejudices like the traditional female roles,
or the fact that there is a given preference to send sons to school, and
additionally girls physical integrity is best protected if kept at home.
C) Sexual violence associaded with school, is often committed by their own
teachers.

15. D) Teen Pregnacy: ¼ of the girls in the world are mothers before the age 18 (1 of
every 2 in developing countries).
Teen pregnancy leads to dropping out of school in almost all cases. In
developing countries, complications of pregnancy and labor in adolescents are
one of the main causes of death in women between the ages 15-19.
E) Early Marriage: 1/3 of the girls in developing countries marry before they turn
18 (1 in every 9 before they turn 25).
This causes dropping out of school, because the wife should dedicate herself to
the domestic labors in the husband´s house. Moreover, society expects her to
become pregnant as soon as possible.

16. WHY EDUCATE GIRLS

17. A) Educating girls by providing information for family planning improves her future
sexual and reproductive health, because it postpones the age of marriage.
This automatically leads to a later first labor.
B) Women's education also improves their children‘s health. It is proven that
infant mortality of children less than 5 years old is inversely proportional to the
mother´s education level. The children of educated mothers have better
nutrition and better probabilities of being vaccinated.
C) Women with a middle school education or higher have a less likely chance of
being victims of domestic violence. On the other side, men with a middle
school education or higher have a less likely chance of committing violence.

18. D) The education improves women’s future economic perspectives: one year of
high school increases future income between 10 and 20%. In addition 90%
of women´s income are reinvested into their family
E) Women represent 40% of the world work force. (43% in the agriculture
sector). Not taking advantage of their possibilities both as handy work and
valuable decision making potential is a tactical error that produces economic
inefficiencies worldwide.
According to the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, apart from being
a basic human right, the education of girls is a necessity in terms of economic
efficiency.
.

19. WHAT CAN YOU DO

20. Some initiative formulas that have been taught have had variable success. In
general, the following initiatives will only work if they are used in the correct
combination for each community:
• Work with parents and community leaders to explain the economic and social
benefits on long term girls education.
• Informal educational programs for young mothers or young married girls
• To diminish the chances of violence:
 Separate bathrooms for girls and boys
 Closer schools (sometimes adding elementary schools)
 Specific gender education programs for teachers
 Include Gender studies as a subject in school

21. • Free schooling or scholarship programs for middle school to reduce the
economic cost for families.
• Put in place monetary incentives for families in order to convince them to keep
girls in school.
• Finance food programs that ensure coverage of daily nutritional needs for girls.
Right now, there is an important financial problem due to the fact that the
education budget of many developing countries depend mainly on international
help. UNESCO warns that the crisis has considerably reduced the help offered
to these developing countries. What is left of it is being given mainly to the
sanitary programs instead of education.

23. ¡ THANK YOU!