Women - League Table

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The adolescent experience: Beyond childbearing

During the past 30 years, the time span between the age of puberty and the age of marriage and childbearing has grown, increasing the time that adolescent girls spend outside marriage. Knowing more about their lives is therefore imperative, helping both to reduce risk and to increase potential. Researchers are now beginning to study the myriad issues that arise in the lives of adolescent girls at the end of the 20th century, including:

  • What is their treatment at the hands of their families? Do they eat as well as their brothers? Do they receive as much health care? How are domestic duties divided in the household? How much leisure time do girls have, and how do they spend it?
  • How do they fare in school? How do their attendance rates and academic achievements compare with those of boys? Are girls treated the same as boys in the classroom? Are they encouraged to excel? Does their education influence how their families and communities perceive them?
  • What is their experience in the workplace, whether formal or informal? Do they work for pay? How does their rate of pay compare to that of adolescent boys? Can they access credit? Are they slotted into traditionally female occupations?
  • What is their experience with potentially risky behaviours? Do they experiment with cigarettes, alcohol, drugs? Do they engage in unsafe sexual practices? What happens when they do?

To date, answers to these questions are sketchy or anecdotal. While researchers are beginning to quantify the adolescent experience, the studies are as yet small, painting a picture of communities, rather than countries. UNICEF is working with others to create more realistic and revealing statistical indicators and is supporting governments in measuring them. As they become available, the results will be published in The Progress of Nations.

Women who do not complete primary school have two to three more children on average than women with some secondary education.

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