International Women’s Day: New factsheet highlights gender disparities in innovation and technology

Over the past 20 years, gender gaps in enrolment and attendance have been in decline. Still, according to new estimates available in UNESCO’s tool Visualizing indicators of education for the world, 118.5 million girls of primary and secondary school age are out of school. These data do not reflect the potential impact of COVID-19 on education systems.

Girls still face significant barriers to their right to education in some countries. In Afghanistan, girls have been banned again from secondary schools and tertiary education. In many parts of the world, poverty is one of the most important barriers to girls’ education. In over 20 countries, less than 10% of poor, rural, young women have completed upper secondary school. According to UNESCO’s HerAtlas, which monitors the right to education for girls and women around the world, 2% of all countries restrict the right to education of married, pregnant and parenting girls and women in their legal framework.

In 2020, women still accounted for almost two-thirds of all adults unable to read – 478.5 million of them lack basic reading skills, with very little improvement seen over the past two decades. In rural areas, women are even further behind: In at least 15 countries, women aged 25 to 64 from rural areas are twice as likely to be illiterate as those from urban areas.

Evidence from five low- and lower-middle income countries shows that girls are more likely than boys to miss school due to physical violence perpetrated by classmates and teachers or due to unwanted sexual experiences.

On the sidelines of the 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, UNESCO is organizing an event on digital education and skills for girls’ and women’s empowerment. On International Women’s Day, UNESCO is also hosting the Women@Dior Global Conference in Paris.