Vol. 1, Issue 9, Part B (2015)

Abstract
Women’s access to education has been recognized as a fundamental right, and increasing girls’ education at primary, secondary and higher education level, is a main policy of the international development community and governments of most developing country. Gender equality in education is a critical element of the Millennium Development Goals. Education affected women’s wellbeing and provides them a greater voice in household decisions and improved opportunities to participate economic activities of country. Women’s education is essential for Social and Economic development of country. Spread of education affected the human resources and country’s economic growth. Women education is one of the major effective ways to eradicate poverty and other economic issues of the country. Women education has direct impact on individuals, families and entire society. This paper highlights the women participation in education in Punjab. This study covers the time period from 2001- 2012. This study found that the percentage of female teachers in primary, middle and secondary school level are greater than the male teachers. The enrollment ratio of girls at the primary school level is continuously increasing and it is nearly as high as that of boys. The Punjab state has achieved gender equity in terms of enrollment of students at the primary level with age group 6- 11. This study also found that the overall female literacy rate in Punjab is much lower than the male literacy rate. The state as a whole has 80.40 percent literate males and on the other hand the female literacy rate is put at 70.70 percent, which shows large gap of nearly 10 percent in the distribution of male- female literacy in the state.