The document discusses the history and current state of women's education around the world. It notes that women have faced discrimination in access to education historically, such as Harvard not admitting women for 200 years after its founding. Today, women still face barriers like child marriage, poverty, religion, and social norms that view women as less valuable. The lack of education for women has negative impacts on public health, economic development, and human rights. Improving access to education for women could help address issues like overpopulation, disease, and human trafficking. The document calls for continued efforts and funding from all countries to make education accessible and end this inequality.

1. Women’s
Education
Around the
World
Brea Muzykoski, Audrey
Pennington, and Kaitlin
Warner

2. Essential Questions
Why are women less educated than
men?
Why are women not given the same
opportunities as men across the world?
How will the lack of education for
women affect our future?
What impacts this inequality?
How can this issue be resolved?

3. History of Women’s Education in America
Harvard University opened 1636, however; the first college to admit women did not do so
for another 200 years.
Women did not begin attending college in equal numbers to men until as recently as 1980.
The first college in the world to admit women was Oberlin College in Ohio. From their
origin in 1833, Oberlin College admitted both women and African
Americans.

4. History of Women’s Education Internationally
1608- Juliana Morell became the first woman to earn
a doctorate and law degree. (First ever to earn
anything from a university.)
1732- Laura Bassi became the first woman to
become a professor at a university. (University of
Bologna in Italy.) 1818- Western Christian missionaries opened the
first schools in India for girls.
1972- Gender based discrimination became illegal in
America. A Civil Rights Restoration Act wasn’t
passed until 1988.
2016- Twenty Tibetan Buddhist nuns became the
first Tibetan women to earn degrees.

5. Maria Montessori
“We discovered that education is not something
which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process
which develops spontaneously in the human being.”

6. Why Aren’t Women Being Educated?
Social discrimination
among women is appalling.
Women are seen as the less
valuable asset across the entire
world. A burden to any family
that possess a daughter. Due to
this thought process of women,
education is stripped from their
rights.

7. Early Marriage
When women get married at a young age and are forced to start a family their
chances of getting an education are significantly decreased. Across the world 15
million girls are married prior to turning 19.

8. Highest Rates of Child marriage
South Asia and Africa have the highest
number of child marriages.
South Asia has 17% of their children who are
married before 15 and 45% before 18.
In Africa 12% are married by 15 and 39 %
before 18.
“Gender inequality and the low value placed
on girls underlie the practice” (Girls Not
Brides)

9. Poverty
The most undereducated region of the
world is Africa.There are many barriers
of girls’ education in Africa.
No safe routes from home to school
Malnourishment
Marriage, pregnancy, menstruation
Crowded classrooms

10. Religion
Religions justify the inequality based
off of teachings such as :
“Women should remain silent in the
churches. They are not allowed to speak,
but must be in submission, as the Law
says. If they want to enquire about
something, they should ask their own
husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for
a woman to speak in the church.” 1
Corinthians 14:34-35
“Now I want you to realise that the
head of every man is Christ, and the head
of the woman is man, “ 1 Corinthians
11:3-7
“To the male the equivalent of the
portion of two females, and if there be women
more than two, then theirs is two-thirds of the
inheritance, and if there be one (only) then the
half.” Quran, An-Nisa, 4:11

11. Where in the World?

12. Where in the World?
Percentage of Females
Who Have Never Been
to School
Average Years of
Education Completed by
Females
1 Somalia- 95% 0.3 (3 ½ months)
3 Pakistan- 62% 1.0 (1 year)
7 Yemen- 58% 0.8 (8 months)
26 India- 30% 2.9 (2 ⅘ years)

13. Effects on Educating Women
-Lower birth rates
-Fewer child deaths
-Improve child nutrition
-More likely to find work
-Less likely to die in childbirth
-Less likely to get married at a young age
-Less likely to have children at a young age
-Lessen wage gap between men and women
-Decrease number of women in human trafficking

14. Why Should Women Be Educated?
“Providing girls with an education helps break the cycle of poverty”(Unicef.org).
“The benefits are substantial and by providing this education it will create a ripple effect
for future generations”(Unicef.org).
“A single year of primary education has shown to increase a girl’s wages later in life by 20
percent” (Borgen Project).

16. Human Trafficking
“Women are most vulnerable to trafficking when they are undereducated
and poor,” says the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human
Trafficking. By providing education to the women
in these areas it would decrease the
number of human trafficking.
A recent study in Haiti showed that of
the women who had been paid for sex
before 18, 27% said that schools were
the most common place for
solicitation.

17. Benefits of Women’s Education

18. Women’s Education Activists
Malala
Yousafzai
“Education is education. We should learn
everything and then choose which path to
follow. Education is neither Eastern nor
Western, it is human.” -Malala Yousafzai

19. Education in countries significantly decreases the number of children per woman. The
more developed countries have a much lower fertility rate.

21. A Human Rights Issue, Not a Woman’s
IssueWe need to encourage all genders to participate in the movement. If men in other countries
do not see the need for women’s education based off of their beliefs it will create push
back.

22. Human Rights Issue
Working to decrease this number is something we
feel should be important to everyone and action
steps need to be taken in order to solve this issue.

24. Solutions
There are many other organizations that work to help girls get ahead of the culture they
were raised in.

25. Personal Solutions
Sending those who are studying to become educators in the US should travel to other
countries and teach girls for several months. This would give them a foundation to build
off of. Also, this could lead by example and their new education would be spread to other
girls. Sending student teachers would be beneficial to the United States as well because it
would expand our cultural knowledge that could be shared with students in the US.

26. $1.18
Green- Underdeveloped
Red- Severely Underdeveloped
per child
● United Nations attempted to end
lack of education in 2000.
1. Brought primary education up
from 83% to 91%.
2. Still left 58 million.
● Need money from both developed
and underdeveloped countries to
support education.
1. $39 billion extra a year.
2. Average of $1.18 a day per child.
● Increase in food nutrition is critical
to every child’s education.

27. Recap
Why are women less educated than men?
Why are women not given the same
opportunities as men across the world?
How will the lack of education for women
affect
our future?
What impacts this inequality?
How can this issue be resolved?