Access to Education at All Levels

Even though women are enjoying ever increasing participation in the benefits of education, they are far from having reached an equal status with men. At the various levels of instruction, the situation varies considerably depend ing on the area of the world and the country. Whether it be a question of primary education, where as soon as it is possible to establish compulsory education, this largely solves the problem; or a question of secondary education, which, espe cially in the technical and professional domain, reflects more directly woman's role in society and its socioeconomic evolu tion; or a question of higher education, a relatively new con quest for women, who, except in a few countries, still tend to pursue quite traditional study programs—the proportion of women in education varies from a small percentage to half or more of the total numbers enrolled, always lesser in the rural areas and sometimes almost overwhelmingly large in teacher- training courses. The poor schooling of girls leads to a female illiteracy which is generally greater than that among men. The efforts at assuring literacy, which have begun to make inroads on this problem, must be intensified, just as the op portunity to enter increasingly varied programs of extracur ricular instruction must be made more readily available, for education is nowadays as much a duty for women as it is a right.