Educational experiences - Essay Example

Of all the issues in education, gender has interested me the most. Perhaps it is because I am a woman, and I have always wondered why women have always been discriminated against. In Greek mythology, women have always been portrayed as a source of trouble. In Rome, law decreed that women were inferior to men (Women’s International Center). In the Western world, women did not have the right to vote, nor were they allowed to go to school or to work outside of the home. During the era of industrialization when women were finally allowed to work, they were delegated to jobs that were stereotypically female – they were maids, nurses or seamstresses.

What began this discrimination? And are women less discriminated today than 50 years ago? As a single mother, striving to get a degree and earn a living at the same time, sometimes I feel that nothing much has changed to improve the lives of women. While it is true that women today have greater freedom than 50 years ago, they are still neglected by government institutions. Today, an unmarried woman works on her own to support her family, often forgetting her own dreams. How many single mothers are like me, who had to forego schooling so I can first take care of my child?

How many decided to go back to school to complete a degree so they can get promoted? How many single mothers abused their bodies, working in the morning and studying at night? What is the government doing to support them? How is education helping to enlighten people about the important role women play in raising children, and building better societies? Sometimes I feel that schools provide too many concepts, but very little opportunities for application. For after all, there are numerous kinds of theories recommending greater support for women, but where is the help that we need?

When is it coming? Will it come at all? While the rest of the country talks about the impending wars, and the changing climate, a mother somewhere, needs money to buy medicine for her sick child. While experts talk about the prospects of the economy, and the latest developments in science, a single mother is forced to work two jobs in order to meet her family’s daily needs. What outlook is there for single parents? The US Census shows that the number of single parents is on the rise, with almost half of all births were to unmarried women (Wolf).

But what does this mean exactly? Is this another prompt for academics to try to discover the factors why more and more unmarried women are giving birth? Will this spark a real interest to the welfare of women, or will the interest just be on the academic value of this finding? Works CitedWolf, Jennifer. “According to the U.S. Census, the Number of Single Parents Continues to Rise.” About.Com. N. p., 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.Women’s International Center. “Women’s History in America.” Women’s International Center. N. p., 2009. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.