Women are more likely than men to spend their money on their fam­i­lies. A new study from Aus­tralia puts some facts behind this statement.

The report says invest­ing in girls is the best way to lift fam­i­lies out of poverty. The study from Plan Inter­na­tional is urg­ing Aus­tralian com­pa­nies with inter­ests over­seas to make sure they have equal hir­ing prac­tices for women.

From the Aus­tralian Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion, we read more about the study of self­less women. you can down­load an mp3 of the radio story from here.

The report by Plan Inter­na­tional Aus­tralia shows young women are the first to lose their jobs or have their edu­ca­tion stopped so they can be placed in domes­tic work dur­ing an eco­nomic crisis.

Plan has been study­ing 140 girls since birth. The girls come from nine coun­tries across the devel­op­ing world.

Plan chief exec­u­tive Ian Wishart says the report, called Because I am a Girl, shows many coun­tries still have the atti­tude that girls are not as impor­tant as boys.

“The sit­u­a­tion for girls starts pretty bleak. At least 100 mil­lion girls are miss­ing from the world pop­u­la­tion sta­tis­tics because of female foeti­cide,” he said.

“In other words, gender-biased abor­tions are tak­ing place when peo­ple learn that it’s a girl. Then when a girl is born, many girls already get stripped of what we call eco­nomic assets. They won’t inherit any­thing from their fam­ily just sim­ply because they’re a girl.”

Mr Wishart says recent research by the World Bank shows eco­nomic growth is boosted by the num­ber of girls who com­plete their sec­ondary edu­ca­tion and go on to earn higher wages.

“The stats show that the extra year of study of school results in 10 to 20 per cent higher income,” he said.

“If you start mul­ti­ply­ing that through five or six years of high school, it has a dra­matic effect.

“And the other thing that hap­pens is a young women who gets a fair job with a decent wage will invest 90 per cent of that in her fam­ily and chil­dren, com­pared to just 30 or 40 per cent for men, I’m afraid.

“What that results in is her chil­dren will almost cer­tainly be well edu­cated and live out­side of poverty.”

But Mr Wishart says it is hard for girls and women in devel­op­ing coun­tries to get an edu­ca­tion and then employment.

“The dif­fi­culty is the path­way for girls through life is lit­tered with what I call trap­doors to fall down; entry to pri­mary school denied; pulled out of high school for an early mar­riage and per­haps an early preg­nancy; the dan­gers of HIV/AIDS,” he said.

“And even if you got through all of that maze, dis­crim­i­na­tion in actu­ally the award­ing of jobs. A lot of this needs to be changed for the poten­tial of young women to be released and realised by national economies.

“Unfor­tu­nately there’s still 20 per cent of girls who are not enter­ing pri­mary school. So it’s not about dis­crim­i­nat­ing against boys or neglect­ing boys, it’s about bring­ing girls up to the same level, giv­ing them an equal chance to par­tic­i­pate in the national and global economy.”

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