A serious problem in Botswana is the large number of girls and young women who drop out of school. Just over half of the female population attends secondary schools, and the percentage of school-enrolled females has fallen in recent years. Few researchers have studied the dropout problem in Botswana. Twenty-four individuals selected for this study were associated with a junior secondary school (grades 8-10) and a nongovernmental agency located in a section of Gaborone, the capital city that began as a squatter camp but has now been registered by the Botswana government as a residential area. Case study and portraiture methods were utilized to examine the experiences and perceptions of the female dropouts and the role of education in their lives.