Influences of Women's Schooling on Maternal Behavior in the Third World

This is an interim report on some effects of an ongoing historical process: the spread of Western schooling among the peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific. This process of institutional diffusion began on a significant scale more than a century ago, has accelerated since World War II, and will certainly continue for a long time. In most places the schooling of women has lagged far behind that of men and is thus a more recent phenomenon; yet enough progress has been made for an early assessment of effects.