WOMEN’S
EDUCATION AROUND THE WORLD
BY TRISTY GOETZ, EMMA HUNNICUTT, SHELBY JANKE AND COLTEN WHITE Held in Beijing in 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women recognized that women’s literacy and education is the key to empowering their participation in decision-making, both in society and in their families (PBR.org). When female education rises across the globe, widespread issues like fertility, population growth and infant and child mortality rates decrease while general health improves. As girls’ secondary school enrollment increases, women’s participation in labor forces increases, as well, and contributes to both household and national income. This increased earning capacity leads to a positive effect on child nutrition, another serious issue seen around the world. The education that a mother receives has greater inmpact on her children than the father’s education. The children, especially daughters, of educated mothers are more likely to be enrolled in school and generally become more politically active and better informed about their own legal rights and how their government systems work. Although the benefits of education are obvious, education around the world, especially for girls, is often a rare privilige. Of the world’s uneducated children, 53% of are girls and two-thirds of the illiterate people in the world are female. Without education, women are unable to lead, work and develop to their fullest potential. If countries focus on educating their women, not only are they being progressive and proactive, but they are educating their future, as well.
WESTERN WORLD BY COLTEN WHITE The countries of the Western World, primarily those in North America, Oceania and Europe, are often seen as the embodiment of education equality. While these regions are among the most advanced in the field of women’s education, some potential has yet to be fully realized.
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY ENROLLMENT
The field of primary education can be considered almost entirely equal, throughout a vast majority of western countries. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics, the Western world has seen near gender equality in regard to education. Within the Western world, there are several regions with historically high proportions of countries that fall within the range of gender equality in primary education. These regions include North America and Western, Central and Eastern Europe. About 90% of the countries within each of these regions have demonstrated gender parity at the primary level prior to 1990. Secondary education has shown similar trends. Both of these areas in education have very few problems with gender equality when speaking of Western countries. Participation rates in secondary education for women equaled and then surpassed those of men in North America and Western Europe from the beginning of the 1980s. In 2008, the Gross Enrollment Rate for women was at least 25% above that for males in North America and Europe.
COLLEGE ENROLLMENT
Once students graduate from secondary education, however, the numbers begin to tell a more interesting story. When men and women enter college, there tend to be more discrepancies, both positive and negative. According to UNESCO statistics, women started catching up to men in North America and Western Europe in the 1970s and even surpassed male enrollment rates by the early 1980s.
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
It has been found that women are more likely to pursue undergraduate education in countries with higher levels of national wealth, which encompasses the vast majority of Western countries. In most wealthy countries, female students clearly outnumber males at the undergraduate level. One example is Iceland. There are almost twice as many women enrolled in undergraduate education as men. In the United States and Russia, there are about 129 and 126 female students, respectively, for every 100 male students. These numbers often pose a question of causation and generate controversy, with some wondering if men are losing opportunities with the increasing number of female scholars. The answer is not that women are taking a larger piece of the pie, but rather that the pie is getting larger. UNESCO has found that a rising number of women who are pursuing higher education does not mean that there are fewer opportunities for men. The growth in female enrollment partly reflects the changing values and attitudes related to the roles and aspirations of women in society. These are the legacies of social change and feminist movements which emerged globally in the 1960s and 1970s. Rather than opportunities being taken away, they are expanding beyond their historical reach. Overall, this provides countless positive results for devoted women.
COMMON FIELDS
In terms of what fields see the greatest amount of female graduates, the results are fairly predictable, but are nonetheless intriguing. Women are just as likely to graduate as men in the fields of science, social sciences, business and law. Education is another popular field. In some Western countries, nine out of ten education graduates are women. However, some fields that have been traditionally held by men continue to see a higher number of male graduates, including engineering, manufacturing and
construction. In the fairly new field of computer sciences, men are also more likely to receive degrees. It is important to note that these discrepancies are not necessarily a problem, as students should be free to choose whichever field they wish. Once women gain access to higher education, they tend to exceed men in grades, evaluations and degree completion. The growth in female participation should be seen as a positive development, especially given the spillover effects that benefit the individual, households and society. As long as the door is open for those of both genders, this inequality is not necessarily harmful.
INEQUALITY
In total, all of these statistics have shown the benefits of progress in women’s education in the Western World. However, some inequality does exist in the highest positions of education. Women face considerable barriers as they move up the education ladder to careers in research. When looking at the number of
graduates produced, men surpass women in virtually all countries at the highest levels of education, accounting for 56% of all PhD graduates and 71% of researchers. One example is the National University of Lesotho, where more than 70% of the students are women, and yet men hold the top administrative positions at the university. Most of the PhD scholars from around the world come from Western countries. This shows that a discrepancy exists in Western countries in terms of how many male versus female students become PhD-yielding graduates. Overall, the Western World shows that in terms of opportunity, both genders are approximately equal at almost all levels of education. Despite this, the very highest levels of education are still not as frequently achieved by women as what should be expected at this current point in Western education. While great progress has been made in these countries, there is still some work to be done to improve equal opportunities for women in Western countries.
GENDER GAP IN WESTERN ACADEMIA Men 70%
70%-
40%-
45%
50%-
Women
55%
60%-
30%
30%20%10%PhD Graduates
Researchers
Source: The UN
SOUTH ASIA BY COLTEN WHITE South Asia holds a massive amount of the world ‘s population, with large population centers in countries such as India and Pakistan and extreme population density in places like Bangladesh. Within these countries, there are long standing cultural and economic barriers against women’s education. However, the long road of progress has the potential for limitless possibilities.
GENDER EQUALITY
The World Bank reports that at the primary school level, gender equality has been virtually accomplished in some South Asian countries such as the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh and India. Even though it seems that many countries are changing, there is still work to be done in countries like Nepal and Pakistan. In Pakistan, girls account for only 41% of enrollment. At the secondary school level, gender equality has been achieved in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. However, while some countries have achieved equality at the primary or secondary level, the challenge is to advance these achievements into the upper levels of education. As problems with gender equality in education are more apparent in South Asian countries than other regions, many question the cause of these problems. The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI) provides insight into this issue. Essentially, inequality takes place because the benefits of girls’ education come to the girls in the future, but the costs fall on their parents immediately. When education costs are high, some may feel that the future returns may not justify the present costs. Many girls “marry out” and parents rely more on sons for help and support in their old age. Therefore the benefits of educating girls may seem particularly distant and uncertain. Parents may also rely more on girls for help at home, so that the opportunity cost of educating girls seems higher than for boys. Parents may also incur social criticism if they educate girls beyond customary levels. Given all of this, parents often educate boys before girls when controlling for other influences on enrollment such as family wealth or the parents’ education. Thus, among 6-14 year olds, just being male boosts the probability of being enrolled by 14% in India, by 20% in Nepal and by 28% in Pakistan.
ECONOMICS
This gap is even greater when economic level contributes to the statistics. The poorer the family, the lower the girls’ enrollment and the greater the gender gap. Among rich Indian families, boys between 6-14 years old are enrolled 95% of the time and girls are enrolled 93% of the time. In poor households, these numbers are 61% and 38% for boys and girls respectively, and even lower in rural areas. This trend is found throughout most South Asian countries. Factors other than economics affect the gender gap in South Asian countries. Living in rural and mountainous regions, for example, makes enrollment go down and also increases the gender gap. If one is of the Muslim faith and female gender, they are less likely to go to school than nonMuslims. The high population percentage matching these characteristics helps to explain why Pakistan has the lowest rates of enrollment. While problems persist, there has been measurable improvement compared to past decades. Between 1999 and 2008, India and Bhutan successfully removed barriers against girls’ education in order to provide equal opportunities. This shift has tremendous implications, especially in high-population countries like India. Gender disparities slightly favored girls in Bangladesh in 2008 as reflected by the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) of 1.06. In the Maldives, the Gross Enrollment Rate for secondary education was 84% in 2006. Regionally, the barriers against girls’ secondary education have diminished as seen by the increase in the GPI from 0.75 to 0.87 between 1999 and 2008.
LITERACY RATES
Relatively few women are able to pursue a higher education compared to men in the region. This is clearly the case in Bangladesh (GPI of 0.55), Bhutan (0.59), India (0.70) and Pakistan (0.85). The adult literacy rate increased from 59% to 62% between 1999 and 2008. Change was most evident in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal but are not as apparent in India. Although South Asia contains a great number of problems surrounding women’s education, progress has been significant. Where there are large deficits of gender equality, lies the largest chances for progress. While there is development to be made, each nation is making positive progress and this will be a region to watch in the 21st century.
EAST ASIA BY TRISTY GOETZ
Battle of the Sexes
Through the past couple of years, an alarming trend in East Asian countries has made itself more than prevalent, and that is the male to female population ratio. Some clinics and hospitals in China are no longer allowed to tell the parents of the child its sex. It is very obvious by observing people on the streets that in Korea and Japan, as well as in China, the men outnumber the women. For every 122 boys
Women’s enrollment in secondary education schools has gone up since the 1960’s in many East Asian countries. The traditional gender gap in secondary school enrollment is gradually diminishing. Enrollment in secondary schools has risen from 36% in 1990 to 74% in 1999. Many women are choosing to continue on to collegiate schooling and the male to female ratios in upper schools are beginning to even out. There are still unproportional men to women ratios in society, which can be seen in the enrollment statistics. However, places like China and Korea are beginning to realize that favoring boys and having sex-selective abortions is hurting their economy and population. Women in East asia are steping up and proving that girls are just as useful and important as boys, one diploma at a time.
MALE TO FEMALE POPULATION RATIOS Women Men
51%
East Asian customs and traditions run very deep in the hearts of each nation’s people. They affect everything, from what they eat on a certain day to how they socialize. The tradition of quiet, understated women is still prevalent and affects young women who dream of becoming more than just housewives. Independent women in their late 20’s who choose to work and further their education over finding a husband are often called Himono ona, or literally “dried fish women” in Japan. Himono ona is meant as a rude slur for independent women. As stated on Hungry for Words Blog by Maki, “Anticipating the possibility that she will have no children to take care of her in her old age, she may be saving up a lot of her money, buying her own apartment or house (until recently it was practically unheard of for a single woman to buy her own place) - or she may be spending money on herself at will.” Being a Himono ona is seen as selfish and dirty and is looked down upon in modern Japanese society. The word has also made its way into Chinese and Korean culture as a new slang term. However, many working women are beginning to embrace this brash term and turning it into a word of empowerment.
Education
50%
Breaking Tradition
there are only 100 girls. This has greatly affected the enrollment of girls in school.
48%
In East Asia, women’s roles have begun to change dramatically in the present day. China, Korea and Japan are finding new, more equal ground for their women to stand on. However, the system has still not been perfected; strong customs and cultural influences emphasizing traditions related to family life and the preference for boys over girls are still discouraging Asian women from continuing their schooling. An epidemic of sex-selective abortions are heavily affecting these areas. Education is beginning a new transformation in modern times, from a gender gap society to a more equal field. A large majority are forging ahead and furthering their education farther than ever before.
LATIN AMERICA BY EMMA HUNNICUTT
In the Latin American region, including Mexico, South American countries and the Caribbean islands, education in general is still a struggle. While almost all children attend a primary school, not many have access to a secondary education. Although education is available to either gender, in many Latin American families, parents are more inclined to send their sons to school than their daughters due to simple patriarchal tradition.
GENDER INEQUALITY
Outside of the home, however, girls are usually favored when it comes to education, possibly due to the fact that young women are socialized to be passive and obedient, behaviors that the school system reinforces. Gender inequality in education becomes more evident particularly in the upper grades. The number of women who pursue an education beyond secondary school is greater than that of men, many of whom drop out after primary school. Because of the large number of women pursuing higher education, a majority of important jobs are held by females.
RURAL AREAS
Education in indigenous, rural areas, however, is extremely limited and for women, almost non-existent. In areas such as these, lack of education for women can be dangerous, leading to common issues such as teen pregnancy. Currently, standards of education in Latin America are being raised each year with the hopes of bettering the safety of women and other people in the area.
COMPLETED SECONDARY EDUCATION BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN, 81 AGES 20-24 49
Men Women
55
23
Total
86
26
Quintile 1
22
Quintile 5
20
Rural areas
Above are the percentage values of men and women in the Latin American region ages 20 to 24 who completed secondary education. The graph shows the combined percentage of the entire region, the lowest and highest income quintiles and the percentage in the idengenous rural areas.
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA BY TRISTY GOETZ
Sub-Saharan Africa is on a slow yet persistent rise to better its women’s education. Over the past decade, the enrollment of girls in primary and secondary schools has risen, but SubSaharan Africa is still far behind the rest of the world in terms of education. Universal primary education is far from perfect, especially when looking at the male to female ratio. As children grow older, fewer students continue their education and very few of those students are female. Gender discrimination in these education fields also hinder women continuing and excelling in their learning environments.
to “feminine fields” like social sciences, humanities, services and health-related courses that do not rival job opportunities for men. Sub-Saharan Africa is trying to reverse these wrongs in collegiate level learning, pushing toward a gender-equal education standard.
DESCRIMINATION
Another force bearing down upon women trying to obtain a higher education is the severe discrimination women face when attending secondary and tertiary schools. This discrimination and the overall mistreatment of young women can be seen in the disclusion of workENROLLMENT There are worrisome areas in Sub-Saharan Africa where ing in “male fields.” However, discrimination and tradionly 36% of all children enroll in secondary education because tional female gender roles create a fear of sexual harassvillages are often poor and spread out. 21.6 million students ment. Assault is becoming a huge threat for the women’s education movement. Sub-Saharan African who are old enough to be in secondary school are esschools are working to reverse gendertimated to be excluded from, or not expected to oriented fields by training teachers enter, secondary school. Between 1999 and to be more aware of gender dis2009 there was a 59% enrollment rate (all crimination. They are working children), which means 44 million children to break traditions that are (more than 40% of the world total of out“If you educate a man, you holding women back from an of-school children) were not enrolled, education. Gender bias and educate an individual. If more than half of them being girls. fear of assault make many Half of the countries in Africa where you educate a woman, you women avoid achieving a girls are less likely to complete primary higher education, but in the educate a family.” school can be found in Sub-Saharan future this will become less Africa. Access to secondary education of a worry now that protec-James Emmen and tertiary education is still very limited, tive programs are being put Kwegyir Aggrey, enrollment rates are 26% for secondary into place. With time, more education and 2.5% for tertiary. Privileged native of Ghana girls will continue to complete boys and young men continue their educahigher education. The education and typically, girls or young women do tion playing field is beginning to not. In tertiary education cation there are only level in Sub-Saharan Africa and five women for every ten men. The few women women are looking towards a brighter, who enter this level of education are often condemned more educated future.
THE MIDDLE EAST 36% 64%
44%
Israel
Kuwait
UNIVERSITY ATTENDANCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE EAST
56%
Iran
51%
Iraq
The controversial region of the Middle East expands as far east as Afghanistan, stretches as far north as Turkey and includes the countries of northern-most Africa. This region is known for its heavily implemented gender roles and economic woes, both of which are severe factors in the education that women receive. Although access to education in the Middle East has improved drastically over the past few decades and the gender gap in secondary schools has disappeared in many countries, many people, especially girls, are still excluded from education. In general, the problem is not that students of the region do not have access to education, but rather that the education that is available is of extremely low quality. Those who do attend school are not being adequately prepared for the real-world job force. The 2002 Arab Human Development Report states that education in the area fails to teach students to analyze and think innovatively. It also reports that if Middle Eastern education continues to unfold without a change in the system, education in its entirety will become a two-tier system consisting of quality education for the wealthy and inadequate, cheap schooling for the poor. Girls will most likely be the ones to suffer from this.
THE TALIBAN
49%
Yemen
SHELBY JANKE
64% 36%
71% 29%
The most prominent threat that Middle Eastern women face regarding education and freedom is the Taliban. Taking over Kabul, Afghanistan’s capitol, in 1996 after 20 years of civil war, the Taliban was expected to provide stability to the country. However, they stripped the population of many simple freedoms and immediately began to assault the rights of women. The Taliban immediately closed the women’s university and forced all women to quit their jobs. Since 1998, girls over the age of 8 have been prohibited from attending school and consequently sink deeper into poverty. In a society already plagued by illiteracy, the opportunities that women could strive for in society disappeared. The oppression, deepened poverty and widespread illiteracy that the Taliban placed on Middle Eastern women are heavily responsible for the state of women’s education that exists today.
GENDER ROLES Source: UN Statistics Division
The region’s culture and gender roles play a huge part in success among women. For example, women must get permission from their husbands or the men in their household before they can
100%
ADULT LITERACY RATES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE EAST
13%
Afghanistan 43%
30%
39%
Mali 54%
Yemen 71%
Women
40%
59%
50%
Morocco 65%
Egypt 86%
Men
0%
obtain a job, start a business, travel or even request a loan. Parents are more likely to pay for their sons’ education rather than their daughters’ due to the cultural stereotype that women are the homemakers. Women also often receive a smaller family inheritance in comparison to their male relatives. Thus, it is more important to society that men receive an education in order to be successful in their careers so they can make money to provide for their family’s legacy. School textbooks continue this oppression by often including examples that display women cooking at home while the men go off to work.
ILLITERACY
The illiteracy rates in this region are higher than neighboring impoverished countries, which is comparable to lower per-capita incomes. This area contains 75 million illiterate adults, half of whom live in Egypt, Iraq and Morocco alone. A total of 13 million young adults are illiterate, with one-third of these young adults living solely in Egypt. Women of the Middle East and North Africa are twice as more likely to be illiterate and more than two-thirds of the illiterate population is made up of women.
MARRIAGE THE ECONOMY
Generally, countries of the Middle East and North Africa have lower participation by women in both education and the labor face. This goes back to the idea that women belong at home. Men are far more likely to obtain access to wage employment than women. Thus, women often depend on the men in the household to provide the income. Women’s employment options have been limited to very few socially acceptable fields like teaching and medicine. Socially “inappropriate” jobs for women, like waitressing, are often held by female laborers from East and South Asia. Only 20% of women 15 years and older make up the region’s labor force. In Saudi Arabia, women only hold 7% of the jobs available. A study on 19 developing countries including Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan shows that a country’s long-term economic growth rises 3.7% annually for each year that the adults’ average education level rises. This is key for impoverished countries, especially in the Middle East and North Africa where poverty is more severe than many of their neighbors.
A woman’s education is directly affected by how early she gets married, as well. Girls who get married around the age of 18 often are unable to continue their education because they are expected to bear children immediately after entering marriage. Educated women both get married and have children later than those who have not attended school. These well-educated women often want smaller families and take better care of their reproductive health and family planning. These women are often more able to communicate about these topics with their husbands. Most women of the Middle East and North Africa know about contraceptives, but the educated are aware of a wider variety and of the avenues to obtain these methods. In Morocco, educated women have half as many children as uneducated women. Women’s activists are demanding equality in the family and in society and are calling for women’s social, economic and political empowerment. Investing in women’s education will accelerate the Middle East’s economic structure, enhance their human capital, will slow population growth and will alleviate the severe poverty that this region faces.
CONCLUSION The past several decades have seen tremendous progress in the advancement of women’s education around the world. Regions within the Western world have seen gender equality in nearly all levels of education, while regions like the Middle East continue to see hardships throughout every education level. Although each region’s situations are drastically different, the importance of education remains a vital issue.
WORKS CITED - The World Bank - United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute for Statistics - The 2002 Arab Human Development Report - Hungry for Words by Maki - GeoHive - EFA Global Monitoring Report - Wikiprogress - The Changing Status of Women in Asian Societies - The Christian Science Monitor - The Changing Lanscape of Women’s Education in Latin America - Save the Children Created by: Tristen Goetz, Emma Hunnicutt, Shelby Janke and Colten White