Women's Strive for Education

At UWC, students are highly encouraged to participate in service. I chose to participate in a service called Daraja which is a service that stands up for girls’ rights to education. Daraja Academy is a school built just for girls in Kenya and the girls there are able to receive education in a safe environment. After participating in the service and fighting for the cause, I became keen to keep helping women in need of education and I felt the cause was a severe one that should be resolved.

One might argue that women do not need education and should be in charge of housework leave the jobs which require strength or thinking to men but, others might say that women and men are equal and should have the same rights. This paper will argue that women and men should be treated equally and women should not be deprived of the right to receive education, nor should their treatments be differentiated to men because no one should be underprivileged based on their gender or status.

First of all, I think that education is one of the most critical areas of empowerment for women. It is also known as one of the clearest examples of the discrimination that women suffer. Women receiving education should not be seen as an opulence as it was established as a basic human right. According to UNICEF, among the children who do not go to school, there are twice as many girls as boys. This states that girls have a lower chance of receiving an education than boys. Also, if a family can only afford enough money to provide education for one member of the family, it will more likely be the boy in the family who receives education. The Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women recently established a basic human right that girls should be allowed to receive a basic education and it should not be a luxury for them. This means that women should have the right to receive a basic education to help them live their life successfully and they should not be deprived of the right to learn. Recently, UN Women offered classes to women who were not able to receive an education in north-eastern Afghanistan. A girl called Beheshta, age 20, who was receiving education from this program stated, “educating women and girls and women’s empowerment in our community is my dream,” (Beheshta, 2013). This shows that people of Afghanistan still decipher women receiving education as a luxury. I believe this mindset is very wrong and women having an opportunity to receive a basic education should be accustomed.

Secondly, no one should be underprivileged based on their gender or status and without these judgements, the world can become a more improved and fair community. According to UN WOMEN, if women receive an education, it will be advantageous for both the woman herself, and the improvement of the world to make it a safer place. For example, there will be an increasing literacy rate which can help improve conditions in developing regions and there will be a reduced chance of human trafficking. Also, children of educated mothers are twice as likely to survive and poverty will be reduced. Yet, according to Brookings Article, it states that there are many barriers stopping women from receiving a proper education which should be resolved. Some of these include, high costs, inflexible timetables, lack of numerous schools in different areas, lack of preparation in their early years, irrelevant curricula, regular closures of schools, lack of space and a limited capacity, and lack of proper materials. This means that in order for women around the world to receive an education everyone should contribute in helping women go to school, even if it is only a small contribution. To help, many people can donate or provide service for women to overcome these many barriers and for them to continue leading their educational lives.

Also, many women from various parts of the world are not able to read or write and that leads to women being classified lowly and not being able to be located to a job. Also, in most countries, male are classified more superior than female which, shows a lack of respect towards women. According to UN Women, only 12% of the people in Afghanistan are literate. This is a very small amount and it shows the lack of education that they have. According to a Brookings article, it states that “lack of fairness and justice persist in the education systems of developing countries, including judgements based on gender,” (Strand, 2015). It also states that, Afghanistan has the highest level of gender disparity in education in the world, largely due to cultural barriers such as early marriage or lack of female teachers. This shows how large the amount of discrimination is between men and women in developing countries. I understand that different countries or religions have different traditions about how the women should stay at home and do housework while the men receive education and work to earn money. But I strongly believe this is a wrong way of thinking because women or men, we are all the same species, humans, and we should all have the same rights as, we are classified as equal. Although the discrimination of women has decreased in many modern countries, many can still observe a slight preference that people have towards men. From my own experience, I can sense a difference between people’s mindset towards men and women. For example, if a boy gave orders to the people in a group and took control, the people would classify him as a boy with strong leadership skills. On the other hand, if a girl did the same thing, people would habitually classify her as bossy.

In conclusion, there are different perspectives that we can look at this issue but, the point I would like to get across is that discrimination between women and men is a serious issue that should definitely be fixed. Even though the inequality between men and women have ceased slightly in modern countries, I believe that developing countries are still experiencing this issue and people should take caution of this.


Bibliography

"Girls' Education: A Lifeline to Development." Girls' Education: A Lifeline to Development. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

"Right to Education Still Not a Reality for Many Women and Girls." Right to Education Still Not a Reality for Many Women and Girls. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.


"Expanding and Improving the Quality of Girls' Education in Afghanistan." The Brookings Institution. N.p., 19 Aug. 2015. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

Thinking Deeper About Judgement

Have you ever thought about how disabled people feel on the inside? On a normal day you probably just walk past them and think that it is usual to see them. Everybody has feelings including disabled people. They may not have the same privileges as you, but they are still humans and should have the same rights as us. 97,200 people out of 5 million are disabled in Singapore and yet we don’t even bother to notice their personalities or feelings, but we do notice their appearance out of all things, this should not be what we notice them for.

I take the position that disabled people should be guaranteed the same rights and privileges as everyone else. We must look further than just appearance and consider their personalities and feelings. We must educate, respect, and support them as one.

My first reason why disabled people should have the same rights as us is that appearance should not matter at all and we should consider their personalities and think deeper than just looks. As humans ,yes we do judge and yes we all make mistakes, but we should be corrected and educated about the disabled people around us. Disabled people have feelings as well and we need to consider this more often and stop to think. Research has shown that disabled people feel as if there is a social barrier between them and all of the regular people around them and that they feel like they have less choices in life. Disable people go through being profoundly depressed from all of the barriers and obstacles that they think are impossible to get over. You may not be noticing this but disabled people have to go through this mental state everyday. Looks can no just be what we judge people by, but personality should be the reason.

Lots of people on a daily basis do not know much or even anything about disabled people. We need to educate the public and people surrounding the disabled. Two thirds (67%) of people don’t feel comfortable talking or making contact with disabled people. We should all be equal and have the same opening opportunities, advantages and disadvantages. The world around us is not connected to the disabled community that is just as important as anything else. Research has shown and proved that tonnes of people feel awkward around disabled people. Even school don’t support disabled curricula at universities and colleges. This topic needs to be bought up a lot more than it does, because as long as we live there will always be disabled people in our world. We are all humans and by blanking out the disabled people you are basically discriminating them. There is a massive lack of understanding towards the disabled people.

We should all be equal and have the same opportunities, the same privileges, and the same effects that are placed on us. We are all humans and we all have feelings, we are all equal really. So putting an invisible barrier between us is wrong. We are all one nation and we should be united. Not having the same rights and disabled people sets us apart and makes them feel discluded and different in a bad way. It makes them self conscious and sad on the inside. Research has shown that some disabled people would rather be dead and alive. We can change this thought in their heads to positive ones, but we need to include everyone. This discrimination of the disabled needs to stop and people need to act upon it.

We all think that disabled people are different on the outside, but really on the inside they are great people that just need to branch out and by putting a social barrier between us and them this is not allowing them to do so. Schools need to bring up this topic more often to educate and give them more knowledge to people about disabled people. Appearance is just a mental block but look deeper and you can find the light and diamond in a person. We are all one nation, one country and one world that need to make changes to the world.

Bibliography:

- "This Short Film About A Boy And His Dog Is Winning Every Award. Watch It And You'll Know Why." Wimp.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

- "A Point of View: Happiness and Disability - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

- N.p., n.d. Web.- "E-Bility DisABILITY Information Resources." Articles: Disability Articles, Personal Stories, Accessible Travel and Disability Service Reports. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.