It is an empirical fact that education for women is liberation, which is why patriarchal cultures discourage and or restrict it and force women to abandon it for marriage or child rearing.
Perhaps more importantly when considering the effect of sex ratio imbalances, Naz et al also found that for unmarried women, the relationship between education and fertility was negative. That is, increasing levels of education for unmarried women lowers fertility amongst that group. The potential effect of changes in sex ratios on the ‘marriage market’, fertility and employment
In this study we contrast two South Indian villages which offer women very different employment opportunities. Many women in Village I roll beedis, which are crude hand-rolled cigarettes. The structure of beedi work was designed to meet the needs of the beedi contractor, but inadvertently it has provided women with substantial autonomy. In Village II very few women work for pay. We argue that these different employment opportunities affect women's autonomy, which in turn influences important demographic outcomes. More precisely, we argue that greater autonomy will increase contraceptive use among women who want no more children. We find strong support for this hypothesis. But, because there are few competing employment opportunities in Village II, women in that Village have received substantially more education than those in Village I. This higher level of education is also associated with greater contraceptive use. Thus, overall, the level of contraceptive use does not vary greatly between villages. More generally, this study shows that fertility decline occurs, and that low fertility can exist, in very different settings.Women's Work, Autonomy, and Birth Control: Evidence From Two South Indian Villages
"Love, work and knowledge are the well-springs of our life. They should also govern it."
- Wilhelm Reich
Lack of education leads to increased single parent families, which restricts womens abilities to gain employment or further education hence autonomy. In an advanced capitalist country like America drop out rates are effected by class more than race.
It is estimated that about 2,500 students drop out of U.S. high schools every day.
Census data have revealed that about one out of every three children born in the U.S. these days is the child of an unwed mother. The data from the Barna survey also show that nearly one out of every four adults (23%) who has never been married has children living in their household. Overall, one out of every six households (17%) with children under 18 is headed by an adult who has never been married.
Black and Hispanic youth are more likely than non-Hispanic whites to drop out of high school. In 2004, 7 percent of non-Hispanic whites ages 16 to 24 were not enrolled in school and had not completed high school, compared with 12 percent of blacks and 24 percent of Hispanics. The high rate for Hispanics is in part the result of the high proportion of immigrants in this age group who never attended school in the U.S. Asian youth, with a dropout rate of 4 percent, had the lowest dropout rate among all racial and ethnic groups in 2004. Child Trends DataBank - High School Dropout Rates
Oregon is the latest state to consider action in a nationwide movement to raise graduation requirements after a speech Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates gave to the nation's governors in 2005. Students were leaving high school with diplomas, Gates said, but without the skills needed to succeed in college or the workforce.
High schools raise diploma requirements
Muncie Community Schools analyzed graduation data further by gender. Broken down by sex, 63 percent of Central's black males graduated, with zero percent dropping out, compared to 67 percent of white males graduating, with a dropout rate of 8 percent.
Eighty-one percent of black females graduated, with no dropouts, compared to 83 percent of white females graduating with a 3-percent dropout rate. (Figures don't add up to 100 percent because they don't include students from the Class of 2006 who have remained in school rather than graduating or leaving.)
Poverty and race are indicators that a student is at risk to drop out, but the socioeconomic class of Muncie's black students at both Central and Southside high schools could be different from other schools across the state, Supt. Marlin Creasy said.
"Muncie has a middle class black population and that's reflected in the student body," Creasy said, adding that, more than race, poverty is the "biggest indicator" of a potential dropout. Central has no black dropouts
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