The Problem Encountered By Married Female Students In Their Studies

THE PROBLEM ENCOUNTERED BY MARRIED FEMALE STUDENTS IN THEIR STUDIES

Married Female Students

Abstract

The major focus of the study was to explore the social, cultural, financial and academic problems of married women at higher education, and also to sensitize, orientate relevant stakeholders to address them. It was descriptive research following qualitative approach to collect data with the semi-structured interview. Population of the study were married female students enrolled in private Universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, and 20 participants were selected through snowball sampling technique to collect the data. It is concluded that education is basic necessity for every human beings whether male or female, however, certain families in Pakistan do not allow women in general and married women in particular for higher education because of social, cultural, religious, economic and educational factors. Support for the education of married women depends upon family attitude, educational status, financial stability and husband viewpoint.

Most of the conservative families think that higher education environment will bring moral deprivation, grant unrestricted freedom, and delay in marriage for their daughters. It is recommended that seminars and focused programs are required to be designed to change the perceptions of the society about female education, and universities as well as HEC increase the number of scholarships for female education. Non-formal education system may target to female who are not allowed to go out of their cities for education. It is also recommended that higher education institutions design flexible working hours for married women so that they will be able to cope with the domestic work and academic workload without stress and tension.

Introduction

Importance of education has been recognised by every religions and civilizations. According to Islam, it is compulsory for both male and female (Adeel, 2010). It is basic human right and contributes significantly in achieving equality, peace and development. It provides opportunities to human beings to play vital role in society. It is famous Chinese saying that educating a woman is educating the whole family. Progress and prosperity without the education of women will merely a dream.

In Pakistan, like wise in the world women have established themselves as a good manager, engineer, information technology specialist (IT), teacher, banker, army officers. According to Goldin (2004), education of women effects development and progress of society, and women with education can lead better social development and economic growth. Study conducted by Bari, (2005) revealed that women education has long term benefits to the family and the society. Mothers’ education has significant effects on the education of their children as well as on the society.Married Female Students

According to Chaudhry and Rahman (2009), through higher education women are able to internalize the particular culture of their society in which they are expected to be a good wife and wise mother. According to Murray, (2009) higher education provides women with better health and job opportunities. Inspite of the recognition about the importance of women education, there are many barriers in the way of women to get higher education and to contribute their maximum input for the betterment of society in Pakistan likewise in some of the developing countries. Married Female Students

Some conservative families in Pakistan take them home-confine and reproductive commodity. The mind set of society does not allow girls for higher education that promote gender inequality and prioritizing the resources for boys. They get less opportunities as compared to men not only in education but also economic, political and other fields of life as well (Daraz, 2012; Bari, 2005). Study conducted by Goldin (2004) revealed that married women face many problems and leave their education incomplete due to different social and cultural factors. Married womenare supposed to look after the house and children instead of going out for studies. Movement of female outside their homes is restricted at the beginning by their parents and husbands after marriage. Women have to work and look after their husband and children.

Majority of the married women are willing to continue higher education after marriage but face safety and security problems, travelling long distances to attend educational institutes, balancing workload of child rearing, family engagements, career and studies (Kuperberg, 2009; Sathar, Lloyd & Haque (2000). Illiterately rate of female in Pakistan is more than 50 percent, and at higher level education, the participation of women has increasing trend but their proportion is very small. With this background, this study was design to explore social, cultural, family and economical problems of married women at higher education. The study is significant in terms of exploring the root causes of different problems faced by female married students while preceding higher education after marriage. The views and opinions of respondents contribute to explore pathway dealing with social views and attitudes that are obstacle for women continuing their higher education.

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