India

• The National Literacy Mission indicates that in 1951, the literacy rate for women in India was a mere 8.86 percent; as of 2001, it had increased to 54.16 percent. India's 2011 census showed more improvement, with 65.46 percent of the women reported as literate. Although the increase is significant, more than a third of the female population remains illiterate and essentially powerless. Women in India are made to fit into a paradigm of femininity that inherently places them below men in all aspects of life. This creates, among other problems, a lack of personal development and low self-esteem. As literacy programs targeted at women spread in India, the NLM notes that women have higher self-esteem, less social isolation, an interest in knowledge and learning, the ability to become entrepreneurs, and better hygiene and health.
  
  

Morocco

• Through the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative begun in 2008, programs in Morocco have increased literacy for women all over the country. The Morocco Project has shown that, through literacy, women acquire the ability to understand and partake of their political environment, allowing them to gain freedoms they have never experienced before. Because of the programs this initiative offers, Moroccan women have greater access to education and the ability to participate in government by voting on their own. They've become less socially and economically dependent on others.
  
  

Nepal

• According to Nepal Vista, only 28 percent of women in Nepal are literate and less than half of the entire population in Nepal, the 15th most illiterate country in the world, can read and write. In a study conducted by Dr. Sushan Acharya of UNESCO, gender roles were stubbornly rigid in Nepal until recent years, even after the literacy initiatives of the 1950s, because literacy had only been granted to those who contributed to agriculture and other economic systems. These beliefs left women almost entirely out of the running until the early 2000s. The government of Nepal has made strides to correct its previous gender injustices. The UNESCO study shows that the 10th five-year plan of 2002-2006 was created to give educational opportunities to all people, paying close attention to the forgotten women to prevent future social and economic discrimination against them.
  
  

Benefits

• Not only are literate women able to understand and defend their rights within their own cultural and political environments, they can do more to benefit society. Literacy increases a woman's positive impact on her community and family. A woman with access to education can seek a better-paying job, allowing her to generate more income for her family which, in turn, affects her local economy in a positive way. A literate woman is a better citizen. According to information the ProLiteracy organization gathered from studies conducted by UNESCO and UNICEF, a literate woman is better equipped for agricultural work and more likely to marry later in life and have a controlled number of planned pregnancies.