Why educate girls?

It should come as no surprise that the most famous advocates for girls education around the world are women of color with one degree of separation from Beyoncé. Malala Yousafzai is most famous for reaching acclaim as a girls’ rights blogger for the BBC who was shot in the head by a critic bent on maintaining the status quo of a girl’s place in society – i.e., a mother and homemaker, with no use for education. Michelle Obama is perhaps one of the more famous and beloved first ladies of American history, and championed a Let Girls Learn Initiative while her husband was serving in the White House. Both women have worked tirelessly to ensure that girls all across the globe have access to adequate schooling and options for the course of their life.

Considering the strength of a girl’s contributions within the home, it should come as no surprise that educated girls and women have incredible and measurable impacts on their society and the human development of their communities. Considering that women make up just over half the world’s population, it makes total and complete sense that a community that does not invest in their girls is one that is far less efficient, economically stable, and less healthy. Research has shown repeatedly that “particularly in remote and rural contexts… [studies have] reaffirmed the importance and vital impact of educating girls for the overall development of society” (Somani, 2017). While all children who are denied an education are almost guaranteed to live in poverty for the rest of their lives, girls especially are at risk of succumbing to diseases (with HIV being particularly prevalent), becoming victim to violence, abuse, or human trafficking, and exploitation of all kinds. The children born to illiterate women are more at risk of disease and early deaths, or may suffer needlessly in a home without enough to survive; they are also far less likely to receive an education themselves (Unicef, 2004).

Consider this excerpt from a blog post I wrote over three years ago while living in Benin, a small Francophone country in West Africa: 

You probably know already why a good education is important. It's obvious in America what it takes to succeed, and while the game is always changing, you don't even get to play the game if you don't have a significant education. It's the same here in Benin, but it's especially difficult if you won (or lost, depending on how you see it) the genetic lottery that means you were born a girl. Aside from all the physical hardships  of menstruation and birth, being a girl in Benin means you're less than a second-class citizen. It is assumed from day 1 that you are less intelligent, less strong, less capable. I know this because I have had this argument more times that I can count. "Women's brains are completely different. They don't work as well." "Women don't need an education. Women can't work, because they have babies." It is a waste of money to educate a girl, because she cannot learn.


If this makes your blood boil at all, welcome to Benin. And that's just the start. Say a girl has a supportive family who will send her to school - she then has to find the money to pay her school fees, find the time to study in between watching her siblings and washing clothes by hand and going to the well to pull water for the house and cooking dinner. She has to hope that she can make it through the day without being sexually harassed by her peers and teachers, and hope that her teacher doesn't decide to blackmail her into sleeping with him for a passing grade. (It would make you cry to know what a common thing this is.) She has to hope she doesn't become pregnant if she is accosted by her professors, because once she becomes pregnant she is kicked out of school and shamed.

I wrote those words years ago while preparing a week-long girls camp in Northern Benin; I went on to bring three girls to that camp who went on to become leaders in their schools and communities. These are girls who, without the encouragement of an American stranger and the financial and academic scholarship they received from this mentorship, possibly would have been married and had children before they were sixteen. Without the encouragement of a respected foreigner, the education of these girls might have been seen as an extravagance ill-afforded by their families, especially as families lost the services a laundress, dish-washer, fire-tender, cook, housemaid, and babysitter. Some of these girls became closer to me than family, so their chance at prosperity and success was something that became very close to my heart. 

The education of girls has several gigantic impacts on all of society:

·      Educated women are less likely to die in childbirth – if all mothers completed primary education, maternal deaths would be reduced by two-thirds (saving 98,000 lives!)

·      Mothers’ education improves child nutrition – if all mothers finished their primary education, 1.7 million children would be saved from stunting from malnutrition

·      Girls with higher levels of education are less likely to get marries and have children at a younger age – if all girls had a secondary education, there would be two-thirds fewer child marriages and 60% fewer girls would become pregnant under 17 years of age in Sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia

·      Education lowers the pay gap between men and women and ensures more women find work

The United Nations states that access to education is a basic human right, regardless of gender or wealth. Considering the UN published this publicly in 1948 and this gender disparity is still disturbingly prevalent clearly communicates that our current status is not aligned with our optimistic goals. Unicef’s flagship publication, The State of the World’s Children (2016),  focuses on the particular ills that are born out of child marriage, particularly in the rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Anjelique Kidjo writes that, without significant progress, “almost 950 million women will have been married as children by 2030” (Unicef, 2016). These young women have no agency over the shape of their lives and become especially vulnerable to domestic violence and loss of control regarding safe sex and family planning. As stated elsewhere, these young women are much more highly at risk of sexually transmitted diseases, risky pregnancies, and a higher chance of infant mortality upon delivery. With few other options, many of these women pass this lifestyle on to the next generation, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and misery.

Thus, a girl’s access to education is crucial for both her and her society’s improvement and success. While we can begin to address this vast inequality through investments in girls education, mentorship programs, community service initiatives, and training of educators, we must also engage int hat slow work of addressing and transforming our social attitudes about the worth of a girls education.

References

Somani, Tabreek. (2017). Importance of educating girls for the overall development of society: A global perspective. Journal of Educational Research and Practice, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp. 125-139. Walden university, LLC: Minneapolis, MN.

Obama White House. Let Girls Learn. Retrieved from

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/letgirlslearn.

UNESCO. (2013). Education for all global monitoring report fact sheet: Girls’ education – the facts. Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/gem-report/files/girls-factsheet-en.pdf.

Unicef. (2004). The State of the World’s Children 2004. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/sowc04/.

Unicef. (2016). The State of the World’s Children 2016. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/UNICEF_SOWC_2016.pdf.

USAID. (Last updated 2018). Girls’ Education. Retrieved from https://www.usaid.gov/education/girls.