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 .
Read more about this topic: Contemporary Society
Famous quotes containing the words gender and/or equality:
“Most women of [the WW II] generation have but one image of good motherhood—the one their mothers embodied. . . . Anything done “for the sake of the children” justified, even ennobled the mother’s role. Motherhood was tantamount to martyrdom during that unique era when children were gods. Those who appeared to put their own needs first were castigated and shunned—the ultimate damnation for a gender trained to be wholly dependent on the acceptance and praise of others.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“A woman’s asking for equality in the church would be comparable to a black person’s demanding equality in the Ku Klux Klan.”
—Mary Daly (b. 1928)