- Two thirds of the 774 million adult illiterates worldwide are women – the same proportion for the past 20 years and across most regions.
- The global youth literacy rate has increased to 89 per cent, while the gender gap has declined to 5 percentage points.
- Gaps between girls’ and boys’ primary enrollment have closed in the majority of countries, but gender parity is still a distant goal for some.
- 72 million children of primary school age are not attending school, out of which over 39 million (or 54 per cent) are girls.
- While secondary school enrollments show improvement, fewer countries are near gender parity than for primary education.
- In tertiary enrollment, men’s dominance has been reversed globally and gender disparities favor women, except in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern and Western Asia.
- Women in tertiary education are significantly underrepresented in the fields of science and engineering; however, they remain predominant in education, health and welfare, social sciences, and humanities and arts.
- Worldwide, women account for slightly more than a quarter of all scientific researchers – an increase compared to previous decades but still very far from parity.
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Source: http://unstats.un.org
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See GC Women's Ministries Illiteracy and Leadership resources, two of the Six Issues identified by GCWM as the greatest needs of women to address.