hen labour-saving domestic technology and measures to conserve forest resources were introduced in one region, the enrolment of girls in school increased markedly.7 Girls may also be involved in income-earning activities outside the home from a fairly young age, often as domestic servants. Child labour, whether in the home or beyond, may be essential to the survival strategies of poor families. The labour of girls may ensure that one or more boys can be given a chance at education in the hopes that their future jobs will raise the family out of poverty.
The distance between home and school is another factor which affects girls' education more than that of their brothers. A distant school places girls' safety at risk, keeps them away from household chores for longer periods, and may entail high transportation costs. A study in Algeria showed that while both male and female enrolment was high when schools were less than one kilometre from home (96 per cent for boys and 84 per cent for girls), it dropped sharply to 58 per cent for girls when the distance was extended to between one and five kilometres, while 90 per cent of boys still attended. And if the school was more than five kilometres, only 25 per cent of girls compared to 66 per cent of boys attended.8 This may have a particular effect on girls' opportunities to attend secondary school, since these tend to be larger, fewer and further apart than primary schools.
School-related factors also play important roles in enabling girls to have an education. In certain cultures, a girls' presence at school may be dependent on the availability of female teachers. Studies have shown that female enrolment rates increase and drop-out rates decrease significantly with the presence of female teachers. In the developing world, only the Latin America/Caribbean region has a high proportion of female teachers - more than 70 per cent at the primary level and nearly 50 per cent at the secondary level in 1988. This region also has the smallest gender gap in education, with girls actually outnumbering boys at secondary school in some countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa only about 30 per cent of the total teaching force is female.9 Separate facilities for girls at school, such as latrines, also act as a factor affecting their enrolment.
All of these factors operate throughout the educational cycle, but the pressures on girls to end their education are likely to increase around puberty as cultural and moral considerations about male-female contact and concerns regarding possible adolescent pregnancy come to the forefront. Evidence that educated women delay the start of sexual relations and child-bearing longer than uneducated women may not be enough to overcome traditional attitudes, particularly when combined with some of the other factors mentioned above such as costs, distance and a girl's limited options for future employment. Traditions regarding arranged and early marriages assert an additional influence at this age, particularly where customs like bridewealth are in operation. In some cultures, more than basic education for women is considered to affect their marriage chances negatively, as educated wives are considered too sophisticated and harder to control.
The gross enrolment level for boys and girls in secondary school have improved across most of Sub-Saharan Africa since 1970, and the gender gap has also decreased. In 1970 only 10 per cent of boys and 4.4 per cent of girls went to secondary school. These figures increased over 20 years to be 21.2 per cent of boys and 13.8 per cent of girls. In Ghana, gross enrolment ratios were above regional average, and roughly on par with the averages for the developing world as a whole, with 47 per cent of boys and 30 per cent of girls attending secondary school in 1988. Even with these improvements, a gender gap of 35 per cent still exists at secondary school, an increase of the 20 per cent gap in primary school enrolments between boys and girls as measured in both 1980 and 1988.10 Clearly boys and girls are not progressing through the school 