The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action for Human Rights are focused on aiming the education system in all states to fortify reverence for fundamental rights and the freedom of all people. The Beijing Conference fleshed out this primary task concerning women in 1995. It has been recognized that it is necessary to promote global development, including sustainable economic growth, education for girls and women, literacy and training opportunities, as well as primary health care. If you have a college assignment on a similar topic, you can buy essays cheap on a reliable platform. Lets find out the unsolved problems of female education.
The opportunity to study for females of all ages should establish their equal participation in constructing a better world and increase their role in economic and societal processes. As of today, the public has more than enough reasons for worrying about female education.
1. Non–Observance of Equal Educational Rights
Currently, the total number of illiterate people in the world is about 775 million. In the countries of South Asia and the Arab states, every second adult is illiterate. The proportion of uneducated women in developing countries is particularly high. In Africa, 64% of women cannot read or write. Asia accounts for 77% of the total number of unschooled women in the world. According to the US Department of Education, 20% of Americans over the age of seventeen have only basic reading and writing skills. Young women and girls present a significant part of them.
Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child proclaim the equal right of all children to education. Its content is aimed at the full development of children’s personalities, talents, as well as mental and physical abilities. However, in many countries, we can see a significant difference in the number of boys and girls attending primary school, and not in favor of the latter. Most often, girls begin to go to school much later than male children and abandon their studies earlier.
Among the reasons for this situation are poverty, early marriages, high cost of education, the remoteness of schools from homes, the need to help parents, homework, farming, etc. Consequently, this is why the article 10 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) obliges State parties to make sure that women have equal opportunities in the area of education. The need to reduce the number of girls dropping out and develop special programs for female children leaving schools before the term is especially emphasized.
2. Difficulties in Getting a Job
The same article 10 of the Convention also points to the requirement of creating equality between men and women in the field of education and the same conditions for orientation in choosing a profession or specialty. This rule has to be observed in preschool, secondary, specialized, and higher educational institutions, as well as in all types of vocational training and retraining courses.
A woman who does not have a proper education is not capable of performing work that requires a specific qualification. She may also have difficulties in finding a job and needed paperwork for applying. Naturally, a poorly educated person, even if they want to do business, can hardly conduct it successfully. In a post–industrial society, the importance of using relevant information is much higher than merely possessing it.
3. Stereotypes of Male Superiority
School textbooks in many countries portray men and boys as strong, courageous, energetic, and decisive by nature. Therefore, they become researchers, inventors, pilots, seamen, etc. Women and girls are usually presented as weak, sensitive, and fearful creatures, with the ultimate dream of having a husband with children and caring for family members.
The stereotype of male superiority is rooted in the pattern based on the lack of alternative roles and behavioral models for a younger female generation. Both general and higher educational institutions can and should play an essential part. For this, they need appropriate textbooks and programs.
The past shows that society does not abandon the ideology of male superiority automatically. It requires active actions from the media and educational institutions to enlighten the population, especially girls and women, to think critically about the current situation, as well as to find possible ways to correct it.
4. Traditional Role of Women in Families
The ability of women to bear children has a significant impact on society’s perception of motherhood as a destiny. In public perception, the role and functions of women are focused on home, family, and children. To this day, the vast majority of women want to have a similar life.
Around the world, the role distribution, concerning caring for children in the first years of their life, is an essential obstacle to achieving genuine equality between genders. Although legislations of many countries provide both parents with the right to take some time off for this purpose, it is most often the mother of the child who takes the parental leave.
It is clear that after the maternity leave, when the mother has been caring for one, and sometimes several children, she is not able to take full advantage of her professional knowledge. Often, not having work experience in her specialty, she is forced to reeducate, which adversely affects her career.
5. Unequal Pay
In most of the world, women’s salary is much lower than men’s. Women mainly occupy the niche of low or middle–paid employees. The average female wage is approximately one third less than the men get paid, even if the requirements of international standards of equal pay are observed. Such diverse approaches to solving the women’s issues contributed to the emergence of two main models of female participation in society.
The first of them is peculiar to countries with developed economies. The dilemma of career vs. family is resolved most often by women leaving after the child’s birth and returning when the kid grows up. A common option of this model is the part–time employment after giving birth. The second model is full–time studying or working when women become mothers. In this case, the state takes on a significant part of the troubles and worries associated with family life.
Conclusion
Each of these models has its pros and cons if considered from the perspective of women’s freedom and their life choices. Under all conditions, genuine emancipation is a very lengthy process. Along with state policy, it is necessary to take targeted measures at different levels, including active women’s initiatives. We need diversity instead of uniformity, self–determination instead of policy guidelines, partnership instead of gender struggle, and equal opportunities in business and education.
