According to the Huffington Post, literacy for women means “less domestic violence, sexual assault [and] sexually transmitted disease.” Investing in education for women also has the benefit of lifting entire families and communities out of poverty. Here are 10 reasons to invest in education for women:

10 Reasons to Invest in Education for Women

1. Women who are literate can earn up to 95 percent more than women who are illiterate.
2. An educated woman is able to earn a 25 percent higher wage after attending one year of secondary education and is more likely to reinvest 90 percent of her earnings into her family.
3. If all girls in South and West Asia, as well as girls in sub-Saharan Africa, attended secondary education, the number of child marriages would fall by nearly 65 percent.
4. While education for women reduces the number of child marriages, it is also able to reduce the fertility rate of women by up to 10 percent. Educated women overall have fewer children or have children later in life, and those children are more likely to survive and also become educated.
5. Women who are educated are less likely to contract HIV /AIDS, which leads to fewer children born with HIV and Aids as well.
6. According to the Girls Global Education Fund, a child born to a woman in Africa with no educated has a one in five chance of dying before the age of five.
7. Investing in women’s education is shown to carry onto the next generation, with a child being born to an educated woman attending an extra 0.32 years. The results are even greater for young girls born to educated women.
8. Educated women have a large effect on national economic growth; when education for women is raised by one percentage point, the gross domestic product is increased by approximately 0.3 percentage points.
9. Education for women consistently delivers more stable and far-reaching economic benefits for families and communities.
10. An increase in educated women means an increase in female leaders at the local and global levesls.

These are just ten of the many reasons to invest in education for women. As an African proverb says, “If we educate a boy, we educate one person. If we educate a girl, we educate a family – and a whole nation.”

– Amanda Panella

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