Education Of Women

866 Words4 Pages
The life of a woman is all about getting married, having children, and being bombarded by unimportant details of domesticity. Women are expected to take care of everyone except themselves. They have to take care of the children, stay home, clean up the house, and be the self-denying wife and mother. They are encouraged to be nice, play safe, have low or no educational expectation, take care of the men, sit and observe as life passes them. The education of women took place primarily at home by mothers or governesses, and even when women were educated; it is in areas of arts of embroidery, watercolor, domestics, and service in the lower class. The educational opportunities that were available to men and women were very frustrating to women because what is taught is typically from a man’s point of view – “how men perceive and organized their experience, their ideas of social relationships, good and evil, sickness and health” (Rich 232). However, when a woman decides to have an education, she is considered as having no brains, physically and mentally inferior to men, and was measured by the male standard. But times have changed, women have now decided to take charge of their lives, claim a woman-directed education, and demand respect of their purpose and integrity as persons from everyone around. Both Adrienne Rich and Virginia Woolf have their takes on the state of women’s education. According to Adrienne Rich, women can learn from the past and shape the present through education. In “Claiming an Education” she urges women to “claim education and not just receive it” (231), because literally, to her and women, education is the difference between life and death. Rich also says that to claim a woman-directed education will bring about more women with greater awareness and knowledge which will lead them to make informed decisions. Education will enable women to have
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