Addressing violence against women and achieving the Millennium Development Goals
MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
More education empowers women by giving them greater self-confidence, wider social networks, and greater ability to use information and resources, and attain economic independence (5)6. Alarmingly, 65% of the world's children who do not attend school are girls, and two thirds of the world’s illiterate people are women (17). Policies and programmes aimed at universal primary education should promote education for girls and women as a means of empowering and protecting them, and of achieving gender equality in society.
There is evidence that women with less education are generally more likely to experience violence than those with higher levels of education. Enrolment in and completion of secondary education is also a critical area of concern as it is clearly associated with employment opportunities and women’s empowerment. The relationship between educational attainment and its protective effect is complex. Some men may react violently to women’s empowerment through education, particularly if educated women then challenge traditional gender roles. Thus, in some societies there is actually increased risk of violence for some women until a sufficient number of them reach a high enough educational level and gender norms shift to allow its protective effects to operate.
Schools, however, are an important site for normative change and should be seen to offer strategic opportunities for addressing gender inequality. As the task force for MDG 3 points out, “Girls and their families may find little reason to attend school if the curriculum or their teachers or counselors convey the message that girls are less important than boys or if the school tracks girls into fields of study or training for low-paid occupations considered appropriate for females”(1). Educational programmes should include measures that enable girls and women to benefit from their increased educational level without fear of violence. This may include efforts to involve or sensitize the partners of women in education programmes, as well as broader awareness programming.
Girls face many barriers to education, some of which involve violence or make them more vulnerable to it. For example, many families place little value on educating girls, and prefer to keep them working at home or for wages elsewhere. Some poor families can only afford to send one child to school, and the selected child is usually a boy. Poor girls who want to attend school, but whose families cannot afford tuition fees or supplies, can be pressured into exchanging sex for school fees, uniforms, books, and lunches. Early marriage can also cut short a girl’s education. Social and educational policies should seek to eliminate harmful gender norms that devalue the education of girls, together with practices such as child labour and early marriage.
For some girls, lack of safety in or around schools is the chief obstacle to getting an education. In some countries, there are high levels of sexual violence and harassment from teachers and male students including rape, assault, and physical and verbal harassment (18). Educational authorities must ensure that schools are safe places for all students, with special attention to the security of girls. A number of preventive interventions can be carried out. For example, curricula can be designed to change attitudes towards violence in general and violence against women in particular, and school facilities can be designed to reduce opportunities for physical assaults. At the same time, schools must adopt clear policies, including the enforcement of sanctions for perpetrators of violence (teachers as well as students) (19).
6 The relationship between education and intimate-partner violence is complex: in some cases, women who are becoming more educated and empowered face a greater risk of violence as their male partners try to regain control.