Today's challenges for educating girls

In this working paper, King and Winthrop look at the success made in girls’ education and claim it is no longer a concern across most countries, but rather an issue that only affects a subset of “hotspot” countries.

While some progress has been made in the poorest countries, girls are less likely to gain a quality education than their male counterparts, especially if they already face multiple disadvantages.

Child marriage, school-related violence and slow-changing social norms restrict the gains that girls can expect from their schooling. Until these issues are addressed, the authors explain, gender equality in education will not be achieved.