Womens University

Due to the large number of working spouses resisting their partner's assignment abroad, employers have realized the need to provide solutions to reduce this resistance. Fortunately, along with globalization and the Internet have come chances for trailing partners, e.g. starting your own business as a portable career or embarking on an open-learning concept.

Despite initial resistance, experienced expatriates like to pass on this advice: there will never be a dull moment and time flies. Although you may not be able to imagine at first, there are many chances to get a busy life.

Finding a job as a spouse does not automatically imply happiness in some places and you may be much better off with alternatives you never ever considered in the first place. All you need to do is to adjust your expectations and to realize that success does not always come with money!

First I would like to remind all of you that this may be the perfect time to plan for a baby! The quality of life for a mother (or father) in Asia is tremendously increased by the opportunity to engage a live-in maid or even a nanny. You do not have to miss out on night life nor are you restricted from traveling. Just take along the maid and the baby.

And there is still plenty of time for you to try the following options, which may look equally attractive in your CV or resume and offer new experiences:

Take a Degree or Course Online

Google the following keywords

•    Medical courses

•    The British Council

•    Open University (Singapore and Hong Kong)

•    International Center for Distance Learning

•    Master of Business Administration (University of Durham)

•    Real Estate US

•    US Paralegal Studies

•    University of London-External Programs

•    Sheffield Hallam University UK

•    International Center for Distance Learning

•    Thames Center for Open Learning Singapore

•    Jones International

•    St. George's University

•    Accounting, IT, Securities

•    Get Educated

•    E-Learners

•    European Languages Online

•    Japanese Online

•    Chinese Online / California State University

•    Cartoon and Design Online Larkford Community Center Canberra

•    Art Online / University of Pittsburg

•    Global Center for Women's Studies and Politics

Take Up A New Hobby

•    Sing in a choir

•    Master a new sport

•    Learn a new skill

Help the Less Fortunate

•    Organize charity events for your children's school

•    Become a volunteer

Engage in Clubs and Schools

•    Join the Parent Teacher Association

•    Organize a local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA)

•    Become active in women's/business clubs

•    Give talks about your hobby or job or home country

Teach a Special Skill

What you may have taken up once by yourself in your country to enjoy can turn into a much asked for skill to teach locals or other expatriates.

Set Up Your Own Business

•    Become a freelance writer

•    Write a book

•    Create your own web site

•    Become a web master

•    Learn the local language and culture and become a tour guide

I think that it is easier to find a date on line than all the other places. The Japanese sites online of dating had thundered to connect all the Asian men and single women the ones with the others. In fact, there is many service interracial of dating these last years. The Asian women seeking of the black men and the white men were popular in America. Thus, the research of the women of Japan and the single girls on line is a piece of cake. There is not no need to wait to obtain a date. There is no fee to join to find during a date. The Japanese women for the dating and the marriage wait to meet their companion on line. You should find your other half today.

When taking a bus of subway at the university day to day in New York. There are many girls of university at the school with flirt with. However, it is not easy as you think. I am on average looking at and I am timid. It is too difficult that I ask a girl to leave. I can write words as many because possible but open it is so difficult to ask a girl for me. From the point of view of timidity, I miss a chance. Thus, I did not date any girl during my two years from the university. I surf on line and found some sites Asian of dating which have thousands of members with beautiful girls and Japanese single women. I think that it is easy and simple to join these Asian sites of dating. Thus, I joined some services of dating and found a friend Asian.

When I am informed of the articles concerning the Japanese chooses Asian services of dating, there are thousands of Japan chooses seek the love on these sites. The majority of these girls of Tokyo seek for the love and the romance of people of the country chooses or around the world. Some of these single women of Japan are so pretty and sexy. Thus, I wonder why they seek the love on line. They can seek the Japanese friends, the correspondents, the associates, the companions of heart of the school, the parks, the clubs, and other Social services. Why do they have to go on line to seek during a date? I have to think of this exit and appears the reason outside. The research of the love and the relationship on line is easier than all the other places. We can lazy sit us on the sofa while surfing for a man or an single woman Japanese right. It is the fantastic one about the dating on line in Tokyo.

The world looked at the Japanese women with a difference that other Asian women, such as the Chinese women, the women of Thailand, the women of Philippines, and others. The primary reason is Japan is a developed nation and the higher country in Asia in terms of economic scenes, electronics, and others. The glances of the world to a Japanese girl in a different glance is because Japan is the best country in Asia. I am a Japanese type which lives in New York City, close to city of China. I grew here with my parents who worked full-time to support me and my brother who go to the university. I am luckier than other students of American Native because the majority of them must pay their instruction by loans of student and other programs. I grew in the United States but my spirit always thinks of the culture of Japan.

FAMOUS WOMEN: MISS UNIVERSE 1977

By Alejandro Guevara Onofre

1977 was the year of the Snake in the Chinese Horoscope. Certainly, was a good year for those people who were born in the years 1929, 1941 and 1953.Trinidad Tobago has been known as one of the most beautiful countries in the Third World, but the Caribbean Island is also the birthplace of the first black Miss Universe Pageant in the History. Her name: Janelle Penny Commissiong.

In 1953 Janelle "Penny" Commissiong, the daughter of Venezuelan mother and Trinidadian father, came into the world in Port of Spain, Trinidad Tobago, a country very famous for its music and athletes as Ato Bolton and Hasely Crawford. In the 1960s she moved with her family to the United States.

In New York City, she studied fashion designer at the Fashion Institute of Technology. But she returned to Port of Spain in 1976, year where Miss Trinidad and Tobago, Margaret Elizabeth McFarlane, won the Miss Congeniality Title. Next year, Janelle Commissiong had been selected to represent the Island at the 1977 Miss Universe Competition in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

During the Miss Universe Beauty Pageant Miss TT was very popular, but was not favorite for the title. Miss Austria, Eva Maria Duringer, was a big favorite until last second.She looks like Farrah Fawcett, an actress best known for her role on Tv's Charly Angel's in the 1970s.Other favorites were Miss Colombia, Aura Maria Mojica, an exotic girl from Cali; and Miss Nicaragua, Beatriz Lacayo Obregon, a spectacular Latin Barbie from Managua. But none favorite did not speak English very well.

Miss Trinidad-Tobago was elected Miss Photogenic 4 days before the final. She was the second black woman to win the award in the Miss Universe History. On July 16th, in the National Theater of Santo Domingo, Janelle Commissiong was awesome in the semifinal and final. It was a very good day for her. Miss Austria did not show the same talent compared to Miss TT. Minutes later Janelle Commissiong was crowded Miss Universe.

Miss Trinidad and Tobago attracted international attention in 1977 because she was crowded as the first black in the chronology of Miss Universe. At the end of the transmission, via satellite, the Trinidadian celebrated the triumph of Janelle Commissiong. Port of Spain was a carnival. Every newspaper had the same story. The New York Times said that "Miss Universe 1977 was a black bombshell". Certainly, the world did not have a black Miss Universe until 1977.

There were 12 judges: Oscar de La Renta (Dominican designer), Dionne Warwick (American singer), Gordon Parks (American photographer), Roberto Cavalli (designer from Italy), Marisol Malaret (formerly Miss Universe), Wihelmina (designer from the Netherlands) and other personalities. When Janelle was crowded as Miss Universe, Dionne Warwick said "I felt as If I had won".

After her reign, she had an interview with Joaquin Balaguer, President of the Dominican Republic (a fan of Miss Universe Pageant) in the National Palace. Like Miss Universe, she visited many nations around the world: from Iceland, Argentina, Hong Kong, Peru, Puerto Rico to the United States.

In 1978 Janelle went to Chile, where she was a special judge at the "Miss Beaches of South American". During her reign, she had been an advocate for black's rights and the world peace. She wants to meet with Idi Amin Dada, one of the worst dictators of the 20th Century.

Like Roberto Clemente, Mary Eugenia Charles, Marlene Ottey, Billy Ocean and Tim Duncan, She is an icon in the Caribbean…

Since the days of old, women have been the target of a lot of attention in the lives of societies. In old Greek, Roman, and Indian societies, the status of women was poor. They did not enjoy the same legal rights as men. They were outcast and looked at with contempt. The famous Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru says in his book The Discovery of India:

The legal status of women in the Laws of Manu was poor and doubtful.

In Medieval times the humanness and constitution of women was subject of doubt; it was questionable whether they had souls like men or not? Or whether theirs were like animal souls. Some philosophers of Rome went even further and declared that women had no souls and will not be resurrected in the Hereafter with men.

As for Arabs before Islam, their attitude was something else; they thought of women as a potential source of disgrace. A man hated to beget a female. Some men even went so far as to get rid of a newly born female by burying her alive at birth.

The French Revolution, considered by many world thinkers as a positive historical turning point in the stream of human life and seen as a cultural lighthouse in contemporary history, gave freedom to men, but not to women. Article 1 of its Declaration of Human Rights says, "Men are born and remain free." Thus, it is quite clear that a woman had no place in the world of freedom. When some French intellectuals tried to rectify this serious flaw, the majority reacted with contempt and scorn. When a French lady called Docourge submitted to the French national assembly a draft resolution that holds women equal to men, her proposal was rejected and she was tried and beheaded, according to Dr. George Jabour in his book Al 'Arab wa Huqooq Al-Insaan (Arabs and Human Rights).

French scholar Gustave Le Bon declares in his book the Spirit of Sociality in response to advocates of equality between men and women:

" Women were equal to men only in times of decadence "

The U.N. Charter, which was meant to correct the injustice and contempt towards women committed by the French Revolution, certainly represented a turning point in human history and a bright dawn in the horizon, giving hope to successive generations in human communities. Yet, the share of women in that charter was scant and did not meet their ambitions or fit their status. It did not accord women the same degree of attention and honor that it gave to men. It makes no more than two references to women, both casual, and in subordinate clauses which display no special concern for women and their status.

The first reference is in the Charter's preamble, which expresses the determination of the peoples of the United Nations "to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small." The second reference is in paragraph c of Article 76, which says that "the basic objectives of the trusteeship system … shall be … to encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion."

Later, explanatory bylaws of the Charter emptied even these modest statements of their content as regards the dignity and social status of women, and turned them into a source of misery and harm for women, reducing their rights and dignity. These bylaws

1. declare equality between man and woman in rights and duties, without consideration of any distinction or of the distinctive characteristics of the latter;

2. burden women with heavy and numerous tasks that are incompatible with feminine nature and contrary to the great human mission of women;

3. adopt disgraceful concepts of the family, the values of family ties, and the responsibilities of family performance, which weakens the role of women in the family structure and cancel their noble mission in the stable social structure;

4. endorse the principle of multiple family types and cancel the values and controls of joint man and woman responsibility in building a stable interactive family, thus creating chaos and disorder in the family with consequent, uncountable social problems, one of the most serious of which is the creation of a generation with no sense of belonging or responsibility, with a resulting increase in the rates of crime and serious diseases, which threaten the security and civilized future of human communities;

5. Permits all types of sexual relations, which amounts to a repulsive aggression against the dignity of women, contempt of their femininity and humanness, and a stark and audacious ravishment of their rights.

This, in short, is the tragic and horrifying position of women in the standards of ancient and contemporary cultures and civilizations. Unfortunately, women are still abused and marginalized in most human societies, although divine religions, particularly Islam, emphasize women's dignity and basic role in the walks of life.

Islam in particular has laid firm foundations for the dignity and social status of women within the context of its view of the universe, mankind, and life. Islam's profound view of the relationship of the three worlds – the universe, mankind, and life – is based on a belief that the wisdom of God, the Most Sublime, dictates that the whole universe be structured in accordance with the principle of the mating of pairs, each of which is complementary rather than identical.

Exalted is He who created all pairs from what the earth grows, from themselves, and from what you do not know (Yaseen XXXVI: 36).

God, the Most Exalted, made the trait of immortal singleness that has no need to be complemented by any thing else an exclusive quality of His.

Say: "He is God, the One and only, ◘ God, the Eternal; ◘ He begets none, nor is He begotten, ◘ and there is nothing that could be compared to Him (Al-Ikhlas CXII: 1 – 4).

He, the Most Exalted, has no need for a partner, whether equal or inferior to Him. He, the Most Glorious, is Self-Sufficient and Most-Exalted and has no one that is similar or equal to Him,

God: there is no deity but Him, the Ever-Living, the Eternal Master of all. (Al-Baqarah II: 255).

There is nothing like Him, and He hears all and sees all (Al-Shoora XLII: 11).

When I speak of complementarity rather than similarity in reference to the principle of mating, I should point out that God's wisdom dictates this complementarity and scientific laws, and applications support and confirm it. There is no mating of identical things; they rather stand in opposition and repulsion of each other. This can be seen in the smallest structured unit in the universe, which is the atom. Recent scientific discoveries indicate that even a neutron, a particle within an atom, is made of two opposite, disparate poles, which confirms the inimitability of the Creation, which is based on the mating of complementary, rather than identical, elements. Full similarity is a cause of opposition and repulsion.

Had there been deities in them [heaven or on earth] other than God, they would have fallen into ruin! Exalted is God, Lord of the Throne, above what they attribute to Him! (Al-Anbiya XXI: 22).

God said, "Do not take [for worship] two deities, for He is but one God. Hence, of Me alone stand in awe" (Al-Nahl XVI: 51).

I believe that the issue of complementarity and identicalness and the difference between them is an essential turning point in understanding the spirit of man/woman relationship. It is also an objective and equitable approach to understand the complementarity of their responsibilities in the fields of life.

Moreover, the principle of complementarity explains and clarifies the question of differentiation between woman and man. Each of them has superior points and inferior points, and neither of them is definitely superior to the other. Each is superior in what God prefers him or her over the other.

Men are guardians of women, because of the advantage He has given some of them over the others and because of what they spend of their wealth (Al-Nisaa IV: 34).

Do not covet the things by which God has favored some of you over others. Men are entitled to a share of what they earn, and women are similarly entitled. Therefore, ask God to give you out of His bounty. God is a witness of everything (Ibid: 32).

The question guardianship, which some use as an excuse to abuse the dignity of women and reduce their humanness and their status, is, the way I understand it, by no means an advantage for men and cannot be included in the standards of definite superiority. It is merely an administrative, conditional arrangement. Each of the two, the woman and the man, is superior to the other by what God, the Most Sublime, has favored him or her over the other and by the abilities God has given him or her and not the other. Each of the two is a guardian within the framework of his specialization and responsibilities, within the context of the general approach of Islam and the context of the values, rules, and controls of Islamic Law. I can say here that there are two types of guardianship, a particular type and a general one. Each of the two, man and woman, has a guardianship within the advantage and abilities that God, the Most Sublime, has favored him or her with. As for general guardianship, it has to go to one of the two in order for their relationship and cooperation to be smooth. "Had there been deities in them other than God, they would have fallen into ruin!" The noble Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, commands: "If you are three, choose one of you as a leader." All this falls within the framework of the general divine principle of mutual support between them, which is expressed in the words of God, the Most Sublime:

Male and female believers are supporters of each other; they enjoin what is good and forbid what is wrong. They perform prayers, give out zakat, and obey God and His Messenger. Those are the ones who will receive God's mercy. God is Almighty and Wise (Al-Tawbah IX: 71).

Ibn Omar, may God be pleased with him and his father says:

I have heard God's Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, say, "Indeed each of you is a shepherd, and each is responsible for his flock. The ruler of people is a shepherd, responsible for his flock. A man in his house is a shepherd, responsible for his flock. A woman in her husband's house is a shepherd, responsible for her flock. A servant in his/her master's house is a shepherd, responsible for his/her flock. Indeed each of you is a shepherd, and each is responsible for his flock."[1]

I find that these two quotations, the verse from the Noble Qur'an and the Prophet's tradition, amount, combined, to a clear view of the complementarity of man and woman, each to the extent of his/her abilities and responsibilities. There is no trace of and no reference to any sense of moral differentiation between them. Each of them supports the other with the qualifications, qualities, and skills God has given him/her or he/she has acquired.

God will raise in position those of you who believe and are given knowledge. God knows what you do (Al-Mujaadilah LVIII: 11).

Say, "Are they equal, those who know and those who do not?" It is only those with understanding that remember (Al-Zumar XXXIX, 9).

All this has to be in accordance with the rules, values, and controls legislated by God, the Most Sublime, and His Messenger. These rules, values, and controls govern the man-woman relationship and manage it in accordance with God's Will and His pleasure, blessed are His names.

In the year 2000, we, at the Islamic World Conference in Jeddah, received a delegation of U.S. women, headed by Mrs. Gina Abercrombie-Win Stanley, who was then an advisor of President Clinton, a member of the U.S. Security Council, and Head of the Office of Asian and Southeast Asian Affairs at the State Department. Later she became the U.S. General Consul in Jeddah. The delegation was interested in two subjects, (1) women and (2) democracy.

Our discussion of the woman question, which is related to the subject of this chapter, began with a question made by Mrs. Abercrombie-Win Stanley, who said, "We tried to find out by ourselves the position of women in Islam, but were not able to. We sought assistance from Arab and Muslim friends, but the information was contradictory. Therefore, we decided to visit Muslim lands and hear directly Muslim's views of this question. You at the Islamic World Conference and Dr. Hamid in particular, have been recommended to us, for a dialogue concerning this matter. So what do you have to say, Sir?"

After expressions of welcome, gratitude, and appreciation, I said, "I have one word, or rather one sentence, to say. If it meets what you want, we will thus have a short cut. Otherwise, we will open the relevant files for further details and elaboration."

She said, "What is that word?"

I said:

The woman for us – and for the great founders of the U.S., as well as all the great and wise men of the world – is the mother of society, its source of stability, and the guardian of its security. The family is the basic unit in a sound structure of civic society, or it is rather the central institution of a civilized, secure society. The point where you and we part, Madam, began on the day you decided, contrary to the tradition of your forefathers and great men, to exclude the family institution from the institutions of civic society and on the day you replaced the family charter with social permissiveness, and based on this incidental cultural orientation of yours the principle of liberating women from their households, i.e. liberating them from the family culture into the no-family culture or the multi-family culture, and the related behavioral practices that are well-known to the members of this honorable delegation. As for us, we still insist to hold to the principle that the family, which has the woman as its mainstay and which is based on legal and legitimate marriage of a man and a woman, is the basic unit and central institution among the institutions of a civilized and secure civic society. It is even the basic unit in the structure of national security for our societies.

She asked, smiling, "Do you want me to abandon my work at my country's national security council and go back to the family?"

I said, "No, but you and I, every man and woman, and the approach of every society, should observe a balanced relationship between the duties of every member of the family institution and those of other social institutions. We also have to believe that the first national security institution for every nation is the family. Other institutions and concerns that come next should be extensions of it that activate its sacred mission. They should never exist at the expense of its existence or its noble mission in society."

She said, "Thank you. Your answer is sufficient, and what you have spoken about is truly a central and essential point of difference between your and our views of the family and society. It is worthy of being respected and contemplated. I believe what you have said is sufficient and there is no need to go into details, because they will most probably be based on this orientation, which I will faithfully report in my country."

It is worth mentioning that about a month after this interview, Mrs. Hillary Clinton wrote in her weekly column that used to appear in the Saudi daily Arab News a sentence that said, "It is time for us in America to establish a balanced relationship between our duties in the family and in the other institutions of society."

In conclusion, I say the controversy over women and the family in the cultural circles of our Islamic societies is promoted by many factors, among the most prominent of which are

1. the lack of a comprehensive and clear view of the jurisprudence (Fiqh) of the family and its role in building society and meeting its responsibilities;

2. the lack of a clearly defined methodology that organizes the man and woman responsibilities in the family and society, and the failure to strike a delicate balance between the responsibilities of each in the family and in society;

3. the faulty overlapping between the rules, values, and principles of the mission of women and the family on the one hand, and the mechanisms, controls, and ethics of practice and performance on the other;

4. the unfortunate fact that many male and female Muslims are influenced by the ideas put forth by the other concerning women, the family, and society, without considering our cultural identity and distinctive characteristics;

5. the dominant influence of customs and traditions in the way we deal with the questions of women, the family, and society, at the expense of our commitment to the values, principles, and ethics of our religion and its immortal divine mission;

6. The expansion of the tenet of precautious measures to an unreasonable extent, at the expense of the application of Islamic values, principles, and controls.

The crucial question in all this is the lack of a practical approach to introduce the family as a basic unit of the institutions of society and to allow it its official position in the structure of the state and its public institutions, so that it may enjoy its rights and perform its duties like any other institution of the state. With such an approach, man and woman would be responsible employees of the state within their house, in accordance with a comprehensive project and a strategy drawn by the state through a special ministry for family and social affairs. This would allow man and woman responsibilities in the family and in society to be regulated and would put into practice the great and noble divine rule:

Male and female believers are supporters of each other; they enjoin what is good and forbid what is wrong. They perform prayers, give out zakat, and obey God and His Messenger. Those are the ones who will receive God's mercy. God is Almighty and Wise (Al-Tawbah IX: 71).

Prof. Dr. Hamid bin Ahmad Al-Rifaie
President, International Islamic Forum For Dialogue
Assistant Secretary General, Muslim World League
From His Book (Partners ... not Guardians) Part Four / Chapter Eighteen

My twenty-year-old cousin Renda is currently a student at Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad, Iraq. Established in 1227, Mustansiriyah is one of the oldest university in the world. Extremists have targeted this university since the 2003 U.S. and British-led invasion, the most brutal act having taken place on January 16, 2007 when a double bomb attack killed sixty five people, mostly female students, and wounded 138. Though these incidents did not deter Renda from attending classes, they have had a negative impact on the majority of the country's students. According to a joint Ministry of Interior (MoE) and UNICEF study, 800,000 Iraqi children, 74 percent of which are female, do not attend school.

I met Renda five years ago during my visit to Iraq. She loved school, and told me how she envisioned a great future for herself and her family. She had said, "I know life is hard now. But it will get better. When innocent people suffer, eventually they will rise." She meant because the country had gone through wars and back then was under sanctions.

I watched as she brushed her hair, put ribbons on her braids, dressed in her blue uniform and carrying her back pack left off for school, walking. That spring night after we had supper, blankets were placed on the front lawn where I, along with Renda's parents and younger brother, lay under a star filled sky. We shared stories and jokes until the middle of the night when we finally fell asleep. We woke up to the scent of grass and the sounds of birds chirping.

To walk to school or sleep in the front yard is no longer a luxury in Baghdad. All sorts of chaos lurks in the streets, from the insurgents who entered Iraq's unprotected borders after the invasion, to the thugs who had been in jail during Saddam's regime, to organized crime and the U.S. military who might mistake an innocent civilian for a bad guy and shoot – or who might just themselves be bad men and women behaving badly towards the Iraqis.

Renda had no idea that in a couple of years, matters would get much worse in Iraq – especially for her as a Christian. Since the invasion, many women have been executed, assaulted, raped or released only after their families paid considerable ransom money. Serious threats and deadly attacks have forced Christians and Muslims to wear the veil and quit their jobs, and to avoid makeup and education. My friend's sister-in-law, at the start of the war, was stabbed in the heart simply because she was wearing a cross, which was ripped off her neck and thrown over her body.

Today when you talk to Iraqi women they remember "the good old days" when Saddam was in power and women were able to safely go to work, participate in social activities, take part in politics or stroll outside in the middle of the night. During Saddam's regime, women were free to choose whether to wear western-style dress and make-up or the black abaya. When I was in Baghdad, I wore the clothes I'd packed from America. No one in the streets blinked an eye.

Yet in October of 2003, at the Conference of the National Association of Women Judges, Mrs. Bush compared the women of Afghanistan to the women of Iraq, stating, "They too lived under an oppressive tyrant."

Mrs. Bush, once a teacher and librarian, is the daughter-in-law of a former president and a wife of a current one, both of whom have had tremendous involvement with Iraq. Surely she knows that Afghan women and Iraqi women are so different it's like comparing apples and oranges. Historically, Iraqi women and girls have enjoyed more rights than many of their counterparts in the Middle East.

Mrs. Bush further claimed, "One tragic legacy of Saddam's rule is an overall adult illiteracy rate of 61 percent. And a staggering 77 percent of women - three out of four - cannot read."

In December of 1979, the Iraqi government passed legislation requiring the eradication of illiteracy. Many of "literary centers" were run by the General Federation of Iraqi women. By 1987, 75% of the population was literate. In 1986, Iraq became one of the first countries to ratify the convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Under Saddam's regime, there was compulsory free education in Iraq – universal free schooling up to the highest level. There was also free hospitalization. Iraq created one of the best public health system in the Middle East, earning Saddam an award from UNESCO. Saddam created a western style legal system and abolished the Sharia law courts, except for personal injury claims. Since the U.S.-led invasion, aside from violence, displacement is a contributing factor to student nonattendance.

"Today, I'm proud that this oppression has ended," Mrs. Bush continued to say.

She is mistaken. The oppression is alive and well, has been since it began in 1991, when more than 142,000 tons of bombs and 350 tons of depleted uranium shells were used in the 43-day military war, thus killing, during and post-war period, over a hundred thousand people. Afterwards, it remained robust as millions of people – mainly young children – died as a direct result of the U.S.-led blockade. The lack of food and medicine, along with the deteroriating sanitry conditions caused one-fifth of the population to starve to death in Iraq (UN FAO report, 1995). Up to 95% of all pregnant women suffered from anemia, thus giving birth to weak, malnourished infants. Every month, according to the 1996 UNICEF report, more than 4,500 children under the age of five died from hunger.

At the 2004 Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, Mrs. Bush again compared Afghan women with those of Iraq. A whole year passed and she hadn't learned the difference. "As they are making their voices heard, the women of Iraq are also experiencing the freedom that education brings."

The Iraqi women were the most educated in the Middle East and had more freedom than other women of that region. In the years following the 1991 Gulf War, however, many of the positive steps that had advanced their status in Iraqi society were reversed due to a combination of legal, economic, and political factors. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as a result of the national literacy campaign, as of 1987 approximately 75 percent of Iraqi women were literate; however, by year-end 2000, Iraq had the lowest regional adult literacy levels, with the percentage of literate women at less than 25 percent.

"We have an obligation to help our sisters who face prejudice and injustice. We know that no society can prosper when half of its population is not allowed to contribute to its progress."

In 2003, Iraqi women's hopes for freedom and democracy were encouraged by George Bush and Tony Blair's declarations of a better life with new opportunities. What they received instead were insurgents and religious extremists using rape, acid and assassination to force them into submitting to their extremist beliefs. Every day dozens of women are widowed, and a number of families struggle to cope without a wage-earner. Paid work for women is scarce and leaving home to find work puts women and children at risk.

Once the model of education in the Middle East, twelve years of grueling sanctions and three years of bloody occupation have left Iraq's system in shambles, a generation of children both traumatized and, it seems, deprived of education. Pretty soon, Mrs. Bush will be able to correctly compare Afghan women's prior situation with the Iraqi women's current one.

Jackson State University is often abridged as Jackson State or by its initials JSU, it is a predominantly black university located in Jackson, Mississippi. JSU was founded in 1877. Jackson State University is noted for its successful and well-equipped business and computer departments, and is amongst the highest ranked in the United States. The institution moved to Jackson because of its central location in the state, and later the name was changed to Jackson College. In the subsequent years, the name changed to the well-known Jackson State University. In 1979, JSU was officially designated the Urban University of Mississippi, US. Jackson State's athletic teams are a member of the most privileged NCAA Division 1-AA's Southwestern Athletic Conference, known as the SWAC. Presently, the university operates men's and women's basketball, football, baseball, softball, men's and women's golf, women's volleyball, men's and women's tennis, soccer, and men and women's bowling teams.

The University offers bachelors, masters, associate and doctoral degrees. It is a Carnegie Doctoral/Research-Intensive institution, and is extremely well equipped.
JSU operates the Mississippi Urban Research Center, which "develops and offers instructional programs, forums and conferences on urban life." The University's degree programs are largely in areas such as public health, business, education, engineering, and public administration, liberal arts, English, chemistry, political science, and mathematics. JSU also offers distance and online education.
JSU consists ten different colleges and divisions such as the College of Education and Human Development; the College of Business; the College of Public Service; the College of Science, Engineering, and Technical Arts; the College of Liberal Arts; the College of Lifelong Learning; the Divisions of Graduate Studies, International Studies, and Undergraduate Studies.

JSU has seven undergraduate schools within the Colleges. The university's Bachelor's degrees are offered in allied health sciences, business, education, engineering, liberal arts, science and technology, and social work. It also has an Honors College.

The Graduate degrees of JSU are awarded in allied health, business, education, liberal arts, science and technology, and social work. The university also awards doctoral degrees in nine areas. The education specialist degree is also awarded in JSU and is very famous all over the state. JSU has a number of unique centers and institutes, including English as a Second Language Institute, Center for University Scholars and the Institute for Educational Renewal. In-state tuition and fees for all the undergraduate students were $1920 in 2004-2005. All the students applying from out of state for graduate and undergraduate courses will have different costs. JSU offers financial aid to all deserving and needy students, grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study programs, subsidies are also available.

Introduction

            Suleiman (2006) defined entrepreneurship as "the willingness and ability of an individual to seek for investment opportunities to establish and run an enterprise successfully" while Drucker viewed an entrepreneur as a person who perceives business opportunities and takes advantage of the scarce resources and uses them profitably. Entrepreneurs are job creators and/or become self-employed rather than seekers of jobs in an overstretched public service. Using USA standard, a woman-owned enterprise is a small enterprise that is at least 51% owned, managed and operated by one or more women.

            A small-scale farming is a farm holding established on a land area of not less than 5 hectares. In Nigeria, most of the small-scale farming enterprises are owned by men. This does not imply that Nigerian women agriculturists are not desirous of expanding their businesses due to so many challenges which border on gender issues, economic or socio-cultural barriers as well as government unfavourable policies. This paper, a purely descriptive research, employs secondary data to expound on the issues and challenges confronting the development of the Nigerian women to full blown agro- entrepreneurs for national economic advancement. The rest of the discussion in this paper is organized along the following issues;

·        Women's potentials in entrepreneurial skills.

·        Why women entrepreneurship development?

·        Policy Framework for Women Entrepreneurship Development.

·        Challenges faced by women agro-entrepreneurs.

·        Strategies for development of women agro-entrepreneurs.

·        Conclusion.

Women's Potentials in Entrepreneurial Skills                                             

Women in general are naturally endowed with some exceptional abilities, which if properly harnessed for entrepreneurship purpose, could result in positive and enviable results. Women by nature;

v     Have creative abilities

v     Are blessed with ability to persist and pursue their desires

v     Are good and patient nurtures of children, and this tenacity is usually transferred into business

v     Are good innovators

v     Have ability to develop passion for what they believe in

Waton (undated) cited in Okara (2005) identified the basic requirements of an entrepreneur to include: hardwork, teamwork, commitment, appreciation, listening, high expectations, setting achievable goals. Women, by nature and exposure to family relationships, possess most of these qualities that are essential and can be enhanced for entrepreneurial success.

Why Women Entrepreneurship Development?

          Many researchers have shown that poverty is a malady that incapacitates its victim economically and indirectly subject him/her to a state of destitution, voicelessness, powerlessness and even violence (World Bank 2000; Okojie, 2002) Unfortunately, the most affected sex by the above incapacitation are women and children. Statistics show that women are poorer than men. The UNDP (1995) estimated that, about 60% of the world-poors, are women. Women are poorer because they are more vulnerable economically.

           The findings of Thane (1978), Showalter (1987) and Lewis and Piachered (1987) cited in Magaji (2004) showed that women have been the poor sex throughout the 20th Century and have formed a substantial majority of the poor since poverty was first recognized. On why women are the poorest sex, the physical strength of women and various challenges limit them to specific soft duties making it difficult to be enterprising. Entrepreneurship development therefore is a crucial tool for women's economic empowerment.

            The benefits derivable from empowering the women folk are far reaching, starting with family advancement and eventually touching on the national and global economic advancement. According to the Nigerian Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya H. S. Bungudu, the latest Nigerian census revealed that women constitute 49.9% of the nation's population; the underrepresentation of women (2%) in the nation's development processes in finance, business and investment fronts renders 40% of the population inadequately positioned to contribute to the economic growth of the country. It is the nation that blends the strengths of women and men that will lead the world in development (Kiyosaki 1993) in the field of agriculture and other sectors.

Entrepreneurship or investing is not an exclusive reserve of any gender. Both women and men generate the same result provided they follow the principles of investment. Kiyosaki (1993) proves with statistical data in United States, that women are better investors than men. A year 2000 National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC) study found that women-only clubs achieved average annual returns of 32% since 1951 versus 23% for men-only investment clubs. The verdict is; women know how to handle money and can be greater entrepreneurs than men if the various obstacles to development is removed or minimized.

Policy Framework for Women Entrepreneurship Development

There are neither policies nor strategies for entrepreneurship development that is specifically tailored to women (Olutunla, 2008). The Nigerian government's policy of promoting entrepreneurship dated back to the early 1970s. The hope of promoting small scale enterprises to stimulate entrepreneurship was documented in the 2nd National Development Plan (1970-74). This policy continued in the 3rd (1975-80) and the 4th National Development Plan through various strategies of technical, financial and management of the small scale industries. The Federal Government's concern for the menacing problem of mass unemployment in the mid-1980s spurred the setting up of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in 1986 and the Work For Yourself Programme (WFYP) in 1987. Both were essentially joint programmes of training and financial support to entrepreneurs. The NDE operations included three core programmes (i) Youth Employment and Vocational Skills Development Program (YEVSDP) (ii) agricultural programs (iii) the small scale industries and graduate employment scheme. The NDE, though starved of fund for some time, has achieved a lot in promoting employment, create wealth and alleviating women poverty. The Better Life for Rural Women Programme (BLRWP) initiative of a first lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Maryam Babangida, was an entrepreneurship development programme specifically for promoting education, health and economic development of women. It made unprecedented contribution to women through the cooperative organizations. The spirit of BLRWP is still operating today through the subsequent first ladies. A number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) also came up to promote entrepreneurship development. Prominent amongst them was the Country Women Association of Nigeria (COWAN) which contributed immensely towards women entrepreneurship development through organization of many cooperatives and micro-credit schemes and in partnership with the United Nations.             

The Role of Women in Agriculture

A significant amount of work has been carried out in developing countries on the potential of women in boosting food production. Boserup (1970) described Black Africa as the region of female farming par excellence. FAO (1982) estimated that the rural women contribute two-third of all the time that is put into traditional agriculture in Africa. Accat (1983) also pointed out that 80% of African women are engaged in agriculture. Patel and Antonio (1973) reported that 95% of the Yoruba women of the Southwestern Nigeria are engaged in farm works, growing yams, maize, tobacco and cassava, poultry and fish farming. They also participate in bush clearing, land preparation and weeding. In addition to their role in production, they are actively engaged in harvesting, processing and marketing of farm produce. The participation of Igbo men in nonfarm activities and waged employment has resulted in an increased workload for women in food crop production as well as a breakdown of the gender division of labor in agriculture. Igbo women now undertake some of the conventional male agricultural tasks in addition to those in the female domain (Ezumah and Di Domenico, 1995). The predominance of women in the small-scale fisheries post-harvest activities: micro-fish retailing, fish processing, fish distribution and marketing, make women the major players in the socio-economic development of the West African countries.

Despite women's extensive and varied participation in agriculture, they continue to have less access to credit and modern agriculture inputs. Consequently, their farm works is labor-intensive, yields meager economic returns (Buvinie and Mehra, 1990) and operate mostly at subsistence level. International Labour Organization (ILO 2003) quoted in Akpera and Sunday (2008) reported that Nigerian and African women entrepreneurs in general are in the micro enterprise sector and almost invisible in the small and medium enterprise categories.

The Challenges of Nigerian Women Agro-Entrepreneurs

            Some of the many obstacles that hinder women enterprise development, agribusiness growth and improved income earnings include;

1)    Finance

The greatest challenge for Nigerian women in agribusiness is lack of finance. Women in agribusiness need substantial finance both for start-up and expansion. Finance could be in form of equity or from external sources. Equity from informal sources includes personal savings, friends and relatives, traditional (esusu), professional and age-group associations as well as formal co-operative societies.

External finance is majorly from banks (specialized, development, commercial, etc), government agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), international donors, etc. Entrepreneurs are expected to provide, in some cases, 25% of fund applied for and/or produce collaterals before accessing these external finances. It has been difficult for women to raise equity for own business because most women interested or engaged in farming earn low income. Many of the commercial or development banks are reluctant to grant agricultural loans due generally to the high agricultural risk factor or because they do not have competent assessors as in the case of fish farming. The high interest rate charged as well as the demand for collateral of landed property or other assets also compound the issue.

            Currently, the Microfinance banks (MFB) are the government's latest major organ of policy for entrepreneurship finance in Nigeria. In an ongoing research conducted recently, it was discovered that male to female application and approval by MFB are in the ratio 65% to 35%. This discrepancy was linked to women entrepreneurs approaching banks on an individual basis and lack of soundly written business plan and/or feasibility studies (Olutunla, 2008).

2)       Manpower and Education

The whole business be- it agricultural or any other, revolves around the entrepreneur (visionary) as she combines all other human, financial and material resources to create an enterprise of value. The chief executive of the business outfit must be knowledgeable to effectively mobilize resources to advantage. Agribusiness at small or medium scale is highly professional, technologically driven and require some level of education. Education not only provides basic knowledge and skills to improve health and Iivelihood, but it empowers women to take their rightful place in society and the development process (Fasokun 2000).

      Entrepreneurial education seems to be the major key policy to promote entrepreneurship development for women in Nigeria. Entrepreneurship education should be inculcated into school curriculum at all levels. Research indicates that Small and Medium Enterprise Industrial Empowerment Scheme (SMEIES) operators ranked the reasons for failure of entrepreneurs' application for loans and came up with reasons that range from bad feasibility studies, poor management skills, lack of proper accounting, poor character checks and attitudes among others. All these are challenges that can be remedied by entrepreneurship education. Even as the 93 approved Nigerian universities have adopted entrepreneurial studies, funds and the dearth of teachers to train the students has remained an obstacle.

A number of current training centers/programs are urban-based, for example, the Industrial Development Centers established in the 1960s are urban-based. Small Medium Entrepreneurial Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) aimed at facilitating credit, technology markets, capacity building, training and technical support for SMEs and provide adequate linkage with women bodies is urban-based and starved of funds. Agribusiness is rural-based and better educated farmers are more likely to adopt new technologies and have access to credit and extension services (Adereti, 2000).

3)          Technology

Many women, due to lack of exposure and financial limitations, still make use of old technology in farming, processing and preservation thus leading to drudgery and low output.

4)    Cultural Restrictions/Weak Land Rights:

The Nigerian culture cannot be described as being gender friendly. For example, the "Kule" policy in the North where married women are forbidden from going out of the house in daylight for business is an initiative/development-killer policy that should be discouraged in this 21st Century. In Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, where women have prime responsibility for food production, they are generally limited to user rights to land and subject to the consent of a male relative (FAO, 1982). Culture and social practices discriminate against women to be enterprise successors/inheritors or own independent assets which could easily serve as collaterals. Such unequal land rights are reflected in the smaller land sizes of women farmers thus limiting them economically.

5)       Lack of Equipment and Appropriate Technology

Despite women's extensive and varied participation in agriculture, they continue to have less access to modern agriculture inputs. Consequently, women agro-entrepreneurs work under very difficult and laborious conditions, using crude traditional technology. Technology is closely related to finance and education. Nigerian women entrepreneurs, especially in agriculture, work under very difficult and laborious conditions, using crude traditional technology. There is urgent need for provision of modern, cost effective and affordable technologies for the use of women.  

Moreover, some new technology has often been inappropriate to women's needs. There is a need to define some priority actions to promote the role of women in the economy because it has been showed that women are productive and efficient when they have access to the right technologies and opportunities.

6)       Erroneous Ideas about Women and Credit

There are certain myths about women in respect to credit which have made them to remain poor and limited their entrepreneurial prospects. One of such myths is that poor women make poor credit risks. This is being proved wrong as Olutunla (2008) reported that Nigerian women have been found to be more faithful in terms of loan repayment to Banks than men.

7)                Entrepreneurial Attitude

According to Akpa (2007), an average entrepreneur is rugged and aggressive. These are common attributes of men while most women are of the gentle and kind disposition. Men tend to focus on gettingthe job done while women tend to focus on being more inclusive and relational. If a woman entrepreneur is to succeed, she must adopt some level of ruggedness and aggressiveness. Success is not gender-friendly.

8)                   Research and Extension Services

For a long time, agronomic researchers do not pay attention to the role of women in the farming system. Research into the activities of women in agriculture is gaining attention only recently. A survey in Ogun State, Nigeria (Elabor-Idemudia, 1991) and Osun State, Nigeria (Ogbimi and Williams, 1999) revealed that Extension Agents visited between 7-10% of women farmers every week compared to 70% of the male farmers who received weekly visits. An FAO (1989) study found government investment on agriculture represented less than half the sector's contribution to national income, therefore, it is reasonable to guess that women's access to extension services and training especially in the area of fish farming, processing, packaging, distribution and marketing are unlikely to improve when the overall funding and availability of services is declining.

9)          Misplaced Focus

Many agricultural projects and programs are not suited to the special circumstances of women or may not reach women at all, thus truncating the intended effort to increase food production.

10)      Market and Marketing

Due to lack of good roads in Nigeria, electricity, poor access to information and poor networking, many farm produce perish thus discouraging women farmers.

Strategies for Women Agro-Entrepreneurship Development

·                    The complementary policy issues in entrepreneurship education should include increasing women enrolment in schools at all levels especially in the field of agriculture to reduce gender inequality. Budgetary allocation should be made to accommodate more continuing and vocational education.

·                    More seminars/workshops should be sponsored and extended to rural areas to increase women's capacity to start and grow their agribusiness, prepare sound business plan/feasibility studies and increase their technical and managerial capacity in agribusiness.

·        Modern processing plants/storage facilities should be installed for women groups on government/private joint partnership basis so that women can process and store their farm produce with ease.

·        The enabling environment in terms of gender-friendly policies, good roads, pipe-borne water and electricity should be provided by the various arms of government.

·        Cooperatives and women groups should be more formally instituted and encouraged among women to position them strategically to access fund and other inputs with ease.

·        The Government should mandate the commercial Banks to produce more gender-friendly loan packages (low interest rates and more relaxed duration of repayment).

·        Women should be exposed to the latest agro-technology from time to time to remove drudgery in farming, processing and preservation techniques.

·        Nigerian women should be encouraged to network more, both at the national and international levels for more exposure, to access fund and export information.

·        Agro-extension institutions should be boosted and more women extension agents be trained to reduce women to extension workers ratio and for wider coverage of women agriculturists.

Conclusion

            Nigeria's vision of becoming one of the top twenty leading economies of the world by the year 2020, otherwise known simply as vision 20:20 appears compelling enough to energize its over 150 million people (nearly half of which are women) to make the vision a reality. To accomplish this laudable goal, there is urgent need to pay attention to the development of agro-women entrepreneurs so that they can take their place in family advancement and national economic development. The government and development/change agencies must not only be prepared to recognize the economic role of the women but must also extend to them the same recognition and facilities as the men are enjoying.

REFERENCES

Accat, E.C. (1983): "Women's Role in Horticultural Production in Developing Countries" A Paper presented at F.A.O. Expert Consultation on Women in Food Production. Rome, Italy. 7-14 December, pp. 3-7.

Adereti F.O. (2000): Poverty Alleviating Strategies for Rural Women in Osun State. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis, University of Ibadan , pp.36-37.

Akpa A. (2007): Challenges of the Nigerian entrepreneur in the twenty-first century. A paper presented at the maiden Annual College of Management Sciences Seminar, University of Mkar. 10p

Akpera D.M. and Sunday M. (2008): Strategies for the development of entrepreneurs in Nigeria. A paper presented at the 3-day International workshop on "Promoting Entrepreneurship Education Among Nigeria women: Issues and Approaches" Abuja 12p

Boserup, E. (1970): Women's Role in Economic Development. St. Martino Press New York, George Allen and Unwin Ltd.

Buvinie, M. and Mehra, R. (1990): Women in Agriculture: What Development can do. ICRW (International Centre for Research on Women) Pp. 3-5.

Elabor-Idemudia, P. (1991): Impact of Structural Adjustment Programs on Women and their Household

in Bendel and Ogun States, Nigeria. In: Structural Adjustment and West African Women Farmers, Christina H. Gladwin (ed.), Gainesville, University of Florida, p128-150

Ezumah N. N. and Di Domenico C. M. (1995):Enhancing the role of women in crop production: A case     study of Igbo women in Nigeria. World Development, 23(10), p1731-1744.


References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.

Fasokun, T.O. (200-): The role of education in poverty eradication. In "Education for the Millennium Development" Vol.1 Eds; M.  Boucouvalas and R. Aderinoye. Spectrum Books Ltd., Ibadan pg.459-475

Food and Agricultural Organization (1982): Role of Women in Agricultural Production. FAO, Rome pg.5

Food and Agricultural Organization (1989): Effects of Stabilization and Structural Adjustment

Programmes on Food Security. Committee on World Food Security, Fourteenth Session, Rome, Italy, 3-7 April 1987.

Kiyosaki, T.R. (1993):If you want to be Rich and Happy, Don't Go to School (Fair field: Aslan publishing)

Ogbimi G. E. and and Williams S. B. (1999): Gender Sensitivity and Marginalized Group: Assessment

of Availability of Productive Assets to Women in Agricultural Development. Unpublished Paper. 14p.

Okojie, C.E.E. (2002): "Globalization and the Women's Enterprises; Opportunity and Challenges". UNIFEM Women Entrepreneurs Forum. Lagos

Olutunla G.T. (2008): Policy Framework and Strategy for Entrepreneurship Development of Nigerian Women. A paper presented at the 3-day International workshop on "Promoting Entrepreneurship Education Amongst Nigerian Women: Issues and Approaches" Abuja. 15p

Magaji, S. (2004): "Introduction to Project Evaluation". Sanitex Press.  Abuja

Patel, A.U. and Anthonio, Q.B.O. (1973): "Farmers' Wives in Agricultural Development: The Nigerian Case" Paper presented at XV International Congress of Agricultural Economists. August 20-29, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Suleiman, A.S. (2006): The Business Entrepreneur; Entrepreneurial Development, Small and Medium Enterprises, 2nd Edition, Entrepreneurship Academy Publishing, Kaduna.

World Bank (2000): "Nigeria at a glance". The World Bank, Washington D.C

WOMENS EDUCATION

A STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING WOMEN'S ENTRY INTO HIGHER EDUCATION.

INTRODUCTION

            Inducement of social change as one of the fundamental functions of education has been spelt out in the report of the Indian Education Commission (1964-66) thus:

            "The realization of the country's aspirations involves changes in the knowledge, skills and values of the people as a whole.  If this 'change in a grand scale' is to be achieved without a violent revolution there is one and only instrument that can be used – Education".

EDUCATION :-

            Education is the nourishment of the mind with knowledge this is practiced purposefully and productively.

            Education disciplines the mind, sharpens the intellect and refines the spirit.  It shapes and polishes a rough unknown diamond into a multifaceted kohinoor  sparkling with scintillating brilliance.  Its the development of integrated personality that unfolds itself to the highest wisdom.  Its a continuous process.

            The philosopher President Dr.Radhakrishnan (1948) said, "There cannot be educated people without educated women.  If general education has to be limited to men or women, that opportunity should be given to women from them it would most surely be passed on to the next generation".

HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN :-

            Higher education is defined as the education attained after the completion of 12 years of schooling.  Higher education for women has gained a wider role and responsibility all over the world.  Today, in the 21st century, we cannot afford to ignore the importance of higher education for women any longer.  The reason for its need and urgency is that there is no biological difference in the systems of males and females.  Unfortunately, this important task of higher education of women has remain neglected for centuries.  Need for higher education among women assumes all the more importance or the 3rd world countries, where colonialism has remained a great force hindering education for the general masses and for the women in particular.

OBJECTIVES OF HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN:-

            To provide society with competent men and women trained in agriculture, arts, medicine, science and technology and various other professions, who will also be cultivated individuals in built with a sense of social purpose.

            To strive to promote equality an social justice and to reduce social and cultural differences through diffusion of education.

NEED FOR HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN : MALE AND FEMALE :-

            Higher Education may also be viewed in terms of the needs of its consumers.  The term consumer is very wide and heterogeneous.  It includes young and old of both sexes.  Theoretically the need for Higher Education for both males and females is the same.  But its sometime argued that males and females are different in their social and cultural needs.

            The basic argument which is given for women Higher Education is not that Higher Education for women is different from that of men.  Our main thrust is that in the field of Higher Education, women should also be equal partners.  Our past experience shows that so far Higher Education has remained restricted only to men.  It should now widen its horizon and include women also.  The commission on the Higher Education for women, University of Madras in 1979 rightly observed: "for Women and men college education is necessary for character formation, ability to earn, creative self expression and personal development".

MAIN FACTORS INFLUENCING WOMEN'S SUCCESS / FAILURE IN COMPLETING HIGHER EDUCATION :-

Success :

a)                  Women are strongly motivated to succeed in the education stream.

b)                  The merit basis of the education system permits females to excel.

c)                  Prejudice against women's education has been reduced. Higher Education has come to be considered equivalent to a bride's "dowry".

d)                  Women's universities promote women's Higher Education.

e)                  Women's expectations for education based employment are high.

f)                    Some Higher Education courses provide scholarship facilities for women.

g)                  Female students have been provided with residential facilities in some areas.

Failure :

a)                  Female students have difficulties in access to transport facilities in general.

b)                  Sexual harassment as well as occasional student violence hinder female students completion of higher education.

c)                  Marriage in many cases leads to early withdraw.

d)                  Gender stereotyping inhibits completion of studies.

e)                  Financial constraints can cause withdrawal from the education stream.

f)                    Part-time work to earn living interferes with studies.

SIGNIFICANCE OF PRESENT STUDY :-

            The objective of the Indian Society as has been laid down in the constitution is to achieve a democratic, socialistic and egalitarian society.  In such a society women are supposed to perform their roles at par with men.  Their status structurally needs to be equal with men.

            Broadly speaking, knowledge which is imparted through Higher Education provides skills to its practitioners.  Our understanding is that by acquiring skills the women raise their status in comparison with men and also the status of the group to which they belong.

            In order to understand the status of women, or for that matter to understand any social issues, it is necessary to combine at least 3 perspectives viz. the perspective from policy, the perspective  from statistics and the perspective from culture.

·              The present study is aimed at finding the various reasons for women seeking entry into higher education.

·              It aims at looking at the reasons for seeking entry into higher education by women from the perspective of men, teachers, parents and the women themselves.

·              It bring about an awareness among women as to the various avenues open to them in Higher Education and thus mark the beginning of a major process of empowering women.

·              To find out the problems hindering the pursuit of Higher Education by women.

·              Make suggestions for finding solutions to the above problems in a rational and free manner.

·              To suggest ways  of enhancing women's entry into colleges, including professional course.

·              To explore areas of Higher Education where women have not yet stepped in or are a monopoly of men.

·               To suggest suitable measures to make higher education for women universal i.e. free of cost, time and distance effective.

  

PROMOTING HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN

The social context of educational policy has to be improved.

Family and personal counseling at the secondary education stage can be provided.

Higher education can be made skill oriented.

Nontraditional curricula for women can be established.

Recent declines in state support for non-traditional higher education has to be reversed.

Institutions can be made physically accessible i.e. Locate them near the potential clientele, improve transport system etc.

Higher Education  Institutions have to be made more women-friendly i.e. Physical Changes, curricula changes, social changes.

Women's representation on institutions decision-making bodies can be increased.

Equal opportunity commissions for higher education institutions should be established.

The number of women teachers in co-educational institutions of higher education should be increased.

Stipends, Scholarships and fellowships can be linked to affirmative action programmes.

Women need to be recruited into administrative training programmes for institutions of higher education.

A large role for women's study centres can be provided.

Institutions of higher education should provide placement services.

Barriers to women's career entry should be removed, example: employers should be sensitized to the value of flexitime, day-care centres etc.

Sexual harassment in the educational environment should be addressed.

A large number of female secondary education graduates usually are not able to enter university.  To accommodate that population it would be benefited to strengthen the role of vocational training institutions.  Post secondary vocational training institutions should take action to promote entry of women into vocational training lines traditionally considered male preserves.

            Affirmative action quotas has to be provided to promote women's admission into higher institutions, where such quotas exist, should be reviewed periodically to ensure their continuing relevance.

            Where quotas are provides for specific disadvantaged groups like disabled persons, people from remote or rural areas, members of indigenous minorities, a minimum share should be reserved for female members of those groups.

            Distance education and open learning institutions and techniques should be promoted, particularly to extend higher education opportunities to women in rural and remote areas, which will take into account their needs.

 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH :-

            The present study is limited only to women students seeking higher education up to undergraduate level in a few professional and non-professional colleges of Chennai city.  The following suggestions are given for further investigation.

1.                  A similar study may be conducted among the postgraduate level or research level students.

2.                  A similar study may be undertaken throughout Tamil Nadu State.

3.                  A comparative study of factors influencing entry of women in higher education can be made between a developing and developed country.

4.                  A similar study may be attempted for various issues relating higher education of women.    

           

Impact of Education on Domestic Violence and Development of Women through Education

 

                                                                                                                                               

 

INTRODUCTION

You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women.

- Jawaharlal Nehru

"Literary education is of no value, if it is not able to build up a sound character."

- Mahatma Gandhi

 

            Education has been regarded as the most significant instrument for changing women's subjugated position in the society. It not only develops the personality and rationality of individuals, but qualifies them to fulfill certain economic, political and cultural functions and thereby improves their socio-economic status. One of the direct expectations from educational development in a society is the reduction in the inequality among individuals and that is why Education was included as the basic right of every human being in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The constitution of UNESCO also directs its efforts to achieve `The ideal of equality of educational opportunity without regard to race, sex or any distinction, economic or social'.

            Domestic Violence (sometimes referred to as domestic abuse or spousal abuse) occurs when a family member, partner or ex-partner attempts to physically or psychologically dominate another. Domestic violence often refers to violence between spouses, or spousal abuse but can also include cohabitants and non-married intimate partners. Domestic violence occurs in all cultures; people of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexes and classes can be perpetrators of domestic violence. Domestic violence is perpetrated by both men and women, occurring in both same-sex and opposite-sex relationships.  

What Is Domestic Violence?

            Domestic violence is controlling behaviour and includes all kinds of physical, sexual and emotional abuse within all kinds of intimate relationships. The perpetrators of domestic violence or abuse are usually men and the victims or survivors are usually women and children that they know. It includes:

• Punching and slapping

• Kicking and hair pulling

• Biting and pinching

• Pushing and shoving

• Being forced to have sex

• Being beaten or cut with other objects

• Disrespect, neglect and emotional blackmail

• Verbal abuse and swearing

• Being prevented from going out or seeing people – being isolated

• Lying, harassment and putting pressure on you through threats

            1:4 women experience domestic violence at some point in their lives and 1:10 will be experiencing domestic violence today

WOMEN VIOLENCE IN DIFFERENT STATES OF INDIA

            Over 37 per cent married women in the country were victims of physical or sexual abuse by their husbands with Bihar topping the list. Women in Himachal Pradesh faced less violence at home compared to other states in the country. The latest National Family Health Survey-III found that 37.2 per cent women had experienced violence and cited lack of education as the key reason behind their woes. "Women with no education were much more likely than other women to have suffered spousal violence. However, spousal abuse also extends to women who have secondary or higher secondary level education, with 16 per cent reporting abuse," the survey said.

            The survey showed that countrywide more women face violence in rural areas (40.2) as compared to those in the urban areas (30.4).

            In Bihar, women in urban areas fared worse than those in rural areas. While 62.2 per cent underwent the trauma in urban areas, it was 58.5 per cent women in villages.

            It is followed by Rajasthan (46.3) Madhya Pradesh (45.8), Tripura (44.1), Manipur (43.9), Uttar Pradesh (42.4), Tamil Nadu (41.9), West Bengal (40.3) and Arunachal Pradesh (38.8).

            Among the metros, the fairer sex was better off in Delhi (16.3) and Mumbai (19.5) recorded relatively low percentage as compared to Chennai (40.6) and Kolkata (26.7).

            Nearly, 17 per cent women in Goa have experienced violence, with 17.2 women in rural areas at the receiving end as compared to 16.4 per cent women in urban areas.

            In Chhattisgarh, a total of 30 per cent women suffered at the hands of their husbands, while in Jharkhand, the figure was 37 per cent. About 40.8 per cent women in Jharkhand villages found the going tough as compared to 24.6 per cent in the urban areas.

            In the hill state of Uttarakhand, nearly 28 per cent women experienced violence, with those in villages (29.8) fared worse than their urban counterparts (22.8). After Himachal Pradesh, women fared relatively better in Jammu and Kashmir (12.6), Meghalaya (13.1), Nagaland (15.4), Sikkim (16.5) and Kerala (16.4).

Other states where women find themselves vulnerable are Assam (39.6), Arunachal Pradesh (38.8), Orissa (38.5), Maharashtra (30.7), Andhra Pradesh (35.2), Haryana (27.3), Gujarat (27.6) Punjab (25.4), Mizoram (22.5) and Karnataka (20).

CRIME AGAINST WOMEN IN INDIA

·        One crime against women every three minutes

·        One rape every 29 minutes

·        One dowry death case every 77 minutes

·        One case of cruelty by husband and relatives every nine minutes

·        Once suicide every 240 minutes.

Source: National Crime Records Bureau       

CHILD VIOLENCE

           Children are the nation's assets. A happy child will make his/her home and the country happy. The future of any country depends upon the right upbringing of its children, for which a congenial environment and adequate opportunities for wholesome development are essential.

According to UNICEF's  "The State of the World's Children," report for 2006, one-third of the world's children lack adequate shelter, 31% lack basic sanitation and 21% have no access to clean, potable water.  Illness, malnutrition, and premature death are common when children lack the most basic protection.

            A government commissioned survey has found that more than 53 per cent of children in India are subjected to sexual abuse, but most don't report the assaults to anyone.

            The survey, released last April and which covered different forms of child abuse physical, sexual and emotional as well as female child neglect, found that two out of every three children have been physically abused.

            Parents and relatives, persons known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility were mostly found to be the perpetrators of child sexual abuse in the country. According to the women and child development ministry-sponsored report, which assumes greater significance in the backdrop of the Nithari killings that brought into focus the issue of children's safety, those in the age group of 5-12 years reported higher levels of abuse.

            While releasing the survey, Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said, "Child abuse is shrouded in secrecy and there is a conspiracy of silence around the entire subject. The ministry is working on a new law for protection of children's rights by clearly specifying offences against children and stiffening punishments."

            The survey carried out across 13 states and with a sample size of 12,447, revealed that 53.22 per cent of children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse, with Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Delhi reporting the highest percentage of such incidents. In 50 per cent of child abuse cases, the abusers were known to the child or were in a position of trust and responsibility and most children did not report the matter to anyone.

            The survey, sponsored by WCD ministry and carried out by the NGO Prayas in association with UNICEF and Save the Children, found that more than 50 per cent children were subjected to one or the other form of physical abuse and more boys than girls were abused physically. The first-ever survey on child abuse in the country disclosed that nearly 65 per cent of school children reported facing corporal punishment beatings by teachers mostly in government schools.

            Of children physically abused in families, in 88.6 per cent of the cases, it was the parents who were the perpetrators. More than 50 per cent had been sexually abused in ways that ranged from severe such as rape or fondling to milder forms of molestation that included forcible kissing.

            The study also interviewed 2,324 young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, almost half of whom reported being physically or sexually abused as children. When it comes to emotional abuse, every second child was subjected to emotional assault and in 83 per cent of the cases, parents were the abusers.

Children living with domestic violence may:

 

• Express behavioural problems.

• Be more likely to truant or have difficulties at school.

• Turn to alcohol or drugs.

• Self-harm or attempt suicide.

            According to the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) of Children living with domestic violence:

 

Ø      100% are emotionally abused.

Ø      48% are psychologically abused.

Ø      26% are physically abused.

Ø      13% are accidentally injured.

Ø      7% are sexually abused.

Recent figures from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) show that:

v     Globally, 1 in 6 children work.

v     218 million children aged 5 - 17 are involved in child labour world wide.

v     126 million children work in hazardous conditions.

v     The highest numbers of child labourers are in the Asia/Pacific region, where there are 122 million working children.

v     The highest proportion of child labourers is in Sub Saharan Africa, where 26% of children (49 million) are involved in work.

DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH EDUCATION       

 

        Education is the process of instruction aimed at the all round development of boys and girls. Education dispels ignorance. It is the only wealth that cannot be robbed. Learning includes the moral values and the improvement of character and the methods to increase the strength of mind.

            Once the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru said, "you can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women". This is absolutely true. Woman of any nation is the mirror to its civilization. If women enjoy good status it shows that the society has reached a level of maturity and sense of responsibility while a decadent image conjures up if the opposite is true. The story of Indian women is as old as the history of Indian civilization.

            Kumud Sharma of the Centre for Women's Development Studies in New Delhi traced the correlation between education and domestic violence to patriarchal attitudes. "Educated women are aware of their rights," she said. "They are no longer willing to follow commands blindly. When they ask questions, it causes conflicts, which, in turn, leads to violence. In many Indian states, working women are asked to hand over their paycheck to the husband and have no control over their finances. So, if they stop doing so or start asserting their right, there is bound to be friction."

Female Literacy in India

            According to last census held in 2001, the percentage of female literacy in the country is 54.16%. The literacy rate in the country has increased from 18.33% in 1951 to 65.38% as per 2001 census. The female literacy rate has also increased from 8.86% in 1951 to 54.16%. It is noticed that the female literacy rate during the period 1991-2001 increased by 14.87% whereas male literacy rate rose by 11.72%. Hence the female literacy rate actually increased by 3.15% more compared to male literacy rate.

 

WOMEN UNIVERSITIES IN INDIA

 

Ø      Andhra Pradesh

      Sri Padmavati University, Tirupati

Ø      Delhi

      Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Lajpat Nagar

Ø      Maharashtra

      SNDT Women's University, Mumbai

Ø      Rajasthan

      Banasthali Vidyapith, Banasthali

Ø      Tamil Nadu

      Stella Maris College, Chennai

      Women's Christian College, Chennai

      Madura College, Madurai        

 

            It is necessary to establish some more universities and colleges for women in India. Education is a solution for any type of problem in the society. Education gives strength, power and character. Education helps to improve economic position also in the society.

            The number of women job seekers has increased from 99.3 lacs in 1999 to 106.1 lacs in 2004. Thus the percentage of women job seekers to the total job-seekers has also increased from 24.6per cent in 1999 to 26.2per cent in 2004.

Table 1: Number of Women Job Seekers

Year

Number of Women (in lacs)

Percentage to total

1999

99.3

24.6

2000

104.5

25.3

2001

108.8

25.9

2002

106.0

25.9

2003

107.5

26.0

2004

106.1

26.0

      Number of Educated Women Job Seekers as on December 2004 was 7537.7 thousand. Educated Women at the end of 2004 accounted for 25.8per cent of the total educated job-seekers.

Table 2: Number of Educated Women Job Seekers

Year

Number of Women

Percentage to total

2000

7911.7

27.1

2001

8525.6

28.1

2002

7921.4

26.8

2003

8032.4

26.6

2004

7537.7

25.8

 

Vision of National Commission for Women

 

            Dr.( Miss. ) Girija Vyas took over as Chairperson of the National Commission for Women on 16th February, 2005.

            The Indian Women of Today Culturally rooted, Globally oriented Healthy, Educated, Self Reliant Secure in her Home and Safe Outside With Access to all the Rights of a Citizen With Opportunity to Contribute in all walks of life.

 

MODERN INDIAN WOMEN

 

            The status of women in modern India is a sort of a paradox. If on one hand she is at the peak of ladder of success, on the other hand she is mutely suffering the violence afflicted on her by her own family members. As compared with past women in modern times have achieved a lot but in reality they have to still travel a long way. Their path is full of roadblocks. The women have left the secured domain of their home and are now in the battlefield of life, fully armored with their talent. They had proven themselves. But in India they are yet to get their dues. The sex ratio of India shows that the Indian society is still prejudiced against female. There are 933 females per thousand males in India according to the census of 2001, which is much below the world average of 990 females. There are many problems which women in India have to go through daily. These problems have become the part and parcel of life of Indian women and some of them have accepted them as their fate.

FIRST WOMAN OF INDIA

            Women had played an important role in the Modern World. Here are some of the most successful & first women of the world, who lead a Nation, a Party, a State, etc.

·        First woman President of Indian National Congress -- Annie Besant (1917)

·        First Indian woman President of Indian National Congress -- Sarojini Naidu (1925)

·        First woman Ambassador from India -- Vijay Lakshmi Pandit (to USSR from1947-49)

·        First woman Governor of an Indian State -- Sarojini Naidu (UP from 1947-48)

·        First woman Minister of an Indian State -- Vijay Lakshmi Pandit (UP)

·        First Mayor of Delhi -- Aruna Asif Ali (1958)

·        First woman Central Minister -- Rajkumari Amrit Kaur

·        First woman Film star to be a member of Rajya Sabha -- Nargis Dutt

·        First woman Chief Minister of an Indian State -- Sucheta Kriplani (UP from 1963-67)

·        First woman Prime Minister of India -- Indira Gandhi (1966-77 & 1980-84)

·        First woman Speaker of an Indian State -- Shano Devi

·        First woman winner of the Bharat Ratna -- Indira Ghandi (1971)

·        First woman Judge of the Supreme Court -- Justice M Fatima Bevi (1989)

·        First woman Chief Justice of a High Court -- Leila Seth (CJ of Himachal Pradesh 1991)

·        India's officially recognized billionth citizen -- Aastha (Born on May 11, 2000 at ND)

CONCLUSIONS

            Indian women have mastered anything and everything which a woman can dream of. But she still has to go a long way to achieve equal status in the minds of Indian men. The desire of Indian women can be best summed up in the following lines of 'Song of an African Women':

I have only one request.
I do not ask for money
Although I have need of it,
I do not ask for meat . . .
I have only one request,
And all I ask is
That you remove
The road block
From my path.

            Educate all the children in the family. Education is the most powerful instrument for the development of women and children in the society.8th March is observed as International Women's Day. It is necessary to celebrate International Women's Day every year in a grand manner. Our present president Pratibha Patil is also a woman. It is the power and credit of woman. It is also very important to celebrate Children's Day on November 14th and Mother's day.  

Reference:

1.      National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2001). The National Reading Panel: Reports of the Subgroups.

 

2.      UNESCO Institute for Statistics: Literacy rates, youth (15-24) and adult (15+), by region and gender (September 2006 Assessment).

 

3.   Heilbroner, R. L. (1995) Visions of the future: the distant past, yesterday, today,      

     and tomorrow (New York: Oxford University Press).

 

4.   Child and Women Development Report, (2006), Ministry of Women and Child  

      Development, Government of India, New Delhi.

 

5.    National Family Health Survey, (2006), Government of India, New Delhi.

 

6.    National Crime Records Bureau, (2007), Government of India, New Delhi.

 

7.   Census of India, (2001), Government of India, New Delhi.

 

 

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