There is an interesting relationship between women and education. I had a personal experience the other day that directly related to controls on women's learning ability.
I teach an ESL class (English as a second language) to adults in the evenings. When the students register for their classes, they take a placement exam. One particular couple took the placement exam together. The wife tested into level 6--the highest class the program offers. The husband placed into level 2. When they went to pay their fees and register the husband insisted that his wife be put into level 2 with him. "It isn't proper" he argued "that a wife should know more than her husband." He argued so loudly that the supervisor had little choice than to sign both of them up for level two...together.
Although people could attibute this control of women to certain cultural upbringings, I do not think that this is the case. How many times does a wife drop out of school so her husband can finish? How many times does marriage mean that a woman's educational days are over? Why is marriage and family incompatible with learning? And why must a man hold the higher degree? Why is it that when we see a family in which the woman has a higher degree or a better job than the man we say that she "wears the pants" in the relationship? What is it about education that is inherently masculine? As much as we would like to admit that most husbands wouldn't hold their wives back if they tested into a level higher than them--things like this are done all the time, just with different actions.
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So a few years ago I was dating a guy (this is a different one) who told me that the downfall of American society could be traced to the rise of feminism. For evidence he pointed to the fact that ever since women entered the work force and started becoming more educated, drug used has been on the rise. Now I ask you, don't you think that other factors have contributed to the downfall of American society? After all, my mother worked outside the home and I have never tried drugs. On the other hand, his mother was a stay-at-home mom and he has tried drugs. Try again, buster. Working outside the home is not a recipe for familial disaster. Granted, being a stay-at-home mom is not a recipe for disaster either.
I have often wondered about this issue. I have been encountered with many, men and women alike, that seem to believe that education for a woman is completely secondary to her role as a wife and a mother. i dont understand why these people think that being a wife/mother and gaining an education are mutually exculsive. as far as i'm concerned, they go together. to take it one step further, education greatly enhances ones ability to be a successful wife/mother. i don't understand how gaining an education could ever be bad.
ps- elise, you're cool. =D welcome to the world of blogdom!! i'm glad you're here!
Comment on Whitney's comment: This young men knew NOTHING about statistic. There is no possible way you could be 95% confident that an increase in drug use can be attributed to women in the work place. Stupid stupid stupid.
Education + Motherhood SHOULD co-exist, I think. That is why my husband and I chose to both attend school simultaneously, despite the huge financial costs. It was never a question whether I would finish or not. It wasn't a question of whether we could afford it. You can't put a price on your time or an education. You just do it.
I'm totally linking your blog to mine, Elise.
Everyone - women AND men - want what's best for their families. Many women fail to finish their education perhaps because they think they can contribute more to the family in the short term. This may be short-sighted, but it often works fine. And some of these women go back to school after raising their kids.
Ah, but the game changes when you make your decisions as to what truly IS better for your families. Once again you are trapped by you own logic.
Let us consider the positive effects of a mother who has completed her higher education--there is empirical evidence that a child's success in school is directly related to the success of not his or her father, but instead that child' mother. Furthermore, mothers with higher education tend to have better educated and healthier children than women who are not as educated.
In considering what is better for the family are we stuck in perhaps a linear way of thinking about it all?
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