Benefits of education for women (HCD Dissemination Note)

The evidence is clear that the total benefits to education multiply when schools open their doors to girls and women. In addition to being more productive in market work, educated women have smaller families, fewer of their children die in infancy and the children who survive are healthier and better educated. Educated women are also better equipped to enter the paid labour force which is critical to the survival of the many female headed households in developing countries. It is not surprising then, that nations with higher levels of female school enrolment in the past, today show higher levels of economic productivity, lower fertility, lower infant and maternal mortality, and longer life expectancy than countries that have not achieved as high enrolment levels for girls. [author]