Women and Literacy in Morocco

This article examines the gender gap in literacy and education in Morocco, presenting the distribution of education and literacy by gender, its relation to labor force participation and family health, and the implications for literacy efforts that these factors suggest. Morocco's literacy and educational participation rates for both genders, while improving, remain among the lowest in the region, and a large gender gap—22 points for adult literacy—persists. Like men, women with a relatively high degree of education benefit in the urban labor market. In the rural labor market, postprimary education appears to be a liability, especially for females, although females with only a primary certificate may fare better than males. As elsewhere, literate and educated Moroccan women tend to have fewer children, lose fewer children to disease, and use more modern health care practices. More effective literacy work in this context demands improved statistics, targeted research, and attention to societal expectations.