Female education

Female education is a catch-all term of a complex set of issues and debates surrounding education (primary education, secondary education, tertiary education, and health education in particular) for girls and women. It is frequently called girls' education or women's education. It includes areas of gender equality and access to education. The education of women and girls is important connection to the alleviation of poverty. Broader related topics include single-sex education and religious education for women, in which education is divided gender lines.

It is a strange fact that Oxford and Cambridge are closed to women today, so are Harvard and Yale; but Calcutta University opened its doors to women more than twenty years ago. - Swami Vivekananda

Quotes

• The parents who send their daughters to college are the enemies of their daughters, not their friends...
  There is no doubt, that a collegiate girl becomes extremely free, purdahless, immodest and shameless. This is the general consequence of English education and college atmosphere... A girl who loses modesty loses everything... Modesty and faith—they are inseparable companions; when either of them is taken away, the other too goes away.
  • Fatawa-i-Rahimiyyah quoted in Arun Shourie - The World of Fatwas Or The Sharia in Action (2012, Harper Collins)

• The education of women, in particular their being awakened to new values, their being trained for new professions, their being awakened to their rights—all this is anathema; it is held to be injurious to them, in fact it is declared to be the way to disrupting society and undermining Islam.
  • Arun Shourie - The World of Fatwas Or The Sharia in Action (2012, Harper Collins)

• In these modern days there is a greater impetus towards higher education on the European lines, and the trend of opinion is strong towards women getting this higher education. Of course, there are some people in India who do not want it, but those who do want it carried the day. It is a strange fact that Oxford and Cambridge are closed to women today, so are Harvard and Yale; but Calcutta University opened its doors to women more than twenty years ago.
  • Swami Vivekananda, Women of India [1]