Women and Illiteracy: The Interplay of Gender Subordination and Poverty

Abstract

Illiteracy should not be equated with ignorance nor should literacy be seen as determining the acquisition of personal power or the attainment of national development. Yet, the ability to write and read in an increasingly technological society is a fundamental need. For those groups that find themselves missing out in the benefits of both modernization and democratization-particularly rural populations, ethnic minorities, and women-literacy constitutes an essential tool in their efforts to gain legal and socioeconomic rights. The proportion of illiterates in the world population, be they men or women, is steadily decreasing, and each new generation has more education than the preceding one. With today's large population, however, the absolute numbers of illiterates are overwhelming. Unesco projects that by the year 2000-a mere 10 years from now-there will be one billion illiterates. While there are differences in the national definitions of literacy and the degree of accuracy measuring it, there is agreement that the statistics underestimate actual illiteracy conditions. Except for a few countries (particularly Jamaica and Lesotho), women have lower levels of literacy than men; in developing countries this disparity averages a 21 percent difference.' Moreover, according to Unesco reports, the proportion of illiterate women is increasing. In 1960, 58 percent of the adult illiterates were women, by 1970 this proportion had increased to 60 percent, and by 1985 it reached 63 percent. In 43 of the 85 developing countries, 50 percent or more of the female adults are illiterate. Illiterate women are numerous in India, China, and sub-Saharan Africa. Female illiteracy in 1985 was 19 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, 47 percent in Asia, and 65 percent in Africa.2 The comparison of literacy statistics from 1960 to 1985 reveals that, of the 154 million new illiterates during that period, 133 million were women. The greatest numerical increase was in Asia, where the population of illiterates grew by 109 million. In Africa the absolute increase was smaller due to its smaller population, but the rate of increase was the largest as the number of illiterate women rose by 44 percent, from 68 to