This chapter examines the historical evolution of literacy and education policies in South Asia within a global and colonial context, highlighting the enduring gender disparities that shaped access to education. Beginning with the comparative experiences of China, Russia, and Turkey’s mass education movements, it explores how colonial educational reforms—especially Macaulay’s 1835 Minutes on Education—redefined curricula, language, and access, privileging elite males and marginalizing women. Drawing on extensive census data, the analysis traces literacy trends from the colonial era to the present across India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, revealing persistent inequalities by gender, caste, and region. Case studies of Iran, Malaysia, and Bangladesh are presented for a comparative analysis with the peer countries to examine how national reforms, linguistic policies, and female-focused initiatives helped narrowing the literacy gaps in a few countries but not in others. Finally, the chapter honors a few women reformers whose activism transformed educational access, asserting that women’s literacy remains both a measure and a catalyst of equitable development.