Why Education Empowers Women

Hello again, dear readers!

Lately, I have been spending a lot of time working on the upcoming issue of Akshar, WLC’s annual magazine. This year’s issue will focus on the question of women’s empowerment, a concept that has always stood at the heart of WLC’s programming.

Women gathering to celebrate International Literacy Day

In order to learn more about how women at various levels of our organization feel empowered by their connection to WLC, I have been conducting interviews with women at many different project sites in and around Banaras. Speaking with these women on this subject has proven to be one of my most rewarding experiences in India. I have had the opportunity to discuss questions related to education, marriage, motherhood, financial independence, femininity, poverty, and patriarchy with women of varying ages, castes, incomes, and literacy levels.

If I started out by asking simple questions eliciting straightforward answers, I have more recently become fascinated by questions that begin with the word “why.” Of course every woman I interview is delighted by the educational opportunities that have been afforded to her and her children, but why do they think it is so important to become educated? Why do male stakeholders want to educate their daughters?

The answers that I’ve received are as humbling as they are intriguing. Saroj, a teacher from Lallapura (an area in which one of WLC’s Urban Community Projects is run) told me that before becoming literate she used to stay in her house all the time, cooking and cleaning and caring for her family. Her entire world was contained within that house. Now, she feels aware of her surroundings and connected to the world in which she lives. Furthermore, she now understands what happens when she sends her kids to school: previously, school was an abstract, vaguely positive concept of which she had no real understanding. She knew that sending her children to school was her maternal responsibility, but she didn’t know why until she started becoming educated herself.

Similarly, I spoke with my English student Pooja, 15, about how it feels to see her mother becoming literate. Pooja goes to a reputable school on a WLC scholarship, but her parents are poor and her mother’s only education has come from her WLC-run adult literacy class. Pooja told me that now her mother takes an active interest in her education, and she has a clearer conception of what Pooja is doing in school. Learning has become an area of shared interest between mother and daughter.

Pooja (second from right) other girls performing a dance for Children's Day

When I asked a similar question to Manorama, a Mahila Mandal president from NGO partner SSSS, she told me that an educated woman can support her family in a crisis. When a woman is illiterate and uneducated, no one asks her opinion or seeks her advice, and her experience of the world, generally limited to domestic matters, inhibits her from making important decisions related to the family’s welfare. An educated woman, however, is both respected and contributive—her advice is heeded and her voice is heard.

Manorama (centre) with mother-in-law and daughter

Coming to India from the West (mere weeks after completing my own Western education), I had certain ideas about why education is critical to development. As a person who has always been passionate about education, the thing that drew me to this internship in the first place was WLC’s focus on literacy. That women are empowered through education is as clear to me now as it ever was. The revelations and surprises—indeed, the moments that have comprised my infinitely valuable education in India— have come from hearing women tell me in their own ways not simply that they value their education but why they value it.