The World's Women reports

World's Women 2000: Chapter 4 - Education and communication
Some important findings:
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The gender gap in primary and secondary schooling is closing, but women still lag behind men in some countries of Africa and Southern Asia.

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Two thirds of the world's 876 million illiterates are women, and the number of illiterates is not expected to decrease significantly in the next twenty years.
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Women have made significant gains in higher education enrolment in most regions of the world; in some regions, women's enrolment now equals or surpasses that of men.
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More women than men lack the basic literacy and computer skills needed to enter "new media" professions.
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In many countries, women represent a rapidly increasing share of Internet users.

 

United Nations Statistics Division - Demographic and Social Statistics