Educating women

Education helps raise the social status and self-image of all humans, and makes them more receptive to important new ideas for social progress. That is why women who have attended school are more likely to reject harmful traditional practices, to seek and use health services, to see the need for more family planning, and so on. Research indicates that women with no schooling have almost twice as many children, on average, as those who have attended school for seven years or more. Given this, the education of women is widely recognized as one of the critical keys in the lowering of birth rates. In addition, it has been found that a child's health is affected much more by a mother's level of education than by the father's. Demographic and health surveys in 25 developing countries show that, all else being equal, even a minimal level of education for women (one to three years of schooling) can reduce child mortality by 15%, whereas a similar level of paternal schooling achieves a reduction of only six percent. Countries that in 1965 had achieved near-universal education for boys but much less for girls had approximately twice the infant mortality rate in 1985 than countries with a smaller gap in the boy-girl education ratio. In Thailand, mothers with primary school education were 30% more likely than mothers with no education to treat childhood diarrhoea with oral rehydration therapy or homemade solutions of salt, sugar and water. This figure rose to 90% for mothers with secondary or higher education.