Running head: GLOBAL WOMENS EDUCATION 1

Global Womens Education

Gryffin Jones

E3 Civic High
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Abstract

Around the world a large amount of women remain uneducated. The amount of education

women are kept out of leave half such countries populations uneducated. A community

committed to educating girls would be extremely beneficial globally. However, having the

governments of those countries accept female education would be required in order to allow for

girls to go to school. Lacking proper education, women are forced into a vicious cycle of

poverty, maintaining their narrow set of choices to most of their offspring. In order to allow them

to gain access to education, donations would be needed in order to help girls to be able to attend

school. Furthermore, having the governments of those countries accept female education would

make it possible for women to go to school without fearing for their lives, although you would

still have to take cultural drawbacks into consideration. Altogether, it would be extremely useful

for women and girls to be educated because they are equal to their male counterparts mentally,

and are capable of handling just as complex problems and looking at them from a different point

of view to offer a better solution.

Keywords: women, education, developing countries, cycle of poverty

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Global Womens Education

Globally, huge numbers of women in developing countries never reach their potential to

do great things, because without the education being withheld from them, they dont ever get a

chance to attempt to reach their full capabilities. In order to help females obtain the ability to

learn, there must be acceptance from their culture in order to give them funding and support. The

five thematic issues that are presented in Half the Sky are Gender-Based Violence, Sex

Trafficking and Intergenerational Prostitution, Maternal Mortality, Economic Empowerment, and

Education. Of these themes, education is the most important conflict of the 21st century for

women in developing countries. Education is the most basic of stepping stones required to fix

any other world problems, because without the education to see a problem and help you to think

outside the box, you cant come up with creative solutions to a problem you dont realize you

have. They can be taught to think for themselves, shown where the problems lay, and helped to

find solutions to their problems. Women dont have access to a lot of options in education in

developing countries, which is an obstacle that needs to be overcome.

Womens lack of education is an extremely common factor in the cycle of poverty. People

that are uneducated receive less income, which means they cant afford to send their children to

school, resulting in further lack of education across the board. If a mother is widowed for

whatever reason and has to raise children without her husbands income, itd be invaluable for

her to have proper education, so she could receive a larger paycheck, and be able to support her

children on her own. If women were offered economy classes like men, theyd be better at saving

and spending the little amounts of money they are able to earn. Theyd understand better how to

save up for long term goals while still paying for daily necessities. Moreover, education can
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allow women to break out of the mold society forces them into, and to branch out into other

forms of work and actually show their talents.

Simultaneously a lot of people dont actually have the education required to think for

themselves, and in doing so identify problems and inequalities in order to solve them. The first

step to fixing anything is understanding that you have an issue. You also must be able to think for

yourself before you can stand up for yourself and fight for the rights that people in other places

have. Women in these places need to be taught to have a voice, to stand up for each other, and

that they do have a say in their lives, or at least that they should. They need someone to show

them that a woman can in fact be strong, and that they dont have to live their entire lives based

on the whims of the men around them.

Ultimately, once a woman is taught to think for themselves, and taught to stand up for

themselves, accompanying being taught necessary skills such as reading and writing that most

people in first world countries take for granted, they will be able to come up with and plan out

creative solutions to the problems they face in their daily lives, and they will be able to

communicate more effectively to spread their ideas among the masses. In most advancing

countries, people are constantly being praised for thinking outside the box because

conventional solutions are only labeled conventional because theyre the ones everyone comes

up with. Unconventional solutions are needed because the conventional ones that everyone has

seen before have been picked apart and with old age have become flawed. Plus, even without

being creative, an educated woman is more able to take care of herself and her family.
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Counterarguments

Opponents of womens education often have the same main issues with it: cultural norms,

religion, and greed. The least understood one of these is greed, because its not as obvious, but

when you look at something such as the national economy, there is only so much money in any

one country that can be spread around, and so removing half of the population from the work

pool leaves the other half with twice as much to be earned. Human greed is a well known factor

in many issues, from corrupt governments, to illegal cartels, everyone just wants more for

themselves, all the better if they can put their competitors behind at the same time. So culturally

isolating women is one way of assuring that the men will earn more. What they fail to see in this

situation is that if they allowed women to participate in the same jobs theyd have different

points of view and different types of solutions and inventions. Bill Gates, when in one such

country, was asked if he thought that the country could be one of the top global competitors, and

responded by saying that no they could not with 50% of your potential remaining untapped.

The other two reasons are well known, but scholars have proven that the Islamic beliefs are not

inherently misogynistic We can count 24 women who appear in the Quran in various forms and

for various purposes. (Shah, 2015) Muslim men often misquote islamic scripture as a form of

justification for their misogynistic behavior, taking allegories and other figurative language and

interpreting it literally, before twisting that meaning further. This leaves religious and uneducated

women believing that it was indeed designed to be treated in that manner, but a women that is

educated can clearly see the issues in the false interpretations. Finally, and most controversially,

breaking cultural norms. Western influence as well as the handful of educated women in such
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countries pushing to remove the vast crevice of inequality that the cultures are built around.

Violent societies with patriarchal pasts that are so used to mistreating women that it has become

part of their way of life, often resist such changes, fighting back verbally and mentally by

systematically removing women from different aspects of the educated and prosperous lives, or

by physically lashing out at them. In first world countries it goes without saying that this is

beyond not okay, but in other places its so normal that hardly anyone bats an eye.

Conclusion

A fully educated female population would be extremely beneficial to all societies

globally, with their separate outlook on problems and solutions. They would be able to offer

ideas and inventions that could in turn reshape the cultures in all places around the world, and

they could help fix other problems that people have been struggling with for decades. However,

in all of these developing countries, women need all the help that they can get so that they can be

properly educated and taught to systematically identify, study, and solve complex problems and

inequalities throughout their lives. They need aid both mentally and physically to take on a

mountain of problems left for them by their ancestors as they attempt to climb out of the

misogynistic ditch that has become their daily lives, and they can be taught to have voices of

their own and to stand up for each other as well as themselves. The education and enablement of

women requires people to put themselves beyond their human greed and make a decision to help

others for the good of everyone on the planet.

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References

Kristof, N. D., & WuDunn, S. (2009). Half the sky: Turning oppression into opportunity for

women worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

The book includes a variety of facts and opinions, both crucial to my assignment.

Statements are made including that it would suck if a woman needed a doctor and the

only one nearby was male, for she would not be allowed to see him. The book also makes

sure to highlight the fact that the misogynistic culture is strictly that, a culture, and not

derived from Muslim beliefs. It also includes possible reasons as to why those cultures

are formed that way and possible solutions, such as not segregating by gender and

creating a violent testosterone drowned majority, rather watering it down by mixing the

boys and men freely with girls and women. It includes quotes from people such as Bill

Gates, saying things along the lines of A society using only half of their populations

talent has no chance at becoming one of the top advancing countries.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. (n.d.). Retrieved

January 19, 2017, from http://www.halftheskymovement.org/issues/education

Extension of source Half the sky: Turning oppression into opportunity for

women worldwide and maintained by the authors of the original book. It contains

additional information on the same things, including things like what the organization is

doing for girls across the world, why education is important, and what forms of education

are being offered. It continues making speculations on causation of misogynistic cultures,

with same theories as its written by the same people. It also has additional data from
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studies that occurred previous to release of the books, so has more reliable facts and other

various pieces of information.

Shah, A. (2010, March 14). Women's Rights. Retrieved February 10, 2017, from

http://www.globalissues.org/article/166/womens-rights

This website talks about progress, lack of progress, gender discrimination and other

specific things such as the difference in pay amounts for men and women, even though

they often work more. Talks about the difference of womens rights across different

regions, and the fact that a girl cant fix her rights if she doesn't have the right education

to see it and find a solution. The website also talks about abduction of children, child

soldiers, children's health, and violence against young girls. The website also considers

many other various global issues such as poverty and starvation.

UNdata | table presentation | Gender Inequality Index. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2017, from

http://data.un.org/DocumentData.aspx?q=women&id=381

Maintained by the UN, contains statistics and a lot of numbers. Includes data on

education, adolescent birth date, maternal mortality rate, gender inequality index. Used

for studying statistics related to all five themes included in the book Half The Sky and

includes data from every country that participates in the UN, and then some. Data is

maintained by groups from all nations and is unbiased because of this. Data is kept

updated on a regular basis to monitor the process of the UN in reaching their global

goals.

Shah, B. (2015, July 23). No, Islam Is Not Inherently Misogynistic. Here's Why. Retrieved

February 28, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bina-shah/islam-not-

misogynistic_b_7842274.html
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