5 Reasons for Educating Women

Lots of debates have been done on women’s education in different countries at different platforms, but it’s only when more people are taught and showed the real benefits of educating women that the human race will be more willing to grant this basic right to them.  

Education is an essential human virtue, without which a man remains nothing but a biological existence.  It is the birth right of every individual to be educated as it is what renders significance to an otherwise vague life. Aristotle once said, “Educated men are as much superior to uneducated as the living are to the dead”.  While the literal sense of this statement reveals an uncanny inclination towards the male species, however unintentional it might have been, the fact remains that the fairer sex has always been treated in an unfair manner when it comes to education. 

This is not a local phenomenon limited to a certain country or society. The overall trends reflect an extreme gender inequality in education at a global level.  Barring for a handful of developed nations like United States where the number of women in colleges outnumber the number of men, in most other countries girls are less likely to gain access to formal education in schools. Higher education system paints even a grimmer picture, where most third world economies lack even the basic infrastructure facilities involved in delivering education for women, placing them at a disadvantage when it comes to facing the bigger challenges of life.  It is not that the significance of education for women is lost upon any of the sensible members of the learned community who fully understand that education helps women claim their rights and be an equal party to opportunities. It is just that there has been too much talking and too little action to improve this situation. Here are some more reasons that necessitate women’s education.

It is your damn right: Woman or no woman, education is a right of every individual who has taken birth on this planet.  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights gave official recognition to this fact in 1948. All major international human rights conventions have asserted strongly in the favor of free and compulsory primary education to all, irrespective of their castes, creeds and color.   Although none of these conventions or declaration guarantees post-primary education, it is up to the state to ensure that its citizens get ample opportunities for pursuing educational aspirations. The right to education is one of the most critical of all rights, simply because it helps in women securing other rights.

It is good for your children: After American Revolution, there was a drastic increase in the number of opportunities for girls to learn and study. These new opportunities were created on the basis that as mothers or better yet, as educated mothers they would be in better position to mould the minds of their children, who will rise to become the future of their country. Similar premise applies to every country, and every society. Although values and morals are not limited to only educated individuals, it is highly unlikely that an uneducated woman would be able to provide the same standards of learning that she herself failed to receive when it mattered.   

 It is good for your economy: In a world where most of things are farce, education is the only sure shot formula to induce a permanent improvement in people’s lives. If every country’s female employment rate matches that of males, there could be a significant growth in that country’s GDP. Women remain the most underutilized resource of the countries in most developing nations of South Asia, educationally handicapped and relegated to unskilled, non-consequential jobs. This not only reduces their chances for leading a better life but also costs their country a chance to tap into extra human resource for better economic growth.  Although these emerging markets have become the favorite of large corporations owing to large and inexpensive talent pool, to make the growth more broad and sustainable it is essential to fill in the gap between men’s and women’s education.

It is good for your culture: Although a place’s culture and deep rooted traditional values have emerged as the single most important factor preventing liberation of women, by standing between them and their prospects of education, it is only through education that these inequalities can be uprooted.  Educated women only have the understanding, confidence and power to take on the so called keeper’s of the society who insist on women’s role as nothing more than that of a homemaker.  Such oppression has become a way of life, a despised yet inseparable part of culture of third world countries. Improving educational opportunities will help in developing decision making abilities in women, which will, in turn, help them influence a change in the key areas of community.  Education imbibes a sense of power, which is one of the reasons why most girls and women are denied their right to education by those in charge: that is their fear that girls and women can be trusted with the power that comes with education.

It is good for your health: Over the last decade the benefits of educating women have become quite obvious. Research shows that educated women manage their own and health’s family issues in a better way, which has a direct bearing on infant and maternal mortality, and costs incurred in healthcare, reducing all of these. 

Author Bio

Saurabh Tyagi is a specialist writer, with an experience of over 4 years in writing content. He loves to write on topics related to career, education, real estate, Management Courses, various women’s university like SNDT University, DU, JNU and many more.