Women and men often receive the same percentage increase in their wage rates with advances in schooling. Because these returns decline with more schooling, the marginal returns for women will tend to exceed those for men, especially in countries where women are much less educated. The health and schooling of children are more closely related to their mother's education than to their father's. More educated women work more hours in the market labor force, broadening the tax base and potentially reducing tax distortions. These three conditions, it is argued, justify the disproportionate allocation of public expenditures toward women's education. Countries that have equalized their educational achievements for men and women in the last several decades have on the average grown faster. (Contains 8 notes and 104 references.) (BT)