© Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Quinn Ryan Mattingly | Young students studying in Tra Vinh Province, Vietnam | 2018
How education supports women's economic empowerment
Access to income and assets
Increases in educational attainment are strongly correlated with wage increases
A new set of educational attainment in the world, 1950–2010
A study analyzing data from more than 100 countries found that each additional year of schooling was associated with a roughly 10 percent increase in annual wages for women and girls on average, with highest returns to primary education.
Barro and Lee | 2013
Educating girls and ending child marriage: A priority for Africa
A study of 12 African nations found that compared to women with no education, women with some primary education earned 19–30 percent more, those with secondary education earned more than twice as much, and those with postsecondary education earned almost five times as much.
Wodon et al. | 2018
Women with little or no education are significantly more likely to work in vulnerable jobs with lower wages and less job security
Global employment trends for women
According to the International Labor Organization, 84 percent of working women in sub-Saharan Africa and 83 percent of working women in South Asia work in vulnerable jobs, with educational attainment reducing the likelihood of vulnerable employment.
International Labor Organization | 2012
In Mexico, only 39 percent of women with a primary school education were employed in paid labor, compared to 48 percent of those with a secondary education.
UNESCO | 2013–14
Power to make decisions
Women with a secondary education are more likely to report having control over personal and economic decisions
Voice and agency: Empowering women and girls for shared prosperity
Rates of women reporting deprivations of agency such as lack of control over household resources, domestic violence, and child marriage were 25 percent lower among those with at least a secondary education. Women without a secondary education were two and a half times more likely to say they have no say in decisions about their mobility (e.g., when to visit friends and family) compared to those with a secondary education.
Klugman et al. | 2014
Educating girls and ending child marriage: A priority for Africa
A study of 12 African nations found that women with more education reported greater decision-making power in the household.
Wodon et al. | 2018
How education produces further benefit
Maternal health
Education reduces women’s risk of significant health problems
The relationship between maternal education and mortality among women giving birth in health care institutions
Women with fewer than 6 years of school are two to three times more likely to die during childbirth than those with more than 12 years of schooling.
Karlsen et al. | 2011
A study of women in 32 countries found that women with post-primary education were five times as likely to know basic facts about HIV transmission, prevention, and treatment compared to those without an education.
UNESCO | 2013–14
Family planning
Family size decreases as women’s education levels rise
Educating girls and ending child marriage: A priority for Africa
Educational attainment correlates with a substantial reduction in women’s total fertility (i.e., the estimated number of children a woman is likely to have based on her age group). This study posited that universal secondary education could reduce total fertility by one-third in the 18 developing countries examined. Roughly two-thirds of this reduction could be attributed to educational attainment, with the additional one-third stemming from a related decline in child marriage.
Wodon et al. | 2018
Demographic health surveys in sub-Saharan Africa showed that, on average, women with no education had 6.7 births, those with primary education had 5.8 births, and those with secondary education had 3.9 births.
UNESCO | 2013-14
Empowering women through education: Evidence from Sierra Leone
Survey data from Sierra Leone showed that each additional year of schooling increased women’s propensity to use modern contraceptives by 8 percentage points.
Mocan and Cannonier | 2012
The causes of educational differences in fertility in sub-Saharan Africa
A study of 30 African nations found that women with a secondary education had on average 3.4 births and a desired family size of 3.7 children, compared to 6.3 births and a desired family size of 5.6 children among those with no education.
Bongaarts | 2010
Increased educational attainment and its effect on child mortality in 175 countries between 1970 and 2009: A systematic analysis
Scholars estimated that over half of the decline in child mortality rates over the past 40 years was associated with increased educational attainment among women of reproductive age.
Gakidou et al. | 2010
Delayed marriage
Girls with little or no education are much more likely to marry before age 18
Cohort differences in women’s educational attainment and the transition to first marriage in Ghana
A 20-year longitudinal study from Ghana found that the risk of early marriage among girls with at least a secondary education was 41 percent lower than those with a primary education or less, even after controlling for other demographic variables.
Gyimah | 2009
UNICEF found that rates of child marriage among literate girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia were 4 percent and 8 percent, respectively, compared to 20 percent and 25 percent, respectively, for illiterate girls.
UNESCO | 2013–14
Educating girls and ending child marriage: A priority for Africa
Country-level analysis in 13 African countries found that women’s likelihood of marrying and having a child before age 18 fell by 7 percent for each year of secondary education. The study posited that universal secondary education could end child marriage and reduce early childbearing by up to 75 percent (given the strong link between child marriage and having a child before age 18).
Wodon et al. | 2018
Political empowerment
Girls’ education is associated with women’s increased political participation
A study in the Amhara region of Ethiopia found that rural women's involvement in political and economic activities increased as their level of education rose.
Bishaw | 2014
Engaging politically: Rethinking women’s pathways to power
A qualitative case-study analysis of women’s political leadership in eight LMICs concluded that education was critical for increasing the number of women leaders in government “beyond the elite cohort.”
Tadros | 2014
Mobility and safety in public
Women who are educated report having greater mobility
Voice and agency: Empowering women and girls for shared prosperity
Forty-three percent of women without an education reported having no say in decisions about visiting friends and family, compared to 17 percent of those with higher levels of education.
Klugman et al. | 2014
Intergenerational effects on nutrition and stunting
Children of educated women are more well-nourished and less likely to suffer from stunting
A multi-country analysis estimated that if girls’ secondary school completion rates were 100 percent, stunting would decline by 26 percent, improving the wellbeing of some 11.9 million children.
UNESCO | 2013–14
Effect of mother’s education on child’s nutritional status in the slums of Nairobi
Evidence from Nairobi found that children of women who did not complete high school were 29 percent more likely to suffer from stunting than those with a high school diploma.
Abuya, Ciera, and Kimani-Murage | 2012
Intergenerational effects on health and immunization
Children of educated women are generally healthier and more likely to receive immunizations than those of uneducated women
Education counts: Toward the Millennium Development Goals
A child born to a mother who can read is 50 percent more likely to live past age 53.
UNESCO | 2011
Increased educational attainment and its effect on child mortality in 175 countries between 1970 and 2009: A systematic analysis
Across Africa and Southeast Asia, mothers with a basic education were 50 percent more likely to immunize their children compared to those with no education. In addition, over 50 percent of the decline in child mortality over the past 40 years is associated with increased educational attainment among women of childbearing age.
Gakidou et al. | 2010
Intergenerational effects on education
Children of uneducated mothers are more likely to be uneducated themselves
The impact of school fees on the intergenerational transmission of education
A study of 56 countries showed that each additional year of schooling for mothers was associated with an additional 0.32 years of education for their children.
Bhalotra, Harttgen, and Klasen | 2013–14
Mothers’ human capital and the intergenerational transmission of poverty: The impact of mothers’ intellectual human capital and long-run nutritional status on children’s human capital in Guatemala
Analysis of 35-year longitudinal data from Guatemala found that maternal education affected children more than paternal education and had a stronger effect on girls than boys.
Behman et al. | 2010