In most, if not all first world countries, a girl is expected to go to school. Many parents, upon hearing that they will have a daughter will begin to make plans for her future education. A *2011 study concluded that approximately 20.1 million women earned bachelor degrees in the United States compared to 18.7 million men.
But in other parts of the world, an education for a woman is less likely or even impossible to achieve. In second or third world countries, it is *estimated that approximately 60 millions girls are being denied an education. In regions of the world where poverty is rampant, a girl’s education is the key to breaking the cycle. With that education, she can move her family out of poverty, she is less likely to be forced to marry young, she and her children will have better access to medical care and her children are more likely to go to school.
The barriers to a girl’s education are many: tradition, familial needs (the parents choosing to educate their sons over their daughters due to limited income or needing their daughters at home to help with the household responsibilities), lack of female teachers, fear of violence, etc.
The fact is that these young ladies have endless potential in front of them. One of them might discover the cure for cancer or travel into space and find a previously unknown galaxy or become one of the most respected writers of her generation. But for that to happen, these girls must become educated. Education is the undisputed key to success. But first, these girls must receive that education and that is where the problem lies.
*A U.S. Gender Milestone: More Women Have Advanced Degrees Than Men, April 2011,
*Basic education and gender equality, July 2015, http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_70640.html