WOMEN IN EDUCATION

TOPIC CONTENT
 In the 1800s, women began to play
central roles in education - as teachers and
as learners, in formal and informal education
settings, on the frontier and in the cities. In
the workplace, in learning institutions or in
public life, a mix of women and men allows
for differing perspectives to be put forth and
for diverse ideas to flourish.
 In this lesson, you will be
able to understand the role of
women in education and the
challenges that they face in order
to succeed in the profession.
ISSUES
 1. Violence against women
In Pakistan, a negative relationship was
found between the formal level of education a
woman attains and the likelihood of violence
against that woman (After, 2013). The
researcher used snowball convenient sampling,
a sampling method where participants are
referred. Ethical and privacy issues made this
the most convenient method.
 An informant played a major role in gathering
information that was then cross-checked. The
sample of victims of violence was made up of
married women from ages 18–60 both from rural and
urban communities. The study described different
forms of physical violence that are already present
and provided an idea of what women go through,
even across communities (rural and urban).
Education in this study was stressed to be the
solution and a necessity in eliminating violence. A
discussion of political and social barriers is needed.[
 2. Women's empowerment
Education systems vary in administration,
curriculum and personnel, but all have an
influence on the students that they serve. As
women have gained rights, formal education has
become a symbol of progress and a step toward
gender equity. In order for true gender equity to
exist, a holistic approach needs to be taken.
 3. Impact on socio-economic
development
The socioeconomic impact of female
education constitutes a significant area of
research within international development.
Increases in the amount of female
education in regions tends to correlate with
high levels of development
 4 . Environmental impact
Education of girls (and empowerment of women in
general) in developing countries leads to faster
development and a faster decrease of population
growth. It therefore has a significant impact on
environmental issues such as climate change. The
research network Drawdown estimates that educating
girls is the sixth most efficient action against climate
change (ahead of solar farms, nuclear power,
afforestation and many other actions).
SPECIFIC TYPES OF EDUCATION
 1. Technology education
The proliferation of digital technology and digital
services has made digital skills a prerequisite for full
participation in society. Today, an inability to navigate
the internet poses disadvantages. While these
disadvantages were once somewhat contained to
wealthy countries, they are now relevant globally,
due to the rapid and continuing proliferation of
internet-connected technology
 2. STEM Education
Female education in STEM
includes child and adult female
represented in the fields of science,
technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM). In 2017, 33% of
students in STEM fields were women.
 3. Disability
Education for disabled women has
also improved. In 2011, Giusi
Spagnolo became the first woman with
Down Syndrome to graduate college in
Europe (she graduated from the
University of Palermo in Italy).
CHALLENGES AND HOW IT
WAS OVERCOME
1. Cost
Poverty is the most important factor that
determines whether or not a girl can
access education, according to the
World Bank.Families will also allow their
girls to enter child marriages if they can
no longer afford to provide for them.
2. Child Marriage
The marriage of a child under the
age of 18, happens all over the world
but occurs disproportionately in
developing countries. Parents let their
daughters enter child marriages for
various reasons.
3. Menstruation
Once a month from the time a girl
reaches puberty, there is a chance
she will miss school and work for a
significant portion of her life because
she has her period.
4. Household Chores
Forced domestic work creates
low self-esteem in girls and a lack of
interest in education. Adult
responsibilities, like taking care of
sick parents or babysitting siblings,
tend to fall on girls.
5.Gender-Based Violence
Gender-based violence can take many
forms, including physical and sexual abuse,
harassment, and bullying. Surviving rape,
coercion, discrimination, and other types of
abuse affects girls’ enrollment, lowers their
participation and achievements, and
increases absenteeism and dropout rates.
6. Conflict and Crisis
Girls and women in conflict and
crisis-affected areas encounter more
obstacles to attend school. An estimated 39
million girls and adolescent girls in countries
affected by armed conflict or natural disasters
lack access to quality education. Refugee girls
are half as likely to be in school as refugee
boys.
7. Trafficking
The number of girls reported as human
trafficking victims is on the rise. Of all the
trafficking victims reported globally in 2016,
23% are girls compared to 7% of whom are
boys. Traffickers exploit girls for forced labor
and marriage, but most are pushed into
sexual exploitation.
FAMOUS WOMEN IN
PROFESSION
 Savitribai Phule
She was India's first female teacher.
In a country where women are still not
seen at par with men, Savitribai's role
as a teacher at a village school in Pune
just a year after the Independence is
remarkable.
 It is said that when Savitribai
would go to the school, people used
to throw cow dung, stones, and rotten
vegetables and eggs at her. Still,
fighting against all odds, her husband
and she went on to open five more
such schools
 Maria Montessori
She was the woman who started
the nursery school culture. Born in 1870,
Maria Montessori devoted her life to
education. She propagated the idea that
children should be able to shape their
future in their own ways.
 This was termed as the
Montessori Method and it is
still followed by around
30,000 schools all over the
world.
 Emma Willard
Emma belonged to a farmer's family. Hailing from
such a humble background and that too back in 1787,
Emma did not have the resources to make a huge
difference in the world of education. But, she did. At only
20, she became a teacher and also the head of a girl's
academy in Vermont. In 1819, she wrote an "Address
Proposing a Plan for Improving Female Education". The
proposal of appreciated by the then illuminate and the
general public
 Mary Mcleod Bethune

Bethune's name is synonymous to

struggle and achievement. Both of her
parents were slaves before she was
born, hence, they had no money to let
little Mary go to school.
 However, Mary bagged a
scholarship and studied to become a
teacher herself. Bethune had
established the Bethune-Cookman
College, which was previously known
as Daytona Normal and Industrial
Institute for Negro Girls, in Florida
 Helen Keller
Only a few need an introduction to this
lady. She has been considered as one of the
most inspiring personalities in the world, ever.
Being born with visual and auditory inability,
Helen Keller studied under her personal mentor
Anne Sullivan and learned about the world
through knowledge - unseen, unadulterated.
 She has mentored
hundreds of people and
continues to inspire millions
around the world
 Clara Barton
Formal education may help a person
understand the world in a better way but in a
situation when the world is in danger, skills
come in handy. Clare Barton is the woman
who set up the American Red Cross at a time
when women were hardly seen working
outside the house.
 Clara Barton
Formal education may help a person
understand the world in a better way but in a
situation when the world is in danger, skills
come in handy. Clare Barton is the woman
who set up the American Red Cross at a
time when women were hardly seen working
outside the house.
 Mary Ward
The year was 1609. An English Catholic
Sister thought of setting up a school for girls
that was different from the pre-existing
convents. The then girls' schools were very
restrictive.
 Those institutes did not allow the
girls to go outside the premises of the
institute, they were obligated to attend
choir, wear prescribed uniforms, etc.
Mary Ward broke apart from this. She
constructed the Sisters of Loreto, an
institution that has centres all around the
world even now.
OPINIONS IN WOMEN
EDUCATION
 Gender equality is important in its own
right. Development is a process of expanding
freedoms equally for all people—male and
female (Sen, 2009). Closing the gap in
well-being between males and females is as
much a part of development as is reducing
income poverty. Greater gender equality also
enhances economic efficiency and improves
other development outcomes. It does so in
three main ways:
 Gender inequalities around the world
are manifested in many aspects of
education, including access, retention, and
career choices. Female teachers provide an
important solution to ensuring equal
access to learning opportunities for both
girls and boys. They can disseminate a
culture of gender balance through
education not just in the classrooms but in
local communities.
 Poverty and access to education
remain fundamental drivers of this
situation, yet the biggest obstacle is one
that cannot be solved by high-level donor
pledges and policies alone. It is the
cultural barriers to girls education which
help maintain the status quo, people are
still reluctant to send their daughters to
the schools.
 These cultural barriers are
exacerbated by circumstance. A family that
does not prioritize a girls’ education may
still send her to school if the school is
close by, it’s safe for her, and not costly.
However, when you add safety, distance,
indirect costs and lack of bathrooms —
then it is likely that the girl child will not
receive an education.
 Female teachers have the potential to
transform this situation.It is clear that there
is a direct correlation between female
teachers and retention of girls in school from
secondary level upwards. They act as positive
role models for girls; and the parents I speak
to have told me they have more confidence to
send their children to school if they know
teachers are female. It is us who can help
create a safe environment.
 Despite the clear benefits
female teachers have in improving
overall gender equity — retention
rates of female teachers remain low
across Mozambique and indeed
Southern Africa more widely.
 Women are underrepresented in higher
levels of education, particularly leadership
positions. In many countries, the system is
rigged against women. Headteacher
positions are often not assigned on
qualifications but on the influence the
person may have in the community or
among local authorities meaning the odds
are often stacked against us.
 More generally, the school
environment, particularly in rural areas,
can be intimidating, and even dangerous
for girls and women. Male teachers often
assume that their opinions are more valid
and isolate women from discussions, this
exclusion is worsened by the absence of
staff rooms and female spaces.
 Girls and female teachers face high levels of
harassment and violence in and around schools.
School-related violence ranges from dangers on the
journey to school and harassment by students — with
concerns for female teachers’ safety a leading cause
of absenteeism or dropping out altogether. If a female
teacher finds a school environment they are happy
with — they risk being re-assigned to other, often
unfamiliar schools to fill gaps. This causes many
female teachers to fall away from the profession.
 Gender inequality in education is a classic issue and a
product of gender stereotypical notions, which make people
think women do not require (more) education since she has
to play her gender roles as a full time mother, a devoted
full-time housewife, a skillful cook, and a faithful lover.
Stereotypes as such put women in an inferior status
compared to their male counterparts and result in gender
inequality, women's subjugation, and gender division of
labor. Socially constructed gender identity creates a
male-female hierarchy. Education, training, and skills have
sometimes been thought to be of little value for women.
 Thus, women can suffer from worse
poverty due to a lack of educational
qualifications for jobs and to patriarchal social
practices. Women remain financially
dependent on men and considered inferior to
them. In Lee’s words, “patriarchal restrictions
on women’s capacity earning…widows are
the poorest among the poor” (2006, p. 1).
 Lee’s critical comment reflects the patriarchal
system that deprives women of their rights to
education, resulting in a lack of earning
opportunities. It is also an attempt to imply how
education has a strong relationship with women
empowerment as education can enhance women’s
capacity to deconstruct the unfair traditions and
norms and is one of the most effective mechanisms
to enable social mobility.
 It is important to note that, historically, some
women had the chance for education, but most
of the time only those from the upper class and
those with religious obligations could enjoy
such social privilege. For instance, nuns were
educated and allowed to teach new novices.
Upper class people’s daughters’ education
could enhance their marriage potential.
 Thus, the purpose of education was more
likely “to produce a skilled housewife than an
educated person” and education was more
“moral rather than intellectual”, (Parker, 1972).
In other words, such education eventually
reproduced the social class and worsened the
exploitation of women. From the conflict
theoretical point of view “education served the
interest of the dominant class” (Saha, 2001).
 To feminists, equal distribution of educational
opportunities opens the door for women’s
empowerment. Gender division of labor gives
excuses that women do not need to acquire more
education, more knowledge, and skills. What
women need to do is to perform their gender roles
as expected by society. Women learn to replicate
their roles from mothers and reproduce and
reinforce gender stereotypes.
 They also try to internalize their roles
when they become mothers through the
reproduction of their mothers’ behaviors
and roles through everyday life
experiences (Davis, 2012). More
importantly, gender socialization lessons
have been taught by mothers to their
daughters.
 Equal opportunity in education becomes
essential, as it has the potential power to liberate
women from gender roles and improve their social
status. Male subjugation over women should be
eliminated and women’s active partaking in their
natural rights should be strongly motivated
(Wollstonecraft, 2014). Women should have the
same potential as men do. Wollstonecraft believed
educated women would significantly contribute to
society’s welfare.
 Tong also states that a woman needs to be
autonomous and free herself from being a slave to
her passion, her husband, and children (Tong, 2014).
This view is a clear argument against gender roles
played by women and imposed on women by family,
school, and media. However, sociologists of
education think that liberal feminists and democratic
reforms have failed to essentially solve the social
inequality problems (Arnot, 2002).
 Such failure gives room to reproduce deeper and
stronger social class stratification, unfair exploitation,
and mistreatment of women. Many educated women
are kept at home and expected to perform their gender
roles. Furthermore, based on various studies, in South
Korea and India, sex role expectations prohibit women
from participating in the workforce by making
education one of the most required qualifications for a
girl’s marriage (Cho, 2012; Gautam, 2015).
 Thus, both men and women are caught in gender
stereotypes and sex role expectations from an early age
through the socialization process because the value of
education was misinterpreted as a passport to marriage
and not an empowering tool. On the one hand, culture
and religion eventually shape ways of thinking, actions,
and behaviors of individuals; therefore, gender inequality
in education is seen as a byproduct of culture and
religion as well. Some religious beliefs restrict women’s
right to education and employment (Cooray & Potrafke,
2011; Norton & Tomal, 2009).
 Social class status has an effect on women’s
educational opportunities, and families, most often,
prioritize investment in their male children’s education,
although there has been a decrease in sexist views
toward women’s education and employment (Pavolini
& Ranci, 2010; Spitze, 1988).Then again, reducing
sexist views against women’s education and
employment can be driven by the inevitable needs of
family’s economic survival in a changing society,
especially among the lower class.
 Education as an institution plays the role of a socializing agent,
qualified workforce producer, and so on. In other words, education is
inevitably linked to employment. However, a large percentage of
educated women are still unemployed or employed in traditional
occupations, which women are generally believed to do better. For
instance, expecting that female teachers are good at caring for children,
preschools have more female teachers than male teachers. Previous
studies show that more women are employed as early childhood
education teachers than men. “Social status, stereotypes, and cultural
expectations” result in few men being attracted to the occupation of early
childhood education teacher (Gamble & Wilkins, 1998, p. 64). From this
literature, it seems women’s employment only shifts her role from
nurturing and caring for children at home to the workplace.
 To feminists and sociologists, equal opportunity in education provide
to women is an effective tool to empower them, make them independe
and reduce gender inequality to a large extent. Furthermore, women’s
educational qualifications can have important effects on childcare, child
education, and women’s personal health awareness beyond acting as
promising tool to empower women, women’s education can be a
motivating force behind child’s education, childcare, family income, and
social benefits. A similar finding was found in Australia about the effect
of parents’ education level, which can influence the education completi
of both female and male children (Chesters & Watson, 2012). It is right
say that if you educate a woman, she will surely educate her children
tomorrow and become a role model for other women
 However, after education attainment, societies need
to put women in the job market because many scholars
believe education should be linked to improved
employment opportunities. In many cases due to
sexual division of labor in a family, women were placed
in gender specific occupations even in public sectors.
Women were thought to not be as productive as their
male counterparts. Women were believed to not be
ready, not productive, and not motivated (Core, 1994)
 Similarly, maternity leave is thought
to decrease a company’s productivity.
During the economic crisis period,
Korean women got fired faster than
men. In the 1997 economic crisis,
female workers’ lay off rate was 1.5%
higher than men (Cho, 2012).
 STATISTICAL
REPRESENTATIONS
 Women make up more than two-thirds of
the world's 796 million illiterate people.

According to global statistics, just 39

percent of rural girls attend secondary
school. This is far fewer than rural boys (45
percent), urban girls (59 percent) and urban
boys (60 percent).
 Every additional year of primary school increases
girls' eventual wages by 10-20 percent. It also
encourages them to marry later and have fewer
children, and leaves them less vulnerable to
violence.

While progress has been made in reducing the

gender gap in urban primary school enrolment, data
from 42 countries shows that rural girls are twice as
likely as urban girls to be out of school.
 Rural women's deficits in education have
long-term implications for family well-being and
poverty reduction. Vast improvements have been
seen in the mortality rates of children less than 5
years old since 1990, but rural rates are usually
much higher than urban ones.

Data from 68 countries indicates that a woman's

education is a key factor in determining a child's
survival.
 Children of mothers with no education
in the Latin American and Caribbean
region are 3.1 times more likely to die
than those with mothers who have
secondary or tertiary education, and 1.6
more likely to die that those whose
mothers have primary-level education.
SUMMARY
 Women’s Education plays an
important role in the progress of any
nation. Education of male benefits
him largely, educating a girl is
equivalent to educating her entire
family. Education will empower
women to come forward and
contribute towards development and
prosperity of the country.
 So long as women remain
backward and economically
dependent on men, the helpless
condition of them cannot be
changed. Economic empowerment
and independence will only come
through proper education and
employment of women.
 Women in Education face a lot of
issues and challenges. In the past
years women are not capable in going
to school they are only know by the
society as a women that taking care of
their children and family, but todays
era women have the chance to have a
better education and find a stable job.
 We have two reasons or perspectives regarding gender
stereotypes and how it affects gender labor division. The
two perspectives are the sociological and biological
perspectives. Sociological, we can say that it is a
perspective coming from the cultures and norms created
by the society. While the biological perspective, it gives us
the clue that this perspective is coming from one's
evolution of traits and characteristics under different
circumstances.
 Educated Women are capable of
bringing socio economic changes. Girls’
education is a strategic development
priority. Better educated women tend to
be more informed about nutrition and
healthcare, have fewer children, marry at
a later age, and their children are
usually healthier, should they choose to
become mothers.
 They are more likely to
participate in the formal labor
market and earn higher incomes.
All these factors combined can
help lift households,
communities, and countries out
of poverty.
GROUP 6: WOMEN IN EDUCATION
ABEGAIL DIMAALA
GIAN MIKE AGUILA
LESLIE YVONNE CUYA
MARGIE QUIRONA
NORIELYN PANGILINAN
RHEALYN BALUYOT