A Woman With Too Many Degrees

During class yesterday, a fellow student told me about a man who proposed to her. She said he told her “I am very ambitious and very achieving. What are your ambitions?” She told him she wanted to get a PhD (although in reality she doesn’t, but she was testing the waters so to speak), to which he said “A PhD?! I don’t like a woman who has many degrees.”

I felt disgusted and made a joke about that cave-dweller who boasted he had a 2008 model Mercedes. The girl even told the whole class about him, complete with his full name, and we all laughed and had a good time at his retarded expense. I have heard it and seen it time and again how many men in this society have a “thing” against highly educated women, how they would rather snatch a Tawjihi student instead of an MA degree holder.

It’s not only about the age of the Tawjihi student (a ripe, young girl), but also about her qualifications. In the minds and culture of these men, a younger woman with less education is far more obedient than a well educated one. They believe that they can shape and mould this younger, less educated wife as they please, while the other will most definitely be difficult to tame. By this token, they don’t think of their potential wives as partners but more as inferior servants who must, at all times, remain inferior. They will not opt for the ones that might equal or compete with them in education or other qualifications. It makes them less men (as if they are men to start with).

The question I have always had concerning this practice in Jordan is: how insecure can these men possibly get? Obviously, they feel threatened by a woman’s qualifications. They want to lord over their marital households not only because they are men (the classical justification for their superiority complex), but also because they are in fact better educated and therefore better breadwinners which adds an economical value to their social status.

Read these bits from an article by Linda Hindi of The Jordan Times:

Gender equality should be priority for economic development – UN

Gender equality

UN member states regard gender equality as an essential factor for the achievement of its priorities of peace and security, human rights and development, including the Millennium Development Goals.

* Investing in women and girls has a multiplier effect on productivity, efficiency and sustained economic growth. Educated women have more economic opportunities and engage more fully in public life.

* Women who are educated tend to have fewer and healthier children, and those children are more likely to attend school. Education also increases the ability of women and girls to protect themselves against HIV.

* Women make long-ranging contributions to poverty eradication and development.

* According to World Bank estimates, an increase of one percentage point in the share of women with secondary education is associated with a 0.3 percentage point increase in per capita income.

* Educated, healthy women are more able to undertake productive activities and earn higher incomes. Investments in women, the primary caretakers of the future generation, provide returns for decades. Better educated women are able to benefit from new technologies and the opportunities presented by economic change.

* Increasing women’s access to land, credit and other resources increases their well-being, and that of their families and communities and reduces the risks of poverty.

Oh, and the student in my class rejected that caveman’s sorry ass, in case you are wondering.