The Role of Women’s Education in Nations Building

Dr. Radhika Kapur

Abstract
Education has been considered of a fundamental nature for not only women
but for all individuals who render their contribution towards nations building; the
nations building function is implemented through services rendered by the
individuals by means of their employment and professions. Some of the
individuals adopt the field of social work and even render honorary contribution
for the development of the nation. In this research paper, focus has been laid upon
the role played by the education of women in nations building; this is with
reference to the entire world and not only India. The main areas that have been
highlighted include significance of education and health, the essence of a woman,
contribution of women in the political and the economic sphere, role of an educator
in professional development and lifelong education of women, and barriers dealt
with by women in acquiring education. These areas prove that women are also to
be considered at par with men and should be regarded as inferior; if a woman is
well educated, she can certainly participate towards the effective development of
the nation.

Keywords: Education, Health, Professional Development, Lifelong

Education, Barriers, Contribution

Prologue

Education is of key importance to individuals of all ages and holds an array

of benefits for them and the society. It promotes their complete involvement and
societal participation, enables them to be more informed and active citizens,
contributes to their personal well being and fulfillment, supports their creativity
and innovation and increases their efficiency and professionalism as workers or
volunteers. Education is fundamental and individuals get engaged into learning
throughout their whole lives (lifelong learning, 2007). The concept of lifelong
education has attained much significance not only in India but in other countries of
the world as well; this conception inculcates within the individuals knowledge and
awareness about all the areas that are imperative such as academics, household,
politics, economy, environment and so forth.

The public and private benefits of education include enhanced

employability, reduced expenditure in unemployment benefits, welfare payments
and early retirement pensions, higher tax revenue, increased social returns, in terms
of civic participation and community involvement, and better health with a
subsequent reduction in healthcare costs. The concept of education stresses upon
the fact that an individual needs to acquire learning throughout their lives in every
case that they undergo and it is relevant not just to work or job but to all the
activities that the individual undergoes in his/her life. This learning does not have
to be associated to the attainment of educational qualifications (lifelong learning,
2007).

The education of the women has an important role to play in the nations
building; therefore, there is a saying that educating a woman is like educating a
family. With the fast changing world and rapidly changing times, women have
acquired a distinct position for themselves in the society. There has been an
increase in the number of women, who are educated, knowledgeable, trained and
aware. Women in India have developed considerable awareness amongst
themselves to be self-employed and self-reliant. Within the society, now women
have stepped out from the limitations of their homes and have engraved a position
for themselves in various fields. Entrepreneurship has proved to be a great option
for women, the main reason being that women could not get themselves engaged
into jobs due to family and social responsibilities; the option of doing something
on their own is really productive as all their requirements of flexible workings,
respectability and earning potential gets fulfilled.

Significance of Education and Health

Health and education are reciprocally supporting signs of women’s well-

being in society. Without health, women and girls cannot render their effective
contribution in school or work to support their families; and without education,
women and girls do not have the mandatory knowledge, abilities and skills to
participate effectively in society or to contribute to the well-being of their families
and communities. Thus, it is somewhat non-natural to regard the concepts of health
and education separately. Research has indicated that this approaching is supported
by several latest improvements in data collection, which favor creating indexes that
target women’s health and education jointly (Rand, 2008). Education is an
imperative concept for women, and certainly women contribute towards nations
building mainly on the basis of their knowledge, skills, aptitude and wisdom that
they acquire by means of education. The concept of education enables a person to
communicate effectively with people, it enables individuals to imbibe gracefulness
and decorousness in their ways of communication; when an individual possesses
effective communication skills he can accomplish numerous things in life.
Women are mainly responsible for the upbringing of a family, they are
primarily vested with many kinds of responsibilities such as nurturing of children,
taking care of the household activities, preparation of meals, and when women are
working they have to maintain a balance between housework and office work. For
these reasons, even for the housekeeping function, it is essential that women be
educated; some women who reside in rural areas are not willing to acquire
extremely high education, but they should possess the basic literacy skills such as
reading, writing and mathematics, which may enable them to do basic calculations.
There is a direct correlation between education and health, if a woman is healthy
only then she will be able to manage everything fairly well, therefore, in order to
remain healthy, it is also essential to consume a healthy diet, staying active and if
time permits getting engaged in some physical activity as well. These are the
factors that highlight the significance of education and health.
The Essence of a Woman
Due to early tendencies in feminism, the awareness that woman are of not
much use and is meant to look after only the household chores, still remains in
society, especially in the rural areas. The early feminists had to put in great effort
against discriminatory laws and socio-cultural attitudes that were established on
the assumption that women were substandard to men. In a bid to counter this,
women fought for the right to do all that men could do as a means of proving
equality; there was emergence of great amount of stress and hassle in the society
when women were discriminated against or regarded as imperfect as compared to
men, women in turn struggled to prove their equality, they went on to acquire
education, they got themselves engaged into jobs, they turned to be entrepreneurs
and worked in different fields such as education, administration, industries, banks,
teaching, law, medical and so forth. On the basis of such a view, it has been
concluded that women in the 21st century have made significant endeavors in the
pursuit for equality (Ngunjiri & Gachenga, n.d.).
To support this, substantiation is sought to show that most women in the
present world enjoy at least in supposition equal rights of participation in social
and political life. In acquiring admission into the higher educational institutions for
masters or doctoral programs, men and women are treated equally for admission on
the basis of their grades and aptitudes, in employment settings, in companies, they
are recruited on the basis of their qualifications and skills, both men and women
are in some cases doing the same kind of work, for example, college professors can
be men as well as women, medical practitioners are men as well as women. These
examples show that men and women are considered equal and there are no
differences between them; hence when women are engaged in such diverse fields
on the basis of their education they certainly contribute towards nations building.
The new functions of women are regarded as a part of who she is and what she is
capable of. Understood in this sense, woman’s nature is observed as an actuality
that is changing as her roles change with time (Ngunjiri & Gachenga, n.d.). The
essence of a woman signifies that she possesses the capability, wisdom, knowledge
and aptitude to manage the household chores, motherhood, spouse, all the roles
that she has to perform within the family, employment, business, social roles,
effective relations with neighbors, friends and the community members; these are
all the characteristics that streams from her essence.
Contribution of Women in the Political and Economic Sphere
Women should get involved into social, economic, administrative and
political functions through three different areas including education, knowledge
and enlightenment, policy regime and social transformation. Enlightenment means
being deliberately self-directed that would ultimately lead to freedom, get audacity
and make a difference between accuracy and inaccuracy. Women can really play
an efficient role in policy development in regard to economic, political, social and
other national issues if systemic policy and political measures are maneuvered to
gender equality. The countries with gender equality have always remained stronger
nations and developed in all the relevant areas such as political, economic, cultural,
social, and administrative; the stated examples of developed countries are
Germany, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The area of politics too should
be gender friendly because it is a public subject for judgment and will formation.
Rather politics should be made responsible in which both the male and female
individuals need to play an equally imperative part in the co‐determination of
decision making. It has been analyzed that Nepalese law looks attractive in a
documentary form but the sad part is complicatedness in implementation of those
laws as they do not seem to be based on public reason. Moreover, from civil
perspective, there seems to be lack of awareness on the part of the community. The
women’s all-encompassing participation is very important especially in national
security sector, formal economy, foreign policy, legislature and social service. This
is indispensable to reinforce state‐society rationality and come out of post‐conflict
condition. Therefore, it can be stated that women do sometimes act as even more
mature and wiser as compared to men in the resolution of conflicts, framing of
policies, procedures, rules, and norms in the implementation of the political, and
economic functions (Seminar Report, n.d.).
Role of an Educator in Professional Development and Lifelong
Education of Women

The following points have enlightened the role of an educator in the areas of
professional development and lifelong education of women. Educators within
educational and training institutions do render their adequate contribution and plan
an imperative role in the provision of education for women so that they can
contribute effectively towards nations building (Ranjan & Rahman, n.d.).

1. Administration – Administration refers to the planning, controlling,

direction and management of human resources for educational growth
and development. The educators have to adequately administer their
students/learners to ensure that they have developed both professionally
and via means of education.
 2. Personal management – This refers to the promotion, admission,
performance evaluation systems, grievance redresser mechanisms and
professional development issues of the learners within the educational
institution as well as employment setting.
3. Supervision, monitoring and support – Monitoring and facilitation of
teaching-learning processes, other school development activities, for
improving their quality through suitable tools, methods and mechanisms.
The main focus is upon the educational institution because that is the
place where students come to learn. Efforts made to improve the
excellence of procedures used would eventually reflect upon the
institution.
4. Information management and communication – Management of
information is also considered to be an important institutional resource. It
includes collection, processing, dissemination and utilization of
information in an appropriate manner. On the other hand, communication
refers to the process when an exchange of information and feedback
takes place (Ranjan & Rahman, n.d.).
Barriers Dealt with by Women in Acquiring Education

There have been major barriers and obstacles confronted by women in

acquiring education; normally it happens, when the importance of education

is spread amongst the women all over the world, they develop an interest and an
enthusiasm in acquiring education and literacy skills. Acquiring basic literacy
skills enables an individual not only to perform his/her job functions fairly well but
also to effectively carry out day to day activities such as purchasing of groceries,
carrying out banking transactions and even upbringing of their children; if the
children are well behaved, courteous and good-natured with the outside world, the
credit goes mainly to the mother that she has raised her child in an efficient
manner. All these basic things in ones living comes with education and literacy
skills. There have been certain impediments which are experienced by individuals
in the attainment of education: (Stronger Women, 2009).

1. Financial problems - Lack of finances, destitute and poverty conditions have

enabled women to evade school. Parents compel their daughters to do the
housework or get engaged in employment to make money instead of going
to school.
2. Quality of Education – The quality of education within the institutions have
been low, there have been lack of teachers and very few schools available.
3. Unsafe to Attend School – Women and girls found attending school
vulnerable and feel apprehensive due to some reasons such as completion of
homework, school assignments, strictness on the part of the teachers and so
forth.
4. Lack of Proper Infrastructure – There has been improper infrastructural
facilities in schools such as lack of tables, chairs, heating and cooling
facilities in accordance with the weather conditions and so forth. In other
words, the physical environmental conditions have been in a deteriorated
condition.
5. Inappropriate Curriculum and Instructional Methods – The curriculum and
the instructional methods have not been appropriate within the school, such
as the concepts are too difficult to understand or unmanageable. Therefore,
individuals discontinue their education because they feel they cannot cope
up with it.
Conclusion
 Education is stated to be the means that provides not only awareness
amongst the individuals but makes him knowledgeable, conscious, alert,
awake,
attentive and a responsible person. Whether an individual resides in rural areas or
urban, whether they are engaged in blue collar, minority jobs or white collar, desk
jobs; if they are educated, well aware only then they can perform their job duties in
an efficient manner, otherwise individuals are likely to face dire consequences
such as getting suspended. Finances are considered to be a crucial aspect for
everybody; education makes an individual informative regarding how to manage
finances effectively, otherwise research has indicated cases of individuals who end
up in losses, who are not aware of how to manage finances efficiently. In providing
education, important role has been played by the educator in administration,
personal management, supervision, monitoring and support and information
management and communication. An individual learns all these areas by means of
an educational program, irrespective of the subject area that he/she has chosen.

Another area that has been highlighted is individuals do undergo problems

and difficulties during the course of education, such as financial problems, low
quality of education, unsafe school conditions, lack of proper infrastructure,
inappropriate curriculum and instructional methods. There have been solutions to
these problems and there are always ways of leading to improvement; making the
school environmental conditions better, proper curriculum and instructional
methods, safe conditions and recruiting well experienced and good natured
teachers. Finally, it can be stated that education is acquired by mostly all
individuals in rural and urban areas, by means of education they can live their life
efficiently and contribute towards nations building by getting engaged in effective
employment, professions and other functions. Educated women can effectively
participate in all spheres, social, economic, political, administrative, familial and
financial and render their wholehearted contribution towards nations building.

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