Education for Girls and

Women
Caitlin Crandell
August 2, 2015

Crandell
Education for girls and women in other countries is not the same as it is in the United
States. For women like myself in the US, it is mandatory for us to attend school until we are
legally able to drop out at age 16. According to the National Center for Education Statistics
(2015), in 2013 the dropout rate for girls from ages 16-24 was only 6%. After graduation or
completing a GED, girls/women have the opportunity to further their education by attending a
college/university or a trade or vocational school. This is not the case in other countries.
According to UNICEF (2015), it has been estimated that in 2013, 31 million girls who
were elementary school age and 32 million girls who were middle school age were not in school.
This is a huge amount of girls who should be able to continue, or start, their education but are
unable to. In a lot of these countries the schooling is not free as it is in the US. Because the
countries, or the areas, are poverty stricken the families have a difficult time paying for the
schooling. Not only would the families have to pay for the tuition, but they would have to pay
for the uniforms most of the time as well. These costs can add up, and for poor families it simply
is not an option. It is thought that boys should get the education to provide for the family, as they
will always stay with this family. The girls will eventually marry and join a new family, so
their education seems less important. The females are expected to take care of the housework
and raising the kids.
Unfortunately this problem is present in more countries than one would think. I found an
article showing the countries showing the percentages of the poorest females from ages 7-16 that
have never been to school. It also shows the average years of education that the poorest females
ages 17-22 have had. The number one country, which is Somalia, has 95% of girls who have
never been to school (ages 7-16). It is hard to imagine not being in school while growing up.
The number two country is Niger with 78%, third is Liberia with 77%, fourth is Mali with 75%,
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coming in fifth is Burkina Faso with 71%, sixth is Guinea with 68%, seventh is Pakistan with
62%, eighth is Yemen with 58%, and ninth is Benin with 55%. The list is through number
seventy-five. As I mentioned, the list also shows the average years of education for females ages
17-22, and it changes up a bit. Somalia is first again with .3 years, Niger is second with .4 years,
Mali is third with .5 years, Guinea is fourth with .5 years, fifth is Guinea-Bissau with .8 years,
Yemen is sixth with .8 years, seventh is Central African Republic with .8 years, Burkina Faso is
eighth with .9 years and Pakistan is ninth with 1 year. Not everyone continues their education
after high school, but the rates are definitely higher than these countries in the US.
As we have read in Half the Sky (2009), human trafficking is still a very real thing in this
world. In Cambodia, Srey Rath was a fifteen year old girl who was trying to help out her family
financially by getting a job outside of town in Thailand. It turns out that the job agent, who was
telling her and her four friends about a dishwashing job, had other things in mind for these girls.
He sold the girls to gangsters who then took the girls to Malaysia to work in a brothel. Only the
girls had no choice and did not earn any money for their services. They were beaten and forced
to have sex with men. Eventually Rath made her way back to Cambodia, after escaping once
and being taken to another brothel.
Another story within Half the Sky (2009), shares a story about a thirteen year old girl in
central China named Dai Manju. Her parents made Dai Manju drop out of school due to lack of
funds to pay for tuition and so she could help around the house since she was the oldest child.
Dai Manjus parents were also elementary school drop outs and were barely literate. The
family was extremely poor and didnt have electricity, running water, or basically any
possessions. So they didnt see the use out of keeping her in school when they thought she
would end up working in the fields or making socks. The $13 tuition was simply too much to
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spend on an education. Dai Manjus school got a donation from a donor in New York for
$10,000, which actually ended up being only for $100 but the bank made an error in the
transaction. The bank made up the difference, and the school had enough funds to pay for Dai
Manjus tuition and build a new school. She finished elementary school, middle school, high
school, and even went on to an accounting school. She was able to work as an Accountant, find
jobs for family members, and even send money back home to her parents. This example proves
how important an education can be for girls and women everywhere in this world.
In these countries an education seems much too expensive to be worth it. The people are
used to the women working in the fields, factories, markets, or staying at home to raise the
families and do housework. If the girls get an education they also can provide for the families
and make a difference. If the cycle starts in a family with the girls going to school, it will
continue for generations and most likely the families wont be in poverty anymore.
It may seem like a long shot for some people, but if the cycle is broken and changed these
countries will also change and have more educated women. With more women being educated,
more will be working and earning a healthy living. It will hopefully help reduce young
marriages and pregnancies. Also, this will help with gender equality. It will prove that women
are worth a lot and they can provide for their families just like the men.
There are definitely benefits to girls attending school and getting an education, more than
just for them. Their education can help their families also. According to UNESCO, the benefits
are higher family incomes, a lower fertility rate, smaller chances of getting HIV/AIDS, being
better nourished and having healthier children, getting married later in life, and a smaller infant
and maternal mortality rates. These are all great examples on why education should be more
accessible to girls and women. If they are given the same opportunities as the boys and men,
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their countries and communities would be in better conditions. The US is not perfect, but we do
have the same opportunities when it comes to education, for men and women.
There are a lot of organizations out there helping these countries and their girls and
women to gain an education. One of these organizations is the World Assistance for Cambodia.
They have a few programs, but one that focuses on girls education is called Our Girls Be
Ambitious. This program was initially started to stop the trafficking in Cambodia, and to help
the girls stay in school instead of looking for a job to help support their family. This program
runs off of another program of theirs called Rural School Project. The attendance of the girls
in these villages stays low due to the girls needing to stay home to help with the family and
housework or them needing to work to earn money. This is where Our Girls Be Ambitious
comes in. With this program, the girl can earn financial assistance if she has perfect attendance,
not including excused absences. The incentive is $10 per month, a total of $120 a year if the girl
has perfect attendance. This may not seem like a lot, but to these villages it is worth it. This is a
win-win situation. The girls get an education, and they earn money for their families.
Another organization is the Maasai Girls Education Fund or MGEF; they work with
educating Maasai women as well as other members of their community. They provide
scholarships that are continuous until the student has the skills and knowledge to start the
workforce of Kenya. MGEF also organizes workshops to bring up the cultural beliefs and
customs regarding girls not getting an education, the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the poverty
among the communities. The Maasai professionals run the Community Education program,
which would help as they are hands on with the issues among them. Within the Community
Education program, it provides life skills for the girls. This helps to prevent teen pregnancy,
young marriages, and the spread of HIV/AIDS. They also have Business training workshops for
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women, to empower those who lack the knowledge to become self-sufficient. Another workshop
MGEF offers is for elders and mothers. This will help educate the older women and mothers to
help talk to their children about sex.
The Global Partnership for Education or GPE is supporting an initiative called Girl
CHARGE, which is working with developing countries to help boost the completion rate of
girls in primary schools. From 2015-2018 GPE estimates that the rate will raise from 74% to
84%, which is 2.5 million more girls completing elementary school. They are also estimating
44% to 54% completing rate or 2 million girls completing middle school. Right now there are
about 31 million girls that are not in school. These girls risk young marriages and young
pregnancies, bad health, living in poverty, and they risk contracting HIV/AIDS. With education,
these risks all decrease.
These are all great steps to take in helping these countries eductate their women and girls.
This has made me realize just how different my life is from many other women my age in this
world. Where I chose to continue my education after high school, and I had no choice in going
to elementary, middle school, or high school (until the age of 16), it was mandatory. I cant even
start to think how it would be if I was unable to read, write or even socialize like I did in school.
There are a lot of organizations to support the education of the girls and women of these
countries, however I had not heard of very many. If these organizations could maybe join forces
or get their names out then they could raise more money to help these countries out. If they were
to combine a few together, maybe it would get the word out better and educate the unknowing
people about the situation. I couldnt believe the number of girls this effects day to day. It
would be beneficial to other children in elementary through high school to maybe sponsor or
have a pen pal with some of these students in these countries. If each class in each school were
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to sponsor a student elsewhere, we could potentially help these girls complete schooling. I
would like to one day witness this world changing and education no longer being an issue.
Everyone should have the opportunity to earn an education for themselves and have the best life
they could ever want.

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Works Cited
Commitment by the Global Partnership for Education to the. (2014, September 24). Retrieved
July 28, 2015, from http://www.globalpartnership.org/news/global-partnership-education-girlscharge-commitment-action
Community Education. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2015, from
http://www.maasaigirlseducation.org/what-we-do/community-education
Fast Facts. (2015). Retrieved July 25, 2015, from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16
Girls Denied Education Worldwide. (2013). Retrieved July 26, 2015, from
http://dayofthegirl.org/girls-denied-education-worldwide/
Girls' education and gender equality. (2015, July 23). Retrieved July 26, 2015, from
http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_70640.html
Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S. (2009). Investing in Education. In Half the sky: Turning oppression
into opportunity for women worldwide (pp.167-178). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Kristof, N., & WuDunn, S. (2009). The Girl Effect. In Half the sky: Turning oppression into
opportunity for women worldwide (pp.xi-xxii). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
The bottom ten countries for female education. (2012, November 9). Retrieved July 27, 2015,
from https://efareport.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/the-bottom-ten-countries-for-female-education/
WEF (Press Kit THE BURNING ISSUES: Women and Girls, Education, not Discrimination!).
(n.d.). Retrieved July 26, 2015, from http://www.unesco.org/education/wef/en-press/presskit_wome.shtm
World Assistance for Cambodia. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2015, from
http://www.cambodiaschools.com/our-programs/girls-be-ambitious/