Educate girls to boost development, study says

As women progress in developing nations, so do those countries' economies. New studies show that it's just 'good economics' to promote the welfare of girls. If a developing nation wants to make fast progress, it must educate its girls and give them more equality in jobs and economic opportunities. Decades of international and domestic efforts to speed development in more than 100 poor countries shows that, as the title of a recent study puts it, "Girls Count."

More than just counting, helping girls get ahead and out of the limitations that so many cultures have placed on them for hundreds of years is vital to overcoming poverty and growing prosperity. Even Wall Street, with its interest in international investment, sees this.

"Education, and particularly women's education, is critical" to economic growth, says Sandra Lawson, author of a 15-page paper given clients by the prominent New York investment banking firm, Goldman Sachs. Read the article in The Christian Science Monitor online.