Women's Education Worldwide
The education of women and girls is essential to both individual wellbeing, and that of the wider community. Yet worldwide, women do not get the same educational opportunities as men- in fact, sometimes they are actively prevented from obtaining an education for economic or social reasons. Women in this University, despite inequalities such as the Cambridge finals gap, are deeply privileged in comparison to women in many other countries. Feminism is about fighting for the rights of women globally, so in the spirit of feminism we are drawing attention to the inadequacy of women's education worldwide. We will be holding fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for women's education, primarily with Camfed International, a Cambridge-based non-governmental organisation dedicated to girls' education in Africa.
Two thirds of the 876 million illiterate people in the world are women (UN, 2000)
News
The Women's Union will be hosting a screening of "Where the Water Meets the Sky", a documentary about the empowerment of a group of women in rural Zambia, who are able to express their concerns, tragedies and hopes through learning how to make a film. This film showing will take place as part of the partnership between CamFed and the Women's Union. Date and Venue TBC
The Financial Times recently highlighted the importance of girls' education to global economic wellbeing. The article argues that girls' education is the "best investment" to be made today.