The 2020 GEM Gender Report looks at progress made since 1995, when the international community made a landmark commitment to advancing women’s rights by adopting the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. This progress is real: over the past 25 years, 180 million more girls have enrolled in primary and secondary school, and girls’ learning outcomes have improved. Female enrolment in tertiary education has risen three times.
However, we are still a long way from fulfilling our commitments to gender equality. The Report also shows where progress has faltered, and where difficulties risk being exacerbated by the current health crisis. Three-quarters of primary-school-age children who may never set foot in school are girls. Women still account for almost two-thirds of all adults unable to read – 515 million of them lack basic reading skills. Today, it is a global failure that only 2% of the poorest rural females in low-income countries complete upper secondary school.
The message is clear: much work remains to be done to achieve gender equality in education. We must not let the pandemic reverse our efforts, or wipe out the progress made since 1995.
Date of publication: 2020
Published by: UNESCO
Language: Français, Anglais et Arabe
