There is an enormous amount of public policy debate in India and the rest of the world on status of women because women constitute almost half of India's population. The kind of indifference shown by the society towards women in socio-economic field evidently discloses the perpetual and persisting disparity among men and women. Women education should be seen as a factor for economic development and not as a mere waste of resources. The myth that women are not "comparably competent" to men is exploded with their meaningful participation in all the fields. It is established that given an opportunity they are equally intellectual and can definitely compete with men in any field. The theory of justice and cooperative conflict are also examined in this article from the perspective of gender discrimination in education. This paper analyses the status of women in relation to literacy and gender disparity in India in general and the State of Andhra Pradesh (AP) in particular. Further, taking statistics of female literacy for the past four decades, the paper critically examines status of female literacy in AP as against the national average. The research paper concludes with some observations and provides suggestions which can be instrumental in improving female literacy of India in general and AP in particular.