Do You Think Women Should Be Given The Same Education As Men?

Women all through the ages have had a rough deal for no fault of theirs. They have been referred to as the weaker vessels and have been subjected to male tyranny. In some communities, women were denied even basic rights. Most of the women have had to feel contented and happy with the very mundane activities connected with housekeeping and child-bearing. No wonder few women have had any proper education till recently.

The causes of neglect of woman's education have been mainly sociological and economic. Women in most of the communities till recently have been forbidden to come out of the hearth and mix with others publicly. Even in advanced countries like the U.S.A and Great Britain women were denied franchise for a long time. Separate rules of conduct were prescribed for women. Custom and convention were against women being given any kind of education. They had no voice in the affairs of the family and the community. Male members of the family were treated as an asset whereas women were looked upon as a liability. This is because they were not earning members. If an enlightened head of the family had the desire to educate his daughters, he would then have been looked upon as a foolish man wasting his resources, for no return from the education could be expected as there were no jobs for women. In other words, lack of opportunities for jobs or for earning money worked as disincentive to anyone wanting to educate women.

In most of the developing and under-developed countries the predicament of women had been until recently described as above. But the activities of woman's welfare organizations and liberation movements as well as those of the governments of these countries have brought about and are bringing about remarkable changes in the attitudes of people towards the education for women. Consequently, massive programmes are under way for educating women. And the programmes have had a good response too from women. It is not very wrong to say that it was male supremacy and tyranny that in the past militated against woman's education. Women were treated in the past as intellectually inferior to men. Today we know that the biological differences between men and women do not in any way make women less intelligent than men.

The experience of Britain, and of the former Soviet Union, has proved that women are fitted to be man's comrades and colleagues both in peace and war. Women are obviously the equals of men on the stage, the screen, and the concert platform and as writers of fiction. They have begun to assert their equality with men in other spheres too. If a Madame Curie could be a world-renowned scientist, if a woman President could tackle national and international problems and if thousands of women all over the world could occupy positions of importance in various spheres of human activity, there is no reason to doubt the competence and intelligence of women who have received the right kind of education and training. Science and technology are perhaps difficult spheres of activity. If Madame Curie's example proves anything, it is that women scientists can distinguish themselves by extreme technical skill. Madame Curie, it may be said here, combined the intellect of a first-rate scientist with the skill of a first-rate craftsman. Many women have since done similar feats.

In economically advanced countries, women have been for a long time enjoying the right and freedom of education. But it has not been so in the developing and under-developed countries of the world. Today in these countries too there is an increasing awareness of the value of woman's education. India, for example, gives all kinds of encouragement to women to come out of the hearth, and the encouragement has been adequately responded to.

Democracy becomes meaningless if equality of opportunity is not ensured to all the citizens alike- men and women members of all communities. Women have the right to receive the best type of education available to men. No enlightened nation can deny them this right. To refuse education to any category of people on one ground or another is nothing but obscurantism.