8 March 2024
In our world today, as we grapple with multiple crises, investing in girls’ and women’s right to education emerges as not just a moral imperative but a necessity. Such investment is crucial for building peaceful, just, equitable, and inclusive societies, ensuring gender equality, and safeguarding the planet and its natural resources. Achieving these goals demands universal access to education and empowering every girl to reach her full potential.
Despite notable progress, gender disparities persist across various facets of education, including access, completion, skills acquisition, and quality. This is according to UNESCO’s “Her Education Her Future” fact sheet on girls’ education. Globally, strides have been made in narrowing the gender gap in out-of-school rates among upper-secondary-age youth, with the gap falling from four percentage points in 2000 to zero by 2020. However, disparities still linger in certain countries, perpetuating inequalities.
Moreover, within countries, girls from disadvantaged backgrounds face compounded challenges, particularly concerning their location and socioeconomic status. This exacerbates the gender gap, hindering their educational opportunities and perpetuating cycles of poverty and marginalisation.
While gender parity in secondary school completion was achieved in 2010, subsequent years have seen a resurgence of disparities, with 95 young men completing upper secondary school for every 100 young women by 2017. In regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, barriers such as late enrolment and repetition impede young women’s educational trajectories, often pushing them towards early marriage and childbearing.
In terms of academic performance, progress has been uneven. While the gender gap in reading has largely closed, a slight advantage for boys persists in mathematics during primary education, though this reverses in lower secondary education. Furthermore, societal norms and expectations influence career choices, with boys more inclined to pursue mathematics-related occupations, as evidenced by studies like the 2019 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
In the realm of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills, women continue to face disparities, particularly at lower skill levels. However, at higher skill levels, parity is often achieved, with women even surpassing men in some cases. This underscores the importance of targeted interventions to bridge the digital divide and empower women in the digital economy.
While strides have been made in tertiary education, with gender parity achieved globally in 1998, recent trends indicate a concerning shift. Signs of disparity, now favouring men, have emerged since 2004 and continue to escalate. This highlights the need for sustained efforts to ensure equal opportunities for both genders throughout all levels of education.
Investing in girls’ education yields far-reaching societal benefits, including greater agency and decision-making abilities, improved living standards, and intergenerational gains in health and nutrition. Additionally, it serves as a critical tool in combating child marriage and early childbearing, while also enhancing access to decent work and fostering economic development.
Moreover, the contributions of girls and women are indispensable in transitioning to a green economy. Increased representation in green jobs, access to decision-making roles, and climate literacy are essential components of this shift, underscoring the pivotal role of girls’ and women’s education in sustainable development.
