Blog Post # 4: Business Education: Past and Present
I taught English
language at Dhaka Commerce College in Bangladesh for more than a decade.
According to the college magazine, a
total number of 2026 students were enrolled in business studies in 2010, of
which 652 were females and the rest males. To further mention, 2043, and 2446
students were enrolled respectively in 2011 and 2012. Of total 2043 students
enrolled in 2011, 578 students were female, and of total 2446 students enrolled
in 2012, 775 were females. 100% female students passed in final standardized
tests of 2010, 2011, and 2012 held nationally. The gradual increase of female
enrollment and their big success in business studies remind me of the business
education of the 1980s when I was a college student.
I was a student of
classes XI -XII in 1981-1982 at a college established in 1938 during the
British colonial rule in India. It is a renowned college where students from
different parts of the country would crowd to study (a) science, (b) business,
and (c) arts. Of these three branches, business study was a bit different in
respect of student-enrollment. In this branch, I found no female student at my
college. Students who studied business at the college were all male students.
Besides, brilliant students at that time would not study business. But now
things have changed. Most of the students nowadays prefer business studies.
Business education is now the demand of the society, and universities of the
country fulfill its demand. Now people of Bangladesh prefer business education
to science education, let alone arts
education. My question is: why were
not female students seen to pursue business studies in the past?
There were some irrational ideas about women in
male-dominated society. One of those ideas about them was that women do not
understand business. They lack intellectual ability to run business. They are
weak both intellectually and physically. This unempirical notion was planted in
the minds of both parents and girl students for years, ages, and centuries.
The negative ideas
about women stem even from big brains of the society. ‘Frailty, thy name is woman’ (Shakespeare, 1624) is its luminous
example. This misogynist idea about women finds an eloquent expression in
Hamlet’s comment. This comment made on woman's weakness is not only the comment
of Shakespeare but also the comment of all the male members of the male-dominated
society. "Wives are young men's mistresses;
companions for middle age; and old men's nurses" (Bacon,
1612) is also a representative comment of male-dominated society where women
are viewed to serve men only.
Thus, women are caged
for ages in families to serve as mistress, wife, mother, and nurse. It is
male-dominated society that strangles their latent talent of business and views
them incapable of running business. Donne (1633) views woman as a possession of man and this idea is
expressed in" She's all states, and all princes I”.
Male-dominated
society cages women, and isolates them from business world.
Nora— protagonist of A Doll's House (Ibsen, 1879)—is treated as a doll even in her own house.
Offended, she leaves her house to discover her own identity.
The negative idea
about woman as expressed in the writings of big playwrights, poets, and
essayists reinforces a common idea about women that they (women) are both
mentally and physically frail, fragile and weak. They are not fit for jobs of all kinds.
This
negative idea about women is, however, parochial and wrong. Women have proved
their worth in all spheres of life. They are now good doctors, good professors,
good engineers, good business administrators, and good politicians. Nowhere
have they lagged behind. To some extent, they exceed men. Now they are good
business persons. They are good students of business studies. Many of them
contribute to global economy and business. Angela Merkel—Chancellor of Germany, and Dilma
Rousseff—President
of Brazil can be
mentioned here.
To further mention, girls are doing better than boys
in most standardized tests. To exemplify, girls outdid boys in a science test in
65 countries in Asia, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and the
Middle East with an exception in the United States and Western Europe (The New
York Times, February 4, 2012). They are doing better at school
from inception to post-secondary (Sanford, 2006). According to her, a
significant number of boys fail in reading and writing test. They have
behavioral problems. Compared to them, girls have no behavioral problems. They
have no problems related to literacy and aspects of education. Girls, Sanford
(2006) argues, succeed to develop skill in school-based literacy—reading and writing. They gain skills necessary for
admission to post-secondary education. But how?
The overall
attitude of girls and their parents towards education, work and marriage has
now changed. Sexism has lessened with awareness of students, teachers and
parents, which leaves a positive effect on female education. Girls are now more
confident, more ambitious, and more assertive than the girls of 30 years ago
whose main concern was marriage, husband, and children. Girls of today like to
stand on their own feet; they decline to follow the footsteps of their mothers
and grandmothers.
Now they get
many routes of employment: job in media,
information technology, banks, garments industries, and education institutions.
These new opportunities provide a safe environment for young women who are now
less discriminated and harassed than before. The quota system maintained in
Bangladesh ensures an additional opportunity of job for women.
To
be employed in those sectors mentioned above, one needs to have business
studies background. This is another reason of increase in female enrolment. To
do better in career as they are doing better in academic examination, female
students often volunteer in those job sites. They learn practically involving
themselves in those fields even during their student life. Many of them are to
work as intern.
To
conclude, the big number of female students pursuing business studies is an
indicative of paradigm shift in education. To
keep this shift dynamic, students, teachers, and guardians need to work
concerted. The government also needs to extend logistic supports to this new
paradigm of learning.
References
Bacon
(1612). Of Marriage and Single Life. Retrieved from http://www
.bartleby.com/3/1/8.html
Donne,
J. (1633). The Sun Rising. Retrieved
from
Ibsen,
H. (1879). A Doll's House. Retrieved from
Sanford, K.(2006).
Gendered literacy experiences: The effects of expectation and opportunity for
boys' and girls' learning. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 302-315.
Schumann,
A. T. (2009). Review of the Bangladesh Female Secondary School Stipend Project Using a Social Exclusion
Framework. Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, 27 (4), 505-517.
Shakespeare.(1624). Hamlet. Retrieved
from
http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/hamlet/.
The
New York Times, February 4, 2012. Girls Lead in Science Exam, but Not in
the United
States.Retrieved from (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/04/science/girls-lead-in-science-exam-but-not-in-the-united-states.html)
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