
Speakers at the conference used statistics to illustrate the inequality of educational opportunity for women. They noted:
Ӣ Nearly 40 million young girls worldwide have received no schooling;

Ӣ About two thirds of all illiterate adults are women; and
”¢ Only one third of the world’s nations have achieved gender parity in secondary education.
In her keynote address to the delegates, Sheikh Hasina, prime minister of Bangladesh stated, “If you educate a boy, you educate one boy, whereas if you educate a girl, you educate her entire family and community.”


