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Investing in girls’ education transforms communities, countries and the entire world. Girls who receive an education are less likely to marry young and more likely to lead healthy, productive lives. They earn higher incomes, participate in the decisions that most affect them, and build better futures for themselves and their families.

Girls’ education strengthens economies and reduces inequality. It contributes to more stable, resilient societies that give all individuals – including boys and men – the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

But education for girls is about more than access to school. It’s also about girls feeling safe in classrooms and supported in the subjects and careers they choose to pursue – including those in which they are often under-represented.

When we invest in girls’ secondary education

• The lifetime earnings of girls dramatically increase
• National growth rates rise
• Child marriage rates decline
• Child mortality rates fall
• Maternal mortality rates fall
• Child stunting drops

Why are girls out of school?

Despite evidence demonstrating how central girls’ education is to development, gender disparities in education persist.

Around the world, 129 million girls are out of school, including 32 million of primary school age, 30 million of lower-secondary school age, and 67 million of upper-secondary school age. In countries affected by conflict, girls are more than twice as likely to be out of school than girls living in non-affected countries.

Worldwide, 129 million girls are out of school.

Only 49 per cent of countries have achieved gender parity in primary education. At the secondary level, the gap widens: 42 per cent of countries have achieved gender parity in lower secondary education, and 24 per cent in upper secondary education.

The reasons are many. Barriers to girls’ education – like poverty, child marriage and gender-based violence – vary among countries and communities. Poor families often favour boys when investing in education.

In some places, schools do not meet the safety, hygiene or sanitation needs of girls. In others, teaching practices are not gender-responsive and result in gender gaps in learning and skills development.

Gender equality in education

Gender-equitable education systems empower girls and boys and promote the development of life skills – like self-management, communication, negotiation and critical thinking – that young people need to succeed. They close skills gaps that perpetuate pay gaps, and build prosperity for entire countries.

Gender-equitable education systems can contribute to reductions in school-related gender-based violence and harmful practices, including child marriage and female genital mutilation .

Gender-equitable education systems help keep both girls and boys in school, building prosperity for entire countries.

An education free of negative gender norms has direct benefits for boys, too. In many countries, norms around masculinity can fuel disengagement from school, child labour, gang violence and recruitment into armed groups. The need or desire to earn an income also causes boys to drop out of secondary school, as many of them believe the curriculum is not relevant to work opportunities.

UNICEF’s work to promote girls’ education

UNICEF works with communities, Governments and partners to remove barriers to girls’ education and promote gender equality in education – even in the most challenging settings.

Because investing in girls’ secondary education is one of the most transformative development strategies, we prioritize efforts that enable all girls to complete secondary education and develop the knowledge and skills they need for life and work.

This will only be achieved when the most disadvantaged girls are supported to enter and complete pre-primary and primary education. Our work:

• Tackles discriminatory gender norms and harmful practices that deny girls access to school and quality learning.
• Supports Governments to ensure that budgets are gender-responsive and that national education plans and policies prioritize gender equality.
• Helps schools and Governments use assessment data to eliminate gender gaps in learning.
• Promotes social protection measures, including cash transfers, to improve girls’ transition to and retention in secondary school.
• Focuses teacher training and professional development on gender-responsive pedagogies.
• Removes gender stereotypes from learning materials.
• Addresses other obstacles, like distance-related barriers to education, re-entry policies for young mothers, and menstrual hygiene management in schools.

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Girls' Education

Every day, girls face barriers to education caused by poverty, cultural norms and practices, poor infrastructure, violence and fragility. Girls’ education is a strategic development priority for the World Bank.

Ensuring that all girls and young women receive a quality education is their human right, a global development priority, and a strategic priority for the World Bank. 

Achieving gender equality is central to the World Bank Group twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. As the largest financing development partner in education globally, the World Bank ensures that all of its education projects are gender-sensitive, and works to overcome barriers that are preventing girls and boys from equally benefiting from countries’ investments in education.

Girls’ education goes beyond getting girls into school. It is also about ensuring that girls learn and feel safe while in school; have the opportunity to complete all levels of education, acquiring the knowledge and skills to compete in the labor market; gain socio-emotional and life skills necessary to navigate and adapt to a changing world; make decisions about their own lives; and contribute to their communities and the world.

Both individuals and countries benefit from girls’ education. Better educated women tend to be more informed about nutrition and healthcare, have fewer children, marry at a later age, and their children are usually healthier, should they choose to become mothers. They are more likely to participate in the formal labor market and earn higher incomes. A recent World Bank  study  estimates that the “limited educational opportunities for girls, and barriers to completing 12 years of education, cost countries between US$15 trillion1 and $30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings.” All these factors combined can help lift households, communities, and countries out of poverty.

The Challenge

According to  UNICEF   estimates, around the world, 129 million girls are out of school, including 32  million of primary school age, and 97 million of secondary school age. 

Globally, primary, and secondary school enrollment rates are getting closer to equal for girls and boys (90% male, 89% female). But while enrollment rates are similar – in fact, two-thirds of all countries have reached  gender parity in primary school enrollment  – completion rates for girls are lower in low-income countries where 63% of female primary school students complete primary school, compared to 67% of male primary school students.  In low-income countries, secondary school completion rates for girls also continue to lag, with only 36% of girls completing lower secondary school compared to 44% of boys. Upper secondary completion rates have similar disparities in lower income countries, the rate is 26% for young men and  21% for young women.

The gaps are starker in countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). In FCV countries,  girls are 2.5 times  more likely to be out of school than boys, and at the secondary level, are 90% more likely to be out of secondary school than those in non-FCV contexts.  

Both girls and boys are facing a learning crisis. Learning Poverty (LP) measures the share of children who are not able to read proficiently at age 10. While girls are on average 4 percentage points less learning-poor than boys, the rates remain very high for both groups. The average of Learning Poverty in in low- and middle- income countries is 55% for females, and 59% for males. The gap is narrower in low-income countries, where Learning Poverty averages about 93% for both boys and girls.

In many countries, enrollment in tertiary education slightly favors young women, however, better learning outcomes are not translating into better work and life outcomes for women. There is a large gender gap in labor force participation rates globally. It is especially stark in regions such as South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, which have some of the  lowest female labor force participation rates  at 24% and 20% per region, respectively. These are appallingly low rates, considering what is observed in other regions like Latin America (53%) or East Asia (59%), which are still below rates for men. 

Gender bias  within schools and classrooms may also reinforce messages that affect girls’ ambitions, their own perceptions of their roles in society, and produce labor market engagement disparities and occupational segregation. When gender stereotypes are communicated through the design of school and classroom learning environments or through the behavior of faculty, staff, and peers in a child’s school, it goes on to have sustained impact on academic performance and choice of field of study, especially negatively affecting young women pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

Poverty  is one of the most important factors for determining whether a girl can access and complete her education. Studies consistently reinforce that girls who face multiple disadvantages — such as low family income, living in remote or underserved locations or who have a disability or belong to a minority ethno-linguistic group — are farthest behind in terms of access to and completion of education.

Violence  also prevents girls from accessing and completing education – often girls are forced to walk long distances to school placing them at an increased risk of violence and many experience violence while at school. Most  recent data  estimates that approximately 60 million girls are sexually assaulted on their way to or at school every year. This often has serious consequences for their mental and physical health and overall well-being while also leading to lower attendance and higher dropout rates. An estimated  246 million children experience violence in and around school every year , ending school-related gender-based violence is critical. Adolescent pregnancies can be a result of sexual violence or sexual exploitation. Girls who become pregnant often face strong stigma, and even discrimination, from their communities. The burden of stigma, compounded by unequal gender norms, can lead girls to drop out of school early and not return. 

Child marriage  is also a critical challenge. Girls who marry young are much more likely to drop out of school, complete fewer years of education than their peers who marry later. They are also more likely to have children at a young age and are exposed to higher levels of violence perpetrated by their partner.  In turn, this affects the education and health of their children, as well as their ability to earn a living. Indeed, girls with secondary schooling are up to six times more likely to marry as those children with little or no education.  According to a recent report , more than 41,000 girls under the age of 18 marry every day. Putting an end to this practice would increase women’s expected educational attainment, and with it, their potential earnings. According to the report’s estimates, ending child marriage could generate more than US$500 billion in benefits annually each year.

COVID-19  is having a negative impact on girls’ health and well-being – and many are at risk of not returning to school once they reopen. Available  research  shows that prevalence of violence against girls and women has increased during the pandemic – jeopardizing their health, safety and overall well-being. As school closures and quarantines were enforced during the 2014‐2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, women and girls experienced more sexual violence, coercion and exploitation. School closures during the Ebola outbreak were associated with an increase in teenage  pregnancies . Once schools re-opened, many “visibly pregnant girls” were banned from going back to school. With schools closing throughout the developing world, where stigma around teenage pregnancies prevails, we will probably see an increase in drop-out rates as teenage girls become pregnant or married. As girls stay at home because of school closures, their household work burdens might increase, resulting in girls spending more time helping out at home instead of studying. This might encourage parents, particularly those putting a lower value on girls' education, to keep their daughters at home even after schools reopen. Moreover,  research  shows that girls risk dropping out of school when caregivers are missing from the household because they typically have to (partly) replace the work done by the missing caregiver, who might be away due to COVID-19-related work, illness, or death. Therefore, with the current COVID-19 pandemic, we might see more girls than boys helping at home, lagging behind with studying, and dropping out of school.

The World Bank is committed to seeing every girl prosper in her life. Our projects support the education of hundreds of millions of girls and young women across the world. Working through interventions in education, health, social protection, water, infrastructure, and other sectors, we are making an even stronger commitment to support countries in ensuring that every girl receives the quality education she deserves.

Our 180 projects are impacting more than  150 million girls and young women worldwide . Hundreds of millions more have been impacted over the past few decades. 

We tackle key barriers that girls and young women face when trying to obtain an education. Guided by evidence on what works for girls’ education, our projects use multi-pronged approaches across areas including:

1. Removing barriers to schooling

• Addressing financial barriers, through scholarships, stipends, grants, conditional cash transfers
• Addressing long distances and lack of safety to and from school by building schools, providing transportation methods for girls to get to school
• Addressing a lack of information about returns to girls’ education but running community awareness campaigns engaging parents, school leaders, and local community leaders
• Working with the community to address and inform on social and cultural norms and perceptions that may prevent girls’ education

2. Promoting safe and inclusive schools 

• By constructing and rehabilitating schools to create safe and inclusive learning environments, 
• Efforts at the community- and school-levels, and programs to engage the school (including teachers, girls, and boys) in reducing gender-based violence (GBV) and ensuring available mechanisms to report GBV
• Support for hygiene facilities and menstrual hygiene management for adolescent girls

3. Improving the quality of education 

• Investing in teacher professional development, eliminating gender biases in curriculum and teaching practices, and focusing on foundational learning
• Adapting teaching and learning materials, and books to introduce gender sensitive language, pictorial aspects, and messaging

4. Developing skills and empowering girls for life and labor market success 

• Promoting girls’ empowerment, skills development programs and social programs
• Prioritizing and promoting women in STEM subjects and careers in both traditional and non-traditional sectors
• Reducing barriers and providing incentives through scholarships for women to enroll in higher education and TVET programs
• Support for childcare programs for women and girls to join the labor market

For more information on our girls’ education investment and projects, please read  Count Me In: The World Bank Education Global Practice: Improving Education Outcomes for Girls and Women , which highlights our decades-long commitment to girls’ education, and showcases how Education GP projects are creating opportunities for girls around the world to succeed in their education and beyond.

The WBG supports girls’ education through a variety of interventions.  Our focus on girls’ education and wellbeing goes beyond school attendance and learning outcomes – we strive to ensure girls have safe, joyful, and inclusive experience with education systems that set them up for success in life and motivate them to become lifelong learners. This  approach , reflected in the current Education portfolio impacting at least 150 million girls and young women, prioritizes investments in four key areas listed below. 

1. Removing barriers to girls’ schooling

• Our projects providing stipends to improve primary and secondary school completion for girls and young women in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the Sahel benefit close to half a million girls. 
• Our  Girls Empowerment and Learning for All Project in Angola  will use a variety of financial incentives to attract adolescent girls to schools, including scholarships, and new school spaces for girls. 
• The AGILE (Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment) project in Nigeria is providing conditional cash transfers to households for sending girls to school, removing cost barriers to their education. 
• The MIQRA (Mali Improving Education Quality and Results for All Project) has a school feeding and nutrition program targeted at retention and attendance for girls in schools.

2. Promoting safe and inclusive schools for girls

• In Tanzania, the Bank is supporting the training of a counselor in every school who will provide life-skills training in girls’ and boys’ clubs – which is important because closing gender gaps is not only about interventions for girls but also for boys. 
• In Nigeria, female counselors will provide life skills training to about 340,000 girls in safe spaces. Several of our other projects also support the construction of separate sanitary toilets for girls, as well as introducing GBV-reducing and reporting mechanisms in school systems. 

3. Improving the quality of education for girls (and boys)

• In Ghana, the Accountability and Learning Outcomes Project is conducting teacher training for gender-sensitive instruction, and aims to create guides for teachers to support gender sensitivity in classrooms. 
• In Honduras, the Early Childhood Education Improvement Project, will create a revised preschool curriculum that will include content on gender equity, inclusion, and violence prevention, as well as training for teachers, including training to combat GBV.
• The Girls Empowerment and Quality Education for All Project in Sao Tome & Principe is creating girls’ clubs after school, where they are also provided with life skills training, and counseling.

4. Developing skills for life and labor market success for young women

• The Nurturing Excellence in Higher Education Project in Nepal is focusing on increasing access to tertiary education for young women from low-income groups, and additional providing scholarships for the poorest applications, alongside communication and advocacy campaigns for more female enrollment in STEM subjects. 
• The ASSET (Accelerating and Strengthening Skills for Economic Transformation) project in Bangladesh is working to increase the participation of women in skills training programs, and conducting awareness and communications campaigns to address dropout.
• In Pakistan, the  Higher Education Development  project seeks to support women enrolled in STEM programs, with an aim to move them from 2-year to more comprehensive 4-year programs. 
• The  Higher Education Project  in Moldova and the Higher Education Modernization Project in Belarus will both support and finance activities to increase enrollment of women in STEM fields. The Côte d'Ivoire  Higher Education Development Support Project  provides scholarships for women in higher education, and extra tutoring support for females pursuing STEM subjects.
• Schemes to increase participation of girls in higher education. Through the Africa Centers of Excellence (ACE) project, the Bank has supported increased enrollment of females in masters and PhD programs. The number of female students in ACE centers was 343 in 2014 and is now 3,400 in 2020; a tenfold increase. The Bank is also building the pipeline of female students interested in computer science and engineering programs and retain them.  

The WBG works closely with governments and other development organizations on girls’ education issues to identify and advance interventions that improve girls’ education outcomes and provide resources to support countries implementing such initiatives. Partnerships both within and outside of the World Bank are critical to the Education GP’s work on girls’ education. The Education GP works with other global practices in the Bank to improve girls’ education—for example, collaborating with the Water GP for access to sanitation and hygiene in schools, with Social Protection and Jobs GP for challenges related to labor market transition, or Energy GP to improve school safety. 

The World Bank collaborates actively with many donors and organizations. As a signatory to the G7 Charlevoix Commitment, the Bank has already committed an estimated $2.5 billion to girls’ education in FCV countries as of September 2021—exceeding its pledge of $2.0 billion from 2018 to 2023. 

The Education GP: 

• is collaborating with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office FCDO (UK) about targets and high-level engagement with G7 donors, to support aid and financial commitment for girls’ education; 
• is a member of the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) Girls’ EiE Reference Group, which seeks to further research and advocacy for girls’ education in emergencies; 
• a member of the UNESCO Gender Flagship Reference Group and has provided technical contributions to the UNESCO-commissioned study (December 2020-July 2021); and 
• is working closely with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) as the implementing agency for 54 percent of the total GPE grants of $3.62 billion, that support girls’ education.
• is a member of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), which comprises over 20 partners representing multilateral, bilateral, civil society, and non-governmental organizations.
• collaborated with the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) to produce Economic Impacts of Child Marriage , a recent report detailing the effects of child marriage, which was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation , the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation , and GPE.

Report:  Breaking Barriers, Improving Futures: Challenges and Solutions for Girls’ Education in Pakistan

Girls’ education in conflict is most at risk: Here’s how to reach them

Why girls’ education should remain a priority

Closing the gap: Tackling the remaining disparities in girls’ education and women’s labor market participation

Empowering adolescent girls in Africa through education

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A new generation: 25 years of efforts for gender equality in education

2020 Gender Report

Credit: Johanna de Tessières / HI

KEY MESSAGES

Over the past 25 years, girls’ access to education has dramatically improved, closing a four percentage point gap in enrolment ratios. In addition, girls have reached or overtaken boys in terms of learning outcomes in reading and mathematics.

However, girls, particularly those with intersecting disadvantages in terms of poverty or disability, still face the worst forms of acute exclusion in the world’s poorest countries.

Education is a critical lever for women’s rights. A focus on education, particularly that of girls, can break the cycle of disadvantage between generations, as children tend to acquire more education than their parents. At the same time, the extent to which parental education determines children’s education, while declining slowly, is still high,which calls for interventions to prevent inequality from persisting.

Gender equality in education cannot be achieved by the education sector alone.Residual negative gender norms in society bring gender bias in education, influencing teachers’ attitudes, subject and career choices, and affect women’s opportunities later in life.

Countries need to focus on making schools more inclusive for all students, whatever their background, ability or identity. This requires better sanitation facilities in schools,greater attention to school-related gender-based violence, including online, and policies encouraging pregnant girls to go back to school. The message of inclusion resonates strongly at a time when COVID-19 has exacerbated inequality.

Inside the Report

• Introduction
• Laws and Policies
• Partnerships

Key findings

There has been a generational leap in access to education for girls over the past 25 years.„.

• Since 1995, the number of girls enrolled in primary and secondary school has risen by 180 million.„
• Globally, equal numbers of girls and boys were enrolled in primary and secondary education in 2018, whereas in 1995 around 90 girls were enrolled for every 100 boys; significant increases in Southern Asia, and India in particular, drove this growth.„
• Female enrolment tripled in tertiary education; at the country level, gender disparity at men’s expense exists in 74% of the countries with data.„
• Between 1995 and 2018, the percentage of countries with gender parity in education rose from 56% to 65% in primary, from 45% to 51% in lower secondary and from 13% to 24% in upper secondary education.„
• Among the 56 countries with data for 2000–18, primary completion rates improved faster for girls than boys. In one-third of the 86 countries with 2013–18 data, girls were more likely to complete primary school than boys.

Girls’ learning outcomes are improving faster than boys’, but new gender gaps are developing in digital literacy skills and a majority of illiterate adults are still women.„

• Girls’ advantage over boys in reading widened in more than half of the 38 countries and territories that took part in PISA in both 2000 and 2018. Girls now perform as well as boys in mathematics in over half of countries and do better than boys in one-quarter of countries.„
• Disparity in ICT skills is emerging. Among 10 low- and middle-income countries with detailed data, women are less likely to have used a basic arithmetic formula in a spreadsheet in the 7 poorest countries, while parity exists in the 3 richest countries.„
• The share of women among illiterate youth has decreased since around 2005, especially in Eastern and South-eastern Asia. But the share of illiterate adult women has remained constant for the past 20 years at around 63%. And in 2018, fewer than 80 adult women were literate for every 100 adult men in 12 countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Despite progress, girls continue to face the worst forms of exclusion.„

• Globally, three-quarters of children of primary school age who may never set foot in school are girls.„In 2018, fewer than 90 girls were enrolled for every 100 boys in 7 countries in primary, 14 countries in lower secondary and 23 countries in upper secondary education.„
• Fewer than 80 girls for every 100 boys completed primary in 4 countries, lower secondary in 15 countries and upper secondary in 22 countries.

Gender interacts with other disadvantages to exacerbate exclusion from education.„

• In at least 20 countries, hardly any poor, rural young woman complete upper secondary school.„
• In 24 countries participating in PISA 2018, over 70% of poor boys did not achieve the minimum reading proficiency level.„
• The most disadvantaged women are further left behind in terms of literacy skills. In 59 countries, women aged 15 to 49 from the poorest households are 4 times more likely to be illiterate than those from the richest households.„
• Women with disabilities tend to be particularly disadvantaged. In Mozambique, 49% of men with disabilities can read and write, compared with 17% of women with disabilities.

Some subjects are still male-dominated, which affects equality in work and adult learning opportunities.„

• Globally, the share of females in TVET enrolment declined from 45% in 1995 to 42% in 2018.
• Globally, the percentage of females studying engineering, manufacturing and construction or ICT is below 25% in over two-thirds of countries.„
• Gender segregation by field of study constrains girls’ choice of career. In OECD countries only 14% of girls who were top performers in science or mathematics expected to work in science and engineering, compared with 26% of top-performing boys. Women account for less than 1% of the applicant pool for technical jobs in artificial intelligence and data science in Silicon Valley.„
• Previous learning experience, personal disposition towards learning, life circumstances and structural barriers all have an impact on whether adults participate in education. Women in European countries are almost twice as likely as men not to participate in adult education for family-related reasons.

Policy interventions can reduce the chance of education disadvantage being passed to the next generation.„

• The gender gap in the share of children who have attained a higher education level than their parents – absolute intergenerational mobility – decreased for each 10-year cohort born from the 1940s to the 1980s. Globally, a slightly higher percentage of daughters (52%) than sons (51%) had higher education levels than their parents in the 1980s cohort, although mobility is still lower for girls in low- and lower-middle income countries.
• Children’s education relies less and less on the education of their parents – relative intergenerational mobility – although girls’ years of schooling are still more aligned to their parents’ than boys’, and particularly to that of their mothers.„
• Girls are more influenced by their mothers’ than their fathers’ education in low- and middle-income countries. In the cohort of girls born in the 1980s, an extra year of maternal education leads to seven extra months of education in low-income countries.„
• Policy interventions can reduce the extent to which education disadvantage is passed on to the next generation. Potentially successful interventions include quotas in tertiary enrolment for vulnerable groups, scholarships and cash transfers, and removal of user fees in primary education. The correlation between mothers’ education and their children’s fell by 12.5% when user fees were lifted.

Increasing numbers of laws and policies promotes gender equality in education on paper, but still often fails in practice.„

• Globally, 105 countries have ratified the 1960 UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education and 23 have signed since 1995.„
• Education ministries have sponsored laws promoting gender equality in 50% of countries and policies to that effect in 42%. About 46% of countries have legislation and 58% policies promoting gender equality in education under other ministries’ leadership.

Strong political commitment has reduced early pregnancy rates and provided education for pregnant girls and young parents.„

• The prevalence of early pregnancy fell by one-third between 1995 and 2020, from some 60 to 40 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19. „The share of women aged 20 to 24 who married before age 18, a factor contributing to early pregnancy, fell from 25% in 1995 to 20% in 2013–19.
• „In Argentina, a holistic approach combining two laws, flexible learning programmes, nurseries in schools, re-entry programmes for vulnerable children and non-formal alternative secondary education programmes has helped protect pregnant girls’ and young parents’ right to education; meanwhile the adolescent fertility rate fell from 61 in 1995 to 49 in 2018.
• Activism and accountability mechanisms can help protect pregnant girls’ right to go to school. In Sierra Leone, official policy in 2015 banned pregnant girls from school. In 2019, after several years of activism, the ban was ruled discriminatory by the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States and was lifted.„
• Multisectoral cooperation and ties between government departments help address the intersecting needs of many girls and young women of child-bearing age. In the United Kingdom, measures to address these needs included a protective legal framework, a teenage pregnancy unit and strategy, better childcare, awareness-raising programmes, advocacy aimed at young men, and support from the non-government sector. These measures helped reduce the number of conceptions per 1,000 15- to 17-year-olds from 42 to 18 between 1995 and 2017.

The prevalence of early pregnancy can be linked to lack of access to sexual and reproductive health education.„

• Ambiguous language in laws and weak accountability in enforcement can enable schools to avoid teaching comprehensive sexuality education. Argentina made the subject compulsory in 2006, but only 16 out of 23 provinces adhered to the policy or passed their own legislation on the subject, likely because of opposition among religious schools.
• „In Sierra Leone, the number of married and sexually active 15- to 19-year-old women using contraception doubled from 10% to 20% between 2008 and 2013, but dropped to just 14% in 2019, possibly due to a 2008 decision to end comprehensive sexuality education in schools.„
• Clear guidance on sexuality education can help. In the United Kingdom, relationship and sex education was made compulsory in all secondary schools from 2019. Guides were published to help schools inform and work with parents to overcome resistance.

Gender-responsive school counselling could improve gender balance in subject choices.

• „Counsellors often promote gender stereotypes, which affect students’ education and career choices. A survey of secondary school counsellors in the US state of Wisconsin found that, even though school counsellors believed female students were more likely to succeed in mathematics than males, they were less likely to recommend mathematics over English to female students.„
• Clear gender-responsive strategies are needed to redress the balance. Botswana has a comprehensive guidance and counselling programme and a Gender Reference Committee but lacks an overall framework on ways to help girls and women who wish to pursue TVET and STEM subjects.„
• A lack of gender-specific measures in counselling and career advice at the state level in Germany means the increase of the share of girls in STEM subjects between 1999 and 2017 is more likely related to an online information hub on STEM for girls and collaboration between ministries of women, youth, labour and social affairs.„
• National strategies on TVET and STEM in the United Arab Emirates make no reference to gender or gender-responsive counselling practices and women are still under-represented in these fields of study.

Countries still produce textbooks with gender-based stereotypes and limited references to women and girls.„

• The share of females in secondary school English language textbook text and images was 44% in Malaysia and Indonesia, 37% in Bangladesh and 24% in Punjab province, Pakistan.„
• Partnerships and participatory processes at all phases of textbook development and delivery need to be in place for successful reform.
• „In Comoros, textbooks still contain gender stereotypes, partly because textbook developers have not received training or sensitization.„
• Ethiopia has shown commitment to gender equality in education, including through textbook revision. Yet stereotypes remain, which can be attributed to women being excluded from textbook review and development, lack of training on processes, and insufficient commitment from authorities in challenging discriminatory norms.„
• Nepal has made materials more gender-sensitive by introducing guidance for gender-responsive learning materials and a gender expert to review content, as well as gender audits and formal reviews of all materials every five years, although some of these measures have not been fully implemented.„
• In Europe, 23 out of 49 countries do not address sexual orientation and gender identity explicitly in their curricula.

Gender inequality exists in teacher recruitment and promotion to leadership, and more gender-sensitive teacher education is needed.„

• Women make up 94% of teachers in pre-primary, 66% of teachers in primary, 54% in secondary and 43% in tertiary education.„
• There is a glass ceiling for women trying to attain leadership positions. In a case study of schools in Brasilia, Brazil, 75% had only male candidates for school leadership positions. For the past 25 years, all federal education ministers have been men. In Bulgaria, just 5 of 96 education ministers in 140 years have been women.„
• Teachers still expect girls and boys to have different academic abilities, which affects academic outcomes. In Italy, girls assigned to teachers with implicit gender bias underperformed in mathematics and chose less demanding secondary schools, following teachers’ recommendations.

Millions of schools are not inclusive, often due to poor infrastructure and unsafe learning environments.„

• Globally, over a fifth of primary schools had no single-sex basic sanitation facilities in 2018. Some 335 million girls attend primary and secondary schools lacking facilities essential for menstrual hygiene.„
• Even when single-sex sanitation facilities exist, they may not be accessible to all students: less than 1 in 10 schools with improved sanitation had accessible facilities for students with disabilities in El Salvador, Fiji, Tajikistan, the United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen.

School-related gender-based violence impedes inclusive education of good quality.„

• Girls are more likely to experience verbal and sexual harassment, abuse and violence, while boys are more often subject to physical violence.„
• Violence is often directed at those whose gender expression does not fit binary gender norms. In the United Kingdom, 45% of lesbian, gay and bisexual students and 64% of transgender students were bullied in schools.„
• The rapid advancement of technology has increased risks of threats, intimidation and harassment. In European Union countries, one in five 18- to 29-year-olds reported having experienced cyber-harassment.

Change in education will not happen until unequal gender norms in society are stamped out.„

• Gender discrimination was considered the most important global problem by 8% of adults in the latest World Values Survey. A return to traditional values is an increasing threat to women’s rights. The proportion of people with moderate and intense bias against gender equality increased between 2005–09 and 2010–14 in 15 of 31 countries surveyed.„
• Attitudes towards female foeticide have not improved with education. In urban India, the male to female child sex ratio is inversely associated with female education.„
• Gender discrimination is a threat to inclusive education. In 11 former republics of the Soviet Union and in Mongolia, the level of discrimination in social institutions is 24%, on average, which has reduced women’s average years of schooling by 16%.„
• Parents’ gender stereotypes can stand in the way of inclusion. In Sokoto, Nigeria, some parents believe access to secondary school would prevent girls from marrying. In Fiji, parents expect boys to assist with cash crop farming, which can lead them to disengage with school.

Social media resources

The importance of educating girls

In far too many countries around the world, an education is not a given for girls. These moving talks are from those facing great risk to change that.

My daughter, Malala

A girl who demanded school

How I stopped the Taliban from shutting down my school

Dare to educate Afghan girls

Unlock the intelligence, passion, greatness of girls

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Chapter 2: Women and Education

Chapter summary.

• Why Educating Girls Matters
• How Girls and Women Have Fared since Beijing
• What We Can Learn from Successful Efforts?
• Profile: Rita Conceição
• Project: Educating Women about Technology

Additional Resources

This chapter discusses the right to education and provides several examples of non-profit organizations that are working towards enhancing education among women. Education escalated as a global priority during the 1990s, featured at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and the 2000 Millennium Summit. Prior to the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), evidence of the economic and social benefits resulting from educating women and girls began to accumulate. The links were clear: educated women are more likely to have fewer, healthier, and better-educated children that will survive into adulthood and ultimately contribute to economic growth. According to UNESCO, in 2008 there were 96 and 95 girls per 100 boys in primary and secondary school, respectively. While the chapter does not discuss tertiary education, additional resources below will fill in statistics on gender gaps in post-secondary, which continue to vary at national and regional levels; women outnumber men in the post-secondary environment of developed countries by a significant margin, yet are still underrepresented in high-paying disciplines such as science and engineering and constitute only 30 percent of researchers.

The chapter examines several organizations working to improve women’s education from the standpoints of both community organizing and technology education. Bahia Street was founded by Rita Conceição in the informal communities of Salvador, Brazil. It began as a lunch program and evolved into a community centre conducting social-justice education among black women and girls on racism, gender-based violence, and reproductive rights. In rural Senegal, the international organization Tostan formed the Community Empowerment Program (CEP) to integrate mobile technology into writing and literacy programs. This initiative was developed in Wolof, the local language, and the program’s exercises in learning to use mobile phones are carried out using culturally appropriate and recognizable symbols. Tostan also initiated the Rural Energy Foundation, a community-based project to provide solar-powered charging stations for mobile phones.

• Bahia Street
• Community Empowerment Program (CEP)
• Gender-based violence
• International non-governmental organization (INGO)
• Jokko Initiative
• Non-formal education
• Non-governmental organization (NGO)
• Non-profit organization
• Reproduction
• Sexual violence
• Rita Conceição
• Rural Energy Foundation
• United Nations Children’s Rights and Emergency Relief Organization (UNICEF)
• United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
• United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
• United Nations Millennium Summit
• United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
• 1994 International Conference on Population and Development
• 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing

By Lori S. Ashford

T he right to education for all has been an international goal for decades, but since the 1990s, women’s education and empowerment have come into sharp focus. Several landmark conferences, including the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo, and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, placed these issues at the center of development efforts.

The Millennium Development Goals — agreed to by world leaders at the U.N. Millennium Summit in 2000 — call for universal primary education and for closing the gender gap in secondary and higher education. These high-level agreements spawned initiatives around the world to increase girls’ school enrollments. Changes since 1990 have been remarkable, considering the barriers that had to be overcome in developing countries.

In many traditional societies, girls are prevented from attaining their full potential because of lower priority placed on educating daughters (who marry and leave the family) and the lower status of girls and women in general. Families may also have concerns about the school fees, girls being taught by male teachers and girls’ safety away from home. Governments and communities have begun to break down these barriers, however, because of overwhelming evidence of the benefits of educating girls.

Why educating girls matters

Few investments have as large a payoff as girls’ education. Household surveys in developing countries have consistently shown that women with more education have smaller, healthier and better-educated families. The linkages are clear: Educated women are more likely to take care of their health, desire fewer children and educate them well, which, in turn, makes it more likely their children will survive and thrive into adulthood.

Research by the World Bank and other organizations has shown that increasing girls’ schooling boosts women’s wages and leads to faster economic growth than educating only boys. Moreover, when women earn more money, they are more likely to invest it in their children and households, enhancing family wealth and well-being. Other benefits of women’s education captured in studies include lower levels of HIV infection, domestic violence and harmful practices toward women, such as female genital cutting and bride burning.

How girls and women have fared since Beijing

Advances in girls’ education worldwide have been a success story in development. According to UNESCO, 96 girls were enrolled in primary school for every 100 boys in 2008, up from 84 girls per 100 boys in 1995. The ratio for secondary school is close behind, at 95 girls to 100 boys in 2008. By 2005, nearly two-thirds of countries had closed the gap between girls’ and boys’ school enrollments. Girls still lag behind boys in university-level education worldwide, but the gap is closing over time.

Girls lag farthest behind in the poorest countries, such as Afghanistan, Chad, Central African Republic and Mali, where overall school enrollments are low. In Somalia, only half as many girls are enrolled in school as boys: 23 percent of girls compared to 42 percent of boys in 2008, according to UNESCO. Girls’ schooling and literacy lag well behind boys in much of sub-Saharan Africa and Western and Southern Asia, where much work remains to be done.

At the other end of the spectrum, in countries with high levels of school enrollment, girls often fare better than boys. In much of Latin America, Europe, East Asia and in the United States, girls’ enrollments in secondary and higher education have surpassed those of their male peers, demonstrating what girls and women can achieve once the barriers to education have been overcome.

Still, women account for two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults, because older women are less likely to have attended school than their younger counterparts. They are also much more likely to be illiterate if they are poor and live in rural areas. Literacy programs and continuing education exist, but the efforts are not systematically reported across countries. In addition, girls and women are disadvantaged when it comes to technical and vocational education, in fields such as science and technology that have long been dominated by men.

What can we learn from successful efforts?

Many gains in women’s education can be attributed to special interventions such as the elimination of school fees, scholarships, community schools for girls and the training of women teachers. Such targeted efforts have translated into higher girls’ school enrollments in countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Yemen, Morocco, Uganda and Brazil. Political commitment is essential for raising the profile of the issue and increasing girls’ access to schooling. Mexico pioneered a major social program — now replicated in impoverished communities in the United States and other countries — that pays families to keep their children, particularly girls, in school.

Because the gender gap is wider at higher levels of education, it will not be enough for girls to merely sign up for school; they need to stay in school. Governments, educators and communities must address issues such as gender stereotypes that reinforce women’s lower status, poor school quality, and early marriage and childbearing, which often cut short women’s education. Also, the mismatch between education and the skills needed for today’s workforce must be corrected. These steps may ensure that girls reap the greatest benefits from education. Countries that are committed to gender equality will not only see better report cards in education, they’ll be healthier and wealthier as well.

Lori S. Ashford, a freelance consultant, has written about global population, health and women’s issues for 20 years. Formerly with the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), she authored the widely disseminated PRB “Women of Our World” data sheets and “New Population Policies: Advancing Women’s Health and Rights” for the Population Bulletin, among other publications.

PROFILE: Rita Conceição – Bahia Street

By Margaret Willson

B orn in one of the vast shantytowns of Salvador, Brazil, Rita Conceição knew at an early age the realities of violence, poverty and death. She also knew she wanted something different.

“My mother had lots of children and a hard life. She died young, so I brought up my brothers and sisters. I knew I didn’t want that life.”

With great determination, Rita traveled more than an hour each way by public bus to a school where she could learn to read and write. She loved the arts and took up photography. While still a teenager, Rita took courageous photos of protests against the then-ruling Brazilian military dictatorship.

“I didn’t think of a black or gender consciousness,” she says. “People never talked about racism then.” But all around her she saw women like herself working as maids for slave wages, the only job (except prostitution) open to them.

Rita decided she wanted to go to university, an almost impossible dream for someone from the shantytowns. While working a full-time job, she tried the difficult university entrance exam three times and failed. Refusing to give up, she took it a fourth time and passed, gaining entrance into the Federal University of Bahia, the best in her state.

When I first met Rita in 1991, she had earned her university degree in sociology. Once she had a chance to leave the shantytown where she was born, Rita, unlike any other person I ever met there, decided instead to stay and fight the inequality she knew so well. So in 1996, when she invited me to join her in working for equality for the people of her communities, I committed to help in any way I could. From this partnership the nonprofit Bahia Street was born.

Listening to what the people in her community told her answered their dire need for expression and opened a strong avenue for change. Rita initiated a quality education program for girls that would allow them to enter university and change their futures. Rita drew on her own struggles, using the strengths that propelled her from a shantytown to university. She incorporated race and gender consciousness into the Bahia Street classes. Seeing that the girls could not study because they were half starving, she began a lunch program, cooking and buying the food herself until she could find someone to help her. She knew that most girls from these shantytowns get pregnant by age 14, so she began teaching the girls about reproduction, sexual violence and self-esteem.

“As I was growing up,” she says, “the girls in my family were never valued as much as the boys. This still exists in our society, but I say to the girls that their roots are their reality. I pass on to them the importance of ethics, self-respect and the solidarity of women. They see in me the difference it makes — what choices you make in your life — and also the strength it takes. If women are to become equal, these qualities and knowledge are vital.”

After years of renting or borrowing tiny rooms for its classes, Bahia Street was finally able to buy a building. The only problem was that the building was falling down. Rita saw this as no problem at all. She employed local men and oversaw its complete reconstruction. To save money, the men mixed the cement in wheelbarrows and poured it by hand. Rita roamed the city, looking for sales; she negotiated with merchants to donate materials that she then brought back on public bus, since she had no car. Slowly, the building took shape. When the first floor was mostly finished, Rita, her staff and the girls moved in.

The five-story Bahia Street Center is now complete, with classrooms, kitchen, library, computer lab and much more. In addition to education and support programs for the girls, Bahia Street now offers classes for the girls’ caregivers and other community members. It has become a haven for the girls and a community gathering place.

“We teach the girls to take care of others in their lives as well. Women take care of the children, and in that is the future of our society. The work we do is a form of black resistance. We are working for the survival of the black people in Bahia, showing that as black women, we can have equality and shape the future. In Bahia Street, we are giving girls the chance my mother never had.”

When people talk with her about her remarkable achievements, Rita is humble and realistic. “In Bahia Street,” she says, “I really found my identity. Managing to create Bahia Street continues to be an amazing process, and I have learned a consciousness myself through this process.”

Recently, Bahia Street graduate Daza completed university with a journalism degree. In Daza, shantytown residents have a voice they never had before. And the long-term Bahia Street vision of fostering equality for shantytown women is becoming a reality.

Rita laughs with a smile that, in its brightness, knows suffering, love and strength. “And the work continues. That is the way for all of us. If we are to make a better world, the work is what we do.”

Margaret Willson is co-founder and international director of Bahia Street. She is affiliate assistant professor in anthropology at the University of Washington. Her most recent book is Dance Lest We All Fall Down: Breaking Cycles of Poverty in Brazil and Beyond (University of Washington Press, 2010).

PROJECT: Educating Women About Technology

By Renee Ho

Mobile technology is improving the lives of illiterate women and girls in rural Senegal, and educating them in the process, thanks to an organization that teaches them to use mobile phones.

A stou watches as the photographer raises his camera to capture the crowded village classroom. She adjusts her nursing infant and turns her own camera on him — only hers is a mobile phone. For the past few weeks, Astou has been participating in a community-led mobile technology course taught in her local language of Wolof. She and hundreds of other women and girls throughout rural Senegal have learned how to make and receive calls, compose and send SMS messages and use phone functions such as calculators, alarms and, yes, sometimes even cameras.

Astou is a bright 24-year-old mother of four children. She had seen her husband use a mobile phone, but prior to this class she had never touched one herself. “Before, he would not let me use the phone because he feared I would waste the credit,” she laughs, “but now he asks me to teach him and we are saving to buy another for me.”

Two years ago, Astou was not only unfamiliar with how to use a mobile phone, but she was illiterate. Composing or reading an SMS text message would have been impossible for her. Like most of the women and girls in her village in the region of Vélingara, Senegal, Astou never attended school. Household responsibilities and the cost of schooling prevented her from receiving a formal education. She married at 16 years of age — the average age for girls in rural Senegal.

In a country with a 41.9 percent literacy rate, Astou is breaking norms and the cyclical trap of poverty. In 2008, Tostan, an international nongovernmental development organization, started the Community Empowerment Program (CEP) — a 30-month human rights-based, nonformal education program — in her village. More than 80 percent of CEP participants are women and girls. They begin the program with sessions on human rights, democracy, health and hygiene and problem-solving. Later, they continue with lessons on literacy, numeracy and project management.

Once participants have achieved basic literacy, however, they often lack a practical means of maintaining it. As a solution, Tostan partnered with UNICEF to launch the Jokko Initiative in 2009 (jokko means “communication” in Wolof). The initiative incorporates mobile technology into CEP as way to reinforce reading and writing skills. The Jokko module teaches participants how to use basic mobile phone functions and SMS texting. It uses interactive visuals and skits that focus on relevant applications and the relative affordability of texting. “I text messages better [than my husband] and that saves us money on expensive calls,” explains Astou.

Outside of the classroom, students circle around a strange arrangement of sticks. With a little explanation, the sticks come to represent a mango tree. Khady, age 52, walks along the “tree branches” and stops at each fork where signs are placed: Contacts, Search, Add Contact. This activity teaches participants how to navigate the phone’s main menu. It is just one example of what makes Tostan’s educational model work: adapting lessons to cultural contexts and using appropriate local references.

“Before, if I wanted to send a text message, I had to ask for help,” Khady says, “but now I am much more independent. Now people come to me and I’m happy to teach them.” When mobile phone technology reaches women and girls, it amplifies their voices and influence in community decisionmaking. They become agents of their own change. Khady continues to explain how the CEP provided her with basic math and management skills. With several boys and girls huddled around, she demonstrates how the phone’s calculator helps her manage her peanut-selling business.

Mobile phone technology has connected women and girls to market information and opportunities, family in the diaspora and, perhaps most fundamentally, to each other. The phones have been critical for community organization and social mobilization. Tostan’s Jokko Initiative has developed a unique social networking platform that allows participants to send an SMS message to a central server, where it is then sent out to an entire community of other users. One participant explains, “It’s when you send multiple messages at once — a cheaper method of communication.” The platform is used for community advocacy campaigns. Women send, for example, reminders of vaccination and school enrollment dates.

The Jokko Initiative has reached 350 villages and continues to grow. Tostan has directly trained about 23,585 people, but the high demand for knowledge and the eagerness of participants to share information suggests that thousands more have benefited.

In the project’s next phase, Tostan will partner with the Rural Energy Foundation ( http://ruralenergy.nl/ ), a nonprofit organization that helps rural communities gain access to renewable energy. Currently, about 80 percent of rural Senegal lacks electricity, so charging phones often involves risky and inconvenient trips into the nearest small town. To alleviate this, Tostan will pilot community-led, solar-powered charging stations. These telecenters will provide electricity for mobile phones, and the income generated by these microenterprises will be reinvested in other community-led development projects.

Mobile phone use in Africa is growing twice as fast as in any other region in the world. In Senegal, the number of SIM card purchases nearly doubled from 2007 to 2009, up to 6.9 million. But as Tostan has found, absolute numbers alone do not empower communities. Success in low-income countries requires bridging the gender gap. Putting knowledge and technology in the hands of women — literally— is critical to achieving lasting development.

Renee Ho is a volunteer at Tostan International in Dakar, Senegal. Her interests include women and the technology divide in lower-income countries. More information is online at http://www.tostan.org .

Multiple Choice Questions

• 2000 Millennium Development Summit
• None of the above
• Take care of their health
• Desire fewer children
• Educate their children well
• All of the above
• Afghanistan
• Older women are less likely to have attended school than their younger counterparts
• High-paying majors such as science and technology remain dominated by men
• Women living in rural areas have less access to educational services
• Engages in community building, gender and race consciousness work.
• Provides small-interest loans to allow women in the shantytowns of Salvador to become entrepreneurs
• Teaches women to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) more efficiently
• Helps rural communities gain access to renewable energy
• Margaret Wilson
• Sheryl Sandberg
• The importance of domestic and household responsibilities
• Project management
• The Community Empowerment Program (CEP)
• Free the Children
• The Jokko Initiative
• Incorporates mobile technology into CEP as a way to reinforce reading and writing skills
• Teaches participants how to use SMS functions
• Connects women and girls to market information opportunities
• All the above
• Was developed in partnership with the UNICEF
• Focuses on rights-based empowerment rather than economic and entrepreneurial capacity building
• Adapts lessons to cultural contexts and uses appropriate cultural references
• Held focus groups with local government officials instead of community stakeholders
• Fund an increase in the amount of mobile phones in sub-Saharan Africa
• Pilot community-led solar-power charging stations for mobile phones
• Fund a the construction and operation of a solar-energy plant in Vélingara, Senegal
• Construct several powerlines to provide energy to rural Senegalese communities
• Putting knowledge and technology in the hands of women
• More efficient mechanisms to send text messages
• More affordable mobile phones for women and children
• The correct answer is C. The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (answer A) and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (answer B) were both milestones in placing women’s empowerment on the global agenda. However, it was the 2000 Millennium Development Summit (answer C) where world leaders agreed on the target of universal primary education as part of the MDGs.
• The correct answer is D (all of the above).
• Answers A and D are correct. Morocco (answer B) and Bangladesh (answer C) are both countries where governments have committed to action and have seen higher enrollment among women and girls in education.
• Answer C is correct. The gender ratio is the most equal for primary school enrollment (answer A) with 96 girls for every 100 boys, and the ratio for secondary school (answer B) is similar, at 95 girls per 100 boys. The education gap is the widest at the post-secondary, or tertiary, level (answer C).
• Answer D (all of the above) is correct.
• Answer A is correct. Bahia Street works to builds solidarity and facilitates consciousness around gender and race among black communities in Salvador, Brazil. The organization is not a microfinance institution (answer B). The Community Empowerment Program (CEP) in Velingara, Senegal, provides capacity building for women to use ICTs (answer C), and the Rural Energy Foundation (answer D) is a non-profit that helps rural communities gain access to renewable energy.
• The correct answer is D. Bahia Street was founded by Rita Conceição, who grew up in the shantytowns of Salvador and wanted to build community and raise political consciousness among young black girls living in the community. Renee Ho (answer B) was the writer of the chapter on the Community Empowerment Program. Margaret Wilson (answer A) is the co-founder of Bahia Street. Sheryl Sandberg (answer C) is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Facebook and the author of the book Lean In. 
• The correct answer is A. The CEP does NOT teach girls about the importance of domestic responsibilities. The program recognizes that unpaid domestic labour among women can prevent them from progressing in formal education and instead teaches skills in literacy (answer B), numeracy (answer C), and project management (answer D).
• The correct answer is D (the Jokko Initiative). UNICEF (answer A) is a partner in the Jokko project. The CEP (answer B) is also implemented by Tostan but is a rights-based education program.
• The correct answer is D. (all the above).
• The correct answer is C. Tostan’s educational model works because it adapts lessons to cultural contexts and uses appropriate cultural references. The CEP focuses on rights-based empowerment (answer B). The Jokko Initiative was developed in partnership with UNICEF (answer A) but was not emphasized by the textbook as the primary reason for the project’s success. Tostan’s model was developed in close consultation with the community, so answer D is incorrect.
• Answer B is correct. The Rural Energy Foundation will pilot the development of community-led solar-power charging stations for mobile phones in Senegal. Mobile phone ownership rates are rapidly increasing across Africa, but the Foundation will be making this trend more sustainable, rather than simply contributing to the volume of phones (answer A). The Foundation is not supporting the construction of a solar energy plant (answer C) or powerlines (answer D).
• Answer A is correct. The Rural Energy Foundation will put knowledge and technology in the hands of women as means to achieve long-lasting development. More efficient and affordable text messages (answers B and C) are a product of the Jokko Foundation.

Discussion Questions

• Rita Conceição names a number of values she incorporates into advice she gives to girls who are a part of Bahia Street. What are some of these values and why do you think they are important to her?
• Describe some methods Jokko Initiative uses to educate women about technology. Compare and contrast Bahia Street with the Jokko Initiative.
• Use external research to find the most recent gender ratio for tertiary education. How does this ratio change at national, regional, and global levels?
• What are the risks of grouping different countries into categories of most and least educated? What trends are included and overlooked when using this approach?
• How did the emphasis on education from the Millennial Development Goals transfer over to the Sustainable Development Goals? What kind of presence do education, gender, and technology have in the Sustainable Development Goals?
• What are some examples of the role of technology in political change? Is there a connection between the use of technology for education and its use for broader social movements?
• What are some examples of how social media has influenced women’s political, social, or economic empowerment?

Essay Questions

• The textbook notes that “mobile phone use is increasing twice as fast in Africa as in any other region in the world” (p. 37). What are the benefits of having a mobile phone on an individual, organizational, or community level? Are mobile phones or other pieces of information and communication technology simply neutral devices or tools of political influence?
• What does the Jokko Initiative demonstrate about the benefits of incorporating local knowledge into development programs? What are some ways of ensuring that local symbols, values, and perspectives are integrated into education and capacity-building projects?
• Rita Conceição, founder of Bahia Street, was quoted saying “we teach the girls to take care of others in their lives as well. Women take care of the children, and that is the future of our society.” What are the implications of this statement in the context of gender norms, care, and domestic labour?

EdTechWomen. “About ETW.” (2016). New York, NY. A New York-based organization that supports the leadership and capacity of women in education technology.

http://edtechwomen.com/

Cornwall, A. “Women’s Empowerment: What Works?” Journal of International Development 28 (3), 342 – 359. (2016). Draws on a multi-country research study to examine women’s individual journeys towards empowerment.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jid.3210/full

Foster, D. & Fitzgerald, M. “Is Capitalism Destroying Feminism? An Interview with Dawn Foster.” OpenDemocracy. (2016). An interview with Dawn Foster, a journalist who writes on gender, politics and social affairs. Her book Lean Out is a response to Sandberg’s Lean In , and takes a more institutional approach to discussing women in the workplace through a lens of not only gender, but also class, race, and empire.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/dawn-foster-mary-fitzgerald/is-capitalism-destroying-feminism-interview-with-dawn-foster

Perryman, L. & de los Artocs, B . “Women’s Empowerment Through Openness: OER, OEP and the Sustainable Development Goals.” Open Praxis 8 (2), April – June 2016, 163 – 180. (2016). Based on survey responses from 7,700 educators from 175 countries, this paper explores the ability of Open Education Resources (OERs) to increase women’s voices in education.

http://openpraxis.org/index.php/OpenPraxis/article/view/289/206

Rice, C. et al. “Pedagogical Possibilities for Unruly Bodies.” Gender and Education . 1 – 20. (2016). Paper on the use of digital art to tell untold narratives of activism by people with disabilities.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09540253.2016.1247947

Sandberg, S. “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders.” TED. (2010). TEDTalk by Sheryl Sandberg based on her widely acclaimed book Lean In , on navigating the male-dominated business world as a woman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4

Rossatto, C. “Global Activism and Social Transformation vis-à-vis Dominant Forms of Economic Organization: Critical Education within Afro-Brazilian and Transnational Pedagogical Praxis.” Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies 2 (3), 228 – 260. (2015). Discusses grassroots social movements across race and gender divisions and national borders to challenge notions of market competition within education.

http://www.jceps.com/archives/2347

The World’s Women 2015 . “Education.” (2015). Annually updated global data and analysis on gender disparities in educational access with indicators including primary and secondary school enrollment rates as well as illiteracy.

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/chapter3/chapter3.html

UN Statistics . “Millennium Development Goal Indicators.” (2016). Updated statistics and baseline indicators on the progress made in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, with data available in national, regional and global contexts.

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/default.aspx

This work ( Global Women's Issues: Women in the World Today, extended version by Bureau of International Information Programs, United States Department of State) is free of known copyright restrictions.

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Women play a significant role in society – a wife, a mother, a sister, a caretaker, a nurse, etc. They have a better understanding of the social structure and are more compassionate towards the need of others. An educated mother will weigh the importance of female education, the same as boys.

Education is a tool that builds confident and ambitious women. Women become aware of their rights and raise their voice against exploitation, discrimination, or any form of injustice.

A famous anonymous African proverb- states the importance of education for women in society- ‘If you educate a man, you educate an individual. If you educate a woman, educate a nation, is a reminder of the prevailing customs in society. Education is a weapon that carves a progressive path for women and their families.

Read More: Importance Of English Article

Importance of Education for Women or Girls

Elimination of Crime against women

Education plays a vital weapon in eliminating many social crimes and evils against women prevailing in society. Social customs such as Sati, Dowry, Female infanticide, Flesh Trade, and other harmful customary practices can be eradicated through female education.

An educated woman is pivotal in a civilized society and influences the beliefs and thoughts of its members. She stands up for the injustice pitted against women in the family or society against other girls or women.

Improvised Standard of Living:

Female education improvises and elevates the standard of living. A family relying on double wages leads to a more satisfied and happy family over a family that relies on a single-parent income.

An educated women’s family member earns equal pay as the male members and aid and elevates the family’s financial needs and the standard of the family. Two incomes under the same roof improve the quality of living and ensure and facilitate the importance of female education in the family and society.

Self-Reliance

Education is vital for women as it makes women become self-reliant and eliminates her need to depend on a third person for her and her family’s survival.

She becomes aware of her rights and employment on an equal plank with men and fends her family’s needs. Financially independent women raise her voice against prevailing old social customs and injustices.

Prevents Social Exclusion

An uneducated female child or woman is likely to work as domestic help or in extreme cases, become a victim of flesh trade, over the opposite gender. Women who spend their life as domestic help or any other menial jobs often get secluded from society.

The seclusion or exclusion of women by society leads to physical as well as psychological traumas and ailments. An educated woman brews a balanced society.

Promotion of Women Education

In a developing country like India, awareness begins at home and the rural sections of the society. Awareness of the importance of female education in different villages leads to a positive reaction to women’s education.

Furthermore, the construction of schools, healthcare centers, and other facilities at shorter distances diminishes the fear among people. Also, proper security, strict actions, and punishment against those who commit crimes against women aid the welfare of the women community.

Short Article on Importance of Education for Women 200 Words in English

The 200 words short Article mentioned below is suitable for kids and classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. The article is written to guide the children with their school works-assignments and comprehension exercises.

Women’s education contributes to the overall development and progression of our country. Women play very vital roles in our lives. A society lacks behind if its women weep silently. An educated woman builds a better environment for her family members.

The lacking focus of development in many underdeveloped and developing countries is the failure to implement the growth of women. A country loses its goals of integral and sustainable developments when women remain uneducated and unempowered.

Women must be exposed to platforms with equal opportunities and need encouragement to pursue aspiring professions such as- lawyers, journalists, doctors, technocrats, scientists, adventurists, etc. Through the importance of Education for women, India will achieve its goal of sustainable development by 2030.

India comprises of eminent women personalities like Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi, Kiran Bedi, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, etc., who have contributed to the overall development of our country.

Over the past years, India’s government passed a significant bill that stated abortion of a female child to be a criminal offense. This bill has decreased female infanticide and has increased the birth rate of female children.

To promote and create awareness of Women’s education and empowerment in India, various campaigns like Beti Bachao and Beti Padhao were initiated.

Thus, it is crucial to understand the importance of education for women for better health and hygiene, the nation’s economy, etc.

10 Lines on Importance of Education for Women

• Women are increasingly becoming a vital component of the economy and development through education.
• Women’s education in the rural section of the country has played a crucial role in making them employable.
• As per the census data, the female literacy rate area in India is over 65.46%.
• The contributing factors affecting women’s education are gender inequality, lack of security, a crime against women, etc.
• Education of Women gives them a chance to emerge as socially and financially independent individuals.
• Through education, liberation and empowerment of women have to lead to economic gains in India.
• Education plays a vital role in securing the fundamental rights of women in India, thereby maintaining their social status in society.
• Education, social injustices, exploitation, violence, and other social customs against women are eradicated.
•  An educated woman contributes to the country’s overall development through her role in the army, social service, politics, education, corporate sector, etc.
• The government should lay primary emphasis on girl child education and health in the rural section of India due to the high population rate in villages compared to metropolitans.

FAQ’s on Article On Importance of Education for Women

Question 1. What role does Education play for women?

Answer: Education makes women self-reliant and dignified, eliminates crime and other social atrocities, prevents the exclusion, improves better standards of living, etc.

Question 2. What role do educated women play in society?

Answer: An educated woman brings positive changes in her family as well as in society. She improves the nation’s literacy rate, raises voice against crime and exploitation, and contributes to its development.

Question 3. What is the current Literacy rate in India?

Answer: As per the census data, the female literacy rate area in India is over 65.46%, where the male literacy rate is over 80%.

Question 4. How can one create awareness of the importance of Women’s Education in India?

Answer: In a developing country like India, awareness of the importance of Education for women begins at home, and the rural sections of the society through schemes and social activities.

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Importance of Women’s Education

• Updated on  
• Nov 15, 2021

What is education ? Education is defined as learning or studying existing knowledge and cultural legacy. It is a fundamental human right , accessible to all genders or sexes. Across the world, education is viewed as a necessity yet millions of women remain illiterate because of poverty, social stigma, discrimination, lack of resources and much more. In this blog, we will understand the importance of women’s education and will see some of the famous quotes of world leaders on women’s education.

Also Read: Myths About the Indian Education System

This Blog Includes:

What is the importance of women’s education, importance of women’s education: explained in simpler terms, why is it important to educate women , speech on importance of women’s education, importance of women’s education in women empowerment, importance of women’s education quotes, importance of women’s education on their health, welfare schemes for women.

Female education is a catch-all term for a complex set of issues and controversies surrounding education for girls and women (including elementary, secondary, and university education, as well as health education). It’s also known as women’s education or girls’ education. Inequalities in education for girls and women are complex: some problems are more systematic and less explicit, such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education disparities, while others are more systematic and less explicit, such as violence against women or prohibitions of girls from going to school.

Women’s education is critical to the country’s entire development. It’s similar to an effective medicine that may know how to cure a patient and recover their health. A well-educated lady is capable of managing both her personal and professional lives. The physical and intellectual growth of the child is the moral goal of education. Education’s true objective is to provide students with “full knowledge” or “greater information.” 

A well-educated woman provides the skills, knowledge, and self-assurance necessary to be a better mom, worker, and citizen. A well-educated woman will also be more productive and well-paid at work. Indeed, the return on investment in education is often higher for women than for males.

The following are some of the reasons why it is crucial to educate women, especially in an underdeveloped country:

Basic Right

To begin with, education is a fundamental right for everyone, and when we say everyone, we must remember that women should be included in this group. We cannot have such a big number of illiterate women in our society; it would be a great loss to us. Every girl and woman, whether rich, poor, young, elderly, married, single, widowed or of any other social position, has the right to an education. Education is a fundamental right, not a privilege.

Increases Literacy Rate

Nearly 63% of the world’s 163 million illiterate youngsters are female. By providing education to all children, literacy rates will rise, boosting development in undeveloped countries.

Eliminates Human Trafficking

According to the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, women are most vulnerable to trafficking when they are uneducated and poor. This multinational business may be seriously impacted by giving young females opportunities and essential skills.

Political Representation

Women are under-represented as voters and political participants all across the world. Civic education, training, and overall empowerment, according to the United Nations Women’s programmes on leadership and participation, will help bridge that gap.

Equality in Society

Discrimination and inequality always begin at the root level. When a boy goes to school while his sister remains home because she is a girl, it sows a seed of bias in the boy’s head. He believes he is superior simply because he is a boy, and he has no rationale for this belief. When women participate in education by attending schools and colleges with males, the boys are more aware of their educational rights and are less likely to acquire a superiority complex. As a result, teaching both men and women promotes the concepts of equality and democracy.

Poverty Reduction

When women have equal rights and access to education, they are more likely to engage in business and economic activities. By feeding, clothing, and providing for entire families, increased earning power and income battle existing and future poverty.

It is undeniable that the relevance of female education is a significant problem. There is no gender equality; it is only for boys and girls to think as a group. Boys and girls should be equally prepared when it comes to national growth and development. How can we imagine a future world full of technology, creativity, beauty, and development in every sector while keeping one of our four productive populations in a four-walled boundary that we call home?

The majority of people in India, as we all know, live in rural areas. This community, though, has evolved through time. Public perceptions of freedom were not any more conservative. Many families have relocated their girls to states with greater resources. They study theatre, dancing, art, music, sculpture, science, history, journalism, and medicine, among other subjects.

Girls, like any other boy who is focused on reaching their objectives, go out and give it their all, whether it’s in education or athletics. They achieve because of their hard work and dedication.

The only thing that stands in the way of anyone achieving it is that it is impossible to attain. Girls, on the other hand, require a lot of familial support in addition to their desire. They require a family that understands them, and their family, like any other male counterpart, must grow. His parents are in charge of a lot of obligations.

Children are like buds; if you give them enough water and enough sunlight at the right time, they will blossom into healthy blossoming flowers. When I say that, I’m referring to children of either gender. We can solve all of our issues if we can shift our girls’ how attitudes about education and the importance of their country’s growth.

Women’s empowerment is an important element of every community, state, or nation. In a child’s basic life, it is a woman who performs a prominent role. Women have a significant role in our culture. Women’s empowerment via education might result in a good attitude change. As a result, it is critical for India’s socio-economic and political development. The Indian Constitution gives the government the authority to take affirmative action to promote women’s empowerment. Education has a huge impact on the lives of women.

Women’s empowerment is a global problem, and many formal and informal movements throughout the world focus on women’s political rights. Women’s empowerment begins with education, which helps them to adapt to difficulties, face their traditional roles, and alter their lives. As a result, we must not overlook the value of education in terms of women’s empowerment. In light of recent advancements in women’s education, India is seen as the world’s emerging superpower.

Women’s empowerment, according to the United National Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), involves:

• Gaining knowledge and awareness of gender relations, as well as the ways in which they may be changed.
• Gaining a sense of self-worth, faith in one’s ability to effect desired changes, and the ability to direct one’s own life.
• Having the ability to make decisions that give you negotiating power.
• Improving one’s abilities to organize and influence social change to achieve a more just social and economic order on a national and worldwide scale.

As a result, empowerment is defined as a psychological sense of personal control or influence, as well as a concern for actual social power, political authority, and legal rights. Individuals, organizations, and communities are all included in this multi-level architecture.

Below, we have listed some of the famous quotes by some of the most popular personalities in the world:

“There is no greater pillar of stability than a strong, free, and educated woman.” ~Angelina Jolie

“If we are going to see real development in the world then our best investment is WOMEN!” ~Desmond Tutu

“As a tribute to the legions of women who navigated the path of fighting for justice before us, we ought to imprint in the supreme law of the land, firm principles upholding the rights of women.” ~Nelson Mandela

“We should be respectful but we must also have the courage to stop harmful practices that impoverish girls, women and their communities.” ~ Graca Machel

“When women are educated, their countries become stronger and more prosperous.” ~Michelle Obama

“Young women who want an education will not be stopped.” ~ Freida Pinto

“Women share this planet 50/50 and they are underrepresented – their potential astonishingly untapped.” ~Emma Watson

“To educate girls is to reduce poverty.” ~ Kofi Annan

“The seeds of success in every nation on Earth are best planted in women and children.” ~Joyce Band

Education has been linked to fewer child and maternal deaths, better child health, and decreased fertility in various research. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, have fewer children, and be more knowledgeable of their children’s nutritional and other needs.

• Feedback: Girls’ education assists women in limiting the number of children they have. Over time, increasing girls’ school attendance lowers fertility rates.
• Mental Health: Increased access to education for women improves maternal health. An additional year of education for 1,000 women is known to help avoid two maternal deaths. 
• Child Survival: Increasing the educational opportunities for girls has a beneficial impact on infant and child health. A child born to an educated mother has a 50% higher chance of living through the age of five than a child born to an illiterate mother.
• HIV/AIDS: A girl’s or woman’s chance of getting HIV or passing HIV to her baby is decreased by education.Women in 32 countries who continued their education after elementary school was five times more likely than illiterate women to know basic HIV facts.
• Income Potential: Women’s earning potential is enhanced by education. A single year of primary school has been proven to improve women’s earnings by 10% to 20% later in life, whereas female secondary education returns range between 15% and 25%.

The following are the welfare schemes initiated to promote women education:

Mahila Samakhya Programme : The New Education Policy of 1968 led to the establishment of the Mahila Samakhya Programme in 1988, which aimed to empower rural women from low-income families.

The Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Scheme (KGBV) provides basic education to girls. It mostly serves rural regions with poor female literacy.

Girls who are not encouraged via SSA are covered under the National Programme for Education of Girls at the Elementary Level (NPEGEL) .

The Saakshar Bharat Mission for Female Literacy was established to reduce female illiteracy.

Women’s education is critical to the country’s entire development. It’s similar to an effective medicine that may know how to cure a patient and recover their health. A well-educated lady is capable of managing both her personal and professional lives. The physical and intellectual growth of the child is the moral goal of education. Education’s true objective is to provide students with “full knowledge” or “greater information.”

The overall literacy rate in India is 74.04% with Kerala with highest literacy rate while Bihar with the lowest literacy rate.

There are various powerful mediums available for Indians to raise awareness, the most primary place it begins is at home where girls should be encouraged to go to school and follow their talents. Powerful mediums like social media, government volunteers, advertisements, politicians can attribute to raising awareness.

In this blog, we saw the importance of women’s education. Many concerns must be solved, including infrastructure, teacher-to-student ratios, female child safety at school, an improved curriculum, and sanitary facilities, for more girls to be educated. Furthermore, parents must recognize the value of education and must not discriminate between their male and female children. Stay connected with Leverage Edu for educational content!

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Her education, our future: UNESCO fast-tracking girls’ and women’s education

Too many girls and women are still held back by social norms and traditional school practices infl­uencing their educational right and opportunities. But we know that their education is the most powerful investment to make for our collective future.

Her education, our future  is UNESCO’s drive to accelerate action for girls’ and women’s education by leveraging political and financial commitments, as well as leadership for women and girls. It will contribute to the  UNESCO Strategy for Gender Equality in and through Education (2019-2025)  and its three pillars aiming for better data to inform action for gender equality in and through education; better legal, policy and planning frameworks to advance rights; and better-quality learning opportunities to empower.  

Join us on social media through  #HerEducationOurFuture  and tell us what makes you a GirlForce!

Meet the GirlForce around the world advancing girls’ and women’s education

"her education, our future" documentary film.

Released on 7 March for 2024 International Women’s Day, “Her Education, Our Future” is a documentary film following the lives of Anee, Fabiana, Mkasi and Tainá – four young women across three continents who struggle to fulfill their right to education. 

This documentary-film offers a spectacular dive into the transformative power of education and showcases how empowering girls and women through education improves not only their lives, but also those of their families, communities and indeed all of society. 

UNESCO strategy for gender equality in and through education 2019-2025

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Women in Higher Education Leadership

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• Apr 3, 2025 - Apr 5, 2025 Application Deadline: Feb 20, 2025 Tuition: $2,995.00

For most leaders, the past few years have demanded more innovation, endurance, and creativity than ever. This period of change, activated by a global pandemic, political dilemmas, and social justice movements, has called for rapid redeployment of resources while positioning and maintaining equity as a priority. For women, the circumstances have generated new opportunities to demonstrate their leadership talent and also presented new challenges, given that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated inequalities related to gender.

Women in Higher Education Leadership is a forum for you to celebrate your strengths, analyze your challenges, and focus on the skills you need now to engage multiple constituencies in improving learning opportunities for students. This program empowers women to lead through adversity and provides a unique opportunity for growth and renewal among diverse groups of women, highlighting your unique contributions and experiences.

"Participating in the Women in Leadership program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education was transformative. It not only helped me navigate my career path but also provided essential tools for personal and professional growth. From leadership advice to networking opportunities and meaningful interactions with leaders in education, this program has been instrumental in shaping my journey towards impactful leadership and building valuable connections in the field." Brittney D. Alls, Esq. Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Audit, Compliance, Ethics, and Risk Management, Augusta University

Program Details

In advance of this residential program hosted on campus at HGSE, you will work independently to complete activities, which might include listening to podcasts, watching short videos, and reading articles or case studies. On campus, you will participate in interactive sessions with faculty, and, with their guidance, apply analytical frameworks to your context. You will also work in small groups for application, reflection, and peer coaching activities. These activities are designed to address dilemmas common to all leaders and also those unique to women in higher education, ensuring you feel prepared and confident in your leadership journey.

Learning Goals

• Learn strategies for prioritizing your equity agenda, especially in tumultuous times.
• Explore ways to build and sustain collaborative relationships with your team and stakeholders.
• Gain essential negotiation skills to ensure your resource needs are met to be effective in your leadership role.
• Understand the nature of your professional challenges and how biases related to gender and race are at play, and explore ways to respond.
• Create a lasting network of women leaders across the sector who affect change in education.

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Who should attend.

Senior leaders across higher education, including:

• Program directors 
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How to Apply

This program welcomes applications from both individuals and teams. First-time applicants need to create a Professional Education account to apply.

Individuals: Click the "Apply" button at the top of this page to log into your Professional Education account and access the application page. Proceed with the individual form until submission.

Step 1: Designate one participant or an administrative staff member as the Coordinator .

• The Coordinator should click the "Apply" button at the top of this page to log into their Professional Education account and access the application page.
• Proceed with the team form, including providing the name, email address, and job title of each participant in your team. 
• The Coordinator can choose to receive a team invoice.
• Contact us if you need to make any changes to your team after submitting the form.

Step 2: Upon the submission of the team application, all team members will receive an email notification with a link to their personal application form. Team members should complete their forms promptly. Once all team members submit their forms, the application is considered complete and ready for review by the Admissions Committee.

Invoices: Invoices will only be available upon your acceptance.

The tuition covers all instructional materials, a daily continental breakfast, and beverages and light refreshments during our scheduled breaks between sessions.

Travel, lodging expenses, and most lunches and dinners are not included in this fee. We have blocked a limited number of rooms in select hotels in the Cambridge/Boston area. The daily rates for these hotels typically range from $250 to $375 per room, plus applicable taxes. Once your applicants are accepted into the program, they will receive detailed information about these hotel options.

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Tuition assistance is available for this program on a need and application basis. Tuition assistance is granted based on participant and institutional needs. Requests for tuition assistance do not affect an applicant's prospects for admission. You may access the tuition assistance application after you have submitted your program application. Tuition assistance applications should be submitted at least one month prior to the final application deadline.

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How the women who ran libraries during the Harlem Renaissance where they built collections and, just as important, communities of writers and readers.

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It was a banner day in the history of American libraries — and in Black history. On May 25, 1926, the New York Public Library announced that it had acquired the celebrated Afro-Latino bibliophile Arturo Schomburg’s collection of more than 4,000 books, manuscripts and other artifacts.

A year earlier, the library had established the first public collection dedicated to Black materials, at its 135th Street branch in Harlem. Now, the branch would be home to a trove of rare items, from some of the earliest books by and about Black people to then-new works of the brewing Harlem Renaissance.

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New lawsuit claims women's medical program illegally excludes White students

'we must keep identity politics out of medical education,' group argues.

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A new lawsuit has been filed against the American Association of University Women (AAUW) by the organization Do No Harm alleging that the AAUW's "Selected Professions Fellowships" program is discriminatory and illegal.

The AAUW program offers $20,000 and networking opportunities to women pursuing certain degrees, but the organization has designated certain fellowships as restricted to women of color. The program is open only to women from ethnic minority groups, including Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.

Do No Harm, a nonprofit organization that says its aim is to safeguard healthcare from ideological threats, is filing the lawsuit on behalf of its medical student members who meet the criteria for the fellowship but are ineligible to apply due to their race.

"'Racial discrimination is invidious in all contexts.' Healthcare especially," the lawsuit states, citing a recent Supreme Court opinion in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. 

SUPREME COURT SIGNALS INTEREST IN HEARING A MAJOR CLIMATE CHANGE CASE THAT COULD BE A 'NIGHTMARE' FOR LIBERALS

A new lawsuit has been filed against the American Association of University Women (AAUW) by the organization Do No Harm, alleging that the AAUW's Selected Professions Fellowships program is discriminatory and illegal. (iStock)

That case, decided last summer, outlawed discriminatory practices in higher education admissions – a practice known as affirmative action. While that case dealt with American colleges, legal experts have said it would change the legal liability landscape beyond campuses and change the way other corporations and businesses pursue diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

"Yet, through its Selected Professions Fellowships (for the Focus Professions Group), AAUW is contracting only with certain racial groups. Medical students who are white—like Do No Harm’s members…are not eligible," the suit states.

LIBERAL IDEOLOGY ‘QUITE DANGEROUS’ IN HEALTH CARE, DO NO HARM FOUNDER SAYS: 'POISONS THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE'

"We must keep identity politics out of medical education whether that be in the classroom or in medical fellowship programs," said Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm. (Dzmitry Dzemidovich)

"AAUW should know how invidious it is to discriminate based on immutable characteristics. AAUW was founded in 1881 to 'open the doors for women’s career advancement and to encourage more women to pursue higher education,'" the suit notes.

"We must keep identity politics out of medical education, whether that be in the classroom or in medical fellowship programs," said Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm. "Every patient deserves access to the best possible care. Yet, ideologically driven fellowships such as those offered by the American Association of University Women, do not improve care. Medical fellowships should be awarded to students because of merit, not race."

MEDICAL SCHOOLS ARE ‘SKIRTING SCOTUS’ RULING AGAINST AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, REPORT SHOWS

The lawsuit claims that the AAUW's program violates the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which requires racial equality in "making and enforcing contracts." (iStock)

The lawsuit claims that the AAUW's program violates the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which requires racial equality in making and enforcing contracts.

The AAUW's program, the lawsuit argues, is discriminatory and illegal.

"There is no compelling interest that justifies categorically excluding white applicants based on their race. Nor is AAUW’s program narrowly tailored to achieve that compelling interest. A categorical exclusion of an entire racial group is, by definition, not narrowly tailored," the suit alleges.

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"The American Association of University Women should be ashamed of their archaic and illegal practice of discrimination based on race, said Kristina Rasmussen, executive director of Do No Harm. "As a women-led organization they should be lifting up all women. The AAUW should reverse course and open their fellowships and other opportunities to all women."

AAUW did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. 

Brianna Herlihy is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

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Public speaking is a crucial component of many higher education courses and is essential for students’ academic performance and future career success. Despite its importance, public speaking anxiety is a common issue among higher education students, adversely impacting their learning. Addressing this anxiety through targeted interventions, especially for the most at-risk students, is vital. This study provides insights into the demographic predictors of public speaking anxiety, using a sample of 1745 students from a large public university in the Czech Republic. We employed the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker in a short form to assess public speaking anxiety levels. Our multivariate regression analysis identified gender, type of high school, and study level as significant predictors of public speaking anxiety, whereas age, nationality, and field of study were not. The study found that women, non-binary individuals, graduates of academic high schools, and bachelor’s students are more prone to public speaking anxiety. These findings highlight the need for targeted intervention and support strategies for students with higher levels of public speaking anxiety.

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Introduction

Public Speaking Anxiety (PSA) is among the most widely faced anxieties among higher education students. Many higher education courses require students to give a speech or a presentation in front of their class as part of the assessment (Farris et al., 2013 ; Grieve et al., 2021 ). However, talking in front of many people is often a major cause of anxiety for students. In a nationally representative sample of Finnish university students, public speaking and presentation situations were reported to lead to the highest levels of anxiety among all learning situations among students (Pörhölä et al., 2019 ). In the US, 61% of college students were found to be fearful of public speaking, ranking second behind the fear of death (Dwyer & Davidson, 2012 ). A survey of students from two UK universities provided similar results, with 80% of students reporting anxiety from oral presentations (Russell & Topham, 2012 ). In a pilot study at Murdoch University comprising 16 students, half of them scored in the range of clinically significant anxiety (Martin-Lynch et al., 2016 ).

PSA refers to a pronounced fear or nervousness about speaking in front of an audience. It typically involves a concern about being judged or negatively evaluated by others, leading to feelings of discomfort, apprehension, or avoidance behaviors when faced with public speaking situations. It is a subtype of social anxiety, manifested as physiological, cognitive, and behavioral responding, including shaking, perspiration, increased heart rate, depressive thoughts, panic symptoms, and avoidance of stressor situations (Bodie, 2010 ).

PSA has negative consequences for both learning and later job success of higher education students. PSA impairs memory (Sawyer & Behnke, 1997 ) and depletes positive academic emotions, including motivation and engagement, making learning less effective (Pekrun et al., 2002 ). Public speaking is perceived by both students and alumni as one of the most important skills they should acquire (Farris et al., 2013 ) and a skill crucial for their job success (Johnson & Szczupakiewicz, 1987 ; Smith & Sodano, 2011 ; van Ginkel et al., 2019 ). Indeed, public speaking is an important skill for many job positions, and PSA was found to negatively influence career expectations of higher education students and to be related to students preferring back-office careers (Buser & Yuan, 2023 ).

Considering the widespread presence of PSA among higher education students and the importance of public speaking on students’ learning and careers, it is important to minimize the impact of PSA on student outcomes. An older meta-analysis conducted by Allen et al. ( 1989 ) revealed the effectiveness of various treatments for PSA, including cognitive modification, systematic desensitization, and skills training. Notably, the combination of all three treatments yielded the most substantial positive effects. In recent years, new approaches have emerged, offering cost-effective interventions through Internet-based self-help programs (Tillfors et al., 2008 ) and virtual reality (Lindner et al., 2019 ; Takac et al., 2019 ). The advent of these interventions has significantly reduced the overall cost of addressing PSA. Lim et al.’s ( 2023 ) meta-analysis underscores the efficacy of virtual reality in mitigating PSA. However, it also emphasizes the importance of integrating these novel approaches with traditional treatments rather than supplanting them entirely. Thus, despite the availability of affordable intervention programs, the vital component lies in complementing them with established treatments. It is therefore important to provide targeted and delivered intervention to the most at-risk student populations, underscoring the importance of examining the relationship between demographic characteristics of higher education students and their PSA.

Demographic predictors of PSA

As people age, their emotional regulation abilities tend to improve (Brummer et al., 2014 ; Santos et al., 2021 ). Therefore, it can be expected that older students would exhibit lower PSA due to their enhanced capacity to utilize effective coping mechanisms and maintain emotional stability in stressful situations. This thesis was supported by a study on general population, which found that after 18th year, there was a sharp decline in PSA, with a slight increase later in life (Caballo et al., 2008 ). On the other hand, several studies on student populations did not find age to have any effect on students’ PSA levels (Marinho et al., 2017 , 2019 ; Phillips et al., 1997 ).

The stereotype threat theory posits that individuals from groups targeted by negative stereotypes may be more inclined to embody those stereotypes. This theory is particularly pertinent to women, who frequently face doubts about their competence in various domains, including assertive, public roles (Laguía et al., 2022 ; Neal-Jackson, 2020 ; Seo & Lee, 2021 ). Awareness of these stereotypes, especially when combined with the heightened visibility of public speaking, can undermine women’s performance and exacerbate their PSA. Empirical evidence supports this notion, showing that women tend to report higher levels of PSA (Caballo et al., 2008 ; Hunter et al., 2014 ; Marinho et al., 2017 ; Perveen et al., 2018 ), demonstrate a reluctance to engage in public presentations (De Paola et al., 2021 ), and exhibit stronger physiological responses to public speaking (Carrillo et al., 2001 ) compared to men. Conversely, some studies have found no significant gender differences in self-reported PSA levels, in other studies, women and men were found to have the same self-reported PSA levels (Marinho et al., 2019 ; Phillips et al., 1997 ), and in one study, men were found to have higher PSA levels than women (Rodero & Larrea, 2022 ). None of the studies looked at PSA among non-binary students. However, research on general anxiety levels among non-binary people suggests that they experience greater anxiety levels compared to binary people (Butler et al., 2019 ; Thorne et al., 2020 ).

Nationality

To our knowledge, no study has looked at the influence of students’ status as foreign students on their level of PSA. Yet, it may have a threefold influence on PSA. First, there is a probability that for foreign students the language of instruction is not their first language, with students’ level of language ability predicting their PSA (Kelsen, 2019 ). Second, foreign students generally have higher anxiety levels stemming from their relocation and adjustment (Khoshlessan & Das, 2019 ; Wang et al., 2023 ). Third, similarly to gender, foreign students often encounter negative stereotypes regarding their abilities (Quinton, 2019 ; Spencer-Rodgers, 2001 ), which could in turn exacerbate their PSA.

High school type

Based on Rachman’s ( 1980 ) theory of emotional processing, it can be expected that repeated exposure to public speaking would facilitate reduction of PSA. The type of high school may predict students’ PSA levels due to different exposure levels of public speaking in curricula of vocational and academic high schools. Academic high schools usually put higher emphasis on developing communication and public speaking skills than vocational high schools. In the Czech Republic, academic high schools provide more lessons focused on developing communication skills than vocational high schools (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, 2024 ). Hence, academic high school graduates – after having more exposure to public speaking – may experience lower levels of PSA in higher education.

Study level

Similarly to the high school type, the level of study may predict students’ PSA levels due to different levels of exposure to public speaking, with students at higher levels having been exposed to public speaking more during their past academic experience. To this date, no study has looked at the influence of study level on students’ level of PSA.

Study field

Field of study can be a predictor of students’ PSA if certain fields offer more exposure to public speaking than others. Humanities and social sciences often emphasize argumentation and presentation as integral components of the curriculum, potentially providing students with more opportunities to develop comfort and proficiency in public speaking. This contrasts with the natural sciences, where the curriculum may prioritize written communication and technical proficiency, possibly resulting in less frequent engagement with public speaking tasks. So far, a single study looked at the effect of the field of study on students’ PSA levels – finding no effect (Marinho et al., 2017 ).

Present study

While PSA among higher education students is widespread, research on demographic predictors of PSA is limited and the findings are mixed. Previous research on demographic predictors of PSA among higher education students does not provide a coherent picture of which groups of students are most at-risk of having PSA. Findings on gender are mixed, research on non-binary students is nonexistent, and several theoretically important demographic characteristics have not been examined.

In the present study, we aim to fill the research gap by investigating six demographic predictors of PSA among higher education students – age, gender, nationality, high school type, study level, and field of study – aiming to provide a clearer picture of who the most at-risk of PSA students are. We work with a rich sample of students from a single university in the Czech Republic. Our study provides a significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge on PSA, offering practical implications for educators, administrators, and mental health professionals working within academic settings. We address the question “How do demographic factors influence PSA among higher education students?” Based on the outlined theories and previous research, we test the following hypotheses:

H1 : PSA decreases with age.

H2 : PSA is higher among women and non-binary students.

H3 : PSA is higher among non-Czech students.

H4 : PSA is higher among vocational high-school graduates.

H5 : PSA decreases with high study levels.

H6 : PSA is higher among natural sciences students.

We developed an online questionnaire consisting of several demographic items and items to assess students’ level of PSA. The demographic items consisted of questions on age (continuous scale), gender (categorical: man, woman, non-binary), nationality (open-ended), type of high school from which they graduated (categorical: vocational/academic), study level (categorical: bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral; if studying at multiple levels simultaneously, we asked for the highest), and field of study (open-ended). To assess the level of students’ PSA, we used a short form of the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker (PRCS). Originally created by Gilkinson ( 1942 ) as a 104-item paper-and-pencil measure, it was revised by Paul ( 1966 ) into a 30-item true–false format, and finally shortened by Hook et al. ( 2008 ) into a 12-item true–false format with a single factor structure. The PRCS is one of the most frequently used self-report questionnaires on PSA. The short form of the PRCS has demonstrated evidence of convergent validity with measures of anxiety, social performance anxiety, public and private self-consciousness, and shyness, and it demonstrated very good reliability (Hook et al., 2008 ). The short form of the PRCS includes straightforwardly worded items focusing on both physiological and emotional experiences when giving a public speech. The sum of the “true” statements results in the PSA score. A university-based language specialist assisted in translating the questionnaire into Czech. Before administering the questionnaire, we consulted with four university students, including two for whom Czech was not their first language, to assess whether the translation resulted in clear and comprehensible items. The four students confirmed that the item wording was clear. Both English and Czech versions of the instrument are available as Supplementary Information 1 . We checked the instrument’s structural validity and reliability with a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which confirmed the instrument’s single factor structure, and it showed good reliability with McDonald’s ω t  = 0.85. Full CFA results are available as Supplementary Information 2 .

We used exclusively a Czech version of the questionnaire because most of the student body could understand Czech. The non-Czech speaking students were part of academic programs delivered entirely in English. The dynamics of PSA for students studying English programs was likely to be different, possibly mitigated by the consistency of language use in their academic environment. Therefore, we focused on those students who could understand Czech (both Czech and non-Czech) to ensure a homogenous assessment of the influence of nationality on PSA.

Sample and procedure

We conducted our research at Masaryk University in Brno, the Czech Republic, a large public university hosting many foreign students. Masaryk University was an ideal location for our study due to its emphasis on student oral presentations as a common component of teaching, assessment, and its emphasis on student-based collaborative teaching, as outlined in the University’s Strategic Plan for 2021–2028 (Masaryk University, 2021 ). Hence, our findings should be applicable to similar higher-education contexts with public speaking being a common part of student lives. We aimed to collect data from as many Masaryk University students as possible with diverse demographic characteristics. Data collection occurred from November 3rd to 17th, 2022, in the middle of the Fall semester. Initially, we invited University students to complete the questionnaire via the University’s online information system; all students logging into the system saw our call for participation as an advertisement. Simultaneously, we posted our call for participation on several Masaryk University student-run Facebook and Instagram pages and groups. After the first week of data collection, noting underrepresentation of doctoral students in our sample, we sent an email to two hundred doctoral students from all faculties at random, asking them to complete the questionnaire.

Since the items on nationality and field of study were open-ended, we coded them into two categories to allow for statistical analysis: Czech and non-Czech. Most non-Czech students were Slovak, given Masaryk University’s popularity among Slovak students. Considering the historical union of the Czech Republic and Slovakia before 1993 and the similarity of the Czech and Slovak languages, we performed a sensitivity analysis with three categories of nationality – Czech, Slovak, and other – in addition to the main analysis, to control for the possibility that Slovak students might be very similar to Czech ones while differing from other nationalities. The sensitivity analysis yielded the same results as the main analysis; therefore, we report only the main analysis with two categories: Czech and non-Czech students. The results of the sensitivity analysis are available as Supplementary Information 3 . We coded the field of study into three categories: social sciences and humanities (SOC-HUM), natural sciences and medicine (NAT-MED), and those who studied both of the aforementioned categories (both).

Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the sample compared to the University. Our sample covered 5.40% of all Masaryk University students and was diverse based on all observed demographic characteristics. We had a majority of women in terms of gender, Czech students as the majority nationality, students from vocational high schools as the predominant educational background, those pursuing bachelor’s degrees as the leading level of education, and students in social sciences and humanities as the primary fields of study. We conducted a series of χ 2 tests to assess if the distribution of demographic characteristics in our sample significantly differed from that of the University, comparing the distributions of gender, nationality, study level, and field of study. Information on age and high school type, as well as non-binary persons, was not available from the University. Despite our best efforts, our sample differed in the distribution of all available demographic characteristics from the University, with all p-values from the χ 2 tests being < .01. Therefore, we decided to employ a weighting procedure aiming to make our sample as representative of the entire University student population as possible and to enhance the generalizability of our findings. For each student in our sample, we computed weights as the product of the ratios of population to sample proportions for each characteristic. This method ensured that individuals from under-represented groups were given higher weights while over-represented groups were assigned lower weights. We then normalized the calculated weights to ensure their sum equaled the total number of observations in our sample, preserving the overall sample size in weighted analyses. As the distribution of non-binary persons at the University was unknown, we kept their weights at 1. Following the weighting procedure, our sample was largely representative of the University population in terms of nationality, study level, and field of study.

Data analysis

To test our hypotheses and assess how students’ demographic characteristics predicted their PSA scores, we applied a multivariate regression analysis – a statistical technique allowing simultaneous examination of the relationship between multiple predictor variables and a dependent variable. By including several predictors in the model, we controlled for potential confounding variables. We adopted a theory-driven approach to model development, instead of relying on forward or backward selection. By grounding our model in theory, we ensured that each variable included is interpretable and relevant to the phenomenon under study. To counter the multiple hypothesis testing problem, we employed the Benjamini–Hochberg procedure (Benjamini & Hochberg, 1995 ), which specifically controls for the false rate discovery.

Comparing students’ PSA scores shows differences based on several demographic characteristics. Table 2 presents descriptive statistics, and Fig. 1 depicts plots of students’ PSA scores in relation to their demographic characteristics. Our analysis found that age is negatively correlated with PSA scores. Among the gender categories, men had the lowest PSA scores, with women scoring nearly 1.5 times higher and non-binary individuals almost twice as high as men. The data showed no differences between Czech and non-Czech students. Students who graduated from academic high schools exhibited somewhat higher PSA scores compared to those from vocational high schools. Doctoral students had the lowest PSA scores, with master’s and bachelor’s students scoring approximately twice as high as doctoral students. Finally, students in the social sciences and humanities (SOC-HUM) displayed slightly higher PSA scores than those in natural sciences and medicine (NAT-MED) and students studying both fields.

Plots of the students’ PSA scores related to their demographic characteristics

The regression analysis suggests that the only demographic characteristics significantly predicting students’ PSA scores were gender, high school, and study level. Table 3 shows the results of the regression analysis. Age was not a significant predictor of PSA after controlling for study level, hence, we do not confirm H1. On the other hand, we confirmed H2. Gender emerged as the strongest predictor among the observed characteristics, with women having significantly higher PSA than men and non-binary students exhibiting the highest PSA levels among the gender categories. We found no evidence for H3, with nationality not predicting students’ PSA scores. We found an opposite direction for H4 than we expected. High school type significantly predicted PSA, but with graduates from academic high schools showing higher PSA levels than those from vocational schools. Study level was a significant predictor as well – confirming H5 – with master’s students showing significantly lower PSA than bachelor’s, and doctoral students having the lowest PSA among the groups. We found no evidence for H6, with field of study not predicting students’ PSA scores. Our model explained over 14% of the variability in students’ PSA scores.

Our findings contribute new perspectives to the body of research on PSA in higher education students. By confirming that several demographic characteristics significantly predict students’ levels of PSA, our study identifies the most at-risk populations. This understanding is crucial for developing targeted interventions and support mechanisms tailored to the needs of these groups, aiming to enhance their academic experience and overall well-being.

We support the thesis present in some previous research that women have higher PSA levels than men (Caballo et al., 2008 ; Hunter et al., 2014 ; Marinho et al., 2017 ; Perveen et al., 2018 ). Our study adds a new dimension by including non-binary students – a group so far overlooked in PSA research and our results indicate that non-binary students experience higher PSA levels than both men and women. Building on the insights provided by stereotype threat theory (Laguía et al., 2022 ; Neal-Jackson, 2020 ; Seo & Lee, 2021 ), our findings suggest that the heightened PSA levels observed in women and even more so in non-binary students may be partly attributed to the pervasive influence of societal stereotypes and expectations. Women often confront stereotypes questioning their assertiveness and competence, particularly in public and professional domains. This societal backdrop may intensify the pressure and anxiety associated with public speaking, as women may fear that their performance will reinforce these negative stereotypes, leading to heightened PSA. For non-binary students, the situation seems to be compounded by additional layers of visibility and vulnerability. Non-binary individuals navigate a social landscape where their gender identity itself is often misunderstood or invalidated, placing them at an increased risk of experiencing stereotype threat not just regarding their competence, but their identity as well. The lack of representation and acknowledgment of non-binary individuals in many social spheres, including education, may further exacerbate this issue, making public speaking a potentially more distressing experience for them compared to both men and women.

Our findings are in line with previous research, indicating that increasing age does not necessarily lead to lower levels of PSA among students (Marinho et al., 2017 , 2019 ; Phillips et al., 1997 ). Contrary to expectations that older students might benefit from enhanced emotional regulation skills, our results suggest that the level of study serves as a more significant predictor of lower PSA. This highlights the pivotal role of university exposure to public speaking in mitigating anxiety, suggesting that structured opportunities to engage in public speaking within the university curriculum may have a more direct impact on reducing PSA than the gradual increase in emotional regulation typically associated with aging.

An intriguing finding of our study is the higher levels of PSA among students who graduated from academic track high schools, as opposed to those from vocational backgrounds. This contrasts with the expectation that more exposure to public speaking during high school would be related to lower PSA levels in higher education. Two reasons might account for this phenomenon. First, academic track schools often have a strong focus on academic achievement and performance, which may inadvertently heighten performance-related anxieties, including public speaking. Second, it may be a case of self-selection bias when students who choose academic tracks may inherently have different personality traits or anxiety levels compared to those who opt for vocational tracks, potentially predisposing them to higher levels of PSA. The impact of the type of high school on PSA might also vary across different educational systems and cultures. In regions where academic high schools place a greater emphasis on public speaking as part of the curriculum, the relationship between high school type and PSA might differ.

Our analysis suggests that nationality and field of study do not significantly contribute to variations in PSA among higher education students. This finding may suggest that PSA transcends cultural and disciplinary boundaries, possibly indicating that PSA is a universal experience, deeply rooted in the fear of judgment or failure in front of peers, rather than being significantly influenced by cultural or academic differences.

Limitations

While our study offers important insights into public speaking anxiety, it is important to acknowledge its limitations related to the scope of the sample and language inclusivity. We conducted our research at a single university in the Czech Republic. While this provided a rich and detailed dataset from the institution, it limits the generalizability of our results. In conducting this study through an online questionnaire, it is important to recognize potential biases that may have impacted the findings. There is a possibility of self-selection bias, wherein the individuals who chose to respond to the questionnaire might differ in their PSA levels from those who did not participate. This bias could occur if, for example, students who experience higher levels of public speaking anxiety are either more likely to respond due to a stronger engagement with the subject, or less likely due to avoidance tendencies. Our analysis included non-binary students; however, the results concerning this group should be interpreted with caution due to the relatively low number of non-binary participants in our sample. Additionally, we were unable to apply weighting for these participants, as their actual distribution within the university population is unknown. We have covered a series of theoretically relevant demographic predictors; however, we cannot rule out the possibility that we missed some crucial ones which might change our estimates. Finally, the questionnaire was administered exclusively in Czech, which potentially excluded a significant portion of the university’s international students who were not proficient in the language.

Implications

Our research has implications for both practice and future research. Our findings underscore the necessity of targeted intervention and support strategies for students with higher PSA levels – women, non-binary persons, those from academic high school backgrounds, and bachelor’s students. With the availability of many low-cost interventions (Lindner et al., 2019 ; Takac et al., 2019 ; Tillfors et al., 2008 ), it is crucial that these interventions are delivered to the most at-risk student populations. The unexpected finding that graduates from academic high schools reported higher PSA challenges the assumption that early exposure to public speaking necessarily leads to lower PSA in higher education. This suggests a need for a reevaluation of how public speaking skills are taught at high schools. Understanding the processes by which students’ demographic characteristics affect their PSA could be enriched by employing qualitative or mixed-method research designs. To understand the evolution of PSA throughout the educational lifespan, longitudinal studies tracking students from high school through higher education could provide valuable insights into how and when interventions can be most effective.

Data availability

The data this work is based on are publicly available in a repository of Masaryk University at https://is.muni.cz/th/l60av/?studium=681417;lang=en .

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Acknowledgements

The data this work is based on were originally collected for a diploma thesis of the second author. This work was supported by the NPO ‘Systemic Risk Institute’ number LX22NPO5101, funded by European Union—Next Generation EU (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, NPO: EXCELES).

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Lintner, T., Belovecová, B. Demographic predictors of public speaking anxiety among university students. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-06216-w

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Some still think periods can sync up. That's why it's so important to debunk menstruation myths

Tons of new initiatives are trying to teach girls — and boys — about periods as harmful myths circulate online.

Social Sharing

True or false? People who get periods can sync up their menstrual cycles with their friends. 

"True," said Toronto resident Sarah Hall.

"I think that's false," said Tovan Lew, another Torontonian. 

Period syncing isn't real. Experts have pointed out for years that there's no biological evidence for it. 

"If it were true, I would tell you," says Dr. Jen Gunter, a Canadian American gynecologist whose recent book Blood looks at the myths and shame around menstruation. "That's something that really rocks a lot of people's worlds." 

In fact, anecdotal experiences of cycle-syncing likely boil down to math : If one person gets their period every three weeks, while another gets theirs every five weeks, there will eventually be overlap in the cycles.  

It's just one of dozens of period myths circulating online. Many such myths have been around for ages. But platforms like TikTok and Instagram are causing them to spread faster and reach a wider audience. A quick scan on the app will pull up videos of young women telling their audiences that papayas induce periods — one video has over three million views — even though there's no evidence backing that claim.

Is ‘cycle-syncing’ a real thing?

Or that organic tampons, while pricey, are safer than regular tampons. (Experts say they are about the same, safety-wise.)

From new books to university groups and OB-GYNs appearing on social media, a movement of people is trying to change how we talk — and learn — about our periods.

"Why are our schools not teaching people basic biology? We need to do a better job at a public health level, teaching people the basics," said Gunter.

• Expert calls for better supports around menstrual health in youth sports
• Alberta doctors call for action on women's health in new awareness campaign

Why myths are harmful

Another corner of social media advocates for "free bleeding," where people toss away their period products — tampons, pads, menstrual cups — and let the blood flow. Some influencers say free bleeding lessens cramps and can shorten periods.

"We have no data to say that menstrual products cause pain or cramping, or they increase your flow. That is all completely made up," Gunter said. 

"The harm is people thinking that if they don't use menstrual products, that their terrible cramps are going to go away, and so they sit at home bleeding as opposed to getting medical care," she said. 

Women's health research has long been underfunded, and the science behind periods can seem particularly thin. Leah Hazard, midwife and author of the book Womb , told the New Yorker that during a review of scientific studies she found about 400 studies on menstrual fluid — compared to more than 15,000 about semen. She blamed the period "yuck factor" for dissuading related research. 

That's one reason why period myths can be harmful . And there's more. Myths can mislead people into purchasing expensive, unnecessary products or, in the case of free bleeding, to avoid much-needed products altogether. They can even encourage risky behaviour: It's not hard to find social media videos that falsely claim women can't get pregnant while menstruating. 

Gunter has long been campaigning for better research and education around women's health, and she says that the increasing use of social media is making this task even more urgent. 

• First Person Periods are considered unclean in my community. Now, I make a point to talk about them

Gen Z students are teaching Gen Alpha the truth about periods  

The Menstrual Society at the University of New Brunswick was created in 2022 to try and improve period education in their community. 

Club co-founder and future medical student Kate Palmer, 22, says the group's original goal was to make period products accessible for students on campus, but they've since expanded to include workshops for students in elementary, middle and high school. 

It's not 'just' a period: How people experience menstruation differently

"I didn't take away very much from what I learned in school," Palmer says. "We knew that the only way to increase conversations and start reducing stigma was to start at a young age."

So, Palmer and her team started introducing young students to the ins and outs of periods. The point, she says, is to teach kids about periods — what they are, what they can feel like — and to de-stigmatize them. They've hosted 47 workshops, with more in the works.

Notably, the workshops are for girls and boys. 

"Every person who doesn't have a period is going to have someone in their life who has a period," she said. "Obviously you have mothers, you have girlfriends, sisters, friends — anyone. So not understanding what's going on in their life, you're not going to be able to support them."

Organic period products aren’t better, says doctor

A growing period education movement.

Palmer and her team are part of a growing trend. 

Students, experts and politicians all over Canada and the U.S. are introducing initiatives that normalize periods and period talk: This year, Washington, D.C., introduced mandatory period education in its classrooms, and several doctors, including OB-GYNs, have viral social media accounts that debunk all sorts of women's health myths, including those centred around periods. 

Destigmatizing menstruation and women's health

But separating fact from fiction can be difficult, Gunter says, so it's important to know what to avoid. 

• The Dose Cramps and mood swings that end with a period: Tips for a less-awful menstrual cycle

"You should never get health advice from anybody selling a product," Gunter says. "Block them. They're there to make a sale." 

 Gunter also advises people to follow experts with appropriate credentials.

"People don't deserve your time. They need to earn it.

"Are they an OB-GYN? Are they a family physician? Are they somebody with expertise?"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Angela Hennessy is a journalist and producer at The National. Before landing at CBC in 2015, Angela was a reporter for various Toronto news outlets. She graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University with a degree in journalism and also has a bachelor of arts and international relations from Western University.

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