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Inequities, driven by overwhelming poverty, affect both male and female children in the developing world. Yet cultural traditions, scant economic resources and limited opportunities marginalize young girls. Young boys have better access to health care, nutrition and education. Gender bias is reinforced throughout adulthood as men retain economic and political power.

Equality of opportunity empowers women and girls to make knowledgeable decisions about their health and fertility, and envision identities unbound by sexual marital and mothering roles. Adolescents reach adulthood in societies that undervalue the contributions of women and perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes. Few countries guarantee women equal rights within marriage, divorce and family property. Governments and nongovernmental organizations must continue social and political efforts to ensure gender equality, provide better opportunities for, and facilitate the education of young women.

Male Preference Starts Before Birth.

• In China in the late 1980's, women who already had one son were twice as likely to seek an abortion for a subsequent pregnancy as women who had only daughters.¹
• South Korea, nearly 80,000 female fetuses were aborted between 1986 and 1990, about 5 percent of all female births.¹ In China, the number of male births per 100 female births had increased from 108.0 in late 1986 to 109.7 in 1991.²
• In China, unwanted children put up for adoption are three times more likely to be girls.²
• A study in rural Punjab revealed that between the ages of one and 23 months, female mortality rates are nearly twice those of males. Girls born to mothers who already have one or more surviving daughters experience 53 percent higher mortality.³ The same study revealed that although both sexes receive the same number of calories, girls are given more cereals, while boys receive more highly valued milk and fats.³
• For sons, expenditure on medical care in the first two critical years of life is more than two times higher than for daughters.³

Adolescent Women Have Little Control Over Sexual and Reproductive Decision-Making.

• Early marriage is widely practiced. In Bangladesh, 25 percent of 14-year-old girls are married; in Nepal 34 percent of 15-year-old girls are married. In South East Asia 24 percent, in Africa, 44 percent and in Latin America, 16 percent of women under age 20 are married. In most countries only 2 or 3 percent of males this young are married.¹³
• In Africa and Latin America, almost 40 percent of adolescent childbearing takes place before the age of 18; in Asia, it is about 31 percent.¹³
• In Colombia, 47 percent of sexually active 15- to 19-year-olds do not use effective contraceptive methods, although they expressed a desire to prevent pregnancy.¹³ In Ibadan, Nigeria, schoolgirl focus-groups mentioned pills, condoms, bitter lemon and lime or Pepsi-cola and lime introduced vaginally as effective contraceptive methods.¹⁴
• In Asia, the Middle East and at least 28 counties in Africa, female genital mutilation (FGM), ranging from removal of parts of the external genitalia to closing up the vulva, affects the lives and health of more than 100 million girls.⁵
• In sub-Saharan Africa, girls from poor families are often enticed into sexual relations by older men or "sugar daddies" for gifts and access to economic resources such as school fees.^15,18,19 A survey of adolescent women in East Africa who had abortions revealed that most of their partners were older; 80 percent reported that their partners were adults.¹⁵
• One in four women in the world face severely restricted access to abortion and is likely to live in Africa, Latin America or Muslim Asia where easy access to modern contraception is also limited.¹⁶ Abortions sought by adolescents are conservatively estimated at one to four million per year. Adolescent women under age 20 account for up to 60 percent of abortion-related complications in Africa, Asia and Latin America.¹⁷ The World Health Organization attributes the loss of 200,000 lives annually to illegal abortion.¹³
• Worldwide, children and adolescents are victimized by sexual abuse and rape. Data from rape crisis centers indicate that 40 to 58 percent of girls assaulted are age 15 and under.¹² One study revealed that 22 percent of female clients of an STD clinic in Ibadan, Nigeria were under age 10.¹⁸
• Unequal power-relations often make it difficult for females to negotiate condom use.^18,19 Many women believe condom use implies that they are unfaithful and incites abuse.²⁰ According to data from Africa, HIV transmission rate peaks among girls aged 15 to 20.²⁰ Of 40 Brazilian factory women interviewed, 34 had never used a condom; of those who had used condoms, none had used them for HIV prevention.²¹

Economic, Political and Legal Policies Perpetuate Lower Status of Women.

• In Java, girls spend 33 to 85 percent more hours per day working at home and in the market as boys the same age.⁸
• Most of women's time is spent in the non-wage economy, creating a social misperception that women's work has no economic value.⁹ In parts of East Africa, women work up to 16 hours a day in the home, and grow 60 to 80 percent of the family's food.¹⁰
• In rural Punjab, less than 1 percent of girls aged 10 to 14 earn wages, compared to 4 percent of boys the same age. Three percent of women aged 15 to 39 earn salaries or are self-employed, compared to 41 percent of men.³
• Dowry murder is commonly practiced in India to free men from their current wives to arrange a more profitable marriage. Women are set on fire and then reported to have died accidentally. In 1990, the police recorded 4,835 dowry deaths, although this is thought to be an underestimate.¹¹ In both urban Maharashtra and greater Bombay, one of every five deaths among women aged 15 to 44 is due to "accidental burns." For the younger age group 15 to 24, the proportion is one in four deaths.¹²

Young Women Face Educational Inequities.

• Of the nearly one billion illiterate adults, two-thirds are women living in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.⁴ In more than 29 countries, less than 30 percent of women are literate. In Morocco, 56 percent of girls aged five to 14 are illiterate.⁴ The female literacy rate as a percentage of the male literacy rate is 28 percent in Sudan, 39 percent in Somalia, 46 percent in Cambodia and 75 percent in Guatemala.⁵
• In Mali, 84 percent of girls have never attended school; of those who attend, 60 percent drop out in the primary grades.⁴ In Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal fewer than 30 percent of girls aged six to 15 are enrolled in school.⁶
• Younger girls and boys are likely to have similar primary school enrollment rates; by age 16, fewer girls then boys are in school in nearly every country in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Near East. In Yemen, only 14 percent of girls 16-20 attend school compared to 61 percent of their male peers.⁶
• Female literacy in Pakistan improves about 5 percent per decade, at which rate it will take 60 years to raise the literacy rate of teenage women age 15 to 19 to 70 percent.⁷
• Gender bias pervades school texts. In Moroccan primary school texts, the majority of pictures depict women cooking, mothering, cleaning, marketing, fetching water and milking cows. In 53 texts examined, women appeared dressed traditionally 40 times but in work clothes only four.⁴

References

1. Westley B. Evidence mounts for sex selective abortion in Asia. Asia-Pacific Pop Policy 1995;34:1-4.
2. Coale A, Banister J. Five decades of missing females in China. Demography 1994;31 :459-479.
3. Das Gupta M. Selective discrimination against female children in rural Punjab, India. Popul Development Review 1987;13:77-100.
4. Friedman S. Education of the Girl Child: Her Right, Society's Gain. New York: UNICEF, 1992.
5. UNICEF. The Progress of Nations: 1994. New York: UN, 1994.
6. Carr D, Way A Women's Lives and Experiences: A decade of research findings from the Demographic and Health Surveys Program. Calverton, MD: Macro, August 1994.
7. Sathar Z. Crook N. Callum C, Kazi; S. Women's status and fertility change in Pakistan. Popul Development Review 1988; 14:415-432.
8. Aidoo AA. The Girl Child. New York: UNICEF, 1990.
9. Jacobson JL Gender Bias: Roadblock to Sustainable Development. [Worldwatch Paper, #110] Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 1992.
10. Buvinic M, Yudelman S. Women, poverty and progress in the Third World. Foreign Policy Association 1989;289:20-34.
11. Kelkar G. Stopping the Violence Against Women: Issues and Perspectives from India. In Margaret Schuler, ed. Freedom from Violence: Strategies from around the World. Washington DC: OEF Internat, 1992.
12. Heise LL Pitanguy J. Germain A. Violence Against Women: The Hidden Health Burden. [World Bank Discussion Paper, #255]. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1994.
13. World Health Organization. The Health of Youth: Facts for Achon. [Technical Discussion Paper, #5]. Geneva: WHO, 1989.
14. Barker G, Rich S. Influences on adolescent sexuality in Nigeria and Kenya: findings from recent focus-group discussions. Stud Fam Plann 1992;23:199- 210.
15. Hiese L, Moore K, Toubia N. Sexual Coercion and Reproductive Health. New York: Population Council, 1995.
16. Jacobson JL. The Global Politics of Abortion. [Worldwatch Paper, #97] Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 1990.
17. Hirsch J. Barker G. Adolescents Unsafe Abortion in Developing Countries: A Preventable Tragedy. Washington, DC: CPO, 1992.
18. Dixon-Mueller R. The sexuality connection in reproductive health. Stud Fam Plann 1993;24:269-282.
19. Ulin PR. African women and AIDS: negotiating behavioral change. Soc Sci Med 1992;34:63-73.
20. United Nations Development Program. Young Women: Silence, Susceptibility ant the HIV Epidemic. New York: United Nations, 1994.
21. Goldstein D. The Cultural, Class and Gender Politics of a Modern Disease: Women and AIDS in Brazil. [Women and AIDS Research Report, #6]. Washington DC: ICRW, 1995.

Compiled by Cate Lane
August 1995 © Advocates for Youth