Napoleon was once asked what the most important need of France was during his reign. He replied,” Nation’s progress is impossible without trained and educated mothers. If the women of my country are not educated about half of the people will be ignorant.
A famous saying is that “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” It means that a mother exercises great influence over the lives of her children. She can mold their thoughts and character.
Women are the soul of a society and the society can be judged upon how they treat their women. The societies in which women were treated equally to men and were educated had prospered and grown economically over time.
Women belong to a relatively weaker section of society as they suffer from many handicaps due to rigid rules on their freedom, outdated social customs, and religious practices.
In his 1884 work The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Engels identified the source of the oppression of women as their exclusion from social production and the conversion of household tasks into a private service.
If the women are educated they are aware of their rights and how they should be treated. Women have been striving to liberate themselves from the authority and control of men and traditional power structures, as well as to secure equal rights for women, remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns, and set legal standards that shall promote their full equality
An educated woman cannot be exploited as easily, as she knows and is aware of her individuality and rights. She will not be easily suppressed. Education of women can also help in eradicating many social evils such as dowry problems that plague all parents, unemployment problems, and others.
Women like Marie Curie who got the Nobel Prize in chemistry and physics, Rosalind Franklin who made contributions to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA,
Florence Nightingale a central figure in the history of nursing. By creating a secular, professional role for nurses, she set the framework for modern nursing practice.
The Gold Mark Report Committee for the Study of Nursing Education, 1923, and the Brown Report [Brown, 1948] both recommended university-based training for nurses.
Turkish Kemalist nationalism articulated and implemented gender equality as an intrinsic part of its modern identity and societal reforms. Women gained full political rights in 1934, and the removal of family law from the jurisdiction of religion with the enactment in 1926 of a secular Civil Code in Turkey can be considered the most radical example of engagement in secular feminism.
In Iran, too, women’s rights, free education, and compulsory unveiling in 1936 were implemented by the secular nationalist politics of Reza Shah.
In Egypt, alongside nationalism, the Islamic reformist movement especially in the works of Muhammed Abduh and Qasim Amin paved the way for women to gain access to public life, to claim a public voice, and to demand educational, work, and political rights.
Veiling was criticized as a sign of women’s confinement and as an obstacle to women’s participation in public life. Thus, the removal of the veil and the head covering of women in public became a symbol of women’s emancipation as well as national progress.
A well-known Egyptian feminist, Huda Sharawi, announced the start of the feminist movement she disembarked from her train in Cairo and unveiled her face in public in 1923. Therefore, public visibility of women was put forward by the first wave of feminist activism and writing in the Middle East.
Bangladesh is a girls’ education success story. In 1970, just before independence, girls made up only about 17 percent of secondary school enrollment (grades 6-12), yet by the turn of the century, girls made up more than half of secondary school enrollment. In the last ten years, 42.9% of female students have increased at the SSC level in Bangladesh based on the pass rate.
The recent banning of girls from going to school in Afghanistan and getting an education is a regressive act by the current regime. Not only this banning women from the workplace not good for the progress of the country, but you also can’t keep more than fifty percent of the country’s population caged. Women are also human beings and not only for the breeding purpose in this patriarchal society.
The Labor Party in Great Britain introduced the Women’s Emancipation Bill as a private members’ bill in 1919.
The Bill aimed to remove the disqualification of women from holding any civil or judicial office, give women the Parliamentary franchise on the same terms as men, and allow women who were hereditary peers in their own right to sit in the House of Lords.
If we consider society as a tree, then men are like its strong main stem which supports the tree to face the elements and women are like its roots; the nurturer and the ones that keep the society together. The stronger the roots are, the bigger and stronger the tree will be.
Educated women are more likely to encourage a good education and inspire compassionate values in their children in addition to their wider families. This will help empower entire generations of families, rather than simply boosting the individual. Not only sharing her knowledge, but an educated woman also has a better understanding of maintaining a healthy family and how to ensure the emotional and mental well-being of her children and extended family.
An educated girl is better informed about pregnancy-related issues, as well as influences on her general health and that of her family. In turn, this knowledge not only reduces unplanned pregnancy rates and infant mortality rates; it can effectively result in experienced female healthcare providers who can better assist with childbirth and pregnancy-related care.
Girls’ education is smart economics,12 million girls in total and account for most of the out-of-school population in Pakistan. Estimates of the number of out-of-school children in Pakistan range from 20.3 to 22.1 million children.
Increase the education budget by 4 percent, and more awareness among the families about the importance of girl education. Poverty is a major challenge for girls’ education. Girls in poor families are 22 percent less likely to attend school than boys. Girls’ stipend programs will have positive outcomes
Girls face harassment in school and on the way to school. They face challenges to their security in public spaces, transportation, and near schools
Improving transport services for girls and female teachers can be an important step and making schools safe for students by building boundary walls in schools
Any nation to progress girl’s education is mandatory
- Why Women’s Education is Important - 15/05/2023
- Why Nations Fail: Reasons and Solution - 13/05/2023
- Middle East is Changing - 25/04/2023
