Female Education and Population Growth Essay

Veronica Cadungog

Emily Kellerhals, Jessica Gamino, Maite Zugarramurdi Mestre 

BIOL 1442 Section 007; Instructor Dr. Jill DeVito; November 4, 2019

Throughout the world, the population in 195 countries has been increasing over many

years. Some countries have more people than others and the ones that have an overpopulation of

people are developing countries with female education being low (Jain 1981). In most

developing countries, education is difficult to get because of financial reasons or sometimes it

isn’t even existing in the areas the women live at. According to research from observing 13

different developing countries, women that have no education will have more children than

women that do have an education (Jain 1981). The reason that illiterate women will have more

children than literate is because women that are illiterate will get married earlier because they

need to rely on their spouse to provide for them than women that are literate. The illiterate

women will not have any skills for a good job to support a family since they do not have an

education so that is why they rely on their spouse. Since there are more illiterate women in

developing countries than literate women, as a result, illiterate women will have more children

thus creating an overpopulation in a country over time. If women have a small amount of

education, then the number of children they will have will be slightly lower than someone that

has no education because they will have some skills that they can provide to help them make a

living (Jain 1981).

An example for developing country is India. Research has showed that the population of

India has decreased over the years because the women having children were having a high rate of
child mortality, increased knowledge of contraception, and how to plan for a family. (Dreze and

Murthi 2004). One of the reasons the population in India is decreasing because the families there

are having more access to healthcare thus expanding their knowledge about contraception and

how to plan for a family, but some families have the mindset of wanting to have a female or male

child so they will choose to abort the child the woman is carrying if it is not the ideal child for

the family (Dreze and Murthi 2004). The woman aborting the child will be considered as part of

the child mortality rate. But some families that have illiterate women will have more children

because they have the mindset of if they have more children, then they will have an increase in

income as the children get older in age and are able to work (Dreze and Murthi 2004). If the

family has a mindset of having more children will create a higher family income and they lose a

lot of children in the process, then the loss of children can also be a contribution to the high child

mortality rate.

In conclusion, there are various factors of female education that affect population growth

in different countries. By expanding education to women in developing countries, the birth rates

and overall population will decrease over time.

Literature Cited:

Dreze J, Murthi M. 2004. Fertility, Education, and Development: Evidence from India. Popul.

Dev. Rev. 27(1):33-63

Jain A. 1981. The effect of female education on fertility: A simple explanation. Demography.

18(4):577-595