Sacrificed at the Altar of Postmodern Patriarchy!
Gender: Female. Age: 20-21. Education: Graduate in History, sociology, Political Science etc. Ambition: Waiting for the best catch in the marriage market.
Next year enters Post-Graduation in the subject concerned or a professional degree course but the aim remains the same. reason: marriage didn't materialize. This is the story for most of the girls (very true of the middle class). Higher education is not a matter of choice but from compulsion to get the best person available in the marriage market.
Again if someone has been unlucky till this point, she is 'permitted' to work because a working girl is preferred to a non-working one. If she is interested in studies, the next mark is a doctoral degree so that she can take up the teaching profession- generally taken to be a safe one for women and which will not let them neglect their home.
What happens if someone's marriage is arranged while completing the doctoral degree? a supportive husband and family will certainly lead to its completion. But what about those pursuing a doctorol degree in the sciences? They need labs for experiments and for writing papers. In this case, the desirous complete their doctorate but most are made to give it up in the middle and left with a sense being dissatisfied throughout life.
what strikes me is the way education has become a tool in the hands of patriarchy. The female child gets to study till the point her marriage has not been arranged. Once arranged, no one bothers to ask her whether she wants to quit studies or pursue them. It is expected of her to say good bye to studies unless the in-laws wish otherwise.
Again the notion of women working is a patriarchal creation. The men do not want the women to work because she enjoys doing so. The reason given by most is that the husband will not have to take time out for the wife in the evening; she will be too tired to demand an outing and will not have the time to 'disturb' the husband as she will have to do the cooking and other household activities (if the double income does not allow them to keep cooks etc.)!
Women are independent, free to make their own decisions but in most cases it seems to be a mirage! At the end of the day it is patriarchy which decides their fate!
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