Lack of female literacy is also closely associated with increased infant and child mortality and illness. If the children are to live and to thrive, the mother must be given a lamp unto her feet the skill of literacy. Further, illiterate women are blocked from reading the word of God. This barrier cripples them in their spiritual growth and in the spiritual training of their children. Among the poorest people in the world are women.
Poverty is increasingly a feminine social disease.
The poverty cycle tightens for poor women who have limited education, limited job opportunities and responsibility for growing children without sufficient resources. Poor health undermines a woman's ability to be a fully productive participant in God's work. Globally, the health of women is deteriorating. This process is closely aligned to environmental deterioration, declining agricultural productivity, and social demands on women, particularly in poor countries, for the production of large numbers of children. In many parts of the world, the devalued social status of being born female sentences the woman to less claim on food and health care.