IceSoul
September 10, 2011, 11:58am
91
Re: Why are girls so obsessed with marriage?
My points were based on British Asian females, not all the females of the world.
Pakistani and Bangladeshi Women’s Attitudes to Work and Family
Education
Most of the women interviewed valued education very highly, regardless of their age, education, migrational background or generation. Those with few or no qualifications often spoke of wanting their daughters to have a good education. However, some women felt that some men in their communities did not support women’s educational aspirations, as it could give women too much independence and power.
The influence of family circumstances and parents’ or partners’ attitudes was strong. Some of the women had no qualifications, and had bad experiences at school or had very traditional parents who had not felt that education for women was important. It was generally felt that these attitudes were changing and many of the younger women interviewed had obtained qualifications up to and including degrees.
Women with degrees and masters degrees often said that their parents had passionately encouraged them in their education. This was very much the case for women who had obtained their degrees in their home country, whose parents were often also well educated. In contrast, some of the women who had obtained degrees in the UK said that their parents had wanted them to have an education and career that they themselves had not had the chance of.
Employment
Around half the women interviewed were in paid employment. Those with no or few qualifications and/or with limited English language, were the most often unemployed or economically inactive. A few women reported doing voluntary work, sometimes in community centres that catered especially for Asian women.
Women with qualifications, particularly those with degrees, were usually in employment, and some held relatively senior positions. Those with qualifications below degree level held a range of posts including working for local authorities, in the health sector, in call centres, or for financial institutions. Some women worked in social care settings, and others worked with children in nurseries or as classroom assistants. A number of women worked in jobs which involved working with and supporting women and families in their community.
A small number of women reported being the main breadwinner in their family, but most women in paid employment considered that there was a joint responsibility between husband and wife to earn money.
Regardless of educational background, the employed women interviewed for this study said that they had made a conscious effort to fit their work around their childcare responsibilities. They often worked part-time, or in jobs which offered them the flexibility they needed to do this. Some had chosen their jobs and careers for this purpose, or worked in roles for which they were over-qualified, in order to be able to balance the demands of work and family.
http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pubs/summary.php?id=dwp458
Only 60 women? This means that if I was to conduct an interview of families I know in the UK (don’t know many), that would be enough to turn the statistics upside down.
And of course, had the report mentioned that Asian women are utterly oppressed by their culture, it would have been labeled as racist.