University Education for Women
Research essay Essay topic: women should be required to undertake a university education in developing countries. In today’s modern life, the role of women has become more and more important in economic growth. However, in many countries, especially in developing countries, low female educational rate is big problem. This essay argues that women should be required to undertake a university education in developing countries. The first reason why women should be required to undertake a university education in developing countries is that it can affect positively some social problems such as family planning and illiteracy rate.
People need to know that in most developing countries, the literacy rate of males is significantly higher than females. For example, the percentage of literate males in Vietnam is 94. 0% while the percentage of literate females is 86. 9% (Phan et al. , 2004, para 3). Similarly, according to Chandramouli (2011), the literate male’s percentage (86. 9%) is much higher than the percentage of literate females (65. 5%) in India. Thus, women should take a university education to equal the balance between males and female’s literacy rate.
Moreover, if women take tertiary education, they may have more knowledge to understand the importance of family planning to avoid having more than 2 children. Another important reason is that women play an essential role in family literacy. According to Bhandari & Smith (1997), mother’s literacy is related to preschool children’s knowledge, language and literacy skills. For instance, a mother is a person who is closest to children in a family so mother’s behaviour have a huge impact on children. If parents, especially mothers have bad behavior, their children may imitate those actions.
In contrast, if mothers have high knowledge, they can teach their children better. They may tell their children meaningful stories to help children know what is good or not and do better in school. Having high education of mothers also brings better health care for their children. Therefore, it is better for women to undertake university education in developing countries which have higher birth rate. Finally, women with university education may have more opportunities for jobs or higher social position.
It is true that women who have higher levels of education, especially tertiary education can get a good job easier. High- educated women can have necessary knowledge and social skills which they had learnt in universities to get job in today’s society in developing countries which are male-dominated societies in the past. Women have some qualities that men do not have such as flexibility, multi- tasking so if they have high-educated, they can be more successful than man. Furthermore, having a university degree can help women have higher social position.
For example, in some developing countries, many high educated women hold an important role in the state apparatus such as Yingluck Shinawatra- Thailand’s first female prime minister. In conclusion, women should be required to undertake a university education in developing countries because of its effect to some social problems and its role in family literacy as well as individual’s benefits. It is clear that government and communities should be aware of the importance of women’s education to make our society better.
References list: 1. Bhandari, R. & Smith, F. J. (1997), Available from: http://www. jrre. psu. edu/articles/v13,n3,p183-196,Bhandari. pdf [Accessed: May 5, 2012]. 2. Chandramouli, C. , & (2011), Available from: http://censusindia. gov. in/2011-prov-results/paper2/data_files/india/Rural_Urban_2011. pdf [Accessed: May 3, 2012]. 3. Phan, T. , Bilgin, A. ,Eyland, A. , Shaw, P. (2004), . Available from: http://stat. mq. edu. au/Stats_docs/research_papers/2004/Literacy_in_Vietnam_-_an_atlas. pdf [Accessed: May 11, 2012]
