When a family can afford to educate only one child, it is frequently the male child that is educated because he will look after the parents in their old age. For the same reason, male children take precedence over female children in matters of food and medicine. Education is important for a variety of reasons not directly related to job acquisition. An educated woman, for example, almost always has more allure and status in the eyes of her husband, her family and her community if she is educated. She is likely to have more awareness, more opportunities, more choice and more confidence.
Educated women are also less susceptible to bullying and intimidation.
Education also makes gender conditioning of the next generation so that they are less likely to discriminate. Female occupations tend to be less valuable, offering lower pay, lower status and fewer advancement opportunities than male occupations. This, in turn, negatively affects women's status and empowerment and consequently many social variables such as mortality and morbidity, poverty and income inequality. When most women are effectively excluded from most occupations, human resources are wasted and income levels are reduces it is a major labor market rigidity , reducing labor market s ability to respond to change. Most industrialized nations have developed anti-discrimination policies and equal opportunity measures to close the gap between the salaries of men and women.