A few outside stats...

Thanks to a mild stomach bug, I’ve been spending much of my free time laying low in my rondavel and reading. From Greg Mortenson’s Stones Into Schools:

Investing in Girls Education Yields Huge Returns

Income Growth

Girl’ education leads to increased income for the girls themselves and for nations as a whole. Increasingly the share of women with a secondary education by 1 percent boosts annual per-capita income growth by 0.3 percent. That’s significant, since per-capita income gains in developing countries seldom exceed 3 percent a year. (Source: The World Bank)

Educating girls also boosts farming productivity. Educated farmers are more efficient and their farms are more productive, which leads to increased crop yields and declines in malnutrition. (Source: The Council on Foreign Relations’ What Works in Girls’ Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World)

Maternal and Children’s Health

Educated women have smaller, healthier, and better-educated families.

The better educated the women in a society, the lower the fertility rate. A 2000 study in Brazing found that literate women had an average of 2.5 children while illiterate women had an average of 6 children. (Source: UNESCO)

The better educated the women, the lower the infant mortality rate. “The mother’s education is often the single most important influence on children’s survival… Educated mothers learn how to keep their children healthy and how to use health services, improve nutrition and sanitation, and take advantage of their own increased earning capability. Girls who stay in school also marry later when they are better able to bear and care for children.” (Source: The Council on Foreign Relations’ What Works in Girls’ Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World)

By increasing health-care knowledge and reducing the number of pregnancies, female education significantly reduces the risk of maternal mortality. (Source: The World Bank)

Women’s Empowerment

Educated girls and women are more likely to stand up for themselves and resist violence. “In poor areas where women are isolated within their communities, have little education and cannot earn much, girls are often regarded as an economic burden and women and girls sometimes suffer deliberate neglect or outright harm.” (Source: The Council on Foreign Relations’ What Works in Girls’ Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World)

Educated women channel more of their resources to the health and education of their children than men do. (Source: The Council on Foreign Relations’ What Works in Girls’ Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World)

Educated women are more likely to participate in political discussion, meetings, and decision making. (Source: The Council on Foreign Relations’ What Works in Girls’ Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World)

Studies show that education promotes more representative, effective government. As women are educated and approach parity with men, research shows that “governments and other institutions function better and with less corruption.” (Source: The Council on Foreign Relations’ What Works in Girls’ Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World)

Girls who become literate tend to teach their mothers how to read and write, much more than do males. (Source: Greg Mortenson)

When vegetables or meat wrapped in newspapers are brought home from the bazaar, women often ask their literate daughters to read the news to them and can understand more about the dynamic world around them. (Source: Greg Mortenson)