Educating and Empowering Women for a Better Future

Educate a girl, save the planet. Sounds impossible, but it’s actually more doable than we think. Research shows that educating females is one of the most powerful tools we have against climate change. There are an estimated 132 million girls who are not in school, worldwide. Educating these females can have a dramatic impact on what our future looks like.

Women are not just the primary caregivers of the world, but the true bread winners of the world. Half of the world's farmers are female—and the numbers are much higher in developing countries. Yet, they are unfairly given fewer resources and chances to succeed. 

And although women and girls have an important role to play in reducing global warming, they are also disproportionately affected by it.

HOW DOES EDUCATION PLAY A ROLE?

Project Drawdown, one of the world’s leading resources for information and insight about climate solutions, ranks Health & Education as the second most impactful solution in reducing heat-trapping gases. And educating one girl doesn’t just affect her own life; it also affects her entire family’s health, prosperity and future and even that of her community.

It’s “because an educated girl has a better understanding of her own sexual and reproductive health, and she will be more politically, socially and economically empowered. When she is educated, she is more likely to make sustainable decisions on behalf of her family, and if she chooses to have them, she will have fewer and healthier children,” according to the team at Project Drawdown.

That is a powerful direct correlation—how educated women are and their quality of life, but also, importantly, how many children they have. When women have smaller families later in life (after completing high school and/or college), this reduces the rapid growth of the world population and slows the depletion of Earth’s finite natural resources. As a result, climate change can be slowed down or even reversed, especially if these women go on to hold jobs in the sustainability sector or politics, where vital decisions are made to halt climate change.

Girls’ education also correlates to a more stable family life, to more resilient societies, stronger economies and less inequality. This provides better opportunities, not just for other girls and women, but also for boys and men—a world with more fulfilling potential for everyone.

OTHER BARRIERS FOR FEMALES

Climate Change

Unfortunately, a poor or no education isn’t the only challenge that females in developing countries—and all over the world—face. Although girls and women can play a big part of the solution to the ongoing climate crisis, they are also the ones who are negatively affected the most when climate disasters do strike. Women (and kids) are more likely to die during natural disasters than their male counterparts due to many reasons, some of which include:

• Higher poverty rates
• Fewer available resources
• Lack of awareness for policy and preparedness
• Decreased access to technology, land, loans and employment options
• More jobs in agriculture sector
• Missing survival skills (such as swimming and climbing) that men possess
• Default responsibility of looking after children

Farming

Girls and women are also increasingly taking on an important role in their families, as head of household. That translates to them acquiring more farming jobs where they hope to earn enough income to properly care of their children. This, however, doesn't always prove to be feasible, especially in developing countries. A large share of households in all regions of Africa are headed by women, "yet their access to productive resources and services are limited," according to Farming First, a global coalition for sustainable agricultural development. Females do not receive equal land rights, credit and capital, tools and technology, healthy seeds and crops, training or vital information to help their farms be more productive. Women also work longer hours, they work harder and do the most labor-intensive tasks on a field. Although they farm as well as men and on the same size land, they produce less food overall. If these discrepancies are fixed, women can have higher yields to match their male counterparts, as much as 20-30% more. This can boost the total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5-4%. 

Two ripple effects of higher yielding farms worldwide would be:

• Reduced deforestation. If women produce more food on existing farmland, this would eliminate the need to clear out additional forests for new farms (to meet the growing need). According to environmentalist Katharine Wilkinson from Project Drawdown, addressing this agricultural gender inequality could "prevent 2 billion tons of emissions between now and 2050," as stated in her TED Talk. 
• Reduced number of malnourished people. If women produced 20-30% more food on their farms, this could feed an additional 100-150 million people who are currently undernourished. 

Violence & Forced Marriage

A lot of women, especially younger women, are also more vulnerable to violence. Sometimes, this violence against them can occur on their way to school or even at school, which could prevent them from wanting to attend school in the first place (even if they have access to it). This violence includes sexual-violence—which sometimes results in unwanted pregnancies. “Girls who become pregnant often face strong stigma, and even discrimination, from their communities. The burden of stigma, compounded by unequal gender norms, can lead girls to drop out of school early and not return,” according to the World Bank.

An even more severe challenge to girls getting a proper education is child marriage. All across the world, every year, young girls (younger than 18) are forced to marry early in life and have many children. These relationships can also result in violence by their partner, which in turn negatively affects the education and health of their children. If these kids grow up in a poor home, without a proper education or good healthcare, they are more likely to follow in the footsteps of their parents (mostly mothers) and continue the vicious cycle of having many (uneducated) kids, being easily victimized, living poor and contributing to the climate crisis. The opposite is also true. If a mother has the means to properly provide for her children, she will also successfully pass that knowledge on to them.  

EDUCATING GIRLS AND WOMEN; THE IMPACT

Does educating women really make a big difference to fertility rates? Yes, it can.

Data from the World Bank shows that in some African countries, the difference in the number of children an educated woman has compared to a lesser educated woman is almost an additional 4 to 5 children—the scale shows schooling from 0 to 12 years (high school). 

The largest variance (negative correlation) is most clearly noticed between different levels of female education and the total fertility rate (TFR) in a population. According to the World Bank, TRF represents the number of children a woman can expect to have in her lifetime given the current rates of age-specific fertility.

Why does it make a difference? Each person in the world emits an average of 4.79 tons of CO₂ per year. If an educated woman has, on average, three to five fewer children than an uneducated woman, the reduction in CO₂ emissions can be substantial. This can shrink  the global need for food, transportation, electricity, housing, commercial goods and much more.  

In addition, according to the The Brookings Institution, if we have fewer people on the planet AND each person in the United States, for example, took a more active role in reducing their carbon footprint, we may see a significant individual and collective decrease in CO₂, as much as 20 times less. There are many steps to get there; some include:

• Driving less or opting for electric cars, carpooling or public transportation
• Using more energy-efficient appliances and technology; Using LED lights
• Reducing food waste and eating a more plant-based diet (less meat)
• Recycling and composting properly

 

HELPING TO EMPOWER GIRLS AND WOMEN

Providing females with a proper and quality education is one of the most powerful investments any country in the world can make to curb climate change in its current trajectory. Women can help change and create a more stable world and in turn help re-shape the future for the better. In order to do that, we need to help girls and women thrive, both personally and professionally. Some solutions to close the learning gender gap include:

• Giving girls access to schools without barriers—without long trips, without fear of abuse, without stigma that they’re not “allowed”
• Supporting girls through pre-primary, primary and secondary education with adequate financial assistance (if needed) and equal opportunity for employment after school
• Providing governments with the needed resources to create gender-responsive budgets and national education plans and policies that prioritize gender equality
• Removing gender stereotypes and rethinking re-entry policies for young mothers
• Offering better support and resources for family panning; women having children by choice
• Improving menstrual hygiene management in schools (in certain countries)
• Increasing women’s involvement in politics and policy-change

These are just some examples of how nations can successfully support girls’ and women’s journeys to a better education. There are many other, sometimes smaller, actions countries can implement. But one thing is clear; creating safe environments in schools, involving women in key decision-making within their communities and teaching them survival and preparedness skills improves not only their resilience and life outcomes, but also their climate mitigation actions and their overall fight to reduce the climate crisis and welcome a brighter future.