Women, Literacy and Development

Women's Literacy:Investing in the Future

Women's literacy is the single most important factor in development.

One out of every three women in the world is illiterate. Infant mortality and malnutrition are significantly lower with mothers who have completed primary education.

Women are responsible for 70 percent of food production in Africa.

Agricultural production can rise by as much as 25 percent when poor farmers receive even as few as four years of schooling.

Studies show that women in developing countries are engaged in work from twelve to eighteen hours a day, every day of the week, to ensure the survival and well-being of their families. They must prepare meals, care for children and walk miles to get water and fuel. In certain parts of the world, women play the main role in growing food, as well as in selling or trading it for other needed items.

A woman's workday usually begins before dawn and ends long after sunset. Under these circumstances, how will it be possible for women to learn to read and write or attend other classes, even if their husbands allow them to do so, which is not always the case?

Between 70 percent and 90 percent of students enrolled to achieve literacy in African countries are women.

"We are not empty pitchers. We have minds of our own. We can reason out things. And, believe it or not, we have dignity. Let those who teach us remember this."

Not long ago a group of literate women from the south coast of Kenya were explaining the advantages of their recently acquired skills in reading, writing, and calculation. Now that they could sign their names, they had more control over money transactions, and could read medical prescriptions and instructions. "Our eyes have been opened," said one of them, expressing her new sense of pride and increased self-reliance.

"I would educate women more than men. Women bear and raise children. So, women prepare the future. How can the future be good if women are illiterate?"

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