Vers Libre | Women’s education eternally important

Brenna Gilbert Opinions Editor

In an article entitled “Many women at elite colleges set career path to motherhood” in the 9/20/05 edition of The New York Times, Louis Story traces the surprising trend of young, intellectual woman who plan on putting aside their careers to raise a family. In a survey of female students attending Yale, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania, most of them expressed not only an interest, but also the outright intention to give up their educations and careers by the age of 30.

From a very young age, women’s controlled perception of college is very different than that of men. Like most lovesick teenage girls, I was constantly cautioned not to worry, that I would probably find my husband in college. College was also represented as a place of sexual violence. My all-girls high school described it as a place where we’d have to be constantly on our guard against acquaintance rape or date rape drugs.

How many men were fed scare tactics or encouraged to brush up on their dating skills before they went off to school? For men, college is considered primarily an institution of learning while women are fed its social and sexual aspects. No wonder some women see it as merely a stepping stone.

Some men argue, according to the article, that if women intend to stay home in the end, then they should stop “taking up space” in competitive colleges. What exactly does this mean? Space that could go to men who are less qualified, but more likely to stay in the work force? The ignorant assumption that education is purely for job preparation is a sign of the patriarchal grip on institutions of higher learning: because women don’t always stay in the work force, their education is inherently less valuable. This is a construct designed to keep women out of school. Yet education is eternally important, whether you’re the CEO of a company or a housewife. No matter our role, we are all integral parts of society and, as such, have a responsibility to be thoughtful, engaged participants. A woman’s education is not wasted because she chooses to run a home rather than a boardroom; rather, it is put to use everyday. She is an informed, rational individual, not simply as a mother or as a wife, but as a person.

As a woman at an elite college, The New York Times survey presents a serious problem: why have college women been offered intellectual and career equality without true social change to support them?

An enormous amount of resentment for the stay-at-home mom stems from jealousy. My mother stayed home to raise my siblings and me, and I am a better person for it. However growing up, other mothers who worked would condemn my mother as spoiled or anti-feminist, as if she had less self-respect because she didn’t work from 9 to 5. Also men would get angry at her, accusing her of selfish laziness for staying at home. Too often, the ignorant assumption is that housewives cannot be feminists and vice-versa.

Mothers and homemakers are critical contributors to society. It is practically impossible for a woman who has children not to be intimately involved with raising her children, yet this should not serve as a tool of oppression. I am encouraging college women who decide to stay at home to raise a family to use their education for the rest of their lives. Feminism is not about women being equal with men, for not all men are treated equally on the merit of race, sexual preference, age and class. Rather feminism is about being socially and politically aware (educated, one might say), and actively opposed to sexist oppression. This political consciousness is essential in every woman, whether you are a painter, an activist, or a mother of ten.

The New York Times article reminds me of Betty Friedan’s analysis of Vassar women during the 1950s in her landmark book The Feminine Mystique. She remarks on the lack of female interest in continuing a career that might conflict with family needs. She quotes an anthropological report on Vassar as saying, “Vassar students are convinced that the wrongs of society will gradually right themselves with little or no direct intervention on the part of women college students…(not expecting) to achieve fame, make an enduring contribution to society, pioneer any frontiers or otherwise create ripples in the placid order of things.”

Feminine mentalities at Vassar are better today then they were in 1956, yet we must always remember that wherever our roads may take us, we must walk them with dignity, self-respect and a profound gratitude for the education we have received.