Gender+Disparities

=    **Gender Disparity**     = Following the publication of the [|UN Millennium Development Report 2007], all UN member states agreed to "eliminate gender disparity in all education levels no later than 2015" (Millennium Development Goals). However, girls continue to be at a disadvantage when accessing education in many countries of Africa, the Middle East , South Asia , and East Asia.

//In this map, the size of each country is proportional to the number of illiterate women ages 15 years and older minus the number of illiterate men of the//  //same age in the same country. Thus, countries with area have a larger number of illiterate women than men.//(Worldmapper)

Note the low levels of female illiteracy in the United States and Western Europe. Female illiteracy in India, China , Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran is a prevalent and debilitating problem. Some countries with the greatest disparities in literacy rates between genders are Yemen (69% male literacy, 28% female literacy), Nepal (62% male literacy and 26% female literacy), Mozambique (62% male literacy and 31% female literacy) and the Central African Republic (64% male literacy and 34% female literacy). (Millennium Development Report) Gender inequality has incredibly harmful repercussions on the women's society. Lack of literacy affects women politically, economically, socially and culturally. Without equal participation in their political and economic systems, women miss the opportunity to be a member of the new global economy and society. Over the last decade there has been little global progress in closing the gap in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector between women and men. Of the 109 countries with data for the late 1990s, only 18 had a share of women equal or slightly higher than that of men. They are mainly countries in the developed regions (mostly transition countries). In 14 countries the share of women in non-agricultural paid employment is below or well below 30 per cent (Millennium Development Report).

In India, [|Pardada Pardadi Educational Society] is just one of the organizations working to close the disparity gap between women and men by empowering women through free education and vocational training. This free education prepares the girls for participation in the booming new global economy. Organizations like Pardada Pardadi are helping to change the cultural beliefs which can be especially detrimental to women's access to education. One resource that was especially striking to the students researching Gender Disparity was a [|PBS Wide Angle video] which chronicled the life of a young Indian women and the effect education had on her economically and socially. Especially striking about this situation, however, was the change in beliefs that her father underwent after seeing his daughter become economically independent as a direct result of her education. He no longer viewed her as a burden, but rather a blessing to his family.

[|Worldmapper] [|The UN Millennium Development Report 2007]
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