Education For Women In Modern Europe
Female education has been an issue amongst many communities in the world and had been met with a lot of critics as the women had been seen only as being good for housekeeping, bearing and rearing children and not for manly education based duties. Poverty and gender equality also makes the boy child be better placed as compared to the girl, it is well understood that the two can never be the same and instead equity and fairness of both sexes is advocated. As for poverty, the girl is seen as an economic benefit from dowry and the boy a blessing as his education would elevate status. Women were not also allowed to vote till the 20th century in some countries it went to even mid of the century. In medieval Europe, the girls’ education was irregular as the women would only get minimal life skills from their mothers and the boys went to schools other than that, nuns for example, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) who would preach and write theological books would get proper education for the schools that they ran.
Education initially was meant to polish up the behavior of women and make good mothers. Several women who are from strong economic backgrounds pioneered the quest to have women educated such as Catherine of Aragon. Feminism which started in the 19th century was a revolution and the other in the 20th century cause that came to work each involved different reasons the first involving end of slavery and better working conditions for both sexes the second revolution was for fighting for social and cultural inequalities. Feminism was aimed at advocating for women’s rights and addressing in justices to them in society (Charlton, 1999) Catherine Macaulay argued that the weakness of women was lack of education. Florence Nightingale was amongst the first to get into careers as she identified women as having as much potential as the men.
At the same time that the education for women was an issue other things came up such as property and marital rights as well as violence against women. The ladies of Langham place which was a group of women who met up at the Langham place mainly to discuss problems of women as named above. The first collage which catered for women was Queens College in 1848 and Bedford College which began with 5 students. There was a poem called The Princess: A Medley, written by Tennyson which was a mock of the women’s education but upon a successful graduation and entry and proper performance in fields known only for men, the institutions were accepted but streaming into almost all entities of business took time. Some of the European countries such as Britain took up the idea from India which had began having graduates into its universities. There is a saying that says that educating a woman is educating a whole society in terms of the family’s health improves at all level and in different circumstances.
Today education is still a problem amongst women with only roughly two-thirds of the population be educated and most of them being in the developed countries, ths makes them not be well to date with issues that can help them. A proverb goes; a woman is her own enemy: this means that with lack of education, women despite being the majority in the society cannot vote for their own in political seats as some of them still observe it as being a man’s job. It occurs that even when it comes to employment, women at times get lower salaries than their male counter parts doing the same job. Turkey for example as a European country has shown great significance acknowledgement for having women in its society educated as the continuous enrolment has seen the surpassing of men in their own highly prized system. Urbanization and rural urban migration has affected the education system of women in society and the fact that most societies are patriarchal. Jordan for instance has great success in the education sector but in the field of employment the number is very little.
School attending genders are at an almost level ground in Serbia but men aim for high degrees as compared to the women. Gender sensitization still needs to be done and this is appreciated in the constitutions of some countries and thus reducing discrimination though many countries do not want to accept the fact that there is almost no clear distinction between the two sexes as long as the men still have their power but probable if it were vice versa, then it would be different. An educated woman cannot out up with oppression and so with more education on our women, the higher the chance of reduced violation in marriages. Gender issues should be taken seriously at every level of their lives as this way, should in every level administration.Economic disparities such that if a family is too poor to take all children to school, it is the girls who lack to attend especially if schools are far off they cannot keep up with the long distances and opt to get married.
Legislation can make women not to attend school as the laws are mostly strict on girls; this happens in some parts of Asia. Albania has ratifies several laws dealing with the rights of women and has for a long time identified women as having equal opportunities with the men in society thus their education was well treasured. The women are recognized as having a role to play in the benefit of the society too, buy what still imposes a problem amongst the women in society is the fact that the society views them as not being as superior as the men and so they are thus not many persons to look up to in the making of careers for themselves. Many women still are yet to embrace the science careers as they are seen more difficult and women are said to be fragile. Sometimes women might have to move abroad for studies but their families for safety sake opt to have them at home and so this makes them not get as good education as they were intended to get from going abroad. In some countries especially in the rural settings, parents decide not to take their children to school for fear that they may be kidnapped especially at puberty.
Female teachers can influence their female students to be more adventurous when it comes to professionns and is thus a benefit for them in society. When it comes to laying off, women are the ones who take the pinch as they are considered to have a less working life than the men besides getting a reduced upon them bearing children, some of them get frustrated to appoint that they quit their jobs. For example women in Italy are highly underrepresented this because it involves a lot of speech making and thus women cannot attend as they have families to cater for. Women should be in government so that they can straighten out the issues that the face in the society and working areas. Some women are forced into such vices as prostitution and in this way; they are exposed to many diseases and challenges (Woody, 2007).
The women are to be encouraged of the possibilities of there being so much potential and ways of getting better livelihood than selling their bodies. In some parts of Europe it is multinational organizations that help the women get their duly owed recognition and encourages women to work with or without the children. Empowerment training is highly called for to break the gender discrepancies present in the society and encourage women to a better choice of careers. Women can find the joy of being educated if they are guaranteed jobs and equal opportunity of rising in the job status equal to that of the men, this way, they earn the confidence and respect and can rise in the field. Sometimes money is an issue and the fees and prices should be such that they favor all and ensure that the books do not have content on discrimination against women.
Better working conditions for mothers like paternity leave with pay or having a nursery in a working area thus the woman can breastfeed as well work, this way, there is more productivity by the woman. Working women should also be given a chance to improve on their skill by furthering their education, this does not warrant the employers to deprive the women off their jobs or increase working ours making it impossible for them to learn (Lindsay, 2005). The employers should be sensitized on having to employ women as there so many with such great qualifications but no opportunity to showcase their skills.The younger generation needs role models who will assist them in wanting to be educated and independent in the future. The flexibility in hours will make the educated women work instead of just stay at home as they can multi task taking care of their families and working at the same time. Take initiatives of training and improving education for women by giving scholarships at work and the women are guaranteed of getting jobs once they resume from abroad or whilst still studying.
Encouraging gender equality and equity will make the women be accepted in society and be in a position to change the society for the better. We still need more gender activists who will ensure that there is ample room for persons to be more self reliant. International organizations should be in such a position as to encourage their members to allow for female education to be at par with that of the males and reduce on discrimination in their jurisdiction.
