Educating Girls Part 2: Benefits And Solutions
In last week’s blog post, I wrote about how a number of obstacles such as poverty, violence, lack of sanitary supplies, and child marriage impact the ability of 130 million girls worldwide to get an education. As important as it is to raise awareness of this problem and its causes, though, the goal of DVM For Hope has always been to provide the reader with both awareness of injustices and steps that the average person can take to combat them. As Stephen R. Covey said in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “To know and not to do is really not to know.” (1)
All that having been said, we have an important question to answer before we explore solutions to the problem: what impact does educating girls have on a society? To ask the question a different way, why does matter if girls get an education? In the United States and the western world in general, this question might seem a little absurd. Those of us who have daughters would never dream of allowing them to be limited by the lack of something as basic as a secondary education! Our girls are more apt to worry that they won’t get paid as much as their male counterparts, or about how to balance a career and a family. As we saw last week, though, this isn’t the case in many cultures, and those cultures are missing out on the many benefits of educating girls.
If the obstacles to girls’ education can be overcome, there are huge benefits to all areas of society. For example, poverty, the scourge that still affects almost half of the world’s population, can be decreased by simply allowing girls to go to school. And, while no one could reasonably claim that changing any one factor is going to rid the world of poverty, educating girls has an undeniable ripple effect. According to the World Bank:
Girls’ education is a strategic development priority. Better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, marry at a later age, and enable better health care and education for their children, should they choose to become mothers. All these factors combined can help lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty. (2)
In fact, according to malala.org, if all girls could receive even a high school education, “low and middle income countries could add $92 billion per year to their economies.” (3)
Besides alleviating poverty, educating girls has many other benefits, both for society and for the girls themselves. Educated girls are much less likely to be forced into child marriages, and as a result, are more likely to have children later. Not only that, but, when they do choose to have children, maternal and child death rates are significantly lower. According to UNESCO, even if all girls had only a primary school education, maternal death rates would be lowered by two-thirds. That’s around 98,000 lives that could be saved (4). Another 3 million lives would be saved by a decrease in early childhood death. And, the children are healthier because malnutrition is also decreased.
Educating girls also contributes to the stability of societies. When all the children, including the girls, in a society are educated, the likelihood of conflict is decreased. According to the Malala Fund, the risk of war is actually cut in half, partly because decreasing inequality decreases extremism. This is echoed in a Malala Fund briefing paper:
Education builds resilience, enabling countries to recover from conflict more quickly once peace is established. Where it is provided in an equitable and inclusive way, education can also help prevent conflict in the first place. Whilst primary education is vital, secondary education can be transformative. In certain countries, doubling the percentage of students finishing secondary school would halve the risk of conflict. (5)
Also, when all children are in safe schools, they are protected from violence and from the risk of kidnapping or recruitment by armed militias. It turns out that these societies are more tolerant and more accepting of democracy! (6)
We’ve seen that removing the obstacles to educating girls benefits all of society. Hopefully, you’re inspired to ask what you can do to help ensure that all girls worldwide are able to go to school. There are many different organizations fighting for educational rights for girls, and there seem to be at least as many recommendations as there are organizations. But, here are some concrete things you can do:
• Get educated. In the Important Links and Articles sections of this blog, I’ve listed organizations, articles, and papers that will help add to your understanding of the problem and its solutions ❏
• Raise awareness. Once you’ve taken the time to learn about the issue, tell others about it. If you are on Facebook and Twitter, post and tweet about educating girls, and follow the organizations I’ve listed ❏
• Microfinance and Microsavings. Microfinance, while not a panacea in and of itself, can provide income to families and increase the likelyhood that they can afford to send their children to school. My personal preference for microfinance is kiva.org. but there are others as well. Care.org establishes savings groups in 26 African countries, turning small sums into sustainable savings ❏
• Support an organization that educates girls about menstrual health and provides hygiene products that allow girls to stay in school. International Rescue Committee and ZanaAfrica both do work in these areas ❏
• Support the Malala Fund, Unbound, or another organization that works to improve girls’ access to educational opportunities ❏
• Support Organizations, such as Unchained At Last, AHA Foundation, and Girls Not Brides that work to end child marriage ❏
• Support International International Justice Mission in their fight to expose and fight violence and injustice throughout the world ❏
M.
Sources:
- Covey, Stephen. The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons In Personal Change. Simon and Schuster, November, 19, 2013.
- www.worldbank.org
- malala.org
- Girls Education—The Facts. UNESCO, October 2013.
- Safer, Healthier, Wealthier. How G20 investments in girls’ education improves our world. Malala Fund.
- ibid.