At the end of one of our meetings with a women's group in a slum area of Calcutta, we asked about their dreams for the future. One woman responded, "Our dream for the future is that our children will be educated, especially our daughters who are often forgotten."

"Our dream for the future is that our children will be educated, especially our daughters who are often forgotten." --Indian woman

In each country we heard that girls and women have had less access to education of all kinds--formal and non-formal, government, church, and NGO sponsored. In situations of economic difficulty, families who cannot afford to educate all children will usually choose to give their male children the opportunity. Girls are encouraged to obtain jobs to raise money for the family. In addition, they will spend much of their time collecting water, seeking food for the family, watching smaller children in the family, and assisting with the myriad of other household tasks.

Lack of access to education for girls and women is also related to social attitudes--a girl's role in life is to get married and take care of the home. Therefore, education for girls is not seen as important, despite evidence which indicates a correlation between education for women and better health for women and children and lower fertility rates. In Zambia we heard that to educate a man is to educate an individual. To educate a woman is to educate a family (Couples group from the Pilgrim Wesleyan Church). We heard similar sentiments in India.

If a woman is married, she joins the family of her husband and is less able to be of much assistance to her first family. Therefore, education for girls who will most likely leave the family to join another family is considered to be futile. Parents prefer to dedicate limited resources to their sons, who have the responsibility for taking care of their parents. Families, teachers, and the church all help to perpetuate these attitudes.

Cultural traditions that relate to poverty also play a role in lack of support for girls' education. In Zambia, the bride price paid to a girl's family upon her marriage provides an incentive to marry girls very young. In India, the dowry her family must pay tends to be less if a girl enters into marriage at a young age. The likelihood of a girl being able to continue in school after marriage is slim. Girls often are not encouraged in school and their abilities are often undermined. Again, because girls are expected to marry young and forego further studies, teachers tend to pay more academic attention to the boys in the class. Lower expectations of girls in academic performance are shared by families, teachers, and girls themselves.

School material reinforces gender stereotyping and curriculum is often gender-influenced, with girls being more encouraged in courses that emphasize domestic skills and other "feminine" studies, while boys are more encouraged in maths and sciences. In Zambia we heard that math and science teachers tend to be male and these subjects are perceived to be boys' subjects even though they are compulsory for all. Girls tend to feel they are less capable and teachers do little to dispel these perceptions. However, maths and sciences are now required to become a teacher. This is providing an incentive for female students, many of whom aspire to be teachers, to work harder at these subjects (St. Joseph's teachers).

We heard that for the reasons given here, there is a marked difference in vocational aspiration between girls and boys. In El Salvador, for example, we heard from a girls' youth group that they would like to be teachers, nurses or secretaries. Boys, they said, tend to want to be lawyers, doctors, masons, presidents, mechanics, professionals, though some also want to be secretaries and tailors (San Martin).

Girls also tend to have more responsibilities than boys in the home and therefore have less time to study. They tend to do poorly and drop out faster as a result. In order to address this problem, Zambia introduced a lower cut-off rate for girls: the marks girls need to pass are lower than what is required of boys. It does not appear that this measure has significantly affected girls' propensity to continue in school, probably because it has not addressed a key factor (in addition to the rising cost of education and the other factors listed above) which is girls' very high and unequal burden of work in the home. Two male community development workers we met with in Zambia added that an effect of the lower cut-off rate is to reinforce the perception that girls are less capable than boys in school. This is a contributing factor to the low self-esteem of girls and women.

If a girl becomes pregnant, she is expelled from school. The father of the child is not expelled, except in very exceptional circumstances. It is not unusual to hear of girls being impregnated by their male teachers, an obvious exploitation of power. Though we were not given statistics, the sense we received is that pregnancy is a significant factor in the high drop-out rate of girls. In addition, girls are more vulnerable to sexual abuse and parents are often reluctant to let their girl children travel any distance to attend school which is often necessary.

Women who do reach higher levels of education find that motherhood takes priority in a way that fatherhood does not. It is more difficult for a woman with children to continue her studies than it is for her husband. Even in the case of non-formal, adult education, women are often less advantaged than men. Women have more difficulty finding time, especially blocks of time, to attend adult education courses because of the numerous and varied tasks they do in a day. Many training programs happen over a number of days and it is harder for women to be away from home longer than one day because of their domestic responsibilities, which are considered their primary responsibility.

In all three countries, formal and non-formal education were identified as having a key role to play in helping oppressed women and men to build self-esteem and see themselves as persons of value, and to recognize their God-given potential and feel empowered. Education helps persons earn more respect, gain a broader outlook on life and be exposed to different ways of thinking and relating. They may become more aware of and able to resist oppression, may refrain from oppressing tendencies, and may be more likely to seek relationships which are just, humane, respectful and equal. More tangible benefits include the potential for better work opportunities, better marriage prospects, improved standard of living, lower birth rates, and decreased vulnerability and dependency which also increases options.

The youth are the hope for the future and it is therefore important that girls and boys have more access and equal opportunity to attend school. This is the priority of many of the communities that we met with. A number of theological institutes are trying to make theological education more accessible to women by making scholarships available, specifically encouraging women, and designing curricula to attract women. The MCC India Global Family Program, a child sponsorship program, often has a majority of girls enrolled in its program. This apparent emphasis on girls is not intentional according to MCC India staff, but is the result in part of MCC India's efforts to fund the education of girls in families where boys receive educational priority. One of the NGOs MCC works with, SUCHI, does make girls a priority of their non-formal education programs and this is resulting in an increased number of girls moving into the formal education stream.

Education systems tend to reinforce stereotyped perceptions of women and men, girls and boys and the roles they can and do play in society. In El Salvador, a study concluded that the education system has contributed to the subordination of women by perpetuating traditional roles and expectations of women and men in educational resources, often in contrast with reality. As a result of this study, educational reforms are being introduced to challenge these stereotypes and the discriminatory attitudes of teachers, and to promote equal opportunity for both genders. However, the process is expected to be long and slow. The need for this was also expressed in Zambia. It is also important to work with families, which MCC India and some of its partners are doing and which we also saw in El Salvador and Zambia, to persuade them of the value of educating their daughters as well as their sons. The church is participating in this too in some places (El Salvador: Perquin).

Despite the benefits education offers, some studies in El Salvador have shown that the level of education does not tend to affect the propensity of men to engage in domestic violence. Perhaps of less sinister import, we heard a few times in Zambia that educated men prefer to marry women who are not educated because they encounter less challenge to their authority. According to one woman at the CCZ, "Men who are educated, their minds are up here (lifting her head upwards), but culturally, they are down there (pointing her head down)." Others felt that education does offer the potential to improve relationships between men and women.