Based on ethnographic fieldwork, we explore the rural-urban migration of 27 girls and young women who leave their rural communities and move to the city to pursue their secondary education, in the ethnically diverse Southern Region of Ethiopia. We consider the nature and extent of the inequalities that they face in rural areas which limit their education opportunities and outcomes and underpin their expected entry into marriage. We compare their experiences in their rural communities with their lives in the city, where they have greater access to resources and greater freedom and decision-making power and the opportunity to continue their secondary education, although their futures are still uncertain. Through our analysis we reveal some of the tensions between the promise of girls' secondary education promoted at the international and national level and the lived realities of rural girls and women, many of whom are unable to realise this promise.