Benefits and Potential Issues in Women receiving University Education
By: Palvir Kaur
Today more girls than ever go to school. However, despite progress,
women continue to face multiple barriers based on many grounds. Predominantly, in the equal enjoyment of the right to quality and higher education. Empowering women to receive university education should be one of the major focuses of 2025 insight. Assuming that women receiving university education is actually delegated, there are multiple benefits gained from this topic. First and foremost, when women receive higher education such as university education, they benefit in providing better communities. An educated woman with increased earning potential is more likely to give back to the community than her male counterparts. Several renowned professors proclaim that many female-dominated careers report high rates of “job meaning”, claiming career satisfaction was more important than salary. The top response for women was “public service leader” while for men the top response was “CEO”. As said, highly educated women tend to value compassion, empathy and community engagement more than men. Moreover, women also benefit in decreased chance of women abuse by delaying marriage and child bearing. University educated women are much less likely to suffer domestic abuse than their illiterate counterparts. In more traditional developing households, women are viewed as commodities existing in the home and for the home, only to leave when married off to a new household. Investing in women’s’ education delays early marriage and parenthood; if every girl in Asia completed secondary education, child marriage would fall by 64 percent. Not only can that, by receiving high education there also be change the mind-set of future mothers. This can produce drastic changes in the decreasing of child marriage. Additionally, when women receive university education, they indirectly promoting social inclusion. As women are frequently kept indoors to continue doing various chores, they tend to teach and show the same experience to their daughters. The seclusion from the public sphere only worsens as girls reach adolescence, as they are discouraged from pursuing activities outside the home. This social isolation of girls leads to higher levels of depression in women as well as other mental health issues. Not only seeking university education but secondary education also encourages women to develop a professional life within the public sphere, allowing them to become part of the community and develop their own identities away from the home. However, there many potential issues in women receiving university education. For instance, gender stereotypes and gender stereotyping are the cause of the many obstacles faced by women worldwide. This prevents them from enjoying their personal right to receive university education. Ideally, education systems nowadays are the focal points of gender stereotypes but in some cases schools and teachers also play a major role. Gender stereotyping is considered wrongful when it results in a violation or violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Harmful gender stereotypes and wrongful gender stereotyping can affect girls before they step into a classroom and may even prevent girls from going to school. For example, stereotypical views that girls are homemakers and caregivers may lead families to question the point of sending their daughters to school if they are to become wives and mothers, whilst the stereotype that men should be breadwinners means that boys are prioritised when it comes to education. Likewise, lack of inclusive learning environment and an inadequate learning environment also stand out as potential issues in women receiving university education. This occurs when there’s a bad school environment which can deter girls from attending school and also negatively impact on the quality of education girls receive. The school environment refers not just to the physical infrastructure of the school premises but also the wider learning environment. In some countries, the highest education for women are only up to secondary schools and no signs of colleges or universities. Consequently, discourages female students to pursue their dreams. Thus, the right to a quality education for women is eliminated. Lastly, poverty is also one of the potential issues in women receiving university education. Poverty seems to be the biggest factor determining whether or not women receive university education. A number of factors contribute to girls from poor families not being able to attend school, the biggest of which is the lack of free education, particularly in the formative years. This may be because governments do not have legal and policy frameworks in place to make free education a reality or they do but it is not effectively implemented, or it may not be adequately resourced, or there may be corruption which draws resources away from their intended use. Lack of free education results in an added financial burden on families, which may come in the form of school fees or indirect fees such as for school uniforms, school transportation, etc. Such fees are a direct barrier to school attendance for many girls, either because families cannot afford these costs. To Sum up, women should also be able to receive high education as equal with the men. They have full potential to receive university education and these potential issues should be overcome as soon as possible to fully apply gender equality customs. This should also apply to Malaysian parents who disable their daughters to complete their education.