Today, it is estimated that more than 132 million girls are out of school globally. Despite the significant efforts made over the last 20 years to increase girls’ education, girls are still disproportionately represented in education in comparison to boys. On the African continent, girls are often kept out of school due to traditional and cultural norms that dictate that girls must stay in the home and take care of the children. Our gender equality consulting firm found that according to Amnesty International, cultural pressures to marry, look after the house, have children and attend to their husband’s needs are the most common reason stopping girls from being educated. As much is so in the small West African nation of Burkina Faso. 

Burkina Faso is considered to be a low-income country and ranks 183 on the United Nation’s human development index out of 189 countries making poverty an additional factor keeping girls out of school. The growing insecurity in the Sahel region of the country has made going to school difficult for all children and it is thought that as of 2022, as many as 300 000 children were out of school as a result of the growing conflict. Dozens of teachers have been attacked and some even killed by militant extremists. 

However, for young girls in Burkina Faso, one of the greatest threats to their education, is at school itself.  As in much of Africa, sexual violence from male teachers and other students in schools, is a serious problem and prevents girls from being able to receive a proper education. The Directorate-General of Global Affairs, Develop and Partnerships for example, found that 12.8% of secondary school students in Burkina Faso reported attempted rape from fellow students, 44.9% said that male teachers send female student’s sexual texts and 23.6% reported male teachers trying to sexually seduce female students. 

A ADEP and Oxfam-Quebec in Burkina Faso, found that 13 percent of students had been the victims of sexual harassment in schools and 40 percent said that they were aware that sexual harassment took place in their school. Findings from the World Bank Group’s Women, Business and the Law report also showed that throughout the west and central Africa, university professors ask students for sexual favours in return for good grades.

The sexual harassment of girls in schools is jokingly referred to as MST moyenne sexuellement transmise or sexually transmitted grades, according to the Directorate-General of Global Affairs, Development and Partnerships, which is a play on the French word for STD. Such trivializing terminology indicates the lack of seriousness given to the problem. 

The widespread nature of sexual harassment of girls in schools in Burkina Faso can largely be attributed to patriarchal attitudes that deem men superior to women and generally allow space for males to dominate the bodies of females. Gender-based violence (GBV) is widespread in Burkina Faso and according to a report published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, 34 percent of women have experienced some type of physical violence. Of those reported cases, two-thirds of the abuse came from the husband. Practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) are also commonplace in Burkina Faso as is child marriage. According to Unicef, of women aged between 18–49 years, 42.3 percent have been subjected to both child marriage and FGM. Such practices demean the value of women and reinforce attitudes that women’s bodies are open targets for men.  

While there are several laws against sexual harassment in Burkina Faso, the government has struggled to enforce these laws, largely due to the widespread cultural acceptance of sexual harassment. Much more stringent laws are needed to protect girls in schools and more efforts should be made to ensure that these laws are properly implemented and enforced. 

Several other African countries have made efforts to implement laws to protect girls from sexual harassment in schools. According to Women, Business and the Law, in Kenya for example, the High Court has demanded all forms of sexual and gender-based violence in schools are a violation of girl’s constitutional right to education. In 2014, Mozambique put into place a new penal code that includes protections against sexual harassment in schools and punishes perpetrators with a fine. In the same year, Egypt also reformed its legislation by criminalizing sexual harassment in employment, education and public spaces. As a Burkina Faso Benin consulting firm, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Rwanda also have legislation to protect children that includes sexual violence at school. 

According to the Sustainable Development Goal no 4., ensuring quality education and a violence-free learning environment is a fundamental human right. Goal 5 requires the elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination against women. In accordance with both these goals, it is essential that girls are given the right to go to school without the fear of discrimination, violence and especially from being sexually harassed by their teachers or fellow students. This practice of ‘sexually transmitted grades’ must be made unacceptable at all times and it must be ensured, that boys do not grow up witnessing female bodies as being open targets for harassment. In Burkina Faso and throughout the world, we must work together to ensure that all children have the right to go to school free from sexual harassment as their fundamental human right.  

Footnotes 

https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/burkina-faso-girls-speak-out-against-security-and-learning-crises

https://www.unicef.org/wca/media/5411/file/UNICEF-WCARO-Central-Sahel-Advocacy-October-2020.pdf

https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/sexual-harassment-robbing-many-girls-school-education

https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Rapport_Violences_de_genre_GB_bd_cle0d9e43.pdf

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/burkina-faso

https://borgenproject.org/girls-education-in-burkina-faso/

https://www.unicef.org/media/111366/file/Child-marriage-country-profile-Burkina-Faso-2021.pdf

https://www.borgenmagazine.com/human-rights-in-burkina-faso-major-concern/

https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/burkina-faso-girls-speak-out-against-security-and-learning-crises

Worldwide, it is estimated that approximately 850 young women and girls are infected with HIV/AIDS every day. Those from poor or disadvantaged backgrounds are particularly at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS with sex workers being some of the most affected. In the tiny Caribbean island of Haiti, HIV/AIDS is a grim reality, in particular for women and girls. Our feminist consultating firm has looked into this matter a bit deeper.

Poverty and HIV/AIDS in Haiti

According to the UN, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere with an estimated 20 percent of the population living below the poverty line on just US$1.23 a day. Less than 1 percent of the country’s GDP is dedicated to health or education and for most people, covering basic food costs is a daily struggle. In 2021, Tropical Storm Laura caused widespread destruction throughout the country and displaced thousands from their homes. An increase in gang violence followed and the assassination of president Jovenal Moïse led to further displacement. In such contexts of violence and instability, women and girls are always the most vulnerable. They are also the most vulnerable to contracting viruses such as HIV/AIDS.

In Haiti, it is believed that as much as 2.2 percent of adults are HIV positive with women being 3 times more likely to be HIV-positive than men. The high prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS amongst women and girls can in part be attributed to a lack of knowledge about the virus and how its spread as well as limited use of contraceptives. However, in far too many cases, women and girls contract HIV/AIDS through sexual assault. Our gender equality consultancy found that according to the UN, victims of sexual violence, specifically gang rape, are at a particularly high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.

Sexual assault and HIV/AIDS

The problem of sexual assault in Haiti partly lies in the very high levels of gender inequality throughout the country. Despite the Haitian government has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) cultural norms and laws that discriminate against women and girls are commonplace. Men typically have control over resources such as land, marriage, children and property and women and girls often do not receive the same access to education or employment.

Such norms also make women and girl’s vulnerable to sexual violence. Due to the widespread discrimination against women and girls in Haiti, sexual violence is often not taken seriously. In 2012 for example, the UN released a report based on findings in Port-au Prince that ‘indicate that the low rate of prosecution of rape in the Port-au-Prince area is a result of the shortcomings of the police and judicial system in general.’ The lack of formal action to monitor or take action against sexual violence by the government has made the problem widespread. Aside from the obvious harm that this causes to women and girls, it also contributes to the increased spread of HIV/AIDs.

Stigma and discrimination

The stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDs also discourage victims from reporting sexual violence to police or from seeking medical assistance should they contract HIV/AIDS. While the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population has taken some positive steps toward making HIV/AIDS services accessible to rape victims by providing free ARV-PEP, the fear of stigmatization and mistreatment from law enforcement makes the likelihood of victims seeking assistance, less likely. This also makes the detection of HIV/AIDS less likely which contributes to its spread.

Preventing HIV/AIDS in Haiti

Greater efforts must be made in Haiti to understand how HIV/AIDS is transmitted and specifically how it affects women and girls. The reasons why women and girls, don’t seek post-rape health care and HIV/AIDS treatment must also be understood and interventions should be made at schools to teach children about the harms of HIV/AIDS and how it is spread. It is also absolutely essential to reduce stigma and discrimination against victims of HIV/AIDS so that they are more likely to report the crime to the police and seek medical help should they contract HIV/AIDS.

What is essential, however, is to make greater efforts to reduce violence against women and girls and to punish perpetrators of sexual violence. As a women’s rights consultancy, this is key, not only to improving the lives of women and girls in Haiti and ensuring that they have access to the basic, fundamental human rights to live free from violence and discrimination but also ensuring that everybody in Haiti, is able to live healthy, long and fulfilling lives that are free from sicknesses such as HIV/AIDS.

The world is going digital. Every day new innovations allow more and more people to join a ‘digital first’ world. During the Covid-19 pandemic, digital transformation accelerated at a blinding speed, further pushing the formal economy to go digital. And as the formal economy goes, so does the gig economy. In a post-pandemic world, the digital gig economy is becoming a key tool for opening up opportunities for workers around the globe, but the relationship that women have to the digital gig economy is complicated. On the face, it provides a more flexible environment for women who are juggling unpaid care work with gig work, but the reality is that women face the same inequalities in the digital gig economy as they do in all aspects of formal work. Our women’s rights consultancy decided to look deeper into this issue.

Women do not participate in paid work at the same rate as men. Gender stereotypes, patriarchal gender role expectations, and safety prevent women from accessing and maintaining paid jobs. Instead, women take on the bulk of unpaid care work that is not recognized by formal measurements of the economy. A proposed solution to the workforce gender gap, which our gender equality consultancy believes in, was to make work for women more flexible. Enter the gig economy, and with the rapid acceleration due to Covid-19, the digital gig economy. But what started as a solution has quickly become yet another space where women face discrimination, barriers to inclusion, and inequality. 

The biggest issue with the digital gig economy is digital itself. The digital gender divide shares many of the root causes for women’s inequality generally including hurdles to access, affordability, lack of education, lack of technological literacy, as well as inherent biases and norms that lead to gender-based-digital exclusion. If women are able to overcome these barriers and actually participate in the digital gig economy, they are often less satisfied, paid less, and experience dangerous work environments at greater rates than men. The digital gig economy is not unique in its gender equality issues, reinforcing the need for basic human rights protection for women on a much larger scale. Our feminist consultant firm has worked on several projects regarding these issues.

The good thing about the digital gig economy is that there is so much opportunity to improve. The digital gig economy, especially in developing countries, is still a nascent space. There are few laws and regulations that govern digital platforms in most countries, which means there is an opportunity for a brighter future. Governments need to create legal standards and policies that respond to the complex nature of women’s work in the digital gig economy and help foster environments that encourage women’s participation instead of building barriers to it. Protecting women’s rights in governing laws and policies will ensure that, as it develops, women are granted the access and protection they need to build stronger participation and more satisfying experiences in the digital gig economy. 

Bottom line? The digital gig economy doesn’t create new challenges for women entering the workforce or the formal economy. Instead, it reconfigures the existing structural barriers to women’s economic empowerment. The research on how women balance unpaid and gig work is lacking, particularly in developing countries where the digital gig economy is still emerging as a legitimate platform for work, but the message stands. As the world shifts to a ‘digital first’ space, addressing the inequalities that prevent women from successfully participating in the workforce will need to be addressed in order to move the needle of women’s equality in all aspects, not just for the gig economy. 

Afghanistan is a country in crisis. Since the withdrawal of American forces in August 2021, the humanitarian situation in the country has continued to deteriorate leaving the Afghan citizens who couldn’t leave to battle poverty, hunger, and human rights abuses. In the past month, the humanitarian crisis has continued to deteriorate as aid from major international organizations, feminist consultant advocates, and governments pauses while the world decides how to interact with and respond to the repressive Taliban regime, including their stance on women’s equality in Afghanistan.

One issue that has become a cornerstone for humanitarian aid negotiations is girls education. In March of 2022, nearly seven months after the takeover, the Taliban announced it would be reopening girls’ schools. Within hours of opening schools, the Taliban closed the door on education for girls beyond the 6th grade. Several large humanitarian donors paused aid disbursements following the announcement, despite the appeal from the UN to help mitigate the poverty crisis forming in Afghanistan. 

While girls’ education in Afghanistan has become a pawn for political fodder on the international stage, girls will continue to learn, though it may look different than traditional education. 

1. Funding all education without discrimination

Before the Taliban takeover, about 49 percent of education funding came from international donors. The Taliban will have little ability or interest in filling this shortfall, so international donor support remains essential. Funding all education, whether or not there are specific designations for girls, will still help girls learn. Funding education generally will get teachers back to the classroom and support innovative funding mechanisms for future education stability. Humanitarian organizations often have few legal options for dispersing their money in official aid capacities. These organizations will need to partner with the people of Afghanistan where support for education and girl’s education is high and have greater incentives to protect and educate the girls in their communities.  

1. Funding education specifically for girls

Despite the Taliban’s restrictions, there are schools specifically devoted to girl’s education still operational in Afghanistan. Some of these institutions are non-profits specifically devoted to girl’s education like SOLA Afghanistan. SOLA is a boarding school for girls, a place where they can live and learn, ensuring continued, safe education despite the ongoing political debate. Others like Razia’s Ray of Hope educate girls but also provide midwifery training and support widows who are often shunned by a society ruled by men. Keeping vital organizations like these alive will cement the hope of a future where education for girls is completely accessible. International donors like the United Nations Girls Education Initiative will also be essential in Afghanistan’s future as the world learns to interact with the regressive Taliban regime. 

1. Covertly supporting women’s rights in Afghanistan

With the Taliban’s attitude towards women, supporting girl’s education is going to have to slide under the radar. Seeking education as a girl in Afghanistan is dangerous. Openly defying the Taliban has deadly consequences, and women and girls will need to continue utilizing underground networks that have been in place for decades both for education and just to survive. The Taliban recently issued a directive ordering women to stay home and to cover up in public, further devastating women’s rights and the future of girl’s education.

The impact of prohibiting girl’s education in Afghanistan is devastating. Restricting women’s and girl’s access only furthers the Taliban’s violent patriarchal culture. Societies with deeply rooted patriarchal biases are one of the most prevalent causes of violence against women and is a major concern for violence broadly in the country. Girl’s education is imperative in maintaining a fully functioning society, something the Taliban has never considered to be important, but the future of Afghanistan is clear. Without educating girls, the country will continue to deteriorate. As a feminist consultant for women’s rights, girls education, and gender equality, we will continue to fight for what’s right.

The economic empowerment of women is essential to the growth of any society. Providing women with the ability to participate equally in markets and the workforce is an essential part of this. However, having access to economic empowerment is also a fundamental human right. When women are empowered economically, they can gain access to decent work, have control over their own time, lives and bodies as well and gain confidence to use their voice and agency to participate in their societies in a meaningful way.

There is also strong evidence that women who are empowered economically contribute more to their families, societies and national economies. Women have been shown to invest more of their income in their children which has numerous overall benefits for both their family and the wider community in which she lives. Though despite this, globally, women still face significant barriers when it comes to receiving their rights to participate equally in the workforce as men, as much the case in the small Middle Eastern country of Lebanon.

Lebanese women in the workforce

It is currently estimated that Lebanon’s workforce is only one-fourth women and while this is greater than the average in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region of 22 percent, it is still much lower than the percentage of men who participate in the workforce. Unemployment rates are also twice as high for women as they are for men and it is estimated that only 17 percent of women are self-employed compared to 43 percent of men. Whatsmore, only four percent of companies in Lebanon have a female CEO. These factors combined with high unemployment rates and a lack of public policy initiatives to promote women in the workforce, makes finding employment opportunities for women, all the more challenging.

What is keeping women out of the workforce?

There are numerous factors that have contributed to women’s lack of participation in the workforce. Traditional gender roles and cultural expectations that women should stay in the home have played a significant role. Limited access to safe transportation, lack of affordable and quality childcare or not having access to sufficient collateral to start their own business are also contributing factors. Widespread sexual harassment in the workplace is also a significant barrier to women’s participation in the workforce.

Lebanese women driving change

Despite these challenges, Lebanese women have made significant efforts to push their way into the economic sphere. Beginning in the early 20^th century, Lebanese women’s groups, influenced by various Western discourses, began to advocate for the empowerment of women, in particular women’s education, economic participation, health and political rights. Efforts were made to build girls’ schools in order to improve girls’ literacy levels and employment opportunities. Our women’s equality consultancy learned that it was after the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1953, that women in Lebanon successfully won their political rights and were first allowed to vote and run for parliament.

In more recent times, the Government of Lebanon has made some efforts to increase women’s participation in the labour force. A Women’s Economic Empowerment Action plan has been developed, for example, that has placed a particular focus on issues such as the labour market and the care economy. It also addresses initiating legal reforms and increasing women’s participation in the labour force. Specific activities are also being put in place to address the cultural barriers that limit women’s access to work.

Moving forward

However, as our women’s empowerment consultancy has researched, further efforts are needed. Girls in Lebanon still have less access to public-exam-based courses in both public and private vocational training schools and only make up 60% of the students taking part in certificate-based vocational training courses, typically of lower quality. Further interventions are also needed to break down the social and cultural barriers that limit women from choosing economic activities that they want to be engaged in and efforts must be made to curb problems such as sexual harassment that make women either too uncomfortable or just unwilling to enter into the workspace.

Further efforts should also be made to empower women who come from socio-economic backgrounds. This could include upgrading technical and vocational skills in activities such as handicrafts and agro-food production. Improving entrepreneurship skills can also ensure that girls have equal access to education as boys.

More women are also needed in leadership positions. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) within the last 15 years, only 4.7 percent of parliamentarians were women and women only held 42.3 percent of senior and middle management positions in the public sector in 2018 and 2019. All of which demonstrates the pressing need to ensure that women are more fairly represented in the workforce.

However, efforts must be made to propel women into the workforce not just because it is morally right and it is their fundamental human right but also because women have so much talent to offer. Where women are allowed to thrive, thrive they do. Whether they are surgeons, CEOs, authors, lawyers or dressmakers, women’s contributions have significant potential to raise not only the GDP of a country but to raise the living standards of everyone. The economic empowerment of women is therefore not only a human right, it is a driver for change to a better world.

Footnotes

https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/630391574447349964-0280022019/original/MGFSummaryLEBANONOct2019.pdf

http://www.undp.org.lb/WhatWeDo/Docs/Lebanon_Gender_Strategy.pdf

https://www.valencynetworks.com/partner-offices/cyber-security-vapt-pentesting-companies-australia.html

https://beirut-today.com/2021/11/11/breaking-down-lebanons-first-gender-statistical-report

Every child has the right to have access to safe and quality education. A school is a place where children have the opportunity to build their confidence and make friends as well as learn the skills needed to live a prosperous future. Education is not only fundamental to providing a child with the ability to learn but also plays an integral role in a child’s overall development. However, in far too many parts of the world, girls are still not receiving the same access to education as boys and the small West African nation of Ghana, is no exception.

While Ghana has often been cited as being a success story in West Africa in terms of its democratic achievements, Ghana is still lacking in progress when it comes to gender parity, particularly in girls’ education. As a feminist consulting collective, our research found that UNICEF for example estimates that more than half of girls in Ghana do not complete secondary school. This may be due to a multitude of factors such as beliefs that girls should stay in the home and be married off early. Social and cultural norms dictate that girls be responsible for the majority of the domestic chores and childcare responsibilities, leaving them with little time to do their schoolwork.

Child labour, inadequate training of teachers, issues related to girls’ menstruation cycles and the high indirect costs associated with children going to school have also been found to be reasons why girls are not attending school in Ghana. Fear of sexual harassment and assault, either on the way to school or while at school also too often keeps girls out of classrooms.

High rates of pregnancy amongst young girls have also been found to be a key reason why girls are not attending school and it is estimated that one in five girls in Ghana will get pregnant during their adolescence. In far too many cases, this is the result of sexual assault and in Ghana, it is estimated that four in ten girls will experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime however, this number is likely much higher. These confounded by social norms that see females and female education as less valuable than their male counterparts makes them, and their education more disposable than that of males.

As a result, girls face many limitations in having prosperous futures. In addition, lack of access to education for girls leads to negative economic and health consequences, such as an increase in poverty rates, greater threats to risk during pregnancy, and consequently threats to the health of her children.
The Ghanaian government has, however, made some efforts to improve girls’ access to education in recent decades. For example, Ghana was the first country in the world to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as well as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) demonstrating a commitment to children’s rights and gender equality.

In the 1980s and the 1990s, the Ghanaian government led a number of nationwide media campaigns in communities throughout the country, encouraging them to send their girls to school. The Ghana Education Strategy Plan for 2018 – 2030 was also adopted which had a particular emphasis on gender equality.