Facts about women in Africa

Gender and HIV/AIDS

• Nearly a third of all adults living with HIV/AIDS are under the age of 25 and two thirds of them are women.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, girls are getting infected faster and earlier than boys. In the 15 to 24 age group, two girls are infected for every boy.
• Surveys indicate that compared to women who have some post primary schooling, women with no education are five times more likely to lack basic information about HIV/AIDS.
• In 2002, an estimated 800,000 children under the age of l5 were infected with HIV, the vast majority (90 per cent) as a result of parent-to-infant transmission.

Gender and girls’ education

• Over 110 million of the world’s children, two thirds of them girls, are not in school.
• Of the world’s 875 million illiterate adults, two thirds are women.
• During the 1990s, gender parity in primary school enrolment improved in all regions world-wide and in nearly two thirds of the countries with available data. UNICEF is supporting 25 countries to accelerate progress towards achieving gender parity in primary school enrolment by 2005.
• Half of the girls who live in developing countries (excluding China) will be married by their 20th birthday. Increasing girls’ time in school is one of the best ways to foster later, chosen marriage.