Girls and young women face many challenges in rural settings
where they have fewer resources, assets, and income
opportunities than men. Some of these factors have pushed girls
and young women like Shimu to migrate to urban areas. They find
that urban life offers better economic opportunities; it may
help them get away from restrictive gender norms and traditional
practices, and gain a sense of autonomy and control over their
lives. The urban-rural divide starts early in life. One of the
most visible disparities is in girls’ access to education. In
developing countries, school attendance for rural girls between
the ages of 10 to 14 is 18.4 per cent lower than for urban girls
of the same age group. The gap is 37.5 per cent for girls ages
15 to 19.(1) Though there is also a rural-urban disparity in
access to education among boys, it is less pronounced. The
highest rural-urban inequalities in girls’ access to schooling
are found in the Middle East and in Western and Central Africa,
with respectively 54.6 and 46.