Despite legislation and policies, the traditional, patriarchal systems across the continent hinder girls’ development
It’s exactly 39 years since the Fourth World Conference on Women, a critical turning point for the global agenda for gender equality, which had the girl child among its 12 critical areas of concern.
But the African girl child continues the struggle for even the smallest wins in economic and social equality, handicapped by complex problems rooted in cultural, social, economic and institutional practices and norms.
Africa is home to about 308 million young women and girls. The difficulties they face begin early in life, with limited education.
In sub-Saharan Africa, nine million girls aged six to 11 are out of school, compared with six million boys. And girls in conflict-affected areas are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys. This is according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (Unicef’s) submission to the African Union’s first Pan-African Conference on Girls’ and Women’s Education held in July.
“Gender parity has not been achieved at any education level in the region, with disparities persisting across primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary levels,” Unesco stated at the conference.
Exacerbating this situation is school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV), one of the most common forms of GBV.
“Unfortunately, SRGBV has very serious negative effects on female students’ lives, such as grief or depression, low self-esteem, early and unwanted pregnancies, and sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/Aids,” stated the AU High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies in a 2023 blog.
Menstruation is another cause of school absenteeism for adolescent girls in South Africa. Seven million girls are reported absent from school every month because they don’t have sanitary pads, which results in them missing 25% of learning during the school year, noted the SA Journal of Child Health in 2022.
This situation carries significant economic implications. Unesco research shows that by 2030, the economic losses to sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP as a result of girls not learning amounts to $210 billion.
Child marriage also persists, with about 41% of girls marrying before reaching the age of 18, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
The highest incidence of child marriage is in West and Central Africa. Niger, for example, has a long tradition of child marriage.
“A lack of education among Nigerien girls is both a cause and consequence of child marriages. Girls who get married are usually forced to drop out of school due to events such as early childbearing, and those who have no education ultimately have little option but to marry very young,” wrote Monique Bennett in Good Governance Africa’s (GGA’s) Africa in Fact October 2022 edition on the girl child.
Teenage pregnancy, meanwhile, has a prevalence rate of more than 25% in 24 African countries, a rate that reaches as high as 48% in Niger, 44% in Chad, and 43% in Equatorial Guinea, according to a study by the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, titled Teenage Pregnancy in Africa: Status, Progress and Challenges (2022).
Underpinning this complex matrix of obstacles facing an African girl child are traditional, patriarchal systems, which emphasise a girl’s domestic responsibilities over her education, especially in places where resources are limited.
Although many African countries have policies aimed at promoting girls’ education and gender equality, the enforcement of these laws is often weak, and support systems to help girls overcome these barriers are inadequate.
Despite Zimbabwe’s Amended Education Act of 2020 allowing re-entry for pregnant girls and adolescent mothers, a majority of girls who fall pregnant rarely return to school largely because they are stigmatised by teachers and society, as GGA researcher Sikhululekile Mashingaidze and Mass Public Opinion’s Simangele Moyo-Nyede discovered during interviews for the GGA’s girl child edition
The disempowerment of African women, rooted in the dangers and prejudices they face as children, is itself a huge problem. In his Women’s Day speech in the Northern Cape last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted the alarming levels of gender-based violence in South Africa, quoting Human Sciences Research Council statistics showing that 7% of women aged 18 and older (1.5 million) experience physical or sexual violence annually.
A total of 13% of women had suffered economic abuse by intimate partners, he continued, urging for more economic opportunities for women, “so they are less vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. We need to address the massive inequality in income between men and women,” he said.
This is underscored in a new Catalytic Strategy gender pay gap report, released last month, showing 40% of households in South Africa are led by women with financial responsibility for their families, including extended families. Yet only 14% of women fall into the category of “top earners”.
In 2021, Unicef published the Gender Action Plan (2021–2030), with recommendations on how to tackle gender inequality. Among other critical issues, the plan advocates for maternal health and nutrition, including HIV testing, prevention, counselling and care; ending harmful practices (child marriage and female genital mutilation) and violence against girls, boys and women; ensuring girls have access to water, sanitation and hygiene systems, including services for menstrual health; and promoting gender-responsive social protection and care, including through the enforcement of laws. This underscores the centrality of gender-responsive education systems, especially when it comes to equitable access to schooling, STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths), and digital skills for adolescent girls.
The world of employment is another area where women experience disempowerment, in the form of the gender and pay gap. The International Labour Organisation said that women who want to work face more constraints in securing a job than men, with the current global labour force participation rate for women just under 47% compared with 72% for men (2022).
Addressing these issues requires coordinated efforts by the public and private sectors, along with NGOs, to improve access to education, create safe and supportive learning environments for girls, and promote gender equality in the workplace, socially, and where they live. By being educated and economically active, women help build more stable and equitable societies, which improves social cohesion and reduces crime and violence.
Good Governance Africa’s (GGA’s) Girl Child Dialogues, in partnership with Boston City Campus, will focus on career opportunities in the media and publications sector. Girls in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe will participate virtually through GGA country centres and their partners. The event is on 11 October at Boston City Campus. To read the GGA’s 2022 Africa in Fact edition on the Girl Child, click here.
Helen Grange is a writer and sub-editor at Good Governance Africa and Sikhululekile Mashingaidze is a researcher in the GGA’s Peace and Security Programme.