Foreign Policy magazine ran some remarkable findings this month. While developed countries are inundated with television to the extent that the kids network Nickelodeon will air a blank screen for three hours tomorrow for "Play Outside Day," it seems that rural communities in developing countries are thriving off of their newfound access to satellite TV.

According to new research, access to satellite TV is of surprising value to the lives of rural Indian women—about six years of education, to be precise.

Researchers analyzed three years’ worth of data collected in 180 rural Indian villages, 21 of which gained access to satellite television. In villages that acquired the new medium, school enrollment among girls increased and women had fewer children. The newly wired women also became less accepting of spousal abuse, a bias in favor of having boys declined, and they were more likely to be able to spend money without a husband’s permission.

Researchers at the University of Chicago, who conducted the study, surmise that when rural women observe the status of women in urban environments (in which the overwhelming majority of women on TV are living), their expectations change -- much as they do with each additional year of education.

Better education opportunities for women and girls have long been a reliable and worthy objective, both for women's advocates and for those concerned with community development more generally. No one expects TV to bridge huge gaps between the opportunities open to men versus women in poor rural villages. But this study makes TV look like an effective wedge where the prospect of girls education is simply too far outside the bounds of social norms to make any headway. Women may not close their education gap by tuning in, but they (and their husbands, fathers and brothers) could learn enough to see that it's a problem.