Literacy and Gender Equality
The ability to read and write is next to universal: in 2004, 80% of adult men and 73% of adult women had basic literacy skills. Of great social importance is the rapid growth of female school enrollment and the increasing presence of women in the labour market. These deep changes constitute a primary driver of economic growth in developing countries. Female literacy has great consequences in terms of fertility. When female school enrollment and employment rates increase, fertility rates decline rapidly and tend to stabilise around the natural rate of reproduction of 2.1 children per women (see E. Todd, "After the Empire"). Several demographers believe that, as a consequence, world population will stabilise over the next few decades, at a level compatible with the resources of the planet .
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Famous quotes containing the words gender and/or equality:
“But there, where I have garnered up my heart,
Where either I must live or bear no life;
The fountain from the which my current runs
Or else dries up: to be discarded thence,
Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
To knot and gender in!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“You can’t protect women without handicapping them in competition with men. If you demand equality you must accept equality. Women can’t have it both ways.”
—Mary Bell-Richards. “Protective Legislation in England,” Equal Rights (October 3, 1925)