Across the globe, women and girls play vital roles in their families and communities. Yet they often face unique challenges and may have limited opportunities to thrive – such as unequal access to education, health care, and decision-making. This fall, we’ll be centering the conversation around women and girls and highlighting the unique role they play in reducing poverty, stabilizing populations, and protecting the environment.

Through a series of blogs, social media resources, and an interactive webinar, we’ll be answering questions like:

• How are societies impacted when girls stay in school longer and marry later?
• What barriers remain for achieving quality girls’ education worldwide and where are we seeing progress?
• How have gender roles evolved over time and what are the tensions we’re facing today?
• What factors influence fertility and how do these indicators impact demographic trends?

PopEd lessons provide a lens for exploring these issues in meaningful ways. By understanding connections between population dynamics and gender equity, students can see how investing in women and girls doesn’t just change individual lives but transforms communities and helps shape a sustainable future for everyone.

Teaching Resources

Here’s a look at some of the unique classroom resources we’ll be sharing:

Lessons for Life (middle grades lesson plan): Students read and discuss a short conversation between two Ethiopian girls about attending school. Then students analyze poems like this one to investigate the power of schooling for girls worldwide.

Webinar: Teaching How Education and Fertility Impact Demographic Change: This interactive teacher PD is free and open to all. During the virtual workshop, we will share lessons that explore historic fertility rate data and help students understand the variety of factors that influence family size and demographic trends around the world.

How Climate Change Disproportionately Effects Women’s Health (interactive map): From food insecurity to mental health, see how women bear the brunt of climate change worldwide.

Education for a Sustainable Future Through Gender Equality and Public Health, Youth Perspectives (blog): In this blog from The Global Partnership for Education, hear from youth leaders around the world as they examine climate change through the lens of gender equity and health.

Why Teach about Women and Development

Whether you teach economics, history, environmental science, or geography, it is critical for students to understand the unique roles that women and girls play in society, and the challenges that we still face as a global community.

Gender equality is the UN’s Sustainability Development Goal #5. SDG5 seeks to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere by 2030. And while we’ve made progress toward achieving the goal, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Take school enrollment, for example. According to UNICEF estimates, enrollment rates for both primary and secondary school are now nearly equal for girls and boys (90% female, 92% male) worldwide. However, all too often, girls are pulled out of school because of early marriage, teen pregnancy, or simply to support their families at home, and as a result continue to lag behind boys in school completion rates. The gender gap in schooling is most evident in in low-income countries, where only 38% of females complete secondary school, as compared with 43% of males.

And while completing schooling is a crucial step in securing a bright future, we know that it is only the beginning. Women around the world continue to face inequities in the labor force, like lower wages and fewer opportunities for advancement, and women are severely underrepresented in governments, board rooms, and leadership roles.

We’re Sharing Resources This Fall

By studying the intersections of gender equity, development and the environment, students will be better poised to fight for a just and sustainable world where everyone can thrive.

Follow along on our social channels this fall (#PopEdWomenOfTheWorld) and learn ways to bring these important topics around women and girls into your classroom!

Photo credits: Teacher and schoolgirls (Turkey: Assisting Refugees in Need by EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0); Two girls fetching water (ID 196949691 | Girls Fetching Water © Delstudio | Dreamstime.com)