United Action for
Women’s Education
8 charities
Promoting Women’s Education Opportunities
The incredible economical and social benefits of developing equitable and inclusive educational opportunities for women have long been established by countless academics. Yet women and girls still face discrimination in regards to access to quality education, vocational training and skill development.
The problem
The incredible economic and social benefits of developing equitable and inclusive educational opportunities for women have long been established by countless academics. More than enough studies have demonstrated that increasing women’s access to and quality of education has spillover effects on other social indicators vital to the development of a country’s population. To experts, access to schooling, in all its forms, is important because it provides women and girls with the opportunity to develop skills that improve their lives. This includes areas such as poverty reduction, health, disaster risk, and climate change.
Despite the overwhelming amount of evidence on women’s education - from primary schooling to vocational training - several challenges still disrupt gender-transformative education. Women and girls still face cultural and systemic barriers to accessing basic education systems, which are critical to any medium-to-long-term workforce development training. Further, there are cost constraints experienced by women due to insufficient investments in vocational and technical education and lack of access to higher educational institutions.
Not only does access to education play a role. Many women within educational and vocational systems also face all kinds of discrimination based on gender and its cross-sections race, class, and religion. Gender-based violence in all its forms undermines women’s right to education and skill-learning opportunities. In addition, ineffective sexual and reproductive health education inhibits adolescents’ access to information and contributes to school dropouts, early marriage, and maternal health problems.
Solutions
One of the most effective ways to promote women in education is by helping close the gap in educational funding. Unfortunately, many countries do not invest in women’s education in a way that can create the necessary change. Governments either do not have the understanding or the necessary funding. Therefore, charitable organisations end up taking much of the responsibility, taking over where the governments fail to.
In order to improve access to education, addressing wide-ranging and persistent inequalities on different levels is necessary. It is about knowing and understanding the cross-section of gender and different forms of inequality that produce unequal outcomes for marginalized and vulnerable women. The UN, for example, states that school curricula and policies should be revised to counteract discrimination and equal access. Further, simple things like upgrading schooling facilities that are disability and gender-sensitive provide safe, inclusive and more effective learning environments for all. Therefore, many charities create projects and programmes addressing women's education in a holistic way, ensuring a more cross-sectional approach.
Thinking further than school-based education is also vital. An effective way to promote opportunities for women is to develop policies to counteract gender discrimination and equal access to vocational training, community learning centers, skills-based training as well as information technologies. This is in line with research that points to strong links between women’s education and labour force participation leading to increased personal and societal benefits. Further, joined-up policies which combine education with health, labour and financials lead to improved schooling and livelihoods.
This United Action bundles charities from around the world that provide solutions to inclusive and transformative education for women. Charities working to help rethink education, promote vocational training and invest in infrastructures to create more inclusive learning environments.
Charities in this United Action
Donate to this United Action to make your money as effective as possible. Our research team rigorously evaluates each charity, and curates collections of the top performing among them, so you can tackle the same urgent problem with different solutions.
Restless Development
Powered by young people
Restless Development supports youth leaders to create a better world. Every year, they train, mentor, nurture and connect thousands of young people to use their youth power to tackle global issues and lead change. Education and Gender Equality are two topics they focus on during their work. Their ‘By Us, For US’ campaign demands radical change to outdated, non-inclusive global education systems and intersects with promoting gender and sexual rights.
StrongMinds
Ending the Depression Epidemic in Africa
StrongMinds provides mental health services to impoverished African women. It is difficult to tackle issues related to poverty if you are struggling with your mental health, for example, suffering from depression. Their treatment includes providing group therapy provided by local health care workers. These workers are trained by StrongMinds to administer the necessary support. In the group sessions, women are equipped with coping mechanisms and interpersonal skills for personal development. They learn different types of skills for immediate and long-term preventive impacts.
Karuna Foundation
strengthening the current health institutions in Nepal
Karuna Foundation has two main aims. The first is to strengthen maternal and child care to prevent defects and mortality rates. Secondly, they develop disability-inclusive societies by improving access to healthcare and education opportunities. A large part of their work focuses on strengthening gender equality and female leadership by providing training to local health and rehabilitation workers (86% women), involving women in local advocacy and improving access for women to self-help groups for knowledge exchange.
Net4kids
Giving the next generation the chances they deserve.
Net4Kids connects businesses with charitable projects based in Asia. Many of their projects are based around children, education, and young girls. In India, they provide access to education for young girls living on the streets. They also train young women in the textile industry so they can enter the workplace with the correct qualifications, and provide vocational IT training for girls and women from vulnerable communities. In Nepal, they offer personal development and life skills training to empower young girls to take on leadership roles.
Livingstone Tanzania Trust
A quality education for all
Livingstone Tanzania Trust aspires to create a world where every local young person has access to quality education to reach their full potential. Their approach is based on community involvement ensuring that the work truly benefits those who need it. In regards to education and young girls, their work focuses on creating safe learning environments in schools and improving attendance by providing better sanitation
Solidaridad
For change that matters.
Solidaridad develops solutions to make communities more resilient — from supporting repressed communities to fostering more sustainable supply chains. Although their projects are based on supporting all vulnerable groups, many of them take a gender-transformative approach. For example, a training programme in rural areas around Africa empowers women farmers to improve their livelihoods and build resilience as they learn to engage in responsible agricultural investments. Other projects include promoting financial inclusion by providing necessary skills-training for women in rural communities.
Simavi
A healthy life for all
Simavi believes that every woman and girl should be able to claim her human right to water and sanitation with the result of gender equality. They promote their aim by collaborating with local schools to promote bodily and sexual autonomy for young women by teaching about gender-based violence, coercion and discrimination. This is done to foster enabling environments in patriarchal societal structures in schooling systems.
Power for All
Committed to delivering access to energy.
Power for All advances renewable, decentralized electrification solutions as the fastest, most cost-effective and sustainable approach to universal energy access. Part of their work is done by providing entrepreneur workshops for women in different regions. Women are invited to network, teach and learn about decentralized renewable energy while bringing in the aspect of gender-based political advocacy and the role of female entrepreneurship in energy access.
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