EMPOWER; exploring men’s power over women’s education rights.
The importance of talking about "women’s education” is evident in the existence of such a strange and, one would think, unnecessarily specific term itself. Were there no gender inequality within education, after all, we would only have “education”. The fact that women’s education is a subsection within the overarching subject tells us what we need to know from the very beginning; that women's experience in education, as is often the case, is uniquely challenging.
An interview with Kerry Miller, former caretaker at The Women’s Centre and fresher at Glasgow College, is the inspiration for this exploration of what specifically it is about education in Scotland that is important today for women and the questioning of how it can benefit us? The key answer is that education is a tool for empowerment; meaning it is a tool through which women can unlock social, political and economic opportunities and gain a greater sense of freedom in their lives.
The intersections within the female population who currently live in an increasingly diverse Scotland mean that individual women will experience a varying degree of educational restrictions based on more than gender alone. However, we can see how we all, broadly, enjoy some rather progressive policy and access to education services; unlike in other parts of the world or in other points in history. There are two huge reasons why we should push for women to enter into education; firstly, to wipe out the remainder of social stigma that comes from a long standing history of women being excluded from these spaces and secondly, to normalise the existence of women in these spaces for further generations. It is not only in education, notably in higher education like Universities, where women are marginalised and feel social pressure to prove their belonging. For example, there are many similarities in how women operate within professional settings. Women have only been able, in terms of social acceptance, to enter into high powered jobs within the last few decades. By gradually taking up careers across different prestigious professional environments across Scotland, it has become less and less stigmatised to see a women in these places and more normalised for younger women to strive to such roles. Still, despite the opportunities to work as equals to men growing, there are still quiet expectations; that a woman should put extra effort into her appearance so that she looks not only presentable but appealing; that women shouldn’t be bossy; we should smile; we shouldn’t be aggressive… A comparatively similar expectation that our culture has, not for all but deeply ingrained for others, is that women do not belong in higher education.
Because of Scotlands historical context, in which, for example, women have only been able to go to University for around as long as Glasgow has had an operating public subway system, the lingering sense that education post-school-level is a man’s place threatens gender equality. Traditional ideas of the role of women and men within society can manifest in subtle but catastrophic ways. Often unconsciously, we raise our boys with a solid expectation that they will go to University; perhaps in order to get a degree and an impressive salary. Generally, as it always has been, men assume that they rightfully belong in academic environments. At the same time, yes, girls are also expected to have a proper education, required by law to attend school, but only in light of their youth. Once the base standard is met for girls, as for all children, we tend not to expect much more of them. Or more accurately, we tend to expect other behaviours; ones less traditionally associated with a scholar or an executive.
The undeniable progression from how strictly our expectations on women were and are in other cultures does not prevent the acknowledgement of how we still set disempowering limitations such as expecting that women will become mothers but not university graduates or that we are emotional but not intelligent. The girls who we tell such things to grow into women who lack expectations for themselves. So, fundamentally, it is our job to empower ourselves and fellow women by reforming the standard, redefining what an academic is and assuming that we, too, belong. Kerry offered some wonderful personal insight into her experience as both a (single) mother and someone who decided, after over a decade out of education, to enter into a Criminology programme at Glasgow College. She describes a sense of fear in the beginning, anxiety that, having spent so much time not being in an academic environment, it could be overwhelming to start again. Many women experience anxiety about entering higher education and this, as we’ve discussed, is often rooted in the social stigma.
Universities and Colleges in Scotland, many of which are hundreds of years old, have intensely rooted environments which have unquestionably been carefully cultivated throughout their history, the majority of which solely involving men, with a resulting sense of exclusivity. This exclusivity exposes itself in the anxiety women feel and this is why we must be acknowledge it and push back because when we discuss these unseen barriers, when we educate ourselves and our communities, they become visible and easier to dismantle through collective action of empowered and enlightened communities. One way we can do this is by setting an example and inspiring one another, for example, in the way that Kerry has. As she explains it
“this this opportunity to go back into education will allow my girls to see that they can achieve their goals and that anything is possible if you set your mind to it.”
Kerry is empowering herself and will be a source of inspiration to her daughters, who are more likely to to also work hard and use education to empower themselves. This way of infectiously uplifting is a major benefit for women’s empowerment. To infuse agency and assurance into others requires first and foremost a sense of belief and power in your own right. Therefore, it also takes an awareness of taking personal responsibility and not putting other women on a pedestal when we take inspiration from their self-empowerment work. Without the resources to support ones own ambition, there is little hope of successfully empowering anyone around you without burning out, which is an unfortunate habit of many women.
Kerry shared how she plans to use the skills and new knowledge she will gain from her College to benefit communities who are disadvantaged due to the exclusivity and inequality in education. Through active choice or unregulated bias, people with social, political or economic power focus on helping communities with whom they can relate to which perpetuates inequality and disparity across many industries, including education. This is why what Kerry is doing is so important; she is contributing to systematic empowerment of women and other disadvantaged groups. Kerry is learning how to strengthen herself socially and economically but more so, is projecting herself in a position of power, relative to where she is at currently, and planning ways to expand the source for a wider benefit.
Ultimately, it is these stories which we hear, see and share about women harnessing their power, in this case through the power of knowledge, to secure better job opportunities, stronger self-assurance and an expanding skillset which breathe life into the collective reserve of power that women have. Importantly, too, this takes effect on a scale that is not only local, giving way to a “butterfly effect” where one becomes a few and a few become many. More empowered women means more women capable of support and of fighting for our sisters further afar. Despite the obstacle of lasting influence from outdated gender roles and misogynistic laws, we can turn this long-lasting influence around and use it for good. The cliché that big change starts small stands particularly true in the case of women’s education and the link to global feminist progression. Bringing it back home, thank you to Kerry, who shared her story of personal empowerment and who, with high hopes, has a wee part in a global education revolution.
