Written by: Mehek Chotrani
Visual by: Chiara Valenzuela
Historically, in many societies around the world, a woman;’s right to a formal education has long been outrightly denied. Today, depriving women and girls of this birthright continues to be one of the biggest challenges faced by modern societies. Education advocates search high and low for ways to invest in the education of girls and women because the end result ensures a more peaceful and poverty-free world. Until women are given equal access to quality education, our society will continue to suffer from the effects of poverty.
Education impacts the age at which women get married and bear children. In Sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia, child marriage occurs in one in eight girls, and one in seven gives birth by the age of 17. Education can afford girls the confidence to write about and speak up for their rights, empower them to decide and act on life choices, and sustain their right to continue with their education for a lifetime. One analysis shows that if all girls in Sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia had a primary-level education, there would be 14 percent fewer child marriages. The analysis also shows that if all girls received a secondary education, 64 percent fewer girls would be locked into marriage at an age when they should still be in school.
Education also shows that female empowerment comes from female choices. According to The Guardian, the ultimate obstacle to women’s empowerment is the culture they live in. Women not only contribute 70 percent of the world’s working hours, but they also make up 70 percent of the world’s poor. The most limiting factors to a female are often the people closest to her. These limitations could be someone shaming a woman for going to school, or parents arranging a marriage for her. If a woman's economic choices are bonded with those of her family’s, she has little hope of escaping the cycle of poverty. The World Bank supports both poverty eradication and gender equality. It does this by giving resources to impoverished women while promoting gender equality in the household. The result is large development payoffs in respective societies that receive World Bank aid.
Improving women's education also has positive economic effects. Until the number of male and female students in school is equal, there will always be more illiterate girls than boys. When a young female can be seen as a potential earner in her family, it is more likely for her to make her own choice and resist the pressure from her family and society to have children, stay at home, and raise a family. By having more and more women from low-income families receiving a quality education from primary to tertiary levels, this facilitates their being able to get a well-paying job, helping themselves and their families break that cycle of poverty.
It is therefore very clear to see how putting more women in education can help the economies and societies prosper, increase healthy family planning, and empower women to make their own choices. All in all, this helps to eradicate poverty, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Number 17.
Works Cited
Borgen, Clint. “4 Reasons Why Women's Education Leads To Less Poverty.” The Borgen Project, Clint Borgen Https://Borgenproject.org/Wp-Content/Uploads/The_Borgen_Project_Logo_small.Jpg, 18 Nov. 2019, borgenproject.org/4-reasons-why-womens-education-leads-to-less-poverty/.
Rose, Pauline. “Why Girls' Education Can Help Eradicate Poverty.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 25 Sept. 2013, www.reuters.com/article/us-why-girls-education-idUSBRE98O13D20130925.
Comments