Women work substantially more hours than men between domestic chores and farming, he said. That has serious implications for educating women and girls, he said, because some chores like pollinating vanilla plants in Uganda and fetching water are tasks assigned to girls. The output of workers is affected by their own level of education and that of their coworkers. If that is so, education becomes more important. The increases in democratic states and processes on the continent in the last decade are related to improved literacy rates, he said.
Education is critical for governance issues and social cohesion.
It's been said that if you educate a man, you educate a single person. If you educate a woman you educate a society. Numerous studies show that women who are educated marry later, have fewer children, have healthier children and share what they learn with the family, Aboum said. We're seeing a reversal of the gains of the '70s and '80s because of globalization and policies of the World Bank and international markets, she said. Women are less educated, earn less, own less, and are less represented in various economic and political spheres.