UN Women II: Access to Education 

This video shows some of the Peace Corps’ past and current efforts to provide access to education for girls around the world. Their actions provide some examples of what has been successful in increasing access to women’s education.

The Gender Gap

In 1995, at the time of the Beijing Declaration and Platform For Action (PFA)’s ratification, there were roughly 960 million illiterate people in the world—2/3rds of whom were women. According to the World Conference on Education for All and the Framework for Action to Meet Basic Learning Needs (1990), approximately 100 million children lacked adequate access to primary education, of which 60 million were girls. The majority of these children resided in regions of Africa and Central Asia. While there has been relative success regarding primary education, at each subsequent level of education, there has historically been increased gender disparity. Until the mid 20th century, many post-secondary institutions did not permit women enrollment. That being said, in the past four decades, “enrollment at tertiary institutions has grown almost twice as fast as that of men since 1970.” Female enrollment in tertiary education in North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Central Asia has caught up to male enrollment, with nations such as the United States, the Russian Federation, Iceland, Venezuela, and Brazil actually having more female students in tertiary programs.

While this suggests that women have advantages in some areas, men greatly surpass women in all countries regarding PhDs and research positions. This tendency for women to be excluded from higher levels of academic achievement has translated to limited to non- existent involvement of women in positions of government and business leadership in most countries.

Roots of Disparity

To a large extent, the historical reasons that women have been denied opportunities to education are still prevalent today: gender-based discrimination, social and economic forces that keep women in the household, and the presence of cultural values which give preference to men over women. Unfortunately, there lacks comprehensive historical data regarding the difference between enrollment in schooling for men and women. That being said, various ethnographic recounts do exist, recounting the social, economic, and political motives that have kept women out of the classroom.

In Nigeria, where in 2005 it was reported that secondary school is comprised of 57% males and only 43% females, and 2010 it was reported that only 72% of girls completed primary education as opposed to 80% of boys, various research papers have been published regarding cultural factors that drive women out of the classroom. Nigerian professors Dr. Norah Omoregie, and Dr. Ihensekhien Orobosa Abraham write, “Nigerian women and their counterparts in other African countries have been debased and dishonoured by the thought that every woman is supposed to consider motherhood as the principal purpose of her existence. She is expected to produce children, cook, mend and wash clothes and take care of men and be subordinate to male authority.” In 2015, 43% of Nigerian women were married before the age of 18, and consequently, “most Nigerian parents erroneously believe that sending girls to school may interfere with their marriage, which they consider to constitute the primary mission of a female child (Nwideeduh, 1994).”

Quasi-economic and environmental factors have also influenced gender disparity
in education. For example, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, over 230 million people live in 26 countries that are considered water deficient, with over 2/3rds of the global population expected to be water stressed by 2025. In sub- Saharan Africa and in India, where lack of running water requires individuals to walk miles to water sources, women are often required to provide their families with water, at the expense of being able to go to school.

Case Study: Bolivia

Thirteen percent of adult women in Bolivia cannot read and write, compared to just 5% of men, but there is some sign of progress in efforts to educate young generations. The net primary enrollment rate for girls is 94%, and Bolivia also reports a 94% rate of girls’ transition to secondary education. Overall net enrolment rates for secondary education are, however, much lower (for both boys and girls) at just 69%. One significant problem which affect women’s and girls’ ability to realize their right to education is violence. Fifty percent of Bolivian women are believed to have suffered physical, psychological or sexual violence at the hands of men, and a study by Child Defense International Bolivia found that there are at least 100 cases of sexual attacks on children at school, every day. Until schools are guaranteed to be safe spaces for girls, this problem will continue to have a huge impact on girls’ and women’s education.

In the late 2000s, the Bolivian Campaign for the Right to Education and its allies carried out a number of important initiatives addressing gender discrimination at national and local levels. Civil society pressure helped ensure that the new National Education Law affirms that the Bolivian State will promote education free of patriarchy, and a new law against violence in schools is currently being discussed in Parliament. Civil society organizations are campaigning for a new curriculum to be agreed, based on gender equity, for both primary and secondary education. The campaign also works hard to raise awareness, share information and increase citizen participation in education policy. Adult learners have also been invited to take part in the process – they have been involved especially in the 2011 Global Action Week, debating how a gender perspective can change education.

Summary & Questions to Consider

A gender gap in education exists due to various social, cultural, and economic factors.

While access to education for girls and women has improved in past years, much more work is needed to ensure complete gender equality in education around the world.

What is the appropriate measure for measuring women’s access to education?

How does gender disparity in education vary by education level?

What economic, social, and political factors undermine gender parity?

Societal Constraints

It is widely evident through the perusal of statistics and country case studies that though education reform has been instigated and initiated from previous declarations, avowals, constitutions, there is still plenty of room for further developments and successes. The ultimate goal of complete gender equality in education requires addressing factors and problems that have existed for decades, if not longer.

For ages, different societies at different times have discriminated against women for various reasons. Women have been wrongfully considered as weak, with lower capacities of intelligence, stereotyped on the basis of gender, subjected to unequal treatment, and relegated to subservient and passive roles in society. These traditional misconceptions cause discrimination against women in the educational and labor market and oftentimes restrict them from finding jobs that can help their family climb out of poverty.

One belief is that women are simply not intelligent or ambitious enough to take jobs traditionally occupied by men. After all, some argue, women don’t often rise to positions of power in politics, business or the sciences, even when they have the same access to education as men, as frequently occurs in many developed regions. A panel convened by the United States National Academy of Sciences determined that any intellectual differences between women and men were insignificant. The real reason few women are able to rise to levels of power, the panel discovered, is because employers wrongly view women as less capable, less competitive or more distracted by family life than men.

Case Study: Nigeria


As certain success stories are told and retold, the quest for proper education is actively pursued by young girls across the country. However debilitating circumstances still hinder Nigeria’s effort for equality in basic education under the global Education for All (EFA) initiative, such as geography, poverty, and traditional beliefs and practices. A distinguishable difference in enrollment rates between the north and south are indicative of separate factors (for example pressure to marry early, providing and taking care of the household) and unifying and tackling these issues remains an ongoing obstacle.

Because a large part of general issues concerns local culture and history, reform initiatives must work from within a community out towards larger Nigerian society as a whole. Understanding local perspectives is a must and many are pushing towards granting these communities more power to change educational norms through the work of designated and trustworthy residents (in comparison to foreign intermediary powers).

Safety and Availability

A safe journey to school and a guarantee that the student will be safe in school is crucial to the decision of whether or not to attend school. Availability involves the number and reachability of schools in neighborhoods, as well as the number of willing teachers who will be competent in educating females without discrimination. Issues of safety and security are heightened with regards to women and girls. Physical violence in school, including harassment, sexual abuse and rape, is directed towards girls much more than boys since girls are seen as weaker and less likely to take a strong stand against harassment. Additionally, the lack of female teachers as role models or confidants can also play a role in making girls feel less secure in the school environment while studying curricula that perpetuates gender discrimination and stereotyped roles.

Case Study: Ethiopia

Ethiopia suffers from lack of definitive progress in education as well, preventing it from reaching EFA Goals by 2015. Female literacy and enrollment are still unequal; for every 100 boys enrolled in secondary education there are only 77 girls. Although 58% of males can be considered illiterate in the country, a staggering 82% of women over the age of 15 can be as well. In addition to the other reiterated factors of poverty and economics, there exist fewer prepared and gender-sensitive teachers, less intervening support, and more commuting distance between schools.

Crowd-Sourcing Girls’ Education: A community-based approach to lowering drop-out rates in secondary schools in Ethiopia and Tanzania, a project in Ethiopia, was officially launched on March 7, 2012 by the Government of Ethiopia, along with UNESCO and the Packard Foundation, with aims to rectify and improve the learning outcomes of over 1000 young girls in ten secondary schools of Benishangul Gumz Regional State. There is a greater focus on providing these girls with support, mentoring, and safety.

Domestic and Familial Obligations

Many local communities and culture still place women either strictly or majorly in the domestic sphere. This responsibility weighs on them to take care of family members, provide children, cook, clean, and remain at home instead of pursuing bigger and more ambitious interests.Where there is limited money to pay school fees, families often choose to educate sons instead of daughters. As a result from this inequality, sons are expected to find employment, and daughters are expected to care for their families, creating a system in which women are financially dependent on men. In addition, early marriages and pregnancies are widespread and common in many countries, and some even have laws prohibiting pregnant girls from attending or returning to school after birth.

Domestic responsibilities play a large role in preventing women’s achievement in the workplace. As women around the world struggle to enter the labor market, they often discover that their husbands do not assist them with household chores. This phenomenon, called double burden, overworks women and prevents them from rising to prominent positions outside the home. In a 2005 UN report, experts determined that “men’s greater participation in household and family care [is] essential [to creating gender equality].

Case Study: Pakistan

In villages where the flip side of schooling is a meager job in the fields, many women are caught in the struggle of fighting the taboo nature of educating females and struggling to make ends meet with wages that are far lower than those of their male counterparts. Though World Vision, community-based organizations (CBOs) are getting involved with advocacy projects that bring aid to women that come from many different backgrounds. But funds for these classes, which teach mothers and daughters English and mathematics, often runs low and prevents the spread of its in influence into neighboring communities, in a country where more than half of the feminine population is illiterate.

In arguing for access to education for girls in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai has been an influential figure, and she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015 for her work. This video explores the lives and work of some of the other girls in Pakistan who have followed her example in advocating their right to receive an equal education.

Summary & Questions to Consider

Societal constraints, domestic and familial obligations, and different cultural beliefs often prevent girls from receiving an equal education. A lack of safety and harassment in school can also contribute to the gender education gap.

Programs that have promoted girls’ and women’s education on a community-based level have been successful in combating some of the challenges to education equality, but much work remains to be done.

What role can and should domestic and education policy (focusing on primary, secondary, and collegiate levels) play in achieving gender parity?

In what ways can women be more integrated into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields?

How does poverty play a role in preventing women’s access to education?

How does gender disparity in education affect the job market—and how job market conditions affect a woman’s choice to pursue more education?

Bloc Positions

Arab States & Asia

With a few exceptions, parity in and access to primary education has been achieved. Access to secondary and tertiary education varies regionally. While equity exists in Central Asia, all other regions of the continent have subpar enrollment—especially in Southwest Asia and the Arab States. The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) does regional work in these areas.

Central & Eastern Europe

Women have near universal access to primary education, and exceed male enrollment
in secondary and tertiary education. Overall enrollment has actually declined however, due to dramatic dips in fertility rates since the early 1990s. That being said, literacy is almost universal. Education in this region is also notable because of the high occurrence of vocational schooling.

Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the area of the world where most girls (and many boys) fail to receive primary education. Women enrollment in secondary and tertiary education
is even further limited. Obstacles to gender parity include high rates of child marriage, lack of sexual and reproductive health resources, lack of accessible school infrastructure, and high costs of education. Strategies to improve female enrollment in education have involved foreign NGO services and international financing of infrastructure and schooling.

North America & Western Europe

Gender parity regarding primary and secondary education has been achieved. At the tertiary level, more women than men are enrolled in universities. Disparity reappears when examining what individuals do with their education—women are underrepresented in government, business, and science leadership positions, and in STEM fields in general. Several nations have undertaken specific programs to increase women’s involvement in STEM fields, and passed compensation, healthcare, and childcare legislation to increase women’s opportunities after receiving education.

Latin America & The Caribbean

Women have near universal access to primary education, and exceed male enrollment in secondary and tertiary education. 19 of 26 countries have gender parity in adult literacy, with the exceptions of Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, and Suriname. Like North America and Western Europe, the largest issues with women’s education lie in job markets, where women are systematic excluded.

Suggestions for Further Research

To start your research, first look at the Resources page of the UN Girls’ Education Initiative, which was launched in 2000 by the UN at the World Education Forum to lessen the gender gap in education for girls. The Resources page allows you to look up different resources on girls’ education by region, theme, or year.

For further background information, the following resources are helpful:

https://www.unicef.org/education/bege_70640.html, which provides a look at access to education for girls from a UNICEF standpoint

http://www.right-to-education.org/issue-page/marginalised-groups/girls-women, the website of a nonprofit that provides information about the importance of women’s and girls’ education

https://www.malala.org/girls-education, a useful resource that argues for universal women’s education and demonstrates what one girl has done to improve access to education for girls and women around the world

For country-specific information, the following resources are helpful:

http://www.ungei.org/infobycountry/index.html, which publishes findings and statistics about the state of women’s and girls’ education in various countries

http://www.prb.org/Publications/Reports/2003/EmpoweringWomenDevelopingSocietyFemaleEducationintheMiddleEastandNorthAfrica.aspx, a report that provides important statistics about education and literacy levels for countries in the Middle East and North Africa

https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/the-bottom-ten-countries-for-female-education/ provides statistics and information on the ten countries with the lowest rates of access to female education

For information on actions already being taken and to gather ideas for possible solutions, the following resources are helpful:

http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/girlseducation, a World Bank website which provides information on girls’ education projects currently being implemented around the world

https://www.brookings.edu/on-the-record/crisis-in-pakistan-educate-women-and-girls-for-long-term-solutions/, a Brookings article which outlines some of the solutions being implemented in Pakistan and their impacts

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/publication/2011/06/20110624094700aidan0.9995037.html, a US Embassy publication that describes some of the solutions that have been successful in promoting access to girls’ education