essay on the importance of female education

Why educating women is more important than we realize

The Times of India

The Stri or the Female Energy is the creatrix, mother of all gods, conqueror of all evil, dispenser of all boons in the Indian culture. She is considered the divine power of the universe from where all beings are born. This divine female energy is worshipped with intense adoration and devotion in India.

Yet, it is in India itself that we find the most intense contradiction towards the female shakti.

On one hand we surrender to the divine Durga to protect us and on the other hand we look down upon the feminine principle with condemnation, contempt, cause of all failures, source of lust and miseries.

An Indian woman suffers this wrath both in her mind and heart right from her birth. She struggles to understand her true role, position, and identity in human society. She lives in a dilemma, wondering whether to relate to the feminine deities being erected all around her or to an unborn female avatar which was never allowed to be born.

Since ancient times women have not been denied legal, social, and educational rights in India but certainly in practise they have been more preoccupied and confined to domestic affairs and that is where their social subordination began.

Despite such subjugation, women have survived important roles such as bold householders, strong mothers, queens, administrators, warriors, elected representatives and leaders. Therefore, despite oppression and denial, India has, time and again, truly experienced the shakti of this female creative force.

The way forward for India and humans in general is to treat the Female Shakti (The Feminine Powerhouse) with respect, deep regard, equal access to experiences, learning and opportunities. All sexes should be allowed to find, above all sexual differences, their full inner potential.

India, the land of diversity and contrast, India the ardent worshipper of the Shakti-The Durga can perhaps lead mankind into human success based in deep regard for the deep inner potential, intellectual prowess and ingenuity of women. Denying women their due place is denying mankind its due success.

Women Across the Globe

The battle for legal, civil, social, and educational equality is a central element of woman’s rights globally. However, a deeper understanding of the women’s needs has revealed that in daily life they struggle to voice their objections and opinions, struggle to agree or disagree, condemn, or promote, speak, share, discuss, and struggle to manage, participate and lead.

Therefore, it would not be incorrect to state that the battle is only half won if the women get access to education and opportunities but no access to exercise their will.

Women across the globe may be characterized by diversity in feminine energy and feminine approach to life, work, family, and society yet their basic emotional, psychological, physical, mental, intellectual, social, professional, and creative needs tie them together to a common cause. The common cause being-women across the globe want to be active participants and decision makers in their own lives and refuse the passivity that is expected of them.

A modern progressive woman prides herself with all her feminine virtues. She wishes to embrace her own self in entirety not to put men down but only to break out of an oppressed state so that she can realize her own untapped full potential.

Women today are capable of and want to accumulate the advantages of both the sexes, but she is not willing to pay an unfair price for achieving this. For instance, a young mother wants the right to work or not to work to lie within the realms of her decision-making powers.

She wishes to be able to make a choice between scenarios where in one she wishes to fully involve herself in her motherhood and suspend her professional aspirations without being made to feel undeserving or financially dependent. Or in another scenario where she wishes to strike a balance between her motherhood and professional duties and yet not labelled as irresponsible and selfish. Such a state of choice with dignity would be true liberation for a young mother.

Equal Education is a Steppingstone Towards Gender Equality, Quality Socialization and Economic Growth

Denying women access to equal and quality education opportunities encourages gender segregation and stereotypical behaviour in society. Perceptions towards gender roles are sowed by members of family and society very early on in the lives of men and women which adversely impacts the quality of the socialization process.

Creating gender neutral learning environments can serve as a steppingstone to quality socialization. This in turn can help in creating favourable position for women in creative, scientific, technological, professional endeavours and lessen their personal and social struggles.

Any society that denies and discourages women from boldly participating in the learning process is only encouraging biased patterns that are deeply rooted in promoting the influential masculine identity.

Quality education can help both men and women understand these deep-seated issues in our society, raise their collective and individual levels of awareness, understand the importance of all people, irrespective of sex, in building a healthy and conscious society. In order to ensure sustainable development, it has become imperative to recognize the importance of all the sexes.

When a girl is educated, she is empowered. She can make her own decisions, raise the standard of living for her family and children, create more job opportunities, and reform society as a whole. As a result, a shift in attitudes toward girl child education in India is urgently needed. Every girl child deserves to be treated with love and respect. If all girls complete their education and participate in the workforce, India could add a whopping $770 billion to the country’s GDP by 2025!

Some Important Statistics

As per statistics presented by UNICEF, 129 million girls are out of school around the world, including 32 million of primary school age, 30 million of lower-secondary school age, and 67 million of upper-secondary school age.

Borgen Project, a US based not for profit, study has revealed that every year, 23 million girls in India drop out of school after they begin menstruating due to lack of sanitary napkin dispensers and overall hygiene awareness in schools.

As per National Survey of India, Literacy Rate in India has increased from 73% in 2011 to 77.7% in 2022, however it still stands behind the global literacy rate which stands at 86.5% (as per UNESCO). Of the 77.7% Indian literacy rate in 2022, male literacy rate stands at 84.7% and female literacy rate stands at 70.3% as compared to global average female literacy rate of 79% (as per UNESCO).

There are several factors that influence poorer literacy rates in women as compared to men, the biggest and most crucial factors being inequality and sex-based discrimination. This discrimination pushes the girl child to either never be born (female infanticide) or the woman to be predominantly pushed into household affairs.

Low enrolment rates, high dropout rates, social discrimination, unsafe public spaces, prioritizing boy child education are some other important factors that negatively influence female education.

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Top 10 Reasons Why Female Education is Important

The Unmatched Importance of Female Education

• Increased Literacy: Of the 163 million illiterate youth across the globe, nearly 63 percent are female. Offering all children education will prop up literacy rates, pushing forward development in struggling regions.
• Human Trafficking: Women are most vulnerable to trafficking when they are undereducated and poor, according to the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking. Through providing young girls with opportunities and fundamental skills, this billion-dollar industry can be significantly undermined.
• Political Representation: Across the globe, women are underrepresented as voters and restricted from political involvement. The United Nations Women’s programmes on leadership and participation suggests that civic education, training and all around empowerment will ease this gap.
• Thriving Babies: According to the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, children of educated mothers are twice as likely to survive past the age of five. Foreign aid for schoolhouses and curriculum development could greatly benefit the East African country of Burundi , where nearly 16,000 children die per year.
• Safe Sex: A girl who completes primary school is three times less likely to contract HIV. With these statistics in mind, The World Bank calls education a “window of hope” in preventing the spread of AIDS among today’s children.
• Later Marriage: As suggested by the United Nations Population Fund, in underdeveloped countries, one in every three girls is married before reaching the age of 18. In a region where a girl receives seven or more years of education, the wedding date is delayed by four years.
• Smaller Families: Increased participation in school reduces fertility rates over time. In Mali, women with secondary education or higher have an average of three children. Counterparts with no education have an average of seven children.
• Income Potential: Education also empowers a woman’s wallet by boosting her earning capabilities. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, also known as UNESCO, a single year of primary education has shown to increase a girl’s wages later in life by 20 percent.
• Thriving GDP: Gross domestic product also soars when both girls and boys are being offered educational opportunities. When 10 percent more women attend school, GDP increases by three percent on average.
• Poverty Reduction: When women are provided with equal rights and equal access to education, they go on to participate in business and economic activity. Increased earning power and income combat against current and future poverty through feeding, clothing and providing for entire families.

The sustainability and progress of all regions depend on the success of women across the globe. As President Obama said while addressing the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, “The future must not belong to those who bully women. It must be shaped by girls who go to school and those who stand for a world where our daughters can live their dreams just like our sons.”

– Lauren Stepp

Sources: PRB , U.N. Women, CFR, World Bank

Photo: Flickr

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The US role in advancing gender equality globally through girls’ education

In 1995, just after the 75th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a historic speech in Beijing at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. There, she famously declared that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights,” discursively weaving the struggle for gender equality in the U.S. to the struggle for gender equality around the world.

As the U.S. commemorates the centenary of the 19th Amendment and the world celebrates 25 years since the Beijing Platform for Action —which set a global agenda to remove systemic barriers holding back women’s full participation in public and private life—there is much stocktaking that the U.S. needs to do with regard to its role in advancing gender equality beyond our borders. In particular, the U.S. government’s role in promoting girls’ education, a key pathway to achieving gender equality, must be stepped up significantly.

Why girls’ education?

Girls’ education, alongside improved sexual and reproductive health and rights, has often been cited as the world’s best investment , the key to enabling girls and women more agency in their homes, communities, and countries. Educating girls contributes later to their increased formal economic opportunity and wages , decreases in pregnancy and early marriage , reduction in child and maternal mortality , better educated children when they do bear children, increased participation in politics , and decreased climate risk vulnerability . The list of spillover effects from an investment in girls’ education runs long as a result of empowered women; healthier families; and more resilient economies.

In the United States, progress in the education of women and girls has been an important step to (and byproduct of) advancing gender equality in all facets of domestic and work life. The story of female education and progress toward gender equality has been similar in many other high-income and upper-middle income countries around the world. But it has been patchwork or stalled in many low-income countries due to geopolitical, economic, and social barriers, as well as a lack of funding targeting countries with the greatest gender gaps in education.

An uneven story of progress, threatened by COVID-19

While women in the U.S. were surpassing men in earning doctoral degrees in the early 2000s , the number of illiterate women in low-income countries was actually increasing by 20 million between 2000 and 2016 )—although this trend was primarily the result of decades of exclusion from education as girls aged into adulthood. During this same period, access to education for successive cohorts of girls began to increase as the era of the Millennium Development Goals ushered political attention to address gender gaps in education. Indeed, in just under two decades, gender gaps in education closed tremendously. Between 2000 and 2018, the number of primary school aged girls out of school fell by 44% , and by 2019 nearly two-thirds of countries had achieved gender parity in primary education. However, progress has plateaued over the last decade. Conflict in Northern Africa and Western Asia have made the region furthest from parity in primary education, and gender gaps in secondary education persist in sub-Saharan Africa.

Some of the barriers obstructing progress in low-income countries include gender discriminatory policies like prohibiting pregnant schoolgirls and adolescent mothers from attending school; gender-blind education budgets that may disproportionately benefit boys; gender-insensitive school facilities that may discourage girls and female teachers from attending school especially during their menstrual cycles; gender biased curriculum and teaching that may teach girls their future is in the marriage market rather than the labor market; and harmful gender practices like child marriage and female genital mutilation that may lead to girls dropping out of school prematurely.

Analysis at the Brookings Institution estimates that education gaps between rich and poor girls will take a long time to close; universal secondary education for the poorest girls in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to be achieved by 2111. When it comes to individual countries, these gaps may take even longer to close .

The COVID-19 pandemic is worsening this timeline. Girls’ increased burden on domestic work and unpaid care during stay-at-home orders, their increased vulnerability to gender-based violence due to limited mobility during lockdown, and their lower access to technology and the internet means girls have less time and fewer resources to engage in remote learning , are at risk of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies , and are more likely to remain out of school when they eventually reopen. We don’t yet have a full understanding of what the long-term effects of COVID-19 school closures will be on girls, but research from previous protracted school closures suggests that learning loss combined with girls’ unique vulnerabilities can have long-term consequences for girls and the road to gender equality.

Prior to the pandemic, estimates suggest that 130 million girls were out of school around the world. If countries like the U.S. do not actively work to ensure special attention is paid to girls in the COVID-19 recovery plans of countries where girls face increased vulnerabilities, there could be an additional 20 million girls globally who do not return to school.

A troubling trend toward realizing gender equality through education

Since First Lady Clinton’s speech, girls’ education has become a political priority among many governments and high-level political fora promoting gender equality. The money appeared to have followed, most notably in the last decade as corporate engagement in girls’ education increased and as special funds, like the UK Department for International Development’s Girls’ Education Challenge , were dedicated. In 2010, 20% of overseas development assistance (ODA) targeted at gender equality went to the education sector, making the education sector the largest recipient of ODA targeting gender equality . But in 2018, while the overall ODA bucket to gender equality nearly doubled (from US$25.3 billion in 2010 to US$48.7 billion ), the education sector’s share has been halved .

Moreover, globally, investment decisions have not always appeared to be made on the assessment of need alone. For example, a Brookings analysis of multilateral, bilateral, foundation, and corporation financing of girls’ education found that countries with some of the largest gender gaps in education were not receiving any ODA or philanthropic donor funding targeting gender equality in education.

So, while investments toward promoting gender equality are on an upward trend, countries may be losing sight of the importance of investing in girls’ education as a critical entry point. And, those funds that have been allocated may not be targeting geographies where the road to gender equality is the longest and hardest.

A troubling trend in U.S. leadership

Amidst this global trend in girls’ education leadership and financing, it appears that the United States may be moving in the wrong direction for girls as well. Indeed, the U.S. record on advancing gender equality overseas has been inconsistent and highly dependent on the incumbent administration’s priorities. The last few years suggest a troubling trend.

Under the Obama administration, bilateral, allocable aid targeting gender equality grew from 0.05% to 7.91% of total aid between 2009 and 2016 . Within his first week in office, President Obama signed into law legislation that would strengthen women’s ability to challenge pay discrimination in the U.S., setting in motion a host of government initiatives and programs that would signal his feminist presidency at home and to the world. During this time, too, the U.S. adopted a whole of government approach to empower adolescent girls, which focused attention on enhancing girls’ access to quality education among other strategies to enhance the status of girls, improve girls’ health, and build girls’ leadership.

However, the Trump administration brought quick rollbacks. Notwithstanding his unabashed parading of misogyny and sexism, within his first 100 days in office President Trump reinstated and expanded President Reagan’s Global Gag Rule , which cut all federal aid associated with efforts to provide girls and women access to safe family planning, and derailed Let Girls Learn , First Lady Michelle Obama’s initiative targeting educational opportunities for adolescent girls. Such signaling was followed by a host of setbacks for gender equality in the U.S. and a sharp fall in the percentage of U.S. aid (to 2.6% by 2018) aimed at principally advancing gender equality overseas.

Although Ivanka Trump, an advisor to the president, spearheaded the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative   in 2019 as a means of maintaining U.S. foreign policy objectives in women’s economic empowerment, there is a notable absence of attention to girls’ education and family planning—two important factors to ensuring women’s economic inclusion. And while attention to girls’ education is present in USAID’s 2020 draft, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy , the absence of attention to “gender-related power imbalances” (which was referenced in the 2012 policy), sexual and reproductive health and rights, and girls’ and women’s access to comprehensive family planning, means that efforts to advance gender equality through education will ultimately fall short.

As things currently stand, the U.S. has gone from an intersectional approach to gender equality that sought to combat discrimination on multiple, simultaneous, and intersecting fronts, to one that is piecemeal, incoherent, and takes several steps backward .

Three actions to reverse course

As we mark 100 years since the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and 25 years since the Beijing Declaration, we must consider that girls today in developing countries do not have another 100 years to wait for gender equality. If humanity is to realize Generation Equality by 2030, the U.S. has an important role to play in helping other countries “ build back equal ” for girls, especially in the wake of COVID-19. It can start in three ways:

1. Adopt a feminist foreign policy . A feminist foreign policy can be defined as: “the policy of a state that defines its interactions with other states … in a manner that prioritizes peace, gender equality and environmental integrity [and] seeks to disrupt colonial, racist, patriarchal and male-dominated power structures.” To date, only five countries (Sweden, Canada, France, Luxembourg, and Mexico) have adopted a feminist foreign policy—although many more countries have declared being a feminist government.

The U.S. should lead the charge in the second wave of countries adopting a feminist foreign policy. It can do so by centering girls’ education (as well as girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights) into U.S. foreign policy, national security, international development, and humanitarian assistance. With such strong returns on investments in girls’ education and the current lack of such funding in the regions that need it most, girls’ education is low-hanging fruit when it comes to advancing progress in gender equality and promoting girls’ and women’s full participation in public and private life.

This idea already has momentum on Capitol Hill. In September, Congresswomen Jackie Speier (CA-14), Lois Frankel (FL-21), and Barbara Lee (CA-13) introduced legislation to support the goals of a feminist foreign policy. Their legislation calls for a U.S. foreign assistance policy among others that will “promote gender equality and focus on the experience of women and people who experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, such as gender-based violence, lack of access to sexual and reproductive health, lack of access to education, and the burden of unpaid care responsibilities.”

2. Increase ODA toward gender equality as a principal goal . Feminist advocates recommend that countries should allocate at least 20 percent of their total aid to investments with gender equality as a principal objective, and at least 85 percent as a significant objective. Presently, the U.S. is far below the OECD average and trails behind Sweden and Canada, two governments that have adopted a feminist foreign policy. Although the U.S. is the fourth largest net funder of gender equality ODA, this amount reflects only 21% of its overall aid (compared to 90% in Canada and 87% in Sweden). The U.S. needs to dramatically increase its gender equality ODA if it wants to walk its talk.

3. Give way to gender transformative leadership . Research has pointed to the important role of transformative leadership to promote progress in girls’ education specifically and gender equality broadly. Such leadership is needed not only at the level of individual political leadership (e.g., President and First Lady Obama, Congresswoman Nita Lowey, former Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls Tina Tchen, etc.), but also through collective political leadership (e.g., through whole of government approaches, bipartisan working groups, cross-agency partnerships, and the members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus pushing for a feminist foreign policy today). Luckily, the U.S. isn’t short on transformative feminist leaders whose leadership on issues of gender equality should be amplified throughout U.S. international development programs, including education.

Congress doesn’t have to start from scratch when it comes to enabling policy frameworks for greater feminist action. For example, Congress passed the bipartisan Reinforcing Education Accountability in Development (READ) Act in September 2017, making it easier for the U.S. to partner with other countries and organizations to promote basic education in developing countries. Congress should use this groundwork to further advance legislative efforts that identify and address the specific barriers girls face in accessing and completing quality, gender transformative education around the world. Requiring outward facing departments such as the Department of State and USAID to develop strategies that bolster adolescent girls’ participation in democracy, human rights, and governance would help cement women’s and girls’ rights in the center of foreign policy decisions instead of being tacked on to programs with other aims.

There never was a better moment to take stock of the United States’ role in advancing gender equality at home and overseas. As the world is still trying to land on its feet from the COVID-19 shock, a fuller commitment to girls’ education through a U.S. feminist foreign policy could help reinvigorate global progress toward gender equality. In another 100 years, we should hopefully be able to look back and say that universal education for girls did for women and girls in the world what the enactment of the 19th Amendment did for gender equality in the U.S.

I would like to thank Katie Poteet for providing valuable research assistance.

This piece is part of 19A: The Brookings Gender Equality Series.  Learn more about the series and read published work »

About the Author

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Education as the Pathway towards Gender Equality

About the author.

Amartya Sen, often referred to as the father of the concept of ‘human development’, reminds us of a quote by H.G. Wells, where he said that “human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe”. Sen maintains that “if we continue to leave vast sections of the people of the world outside the orbit of education, we make the world not only less just, but also less secure”. To Sen, the gender aspect of education is a direct link between illiteracy and women’s security.

Not being able to read or write is a significant barrier for underprivileged women, since this can lead to their failure to make use of even the rather limited rights they may legally have (to own land or other property, or to appeal against unfair judgment and unjust treatment). There are often legal rights in rule books that are not used because the aggrieved parties cannot read those rule books. Gaps in schooling can, therefore, directly lead to insecurity by distancing the deprived from the ways and means of fighting against that deprivation. 1

For Sen, illiteracy and innumeracy are forms of insecurity in themselves, “not to be able to read or write or count or communicate is a tremendous deprivation. The extreme case of insecurity is the certainty of deprivation, and the absence of any chance of avoiding that fate”. 2 The link between education and security underlines the importance of education as akin to a basic need in the twenty-first century of human development.

GENDERED EDUCATION GAPS: SOME CRITICAL FACTS

While a moral and political argument can continue to be made for the education of girls and women, some facts speak powerfully to the issue at hand. Girls accounted for 53 per cent of the 61 million children of primary school age who were out of school in 2010. Girls accounted for 49 per cent of the 57 million children out of school in 2013. In surveys of 30 countries with more than 100,000 out-of-school children, 28 per cent of girls were out of school on average compared to 25 per cent of boys. Completion of primary school is a particular problem for girls in sub-Saharan Africa and Western Asia. 3

Surveys in 55 developing countries reveal that girls are more likely to be out of school at a lower secondary age than boys, regardless of the wealth or location of the household. Almost two thirds of the world’s 775 million illiterate adults are women. In developing regions, there are 98 women per 100 men in tertiary education. There are significant inequalities in tertiary education in general, as well as in relation to areas of study, with women being over-represented in the humanities and social sciences and significantly under-represented in engineering, science and technology.

Gender-based violence in schools undermines the right to education and presents a major challenge to achieving gender equality in education because it negatively impacts girls’ participation and their retention in school. In addition, ineffective sexual and reproductive health education inhibits adolescents’ access to information and contributes to school dropouts, especially among girls who have reached puberty.

The education of girls and women can lead to a wide range of benefits from improved maternal health, reduced infant mortality and fertility rates to increased prevention against HIV and AIDS. 4 Educated mothers are more likely to know that HIV can be transmitted by breastfeeding, and that the risk of mother-to-child transmission can be reduced by taking drugs during pregnancy.

Each extra year of a mother’s schooling reduces the probability of infant mortality by 5-10 per cent. Children of mothers with secondary education or higher are twice as likely to survive beyond age 5 compared to those whose mothers have no education. Improvements in women’s education explained half of the reduction in child deaths between 1990 and 2009. A child born to a mother who can read is 50 per cent more likely to survive past age 5. In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 1.8 million children’s lives could have been saved in 2008 if their mothers had at least a secondary education. In Indonesia, 68 per cent of children with mothers who have attended secondary school are immunized, compared with 19 per cent of children whose mothers have no primary schooling. Wages, agricultural income and productivity—all critical for reducing poverty— are higher where women involved in agriculture receive a better education. Each additional year of schooling beyond primary offers greater payoffs for improved opportunities, options and outcomes for girls and women.

In the varied discussions on the post-2015 education related agendas, there was strong consensus that gender equality in education remains a priority. Various inputs noted that inequalities in general, and particularly gender equality, need to be addressed simultaneously on multiple levels—economic, social, political and cultural. A response on behalf of the International Women’s Health Coalition maintained that “all girls, no matter how poor, isolated or disadvantaged, should be able to attend school regularly and without the interruption of early pregnancy, forced marriage, maternal injuries and death, and unequal domestic and childcare burdens”.

Other inputs highlighted the importance of ensuring access to post-basic and post-secondary education for girls and women. Referring to secondary education, the German Foundation for World Population noted that the “completion of secondary education has a strong correlation with girls marrying later and delaying first pregnancy.” While access to good quality education is important for girls and women, preventing gender-based violence and equality through education clearly also remains a priority.

Gender-based discrimination in education is, in effect, both a cause and a consequence of deep-rooted differences in society. Disparities, whether in terms of poverty, ethnic background, disability, or traditional attitudes about their status and role all undermine the ability of women and girls to exercise their rights. Moreover, harmful practices such as early marriage, gender-based violence, as well as discriminatory education laws and policies still prevent millions of girls from enrolling and completing their respective education. 5

Additionally, given the extensive and growing participation of women in income generating activities, education for girls and women is particularly important, especially in attempting to reverse gendered patterns of discrimination. Not only is it impossible to achieve gender equality without education, but expanding education opportunities for all can help stimulate productivity and thereby also reduce the economic vulnerability of poor households.

GENDER EQUALITY, EQUITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Equity is the strongest framing principle of a post-2015 rights-based agenda, and underlines the need to redress historical and structural inequalities in order to provide access to quality education at all levels. This heralds what was effectively one of the strongest themes that emerged in the post-2015 education consultations, i.e., a rights-based approach in which rights are indivisible. This implies that all aspects of education should be considered from a rights perspective, including structural features of education systems, methods of education, as well as the contents of the education curricula. Indeed, overcoming structural barriers to accessing good quality education is vital for realizing education rights for all.

In related post-2015 consultations, equity is affirmed as a fundamental value in education. Several inputs noted that inequality in education remains a persistent challenge. This is connected to a focus in the Millennium Development Goals on averages without an accompanying consideration of trends beneath the averages. Many contributions in the education consultation, as well as in the other thematic consultations, highlighted the lack of attention to marginalized and vulnerable groups.

Equal access to good quality education requires addressing wide-ranging and persistent inequalities in society and should include a stronger focus on how different forms of inequality intersect to produce unequal outcomes for marginalized and vulnerable groups. Post-2015 consultations suggest that overcoming inequality requires a goal that makes national governments accountable for providing minimum standards and implementing country specific plans for basic services, including education. Equity in education also implies various proactive and targeted measures to offer progressive support to disadvantaged groups.

Amartya Sen notes empirical work which has brought out very clearly how the relative respect and regard for women’s well-being is strongly influenced by their literacy and educated participation in decisions within and outside the family. Even the survival disadvantage of women compared with men in many developing countries (which leads to “such terrible phenomenon as a hundred million of ‘missing women’) seems to go down sharply, and may even get eliminated, with progress in women’s empowerment, for which literacy is a basic ingredient”.

In the summer of 2009, the International Labour Organization (ILO) issued a report entitled “Give Girls a Chance: Tackling child labour, a key to the future”, which makes a disturbing link between increasing child labour and the preference being given to boys when making decisions on education of children. The report states that in cultures in which a higher value is placed on education of male children, girls risk being taken out of school and are then likely to enter the workforce at an early age. The ILO report noted global estimates where more than 100 million girls were involved in child labour, and many were exposed to some of its worst forms.

Much of the research around women and education highlights the importance of investing in the education of girls as an effective way of tackling the gamut of poverty. This is in line with assertions made in numerous other references, which also point to a strong link between education, increased women’s (as opposed to girls’) labour force participation, the wages they earn and overall productivity, all of which ultimately yields higher benefits for communities and nations. In other words, it pays to invest in girls’ and women’s education.

GENDER SOCIALIZATION

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Western feminist stalwarts, such as Simone de Beauvoir, were elaborating the difference between biological ‘sex’ and social gender. Anne Oakley in particular, is known for coining the term gender socialization (1979), which indicates that gender is socially constructed. According to Oakley, parents are engaged in gender socialization but society holds the largest influence in constructing gender. She identified three social mechanisms of gender socialization: manipulation, canalization, and verbalization (Oakley, 1972). Oakley noted that gender is not a fixed concept but is determined by culture through the use of verbal and nonverbal signifiers and the creation of social norms and stereotypes, which identify proper and acceptable behavior. The signifiers are then perpetuated on a macro level, reinforced by the use of the media, as well as at the micro level, through individual relationships.

The concept entered mainstream lexicon on gender relations and development dynamics, and through criticism and counter criticism, ‘gender socialization’ itself became an important signifier. As a tool to highlight discriminatory practices, laws and perceptions (including stereotypes), gender socialization is often identified as the ‘root cause’ which explains various aspects of gender identities, and what underlies many gender dynamics.

In 2007, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) defined gender socialization as “[T]he process by which people learn to behave in a certain way, as dictated by societal beliefs, values, attitudes and examples. Gender socialization begins as early as when a woman becomes pregnant and people start making judgments about the value of males over females. These stereotypes are perpetuated by family members, teachers and others by having different expectations for males and females.”

There is, therefore, a clear interaction between socio-cultural values (and praxis) with gender socialization. This only partly explains why it is that in many developing societies there is a persistent prioritization of women’s ‘domestic’ roles and responsibilities over public ones. Most young girls are socialized into the ‘biological inevitability’ of their socially determined future roles as mothers. This is closely connected, in many relatively socially conservative contexts, with the need to ensure (the prerequisite of) marriage.

Most related studies maintain that women with formal education are much more likely to use reliable family planning methods, delay marriage and childbearing, and have fewer and healthier babies than women with no formal education. The World Bank estimates that one year of female schooling reduces fertility by 10 per cent, particularly where secondary schooling is undertaken.

In fact, because women with some formal education are more likely to seek medical care and be better informed about health care practices for themselves and their children, their offspring have higher survival rates and are better nourished. Not only that, but as indicated earlier, these women are less likely to undergo early pregnancy. Being better informed increases the chances of women knowing how to space their pregnancies better, how to access pre and post-natal care, including prevention of HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and family planning in general. The World Bank estimates that an additional year of schooling for 1,000 women helps prevent two maternal deaths.

The World Bank, along with UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund highlight in several of their reports the intergenerational benefits of women’s education. An educated mother is more likely, it is maintained, to attempt to ensure educational opportunities for her children. Indeed, the World Bank specifically notes that “ in many countries each additional year of formal education completed by a mother translates into her children remaining in school for an additional one- third to one-half year”. 6

In short, girls’ education and the promotion of gender equality in education are critical to development, thus underlining the need to broadly address gender disparities in education.

The rhetorical question that needs to be raised here is whether the consistent elements of gender socialization in the region, and the confusing messages for both sexes, can only lead to entrenching processes of gender inequality. At the very least, it is safe to argue that gender socialization, combined with the continuing discrepancies in education opportunities and outcomes not only provide a negative feedback loop, but effectively contribute to entrenching patriarchal norms.

Political events and the endorsement of political leadership are often catalytic, if not necessary determinants, of policy change. In fact, most education reform programmes are often linked to political dynamics. To date, such reforms are typically launched through a political or legal act. In most cases, countries prioritize aspects such as forging a common heritage and understanding of citizenship, instruction in particular language(s), and other means of building capacities as well as popular support for party programmes. All developing country governments have, at one time or another, put special effort into including girls in the education system. While there is a continuous role for policy makers and governments, it is increasingly clear that the socio-cultural terrain is where the real battles need to be waged in a studied, deliberate and targeted fashion.

Influencing the way people think, believe and behave; i.e., culture is the single most complicated task of human development. And yet, in policy and advocacy circles globally, this particular challenge still remains largely considered as ‘soft’ and, at best, secondary in most considerations. What is maintained here is that within the current global geopolitical climate, particularly where an increasing number of young men—and now also young women—are reverting to extremes such as inflicting violence, and where this is often exacerbated by socialization processes which often enforce certain harmful practices (e.g., early marriage) and outdated forms of gender identity and roles, then culture needs to be a high priority.

Needed cultural shifts require several key conditions. One of these is the importance of bridging the activism around gender equality and doing so by involving both men and women. While this still remains anathema to many women’s rights activists, it is nevertheless necessary that men become more engaged in gender equality work, and that women realize that their rights are incumbent on the systematic partnership with men and on appreciating the specific needs and challenges that young boys and men themselves are struggling with.

Another critical determinant of cultural change is that it has to be from within. Those who have worked with human rights issues more broadly have had to learn the hard way that any change that appears to be induced ‘from outside’, even if responding to a dire need and with perfectly sound reason, is destined for failure in many cases. Sustainable change has to be owned and operated locally. This points to the importance of identifying the ‘cultural agents of change’ in any given society, which include both its men and women activists, religious leaders, traditional and community leaders (in some cases these categories converge), media figures, charismatic community mobilizers, and especially youth themselves, who are the most critical agents of change.

At the same time, it is a fallacy to think that there can be no linkages whatsoever between local ownership and external dynamics. International, especially multilateral, development partners have an important role to play in facilitating the bridge building between and among the cultural agents of change themselves on the one hand, and between them and their respective policymakers on the other. But in this day and age of technology and increasing speed of technology, international development actors, as well as transnational academic actors, are already facilitating the building of bridges between youth. Some of this is already happening through a plethora of fora (including social websites), and the impact remains difficult to gauge.

All this points to the fact that education in the traditional sense of school enrolment, drop-out rates, curricula development, and structural dynamics thereof are in multiple stages of transition. It remains to be seen how, and in what way, new forms of education, knowledge acquisition, and information sharing will significantly change patterns of gender socialization itself. It is too soon to definitely assess the shifting sands we are standing on. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to either overestimate the power of entrenched patriarchy, or to underestimate the capacity of women and men to significantly refashion their realities. At the same time, the changes in the culture of international development goal setting are already producing critical insights and inputs which are shaping the agenda of global, regional and national dynamics for upcoming decades.

The opinions expressed in this article belong to the author only and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of any institution, Board or staff member.

1 UNICEF and UNESCO: The World We Want— Making Education a Priority in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Report of the Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, 2013 . Available at http://www.unicef.org/education/files/ Making_education_a_Priority_in_the_Post-2015_Development_ Agenda.pdf.

3 “Making education a Priority in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: report of the Global Thematic Consultation on education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda”.

4 All the figures and data herein presented from UNESCO. 2011b. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011. The Hidden Crisis: Armed Conflict and Education, Paris and UNESCO . World Atlas of Gender equality in education. Paris, 2012.

5 UNESCO— http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-...

Alger, Chadwick. “Religion as a Peace Tool”, The Global Review of Ethnopolitics , vol.1,4: 94 -109. (June 2002).

Diamond, Larry (ed.). Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries (Boulder and London, Lynne Rienner, 1994). Huntington, Samuel. ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’, Foreign Affairs , vol.72, No.3, Summer 1993, pp. 19 -23.

Johnson, Chalmers. Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (New York , Henry Holt and Company, 2000).

Karam, Azza. Transnational Political Islam: Religion, Ideology and Power (London, Pluto Press, 2004).

Leftwich, Adrian (ed.). Democracy and Development: Theory and Practice (London, Polity Press, 1996).

Macrae, Joanna. Aiding Recovery? The Crisis of AID in Chronic Political Emergencies (London and New York, Zed Books in Association with ODI, 2001).

Pilch, John J. “Beat His ribs While He is young” (Sir 30:12): A Window on the Mediterranean World”, Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology, vol. 23, 3 (1993) pp 101-113.

Tynedale, Wendy. (ed.). Visions of Development: Faith-based Initiatives (UK: Ashgate, 2006).

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Arab Human Development Report (New York, 2002, 2004, and 2005).

UNESCO, “Key Messages and Data on Girls’ and Women’s education and literacy” (Paris, April 2012).

UNICEF and UNESCO, The World We Want—Making Education a Priority in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Report of the Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, 2013 . Available at http://www.unicef.org/education/files/Making_education_a_Priority_in_the... . United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) State of World Population Report: Reaching Common Ground—Culture, Gender and Human Rights (2008).

Williams, Brett (ed.). The Politics of Culture (Washington D.C., The Smithsonian Institution, 1991).

World Bank MENA report: The Road Not Travelled: Education Reform in the Middle East and North Africa , (Washington D.C. The World Bank, 2008).

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Essay on Women Education 500+ Words

Education is a powerful tool that opens doors to opportunities, growth, and progress. One crucial aspect of education is ensuring that women have equal access to it. In this essay, we will explore the significance of women’s education, its impact on individuals and societies, and why it is essential to promote and support women’s educational rights.

Defining Women’s Education

Women’s education refers to the provision of learning opportunities and resources to girls and women. It encompasses formal education in schools, colleges, and universities, as well as informal education through workshops, community programs, and self-directed learning. Women’s education is a fundamental human right and a key driver of gender equality.

The Historical Perspective

Throughout history, access to education for women has been limited in many parts of the world. Women were often denied the opportunity to learn, and their potential remained untapped. However, brave individuals and movements fought for women’s right to education, paving the way for progress.

For instance, pioneers like Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, championed girls’ education in Pakistan and worldwide. Her advocacy highlights the importance of education for girls and women and the need to break down barriers that prevent them from learning.

The Benefits of Women’s Education

Women’s education offers numerous benefits, both on an individual and societal level. When women are educated, they have better opportunities for employment and career advancement. This economic independence can lead to improved living standards and reduced poverty.

According to UNESCO, educating women can have a profound impact on child health and nutrition. Educated mothers are more likely to make informed decisions about their children’s health and well-being, leading to healthier families.

Empowerment and Gender Equality

Education empowers women by providing them with knowledge, skills, and confidence. It enables them to participate in decision-making processes, advocate for their rights, and challenge gender stereotypes and discrimination. Women who are educated are more likely to become leaders in their communities and contribute to positive societal change.

For example, women like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, used their education and legal expertise to advance gender equality and women’s rights through their work.

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Women’s education is a powerful tool for breaking the cycle of poverty. When women have access to education, they can secure better-paying jobs and provide for their families. This economic stability has a ripple effect on future generations, as educated mothers are more likely to invest in their children’s education and well-being.

A study by the World Bank found that increasing girls’ education by one year can lead to an 18% increase in a country’s GDP. This demonstrates the significant economic impact of women’s education.

Women as Agents of Change

Educated women are not only beneficiaries of change but also agents of change in their communities and nations. They play a vital role in addressing social and environmental issues, promoting peace, and advocating for human rights. Women’s education equips them with the tools to be leaders and catalysts for positive transformation.

Conclusion of Essay on Women Education

In conclusion, women’s education is a fundamental right that has far-reaching positive effects on individuals, families, and societies. It empowers women, promotes gender equality, and contributes to economic growth and poverty reduction. Moreover, educated women become advocates for change and leaders in their communities, making the world a better place for all.

As we continue to champion women’s education, let us remember the words of Malala Yousafzai: “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” By ensuring that girls and women have access to education, we are not only changing their lives but also shaping a brighter future for everyone.

Also Check: List of 500+ Topics for Writing Essay

Essay on Education Is the Key to Women’s Empowerment

Students are often asked to write an essay on Education Is the Key to Women’s Empowerment in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Education Is the Key to Women’s Empowerment

Introduction.

Education is a powerful tool for all individuals. For women, it is the key to empowerment, unlocking opportunities and freedoms.

The Power of Education

Education opens doors, helping women to gain valuable skills and knowledge. It enables them to participate in decision-making processes, both in their personal lives and in society.

Breaking Barriers

Educated women can challenge societal norms and overcome barriers. They can fight against discrimination and inequality, advocating for their rights and those of others.

In conclusion, education is pivotal for women’s empowerment. It provides them with the tools to shape their lives and communities positively.

250 Words Essay on Education Is the Key to Women’s Empowerment

Education equips women with knowledge and skills, fostering self-confidence and the ability to make informed decisions. It is the catalyst for social, political, and economic participation, enabling women to engage in dialogue, assert their rights, and challenge gender norms.

Economic Empowerment

Education opens doors to economic opportunities, reducing dependence and fostering financial autonomy. It is a stepping stone to better jobs, higher income, and economic stability. Women with education are more likely to invest in their children’s education, creating a cycle of empowerment.

Health and Well-being

Educated women are more likely to understand and advocate for their health rights, leading to improved health outcomes for themselves and their families. They are better equipped to make choices regarding family planning, nutrition, and healthcare.

Education also plays a crucial role in breaking down barriers that hinder women’s empowerment. It challenges patriarchal norms, combats discrimination, and promotes gender equality.

In conclusion, education is the key to women’s empowerment, providing the means to challenge societal norms, participate in economic activities, and make informed health decisions. It is not just a right, but a powerful tool for change, fostering a more equitable and inclusive society.

500 Words Essay on Education Is the Key to Women’s Empowerment

Education equips women with the knowledge, skills, and self-confidence necessary to participate fully in the development process. It broadens their horizons, provides them with better job opportunities, and helps them break free from the shackles of poverty. Education also instills in them a sense of self-worth, enabling them to make informed decisions about their health, family, and career.

Education and Economic Empowerment

Economic empowerment is a critical aspect of women’s empowerment. Education plays a significant role in this regard. An educated woman is more likely to participate in the labor force, earn a higher income, and have more control over her economic resources. She is also more likely to invest in her children’s education, setting a positive cycle of empowerment and development in motion.

Education as a Tool for Social Change

Challenges and the way forward.

Despite the clear benefits of women’s education, numerous challenges persist. These include gender stereotypes, early marriages, and limited access to quality education, especially in developing countries. Addressing these challenges requires concerted efforts from governments, civil society, and international organizations. Policies should aim at eliminating gender disparities in education, promoting girls’ enrollment and retention in schools, and improving the quality of education.

In conclusion, education is indeed the key to women’s empowerment. It provides women with the tools to navigate and influence the world around them, contributing significantly to their economic, social, and political empowerment. As we strive towards a more equitable and inclusive society, ensuring access to quality education for all women should be a priority. Only then can we unlock the immense potential that lies within each woman, leading to a more prosperous and just world.

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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• School Education /

Essay on Women’s Education

• Updated on  
• Dec 4, 2023

Essay on Women’s Education: As per the Right to Education Act of 2009, every Indian girl has a basic right to education. With roughly 48.5 percent of its population being female, India is the second most populous nation in the world. India is one of the nations with the fastest economic growth, yet our women’s literacy percentage is much lower than the average worldwide. In this blog, we will talk about the importance of education for women and why they should pursue it. 

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on Women’s Education in (100 Words)
• 2 Essay on Women’s Education in (150 Words)
• 3 Essay on Women’s Education (200 Words)

Learn about the importance of education in our society

Why is Education for Women Important?

According to UNICEF, it is said that by educating a girl will prevent them from marrying at a very early age and at the same time will help them to lead productive lives. Speaking of the advantages of educating a woman, it has many benefits. 

Here are some of the benefits that every girl receives after studying:

• Education for girls helps to lessen inequality in society.
• Child mortality decreases when more women are literate.
• The education of women has a good effect on social, economic, and health standards.
• Women who succeed in higher education and develop their talents earn significantly more during their lifetimes.
• Children with educated mothers are less likely to suffer from stunting or malnutrition.

Also Read: Importance of Women’s Education

Essay on Women’s Education in (100 Words)

Also Read: Essay on Knowledge Is Power

Essay on Women’s Education in (150 Words)

Also Read: Essay on Generation Gap

Essay on Women’s Education (200 Words)

Also Read: How to Prepare for UPSC in 6 Months?

Ans: Education for women is essential to the overall growth of the nation. A lady with a good education can manage both her personal and professional lives.

Ans: The “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan” (SSA) has focused on initiatives for females, including the opening of schools in the area to make access easier for girls and to guarantee more involvement of girls in primary education.

Ans: Savitribai Phule was also the first female teacher in Indian history.

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We hope this blog provides you with all the information about the importance of education for women. 

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Malvika Chawla

Malvika is a content writer cum news freak who comes with a strong background in Journalism and has worked with renowned news websites such as News 9 and The Financial Express to name a few. When not writing, she can be found bringing life to the canvasses by painting on them.

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Essay on Girl Education for Students and Children

500+ words essay on girl education.

If we look at the demographics, India is one of the most populated countries. However, the rate of girl education is quite low in the country. It is quite troubling to see the figures in a country where women are given the status of goddesses. The figures have significantly improved to an extent but there’s still a long way to go.

Women were not allowed to even step out of their houses in ancient India , but times are changing. Along with changing times, people’s thinking is also changing. They wish to educate their girls and see them succeed in life. However, this is not the case in rural India which makes for more than 60% of the population. We need to identify the factors responsible for such low rates of girl education to find some solutions.

Factors Contributing to Low Rate of Girl Education

There are various factors that make it impossible for girls to get an education in our country. Firstly, the poverty rate is alarming. Even though education is being made free, it still involves a substantial cost to send girls to school. Therefore, families who are struggling to make ends meet fail to pay the educational expenses of their children.

Secondly, in rural areas, there aren’t many schools. This creates a distance problem as they are located far from the villages. In some areas, students have to walk for three to four hours to reach their school. This is where the safety of the girls gets compromised so parents don’t see it fit to send them off so far.

Furthermore, the regressive thinking of the people makes it tougher for girls to get an education. Some people still believe girls are meant to stay in their houses and look after the kitchen. They do not like women to do any other tasks expect for household ones.

Other than that, social issues like child marriage and child labor also stop the girl from getting an education. Parents pull daughters out of school to marry them off at an early age. Also, when girls indulge in child labor, they do not get time to study.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Benefits of Girl Education

If we wish to see India progress and develop, we need to educate our girl child. They are indeed the future of our nation. Moreover, when they become educated, they will not have to be dependent on others for their livelihood.

One of the most important benefits of girl education is that the country’s future will be brighter and better. Similarly, our economy can grow faster if more and more women become financially strong thereby reducing poverty.

Furthermore, women who are educated can take proper care of their children. This will strengthen the future as lesser kids will die due to a lack of vaccination or a similar reason. Even for women, they will be less likely to become a patient of HIV/AIDS as they will be aware of the consequences.

Most importantly, educated women can result in a decrease in social issues like corruption, child marriage , domestic abuse and more. They will become more confident and handle their families better in all spheres. Thus we see how one educated woman can bring so much change in her life along with the others as well.

Some FAQs on Girl Education

Q.1 Why is girl education not encouraged in India?

A.1 India is still a developing country. It has too much poverty and regressive thinking. It is one of the main reasons why people don’t encourage girls to get an education.

Q.2 What are the advantages of educating girls?

A.2 When we educate girls, we educate a whole nation. As she teaches everyone around her. The education of girls will result in a better economy and a brighter future along with enhanced confidence of the girl.

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• Essay on Female Education: For All Students

Female education is a very important topic to talk about in our country. That’s why we are sharing a few short and long essays on Female Education. Any students can learn these easy and simple essays.

In This Blog We Will Discuss

Female Education: Short Essay (200 Words)

In a country like India , female education is being appreciated day by day. But a few years ago, the situation was not like now. People are changing and they are being smart and educated. Educated people can realize the importance of girl’s education.

But there are still a large number of girls are illiterate and they are not able to get an education. We need to stand for them and make education easy for every single girl in the world. An educated girl or women could do so many things that others can’t.

We can see that they are smarter than others. They raise their kids better and in a proper way. They study and learn things that help them to lead a better life. We all need to realize that and let our girls be educated.

Our country is growing according to a better economy. And females have a big share of this economy. Educated females are participating in everywhere. And that will help us to change our country soon.    

Female Education: Essay (300 Words)

Introduction: Female education is a really important term right now for the entire world. From the very beginning, people used to neglect female education, as a result, women are so much behind according to research. Few first world countries are done really amazing in this, but still, now there are problems. Here, in this essay, we will take look at ‘female education in Bangladesh and others’.

Napoleon said, ‘give me an educated mother, I will give you an educated nation’. Can you realize the quote? An educated mother can create an educated nation. If our wives and our sisters won’t get proper education then how can we expect that our next generation will be educated? That’s why we need to put some extra effort into ‘Female Education’.  

Female Education in Bangladesh: Bangladesh is a growing country with a fair amount of female education ratio. But a few years earlier, girls were really rare in school and colleges. But right now, in some boards, girls are doing far better than boys. So we can realize the evolution of education among female in Bangladesh.

Economically Bangladesh is a growing country. Females also have a great share of that. Due to the increase in their education ration, they are participating everywhere. They are doing a corporate job and also starting their own businesses. That is really good news for any country. They are working in every sector.  

Importance of Female Education: There is a huge importance of female education. We need to emphasize that. Women are a vital part of us. We can’t arrange a better society or a better nation without them. They should be our partner in the journey. And we, of course, appreciate educated and well-learned partner with us. Whatever we do, they are helping us to complete that.  

Conclusion: Female education is really necessary for every woman in this world. We should focus on that.    

Female Education: Essay (500 Words)

Introduction: The world is growing and being special day by day. But in every sector, girls are not participating equally with boys. What’s the main reason behind this? I think of female education. Our life starts with education and if we can pursue education properly we can go really long in our life.

And if we can’t, we may not be able to go long. But in this world, lots of females are still away from education. Sometimes they leave study after a certain age. We need to work on that and make awareness among people. That will help us to understand the importance of female education.  

Controversy: There are huge controversies about education for a girl. Some people present really funny and weak logic to prevent a girl’s education. But we should stand against them and let our girls to be educated. We can’t imagine a good nation without educated girls.

If we look at history, there are lots of female scholars who have done really well for their country. We have ‘Begum Rokeya’, she has started a revolution in India and Bangladesh which let girls start studying. We always need to stay away from the controversies and try to make our girl’s educated.  

Female Education Advantages: There are lots of advantages of female education. Our whole society can be benefited from the process. Girls are working with boys outside nowadays; if they don’t get the proper education they won’t get a better job.

That’s why they need to pay attention to education. We also need to ensure their study. An educated mother can build an educated family. People won’t get proper good behaviour and manners without a good education.  

Importance of an Educated Wife: In your family, of course, you don’t want an illiterate wife. You want an educated girl as your wife. But why, because the future of your kids depends on that. If she is educated, there is a high chance for your kids to be educated. So there is really high importance of educated wife in a family.  

Equality in Education: We should bring equality in the education system all across the world. In this world, there are still lots of people don’t believe in equality among boys and girls. But being honest, they are the same. We need to treat the same and make them perfect for each other. If we don’t keep the equality, that will hurt them and don’t let them grow properly.  

Conclusion: Female education essay is a really important one. We all can make awareness to our area and let people realize the importance of education for their girls. If we all start trying, then there will be a change and this change will change the world. We all can change the world together.  

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Friday essay: girls have long been woefully underestimated – but now they’re roaring back

Associate Professor in Literary Studies, Monash University

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Michelle Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Teenage girls are typically the least powerful and most underestimated group within Western cultures – where adults are seen as superior to children, and men are privileged above women. Girls can also provoke cultural fears and anxieties because they occupy a transitional space between childhood and adulthood.

How old is a “girl”? The definition has shifted, along with things like the age of consent and marriage. The significance of marriage has tended to mean young women are called “girls” even into their early twenties. While female children are also understood as girls, a distinct girls’ culture begins, it’s generally thought, around the pre-teen years.

The separate stage of life we know as girlhood originated in the second half of the 19th century. It was brought into being by two major transformations: the raise of the age of marriage to the early twenties and girls working outside the home. In Britain and the United States, these changes created a time of independence for young women, between being under the control of parents and the confines of marriage, as literary historian Sally Mitchell has written .

The reality of girls having financial and personal freedom was a worrying prospect. As Mitchell writes , the way a girl is seen as both immature and occupying a liminal stage “gives her permission to behave in ways that might not be appropriate for a woman”.

Yet a separately designated period of girlhood also gave rise to a girls’ culture designed to cater to their unique interests, such as books, magazines and organisations. This “girl culture” would expand and become more visible in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Today’s girls enjoy a wide range of interests and pursuits, from Taylor Swift fandom to political action and elite sport. Yet their interests are often trivialised or dismissed.

Girls of substance

Girls are often framed as “ at risk ”, or as potential dangers to themselves via sex and drugs. At the same time, they are typically dismissed in terms of their political or cultural influence. A popular nursery rhyme suggests girls are made of “sugar and spice and all things nice”. This implies a pleasant, compliant nature, rather than challenging the status quo.

When girls have made a political impact and risen to international prominence, they have often been the target of significant hatred. For example, activist Greta Thunberg gained global notoriety as a 15-year-old when she began the School Strike for Climate movement in 2018.

She became a figure of online hate, especially after sailing to the US in 2019 to participate in climate talks. Thunberg was criticised for having political passion (“whining” and exhibiting “anger”), and for daring to speak up when she was only a “child”.

Even Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who survived being shot by a Taliban gunman in Pakistan in 2012 and subsequently became an activist for girls’ education, has been the subject of waves of “ Malala hate ”. Her acceptance into Oxford University, her Nobel Peace Prize and high-profile interviews in magazines such as Vogue have only heightened the volume and vitriol of the disapproval.

Girls of substance, such as Thunberg and Yousafzai, defy feminine expectations by being assertive and refusing to accept social and political norms largely established by male leaders. The degree of irritation these outspoken girls have provoked illustrates how they disrupt the cultural expectations of girls as compliant and unimportant.

Boys vs girls in popular culture

Just as girls themselves have been dismissed when they have attempted to influence politics or culture, the interests and passions of girls have typically been derided as trivial in comparison with those of boys and men.

One of the first visible manifestations of female fandom was teenage girls’ early enthusiasm for The Beatles in the 1960s. As expert on media fandom Mark Duffett explains , the enthusiasm of girls and women for the band was distinguished as “feminized ‘hysterical’ affect” in contrast with “intellectually mature, artistic appreciation”.

The idea that the aspects of culture girls are attracted to are inferior or disposable is another way their interests have been belittled.

Words associated with the music girls primarily consume, such as “bubblegum” pop, signal its “sweetness” and lack of substance. In the 1980s and 1990s, girls’ fandom of “boy bands” such as New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys was disparaged.

More recently, there is some animosity towards “Swifties” and dismissal of the musical quality and likely longevity of Taylor Swift’s music. However, her undeniably successful recent tour to Australia attracted reams of positive media coverage. Articles celebrated girls and their mothers wearing glitter and sequins and attending concerts together.

In the realm of cinema, superhero and comic films are big business today: the Marvel cinematic universe is the highest-grossing franchise in history. These films, with huge production and marketing budgets, are derived from publications and toys typically associated with boys. Though some of these fictional universes include female characters, they are less commonly at the forefront.

In contrast, girls’ interests and hobbies have been so derided and marginalised that Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023) was one of the first films to elevate a girls’ toy to major cinema prominence.

Unlike the seven-film Transformers franchise , which has grossed over $5 billion , Barbie exhibits a high-degree of self-awareness and irony about the toy and how girls play with it. Barbie, which has grossed 1.45 billion US dollars at the box office, was widely dissected as a measure of contemporary feminism.

While a predominantly male viewership can uncritically watch action films about robots that change form for entertainment, a story about an iconic fashion doll for girls carried many other expectations – because of its rarity and the sense that girls’ toys and interests are frivolous.

From dismissal to lucrative market share

In the 1870s, in both Britain and the United States, doctors argued against the value of girls’ education by suggesting girls entering puberty required the limited supply of energy available within their bodies to prepare their reproductive systems for womanhood. If girls undertook rigorous academic study, their ability to have healthy children and to retain “their natural grace and gentility” might have been compromised, writes historian Kathleen E. McCrone.

These historical opinions highlight two perceptions of girls: first, that they were physically “weaker” beings who were not capable of the same physical and intellectual activities as boys; and second, that their primary purpose was to bear children.

Things have changed a great deal since. Teenage girls, for instance, are participating in the Olympics in notable numbers as peak athletes. Skateboarding in particular features girls such as 14-year-old Australian skateboarder Arisa Trew , who became the youngest ever Australian Olympic gold medallist this week. (She also became the first woman to land a 720 – two full rotations while mid-air – in competition.)

Girls now have a different kind of cachet: market power in a capitalist economy. In 2000, a Disney executive observed the number of girls dressed in generic princess costumes for live Disney on Ice performances. In response, he initiated the Disney Princess line of merchandise. These toys, costumes, books and accessories reached annual sales in the billions in the early 2000s .

In 2023, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which appealed largely to girls and young women, became the highest-grossing tour of all time .

Nevertheless, Swift attracts criticism that her performances are as not as legitimate as those of male bands who cater to an older fanbase (which includes more men). In a direct reference to the Eras Tour, the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, for example, joked with a live audience that his band was undertaking the “Errors Tour”, “because we actually play live”.

One cultural arena where girls dominate is reading. The 2024 Report of the Australian Teen Reading in the Digital Era project shows twice as many girls are “fiction fanatics” (avid readers) as boys. And boys are far more likely than girls to abstain from reading altogether.

Most young adult fiction is written by women , for an audience of primarily girls and young women. Girls are highly influential on the book industry, by sharing their opinions about books on BookTok and exerting pressure on publishers through social media to increase the diversity of published authors .

The gendered nature of teen reading is commonly framed as a “problem”, with campaigns for more fiction to be published that will directly appeal to boys , to improve their rates of literacy. However, research has repeatedly found male characters have been historically overrepresented in children’s literature. This continues to be the case, despite modest improvements in recent years.

Until comparatively recently, girls have been expected to identify vicariously with male protagonists in fiction and film. Yet it is typically presumed that boys are not willing to read or view stories about girls or written by women, just as men largely refuse to read books written by women . Author of the Harry Potter series, Joanne Rowling, famously adopted the pen-name “J.K” because of her publisher’s assumption that boys would not read a book written by a woman .

The women of tomorrow

In 2024, young women comprise around 60 per cent of Australian university students , reflecting women’s entry into numerous professions. Meanwhile Kamala Harris is a serious contender to become the first female US president, showing girls they can aspire to almost any role in life.

Yet despite movements towards equality for girls and women, sexism continues to permeate many institutions and girls continue to experience sexual assault at double the rate of boys .

Girls are the women of tomorrow. To improve the future for women, it is important to reevaluate attitudes towards girls’ culture and interests. We need to consider why they are often dismissed, compared to the hobbies and passions of boys.

For parents, there is a vital role to play in counteracting stereotypes about girls. Adults can also improve their engagement with girls to prepare them to face a sometimes hostile world.

Chelsey Goodan’s Underestimated: The Wisdom and Power of Teenage Girls , for instance, talks about the need to trust girls to make their own choices, the importance of discussing complex issues, such as sexuality, with them honestly, and why we need to listen to them in ways that allow them to reveal difficult emotions, such as shame and fear.

As Goodan suggests, by dismissing girls with labels like “hormonal”, “crazy” and “dramatic”, our culture “minimizes their voice until it’s silent”.

Most importantly, we can empower girls to speak up. We can also improve our level of respect for them and what they have to say. Devaluing the period of youth for half of the population contributes to attitudes that diminish the contributions, achievements and interests of women, too.

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• DOI: 10.31958/agenda.v5i2.9899
• Corpus ID: 266840975

The Psychological Impact of Women and Children's Education After Divorce from Infidelity and Domestic Violence

• Rahayu Eka Putri
• Published in AGENDA: Jurnal Analisis… 15 November 2023
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Curiosity unleashed: the missing ingredient in business education.

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Curiosity lies at the heart of all meaningful learning, particularly in business education. Educators witness firsthand how curiosity drives not only academic success but also the capacity to thrive in the constantly evolving world of business. Dr. Diane Hamilton , in her newly released book Curiosity Unleashed , explores the critical role that curiosity plays in shaping future business leaders.

Dr. Hamilton believes that in higher education, fostering curiosity is not just about encouraging students to ask questions. It is about empowering young minds to look beyond the obvious and confront the obstacles that hold organizations back. These insights resonate deeply in a world where the status quo often suppresses innovation. For leaders to emerge, they must possess the ability to question, explore, and challenge conventional thinking.

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The connection between curiosity and critical thinking is clear. Critical thinking involves assessing situations, identifying opportunities, and solving problems in creative ways. These abilities are nurtured by a curious mindset. When students are curious, they become more engaged, which in turn fosters innovation. Dr. Hamilton discusses how business courses grounded in curiosity help students bridge the gap between theory and practice, enabling them to address real-world problems that organizations frequently struggle to solve.

In business education, fostering curiosity should be a top priority. Diane mentions that too often, the focus is placed on teaching the "what" and "how," while neglecting the importance of the "why." Students need to learn to question assumptions, remain open to new ideas, and explore possibilities beyond the obvious. This is not just about preparing them for exams; it is about equipping them to handle the complex challenges they will encounter in their careers. The true value of curiosity in the classroom lies in its ability to break down the barriers of fear and complacency, paving the way for bold, innovative thinking.

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To effectively cultivate curiosity, educators must be aware of the factors that inhibit it. Whether it is fear of failure, rigid thinking, or a lack of exposure to diverse ideas, these barriers can stifle the very curiosity that needs to be encouraged. Dr. Hamilton underscores the importance of creating environments where students feel safe to ask questions, make mistakes, and explore new ideas without fear of judgment. This kind of environment is essential for developing not only better students but also better leaders.

Curiosity in business education does more than enhance learning—it aligns with what organizations need most: critical thinkers who can break free from the status quo and drive meaningful change. Curiosity does not just improve the classroom experience; it cultivates the skills that are essential for success in the business world.

The value of curiosity in business education extends beyond the classroom. It is a lifelong skill that will benefit students in both their careers and personal lives. By fostering curiosity, educators are not only teaching students to think critically; they are also encouraging innovation, engagement, and success in whatever paths the students choose to pursue. This is the true value of curiosity, and it is why it should be at the center of everything done in business education.

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Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the newly announced running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, has worked with his state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature to enact an ambitious agenda of liberal policies: free college tuition for low-income students, free meals for schoolchildren, legal recreational marijuana and protections for transgender people.

“You don’t win elections to bank political capital,” Mr. Walz wrote last year about his approach to governing. “You win elections to burn political capital and improve lives.”

Republicans have slammed these policies as big-government liberalism and accused Mr. Walz of taking a hard left turn since he represented a politically divided district in Congress years ago.

Here is an overview of where Mr. Walz stands on some key issues.

Mr. Walz signed a bill last year that guaranteed Minnesotans a “fundamental right to make autonomous decisions” about reproductive health care on issues such as abortion, contraception and fertility treatments.

Abortion was already protected by a Minnesota Supreme Court decision, but the new law guarded against a future court reversing that precedent as the U.S. Supreme Court did with Roe v. Wade, and Mr. Walz said this year that he was also open to an amendment to the state’s Constitution that would codify abortion rights.

Another bill he signed legally shields patients, and their medical providers, if they receive an abortion in Minnesota after traveling from a state where abortion is banned.

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Celebrating Four Consecutive Years of 100% International Baccalaureate Pass Rate

North Broward Preparatory School (NBPS) is thrilled to announce a remarkable milestone: for the fourth consecutive year, our senior class has achieved a 100% pass rate in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma program. This outstanding achievement underscores the dedication of our students and faculty and highlights the rigorous academic environment, which prepares students for higher education and beyond. 

NBPS students have not only maintained a perfect pass rate but also surpassed the global average IB score. While the global average diploma score is around 30-31 points, our students achieved an impressive average score of 33 points. This reflects the school's robust academic support and the personal attention each student receives. 

An accredited IB World School since 2008, NBPS is recognized as one of the best IB schools in Florida . Assistant Principal Tamara Wolpowitz, who serves as the IB and AP (Advanced Placement) advisor, expressed her pride in the students' achievements: "We take immerse pride in our results. Having a 100% pass rate again is impressive. We're higher than the world average by three points, which is a testament to the hard work of our students and the dedication of our faculty."  

The Significance of IB 

An IB education is known for its challenging curriculum that fosters critical thinking, intercultural understanding, and a global mindset—skills that are increasingly valuable in today’s interconnected world. The curriculum is designed to develop a universal two-year high school curriculum with proper challenges to address the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical well-being of students. At NBPS, the IB program is a cornerstone of our commitment to providing a world-class education that equips students with the tools they need to succeed in college and their future careers. 

Students start in the Diploma Program (DP) curriculum in their junior year. The curriculum consists of DP core and learning six subject groups: language and literature, language acquisition, individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics, and the arts. The subject groups are separated into higher levels and standard level. 

DP Core: A Foundation for Success 

The IB Diploma Program (IBDP) thrives on a foundation of intellectual rigor and personal growth, centered around its DP Core. This trio— Extended Essay , Theory of Knowledge (TOK) , and Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS) —is more than just a curriculum requirement; it's the heartbeat of a well-rounded education.  

At the forefront of guiding our students through these pivotal experiences are teachers Keith Lindsley and Ann Tillman, whose passion and expertise in the IB Core subjects are instrumental in shaping our students' journey. Their commitment ensures that each student not only meets the rigorous demands of the IB program but also emerges as a critical thinker and an engaged global citizen.  

“Through Theory of Knowledge, the Extended Essay, and Creativity, Activity, and Service, the Core class interconnects the other six classes of an IB Diploma Program. By examining the question ‘How do we know what we know?’ Students create a mosaic of their knowledge, developing a complex understanding of the world and the limits of our knowledge. Core is the heart of the IBDP,” shares Keith Lindsley, Extended Essay Coordinator and IB Economics teacher. 

With the DP Core as its foundation, our IB program doesn't just prepare students for exams—it prepares them for life. 

A Pathway to Prestigious Colleges 

The IB diploma is highly regarded by colleges and universities worldwide . Director of College Advising Brian Johnson emphasizes the importance of the IB diploma program in college admissions: "Colleges recognize the IB diploma as a mark of academic rigor and dedication. Our students’ success in the IB program significantly enhances their college applications and opens doors to some of the most prestigious institutions." 

Many colleges award IB classes college credit, sometimes equating to an associate's degree. This sets a solid foundation for high-level college coursework, allowing students to start at a higher academic level than their peers. As a result, these students attend top colleges in the country and worldwide. "The college admissions offices recognize these students challenged themselves in ways that most students have not. The universities expect these students to arrive on campus and thrive," Mr. Johnson shares. 

Florida universities particularly recognize the importance of the IB diploma. Graduates receive higher acceptance rates to selective universities and are eligible for the full Florida Academic Scholars (FAS) Bright Futures scholarship, covering 100% of tuition and applicable fees at a Florida public college or university, regardless of SAT or ACT scores. Florida State University awards all IB diploma students an additional $1,000 per semester equaling $8,000.

"Students understand the value of a free education and the opportunities that this additional funding will lead to in their future," Mr. Johnson adds. 

Testimonials from Students

Mia Perez, a bilingual diploma graduate, shared her experience: "The IB program at NBPS challenged me to push my limits and broaden my horizons. The support from my teachers was incredible, and I feel more than prepared for my next step at college." Mia will attend Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, majoring in International Politics. 

Salutatorian Markas Hanna, who received the second-highest score in his class, reflects on his time in the IB program: "I am proud of myself and thankful that my work paid off seeing my score. I am most grateful for the amazing teachers I had who helped me through the curriculum, especially Mr. Lindsley." Markas will attend the University of Florida Honors College, studying Data Science.  

Preparing for the Future

The IB program at NBPS equips students with the knowledge, skills, and experiences to excel in higher education and beyond, paving the way for a bright and successful future. 

Many of our IB graduates will attend Harvard, Princeton, Duke, University of Florida, top 25 universities, and other top institutions. Their achievements in the IB program have set a solid foundation for their future academic and professional endeavors. 

“We are looking for students who are independent thinkers, knowledgeable, and open-minded to join our IB diploma program. The team of talented teachers at North Broward Prep work closely with students to give them the best possible lessons and advice before the next stage in their career.” shares Ms. Wolpowitz 

The consistent 100% IB pass rate at NBPS is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and excellence of our students and faculty. The IB program not only prepares students for college but also equips them with the skills and knowledge to thrive in a global society. As we celebrate this milestone, we remain committed to providing an exceptional educational experience that continues to inspire and empower our students. 

At North Broward Preparatory School, we believe in nurturing the potential of every student and guiding them toward a future filled with limitless possibilities. Our IB diploma program stands as a beacon of academic excellence, a pathway to prestigious universities, and a foundation for lifelong success.

As we look ahead, we are excited to see our graduates make their mark on the world, armed with the confidence and competence that IB instills. Looking forward to another year of outstanding achievements and bright futures!

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Here’s how summer training shapes athletes into champions, with insights from NBPS Athletic Director, Strength and Conditioning Director, and dedicated coaches. 

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