EDUCATION

There was a time where the society was man - dominated. Those days, only men were allowed to attend schools and get good educations. Women were to stay at home and attend to household work. After marriage, they were to look after children and be devoted to their husbands while they went to work to earn; to look after the family. So in any case if a woman needs money, she had to ask her husband. (This is beautifully depicted in the drama A Doll’s House written by Henrik Ibsen. A woman wanted money to save her husband’s life but women were not allowed to borrow money then. So she had to forge her father’s signature)

Women were not independent then. Suppose the husband loses his life (or the job) to some unfortunate incident.  What could have happened to his wife? She must have definitely run out of money to bring up the children.

Wouldn’t it have been better if women too were allowed to go to school and educate themselves? Would they be in this situation? The answer is obviously “NO”.

Women not begin educated is one of the main reasons for child marriages which we even see today, mostly in Asian countries.

There was a myth in the society saying that business transactions are done only among men. But with time women were able to stand up against it and show the world that it is NOT true. Today there are a number of women who are engaged in business matter. And they are successful too. It’s just that when compared to men women had to go through many hardships to be successful and to come to the position they are in today.

Women were not given priority. They were dominated by men. Out of the many successful women around the world today, some of them are Oprah Winfrey and Nayomi Campbell.

In Sri Lanka we have Shanha Mayadunne, Otara Dell, Mallika Hemachandra, Soma Edirisinghe and many more…