Gender Equality

Millennium Development Goal # 3 targets Gender Equity. This goal aims to change the face of poverty by advancing primary and secondary education for women and girls and ending the disparity between opportunities afforded to men and women in education by 2015.

The challenges facing women

Women are facing huge hunger, health and education challenges.  Women are:

• 70 percent of the poorest and most vulnerable people on earth;
• Two-thirds of the world's illiterate people;
• Two-thirds of children denied primary education are girls, and 75% of the world’s 876 million illiterate adults are women. (Source: AskWoman)
• 7 of 10 hungry people in the world;
• Dying at a rate of 500,000 each year from preventable complications of pregnancy.

Women also face huge economic disadvantage. 

• Women do about 66% of the world's work in return for less than 5% of its income. (Source: Women's International Network)
• Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half of the world's food, and yet earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property. (Source :World Development Indicators, 1997, Womankind Worldwide)

Why Should We Pay Attention to Girls?

Little research has been done to understand how investments in girls impact economic growth and the health and well-being of communities. This lack of data reveals how pervasively girls have been overlooked. For millions of girls across the developing world, there are no systems to record their birth, their citizenship, or even their identity.

However, the existing research suggests their impact can reach much farther than expected; investing in women and girls has a big ripple effect.

Girls who get the right opportunities are more likely to pass on the benefits to their family and community

• Women will reinvest 90% of their income back into the household whereas men reinvest 30%-40%
• Children of a woman who has completed primary school are less likely to die before the age of 5 than children of mothers who have no schooling.
• Investment in girls can improve a country’s economy. Statistics show that an increase in the number of girls in secondary education boosts a country’s wealth because many will enter the work force as wage earners who then have more money to spend.