ABSTRACT
In most countries, access to good-quality primary and secondary education has been identified as the major policy for improving the well-being and employment prospects of low-income young people. In developing regions, the focus on ‘gender’ in education has traditionally been on girls. Historically, girls’ enrolment has lagged behind that of boys in developing countries (and, a century ago, in northern countries) for a variety of reasons: some cultures thought it was better to preserve the sexual chastity of their daughters by keeping them in the home. In other cultures, girls married and started childbearing early (and in some areas, they still do).
