Girl 's Access Of Education

Judith Sargent Murray’s On the Equality of the Sexes reveals the struggles women had in the 17th-18th centuries when it came to equal education opportunities. Women were expected to become people of domestication while men had many opportunities to expand their minds and be ambitious, and be leaders. Women were expected to focus on taking care of their family, not to have minds of their own. They wanted change.

For centuries, the role of women in society has been carefully defined by a patriarchal sociological system. Up until the 1960's it was considered a woman's national duty to reproduce and her primary function in life. To consciously limit the number of children that they had meant not only were women going against their natural function, but failing in that national duty (Currie & Adamson, 1977). Women have had to fight for the right to vote, which only occurred in Australia in 1902 (Currie & Adamson, 1977), and were denied the right to education, especially tertiary education. Even after this right was won, there were still fears being voiced about the bad effects on girls at school from bending over desks and being strained by thinking

These changes are affecting girls' attitudes towards education in a number of ways as increased numbers of female-headed lone-parent families may mean more women need to take on the major 'bread winner' role. This further creates a new financially independent, career-minded role model for girls. The need for good qualifications is made very clear and the girls aspirations tend to require academic effort. Becky Francis points out that boys are more likely to have career aspirations that are not only unrealistic but often require few formal qualifications, e.g. professional footballer.

As discussed in a recent essay by Saul Kaplan “The Plight of Young Males”, there is a serious academic gender achievement gap in the United States and as I will discuss, around the world. Young women are doing significantly better than young men, and the results are shocking. In the latest census, males make up 51 percent of the total U.S. population between the ages of 18-24. Yet only 40 percent of today’s college students are men. Since 1982, more American women than men have received bachelor’s degrees. In the last ten years, two million more women graduated from college than men. As Kaplan reveals, the average eleventh-grade boy writes at the level of the average eighth-grade girl. He also states that women dominate high school honor rolls and now make up more than 70 percent of class valedictorians. Kaplan says, “I am happy to see women succeeding. But can we really afford for our country’s young men to fall so far behind,” (733)?

The 1870 Education Act highlighted inequality in the school system between genders not only in the class room but in the running of schools. This obviously led to a lot of change for the role and status of women in the 1870’s and early 20th century, including creating a political identity, proving women’s ability to work well in politics, and creating an educated generation ready for further radical change.

Higher education was the necessary foundation women needed in order to be recognized as valuable members of society. However, females often received inadequate schooling. A traditional education was aimed

As time progressed, limitations on what types of occupations women could fulfill reflected this as many of them held positions that were similar to household duties. Such duties included child care, nursing, and teaching. With many advancing roles, the rate at which women were paid remained predominantly low, as reported “After the Equal Pay Act was signed into law, full-time women workers still earned less than 70 cents for every dollar earned by men,” (Kessler 3) this caused many women to rely on marriage as form of support as they attempted to avoid poverty. Even as education became a society norm, many universities denied admittance to women, and those who were fortunate to earn a degree were faced with the impossible task of finding a job. Questioning a women’s capability is a consequence that is rooted from years of oppression. While many positions have raised the income for them, the rate at which women are paid has historically remained a fraction of a man’s wage.

Women during the Industrial Revolution were not given the greatest education and were often kept at home to help with households. However, some women still felt that education was something that will be very helpful for them later in life. Women were seen lower than men so they did not receive the same education as the men. Many men believed that women were wasting their time taking an education because their job was staying at home, which for them required no learning. However, women still felt motivated to go to school because they knew that everyone should receive an education. Women’s education suffered because of the demands for work. Many skipped a lot of school because their work did not let them take a day off to go to school because they did not care.

Women are becoming the “man of the house”. One may say this is due to technical advances that have allowed women to escape domestic chores and step into the male domain. However, this is a product of the movement beyond one’s egocentricity, leading selfless movements such as anti-slavery. Feminists fought for women’s rights during the end of the 19th century: gaining the rights to possess their own property independently of their husbands, to receive their own salaries, to act as adjudicators, to go into professions like law and medicine and to go into higher education. In 2014, 7.1% of men dropout of schooling as compared to 5.9% of females (NCES). Gender roles are becoming fluid as the “new man”, a man of the house who enacts in domestic

In Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of a Woman she argues that women deserve the same opportunities, especially educational opportunities, as men. Wollstonecraft lived in a time where a woman’s role was to find a husband and raise a family. However, she believed that women were not even being prepared for those roles. Instead of being prepared to be “affectionate wives and rational mothers”, they were trained to be “alluring mistresses” (6). This did nothing to change society. As a solution she suggested an education system where young boys and girls of all socioeconomic classes were educated together, in a school system that focused on teaching them how to think rather than just memorizing the material (169).

Another evident inequality is the differences in testing scores. According to Tables 2- 5, males score higher in sciences including physics, biology, and chemistry, despite the number of test takers. Given that these sciences and maths are normally more difficult than other subjects, this evidence can show that males are able to perform better in subjects where more critical thinking and calculations are needed. Overall, this inequality could lead to more men in occupations such as engineering and medical based

The old saying that “A woman’s place is in the home” has always been defined by the fact of motherhood. According to traditions a girl belonging to a middle class westernized family, learned from her mother that washing, cooking and the other household chores were the expected behavior when they grew older and entered into marriage stages. Educations for girls have always been secondary to boys in the past. Higher education for girls was only possible during the summers when the boys were working. This trend however, has changed since the end of the 19th century, with the opening of many women colleges and the right of their admission to regular colleges.

The year was 1912 in London, England. Women lived at the mercy of their fathers, brothers, husbands and bosses; clearly a patriarchal society. Women’s lives consisted of keeping house and raising children and caring for their families. Those who worked outside of the home were limited to menial labor, earned significantly less than men, and surrendered their earnings to their husbands. Any inheritance of real estate or money a woman may have received was given to her husband and, most often, she had nothing to say about how it was managed or spent. A woman could not vote or run for office, and received little support, should she desire an education other than a ‘finishing school.’ (Clearly,

In Jane Austen’s day, there was no state-organised education system. There were church-run day schools in the best of cases for the lower class, but the genteel children of Austen’s novels were given lessons at home by their parents or by tutors, or they were boarders or in local schools to which girls were not admitted. Parents had the choice for their children’s education and upbringing, but the choice depended mainly on their financial resources. Women were not allowed to attend public schools and since they did not usually make a career (the exception being if they were obliged because of their financial situation to become a governess), parents (and society) saw no need for them to receive higher education. “Female education” referred to women receiving a practical (and religious) training for their future domestic roles. Domestic training would be sewing or needlework,

The situation of education for young girls in Sub-Saharan Africa is very complex, difficult and troublesome. A vast majority of girls don’t get the chance to enroll in primary education, leaving secondary education out of the question because their foremost responsibility is to gather water from a local source. If they are lucky enough to receive an education, many of the young girls are forced to drop out once they have hit puberty because the majority of schools do not provide proper sanitation systems, such as toilets. However, when speaking of local water sources in developing regions, like Sub-Saharan Africa, the term “local” is one that is used very loosely, as in some instances children are required to travel up to forty miles, carrying forty pounds of for the most part fairly dirty water. Water is the primary foundation of life, yet some individuals are forced to spend their days searching for it. Around one hundred and fifty-seven million people in the Eastern and Southern regions of Africa lack access to clean and safe water distribution systems and this causes the need to use external water sources. Due to the many burdens associated with lack of access to water, let alone clean water, such as basic sanitation, education becomes less of a priority. In African culture females hold the primary responsibility to maintain a clean home environment, cooking, cleaning and sanitation included, holding them responsible for the household water supply. A survey conducted in