"Improve the Women": Mass Schooling, Female Literacy, and Worldwide Social Change.
In this article, Robert LeVine, Sarah LeVine, and Beatrice Schnell develop and test a theoretical model of how women's schooling might contribute to social and demographic change. Drawing upon research from many disciplines, the authors propose that schooling leads to social change by imparting skills and fostering other individual changes that alter women's patterns of social participation. They argue that, in schools, girls acquire aspirations, identities, skills, and models of learning that eventually affect their decisions regarding reproductive, child-rearing, and health behaviors. Among other things, girls learn an academic register that, the authors argue, is the official language of all bureaucracies, including health and family-planning clinics as well as schools. Proficiency in using this academic language is advantageous in oral communication with the health bureaucracy, and may lead to greater utilization of health services and, thus, improved reproductive and health outcomes. After explaining...