Still, once girls reach puberty, the greatest threat to their staying in school may be pregnancy. Students who become pregnant often drop out of school, or they are expelled by school authorities—a fate that does not befall male students who father children. In many African countries pregnancy is the most common reason that girls leave school and the main reason that the school-leaving rate is higher for girls than for boys (109).

To ensure that girls are not forced to leave school due to unwanted pregnancy, girls need to be able to refuse unwanted sexual intercourse and to have access to contraceptives, information, and counseling if they choose to be sexually active. Also, schools should help young women continue in school, not expel them, even if they are pregnant or have a child.

Policies that help young women avoid pregnancy and stay in school could help change attitudes in the long run. Parents and communities might be more willing to invest in girls' education if they had more confidence that their daughters would not become pregnant and leave school (74). Also, as more women complete an education, and as more women hold paying jobs, the perception of women's potential is likely to change, helping to break the vicious cycle that holds women back.

Some young women recognize that avoiding pregnancy protects their futures. For example, in a Kenyan study female students of high socioeconomic status viewed contraception favorably. Those who ranked in the top quarter of their class were nearly four times more likely than other female students to have used contraception at their most recent act of intercourse. These young women could afford contraceptives and recognized that an early pregnancy would endanger their chances for academic success and economic security (173).

Children benefit in various ways from their parents' use of contraception. Education appears to be one area in which women pass on the benefit to their daughters: Both sons and daughters from small families have better educational opportunities than children from large families. In a Thai community, in families with three or fewer children, 44% of the children went to lower secondary school, and 31% went to upper secondary school. By comparison, in families with four or more children, 24% went to lower secondary school, and 14% went to upper secondary school. In this study couples with small and large families were matched for wealth, religion, residence, parents' educational attainment, and parents' ambitions for their children's education. All couples had had access to modern contraceptive methods throughout their reproductive years (131, 178). Similarly, in Matlab, Bangladesh, children in small families stayed in school longer because they did not need to care for younger siblings at home (100, 101). Still, in both Thailand and Bangladesh parents provided more education for their sons than for their daughters.