Women and Culture in the West - Research Paper Example

WOMEN AND CULTURE IN THE WEST William Nightingale a wealthy landowner from Embly Park had a daughter on May 12th 1820 and d her Florence Nightingale. Because of the lack of a son, William treated Florence as a companion as well as a friend and this naturally led them to being close to one another. William loved mathematics and had passed this love to his daughter, he held a different opinion on the matter of the girl child education as compared to majority of the people of this time and this can be evidently seen in the process where he teaches his daughters: Parthenope and Florence, mathematics, history, philosophy, Latin, Italian, French, Greek and German unlike the majority who preferred the girl child doing worsted work and practicing quadrilles. Their education was his responsibility (Aler, 2008). All these teachings resulted to Florence being intelligent and well educated which in some way shaped her to the nurse she came to be. Since Florence came from a wealthy background she was not expected to work. Her mother most of all deemed it best if she was to get married some day because she assumed that was her destiny. It was after a long emotional battle that tutors were eventually allowed to teach Florence mathematics over home duties. She was taught a number of subjects such as algebra, geometry and arithmetic’s. During her leisure time, Florence spent it tutoring children on this particular topics thus in the process enhancing her knowledge and having a wider scope on mathematics. She enjoyed being of service to others (Aler, 2008). Unlike these present times where people are strongly campaigning for the girl child to have a decent education and a lead a decent life where they are able to fend for themselves and be independent there was once upon a time an era where the English girls had little or no education at all, this was during the nineteenth century. Boys had an advantage over girls in the sense that parents were more willing to take them to private schools and pay more since there was no system of free schools until the 1880s. Girls of all ages had a disadvantage in relation to boys of the same age and level because of the depravity of education knowledge. Governesses taught the girls of the upper –class since they did not go to school at all but the funny part is that these very governesses who are supposed to be the source of enlightenment had no formal training. The objective of this strategy of the upper-class being taught at home was to alienate them from the lower classes as well as to keep them away from the knowledge of sex. A few exceptions can be noticed though with the likes of Florence Nightingale who had education installed in her thanks to her wise father but the majority and a staggering figure at that for the ladies had to absorb issues from gatherings. Middle class parents had no interest whatsoever for their girl child but if they had the means and financial capability they sent them to boarding school for a couple of years (Davis, 2008). From the lack of enthusiasm to educate and instill knowledge into their daughters it was bound to be that the Schools if there was any were bound to be neglected and of poor conditions as well as under funded because they would see it as a waste of resources which would have been put in better use or beneficial to the society not keeping in thought that the girl is the society. So bad were the conditions that they are even described in the novel, Jane Eyre, these conditions were base on a school that Charlotte Bronte and her siblings went to in the 1920s. Saddening enough two of the sisters passed on due to tuberculosis an obvious fact from the unhygienic conditions there. Family duties, reading novels, embroidery, writing letters and drinking tea were some of the activities the girls did after completing their formal education. Bible lessons were given but not writing because of the fear that, that particular skill will be used to compete for jobs with their betters. On teaching grounds the teacher taught the older children who then taught the rest, this was referred to as the monitorial system. Two perspectives were taken into consideration in regards to this system and these were, punishments and rewards: a foolscap, handcuffs and confinement in a closet for punishment and books, medals and money for rewards. At the abolition of the monitor system education levels increased and the effect of the pupil-teacher system in 1846 (Davis, 2008). In 1851 the survey showed that forty five percent of the brides were unable to sign their names in the marriage register and so marked it with a cross. In 1860 there were two kinds of the pioneers of higher education for women: those who were satisfied with improvement without wanting the same standards as boys and those that wanted girls to take the same exams as boys, the separatists and the uncompromising respectively. A notable and uncompromising figure included Emily Davies who was the daughter of a religious clergyman. She had no formal education. She worked on the part of giving the girl admission to university exams. Cambridge gave the go ahead for an unofficial and private trial after quite some skirmishing. After a three year trial period Cambridge approved. Oxford soon followed suite albeit the influential Saturday review opposed this move (Aler, 2008). Lucky for Emily Davis she had people who supported. She was so determined, that, she persuaded the schools inquiry commission of the year 1865 to include the girls schools into its examination. Despite all these commission still insisted on saying that the money was being used to fund the education for boys. These led to opening of inexpensive day schools all over the country. Soon colleges for women were being founded. After this change came slower, and, slower till to date. Until 1923, women had no right to attend lectures at Oxbridge. Back to the main topic at hand, Florence Nightingale chose a different career path than her parents expected, she chose to be a nurse, and, taking into consideration that nursing was not a respectable profession for women back then. Once her parents allowed her to go for a training program she went to German to serve as a nurse. We should keep in mind that her family strongly objected to her opinion of going to work in hospitals. When Britain was at war with Russia, Florence together with a group of thirty eight nurses arrived in turkey. She was appalled by the condition of the hospitals in that wounded soldiers were sleeping without blankets and in dirty rooms. This obviously meant that they were prone to catch various diseases especially dysentery, typhus and cholera (Ross, 2008). Statistics show that these men died more from this diseases than from the injuries sustained in the battlefield. Army doctors didn’t want Florence and her group of nurses helping with the patients, this led to a large battle but eventually the doctors admitted to needing the nurses’ assistance. Military personnel did not take lightly on Florence’s view on reforming the hospitals, rather they took it as an attack on their professionalism and they sort to take it in their steps to make her feel unwelcome. She resolved to contact the media about the way the army was treating its wounded soldiers. Florence was able to reduce the mortality rate of her patients (Robbins, 2009). She returned home as a national heroine and she is also recognized in the mathematical field because she helped to promote the idea that social phenomena could be measured and subjected to mathematical analysis. Her medical statistics were so impressive that she got membership to the statistical society of England. It was because of her mathematical background that she was able to present data graphically and use of colorful polar-area to present medical data, this clearly without no doubt shows that education is important to the girl child. Florence fought for the chance of studying mathematics which led to her having the chance of becoming a nurse. At the time of the war she was a health consultant to the United States government. She is best known for her work at Scutari hospital, Turkey, during the Crimean war and as well as her role in developing nursing as a profession. She said that she had a higher calling by the Lord. She later came to be known as the lady with the lamp, a name given to her by the soldiers because of walking in the dark. She unfortunately caught the Crimean fever and that can be enlisted as one of her setbacks. Her hospital visits started in the year 1844 and went on for a period of eleven years. I conclude by saying that Florence nightingale selflessly devoted herself to taking care of people her hardly new but fought for their well being even after the government neglected them. She liberated the girl child from the thought that they were just best for housework References Aller, S. B. (2008). Florence Nightingale. New York: Lerner Publications. Davis, L. (2008). Florence Nightingale: A Photo-illustrated Biography. Minnesota: Capstone Press. Lola M. Schaefer, W. S. (2009). Florence Nightingale. Minnesota: Capstone Press. Robbins, T. (2009). Florence Nightingale: Lady with the Lamp. Minnesota: Capstone Press. Ross, S. (2008). Florence Nightingale. London: Evans Brothers. Shannon Zemlicka, S. K. (2009). Florence Nightingale. New York: Millbrook Press. Read More