Sending girls to school benefits everyone!

Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter published a story this week arguing when a society educates its girls, the entire society reaps the rewards.

In "Education: Its Not Just About the Boys. Get Girls Into School", Alter cites research in the new book What Works in Girls' Education, showing when girls are educated they increase their support of their families; wait an average of five years longer to have children; and earn more money, which they share with their families at significantly higher rates than men, who tend to keep up to half for themselves.

Social problems on local, national, and international levels often evoke debate about what kind of aid is most useful. Need-based aid, like food aid in famines, is important as a response mechanism in emergencies, but does not create the structural change necessary to eliminate the factors which led to the crisis in the first place. Sustainable change occurs when systemic inequality is addressed; such as when girls are sent to school.

The United Nations' Millennium Development Goals list eight objectives for development and poverty alleviation. Goal three declares that member states should seek to "eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015".

Alter's article shows how investment in girls' education does not just benefit girls; it benefits all of society. Educated girls are not only equipped to raise themselves out of poverty, they are more likely to help raise their families and communities out of poverty as well. IFAD, the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development has found that women, in particular, benefit from micro-credit and micro-finance programs:

"Women's status, both in their homes and in their communities, is elevated when they are responsible for managing loans and savings. The ability to generate and control their own income can further empower poor women. Research shows that credit extended to women has a significant impact on their families' quality of life, especially their children. Poor women also tend to have the best credit ratings. In Bangladesh, for example, women have shown to default on loans far less often than men."

Investment in women and girls is an investment in society as a whole. Alter's article gives us the latest evidence women are our most powerful agents of positive change.