Women and Education

I choose this article on women and education because I believe it tied in with my other blog which was a story wrote by Virginia Wolfe, “Thinking About Shakespeare’s Sister.”  Her story was mainly about women and how they were denied the right to an education and in “Women and Education” discusses women and their education in the past two centuries and the milestones that have been reached. Some interesting points the article states is, that women were looked upon as lower class and therefore didn’t deserve an education and also a women who did get educated was discontented with her current status and irritated with men.  It was also said an educated women would through of the social balance of time.  Some of the milestones mentioned with the opening of  Oberlin College in 1833 which was a the nation’s first college is accept women and blacks, also the Convention of Seneca Falls, and 1972 Title XI are to name a few. 

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/femhist/education.shtml

"Thinking about Shakespeare's Sister"

I enjoyed reading the story “Thinking about Shakespeare’s Sister”.  I thought Woolf gave a very good perspective to how life was and how women were portrayed in the earlier centuries.  Woolf writes, “ For it needs little  skill in psychology to be sure that a highly gifted girl who had tried to use her gift for poetry would have been so thwarted and hindered by other people, so that tortured and pulled asunder by her own contrary instincts, that she such have lost her health and sanity to a certainty. “ I liked this passage because I believe it paints an image of how limited women were back then and could not express or even talk about their talents or passions. Like so many others I wonder how many great pieces of art were produced by women that took on a pen name of a man or had a man took credit for her work. She writes that in the time of Shakespeare, women would not have been granted to go to school or even choose her husband.  It’s interesting to reading passages written in the 1929’s and comparing it to a passage wrote in the 1970’s. It’s interesting to look at the two passages and see how there are still similarities in how women were limited to what they could do and how things have changed in fifty years.  Now we have the opportunities to go to school, express talents, vote, choose to marry who we wish and many more opportunities.  Reading statements and passages like this make me feel fortunate to have the opportunities that we do today.

Women Earning More Doctoral Degrees Than Men in U.S.

I found this article very interesting and a huge step in progress for the women in our country. Relating back to the article, A Day Without Feminism from the book Women’s Voices Feminist Visions to shows that women are excelling at an opportunity they were once denied/restricted in.  Even though the percentage men to women who obtained their doctoral degrees isn’t overwhelming, I feel from a women’s perspective it is still an accomplishment that so many women are going to school and obtaining and excelling in their degrees.  I believe this is an opportunity for women to show and prove that we are equal to men, even though I feel as though our country is improving and has drastically improved; I believe there is still room for improvement to make this country an equal opportunity for all men and women in all aspects of our living.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/education/20iht-educBriefs20.html

Response to "A Day Without Feminism"

I was of fond the reading A Day Without Feminism by Jennifer Baumgarder and Amy Richards, it really made me appreciate all the things that women are able to do now, compared to 40 years ago.  Rarely being denied anything I have wanted to do or participate in during my lifetime. Reading this article made me appreciate all the things I am able to do such as: sports, attending school and picking my career, and being able to vote.  Being an athlete ever since grade school I can’t imagine what I would do with my spare time had I been denied this opportunity. Another aspect I would say I take advantage of is the opportunity to be in college, even though now women are accepted into almost all universities in our country; around the world many women are denied an education all together.  Another aspect that I feel fortunate about is the ability to pick my own career; according to the reading women were expected to have majors in teaching, home economics, or maybe a language. We are granted to be in the military and be just more than a nurse but to choose what we want to do.  There are more job opportunities offered to men and women and businesses are discouraged against discriminating on sexes, compared to the 1970’s and previous years.  A huge revolution in this country was the opportunity for women to vote and have our voices be heard in our government.  Personally, I would have to say I take a lot of these opportunities that we are given for granted, due to the fact of never being denied any that were faced previous to the 1970’s. This article definitely shed a new light on how fortunate the women in our generation and how much our country has evolved in 40 years to attempt to make our country have more equal opportunities for men and women.