Book

What Works in Girls’ Education

Evidence for the World's Best Investment

Gene B Sperling, Rebecca Winthrop
Christina Kwauk
Malala Yousafzai
Release Date: October 21, 2015

Hard-headed evidence on why the returns from investing in girls are so high that no nation or family can afford not to educate their girls. Gene Sperling, author of the...

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Hard-headed evidence on why the returns from investing in girls are so high that no nation or family can afford not to educate their girls.

Gene Sperling, author of the seminal 2004 report published by the Council on Foreign Relations, and Rebecca Winthrop, director of the Center for Universal Education, have written this definitive book on the importance of girls’ education. As Malala Yousafzai expresses in her foreword, the idea that any child could be denied an education due to poverty, custom, the law, or terrorist threats is just wrong and unimaginable. More than 1,000 studies have provided evidence that high-quality girls’ education around the world leads to wide-ranging returns:

  • Better outcomes in economic areas of growth and incomes
  • Reduced rates of infant and maternal mortality
  • Reduced rates of child marriage
  • Reduced rates of the incidence of HIV/AIDS and malaria
  • Increased agricultural productivity
  • Increased resilience to natural disasters
  • Women’s empowerment

What Works in Girls’ Education is a compelling work for both concerned global citizens, and any academic, expert, nongovernmental organization (NGO) staff member, policymaker, or journalist seeking to dive into the evidence and policies on girls’ education.

Authors

Rebecca Winthrop is a senior fellow and director of the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, and a leading voice on education issues in the developing world. She is the former head of education for the International Rescue Committee, and has spent more than twenty years advising international institutions and senior policymakers and has field experience in multiple countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Her work focuses on girls’ education, learning opportunities for the world’s most marginalized children, and innovative education models.

Gene Sperling is the founder of the Center of Universal Education. He was National Economic Advisor in the White House for President Clinton (1996-2001) and President Obama (2011-2014). He was founder of U.S. Chapter of the Global Campaign for Education, co-founder of the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict (with Angelina Jolie), a member of U.N. Millennium Task Force on Girls’ Education and represented the U.S. government at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in 2000.