Empowering women: More Education + Better Health Care = Less Poverty

A young girl from India in the fifth grade says goodbye to her classmates because she won’t be attending school anymore.  Her mother died recently and she  has to stay home to cook and bring lunch to her father in the field where he works. Her grandmother is very old and blind, but she scolds her son for withdrawing his daughter from school. The grandmother says that she will do the cooking and tries to make her son recognize how important his daughter’s education is.  Nonetheless, the father doesn’t understand….to him it is more important for his daughter to keep house for him than go to school.

Poor, overworked and illiterate--this is the profile of many adult, rural women in a majority of developing countries. Although more girls and women are entering school now than ever before, huge gaps still exist in women's education and literacy, especially among adult women ...the caretakers and providers for whom the ability to read and write can make a world of difference.

If women are to contribute effectively to their community and the development of their country, they must be sufficiently equipped to actively participate by receiving quality education that will prepare them to enter any field, expose them to science, technology and communications and stimulate their creativity.

Women's health and access to health care are also of major concern in developing countries.   The health of the people in a country is pivotal to its prospects for sustainable development.  Women suffering from poor health status typically lack knowledge, information, work skills and access to essential health services.  Despite the fact that women are the primary providers of health care for their families (and sometimes for an entire village), they often lack access to such care for themselves. Statistics show that in many countries there are fewer women than men receiving timely treatment for illnesses, hospital care if needed, and receiving prescriptions for medication.

Women comprise a disproportionate share of the world's poor. Over the past 50 years, the number of rural women in developing countries living in absolute poverty has risen by about 50%  versus 30% for rural men.  Female poverty is a persistent and unevenly distributed liability that threatens the sustainability of developing countries.