The Cost of Gender Inequality: How Discrimination Limits Women's Access to Education

Literacy is a basic human right and an essential tool for individual empowerment, social and economic development. However, globally, more women are illiterate than men, despite the progress made in education in recent years. According to UNESCO, there are around 750 million adults worldwide who cannot read and write, and two-thirds of them are women. There are several reasons why more women are illiterate than men globally. One of the primary reasons is gender discrimination and inequality, which limit women's access to education. In many societies, girls are considered less valuable than boys, and their education is not a priority. As a result, girls are often excluded from schools or forced to drop out early, leading to lower literacy rates for women. In some countries, cultural practices, such as early marriage or the expectation that girls should help with household chores, further limit girls' access to education. Another reason for the disparity is poverty, which...