How upbringing changes a male’s perspective on girls’ education

Have you ever asked yourself the question: How does culture and being brought up in different generations have an effect on a male’s perspective on female education? At Khilti Pari, we definitely have. We asked three different generations from our family, three questions, who each experienced different cultures growing up. This is a summary of what they said:
Two males, brought up in a similar culture, were asked (both had grown up in Europe) had interestingly given similar answers to the question : “Back then, what was the general view on education for girls?”. Both had answered that growing up neither of them had seen girls’ education as being any different from that of boys. Contrastingly, two men of older generations who were brought up in very different cultures, India and Sweden, while they did have the same view on a woman’s education, their cultures’ view/perspective on this matter were not the same. For instance, the culture in Sweden explicitly supported and encouraged girls’ and guys’ education equally.  Whereas, the culture in India was dissimilar, this was due to the fact that, as mentioned by the man brought up in India, that “girls' education was not encouraged, supported and given the same importance as that of boys”.
Additionally, coming from a man’s perspective who graduated in 1969 in a small-town in India, it was also evident that education for girls was not motivated as much as for boys, which only confirms what the other man from India said.
Interestingly, all of the males we asked all had the same opinion as to why they believed girls’ education is crucial. For example:
 “I also think it is important to expose boys to traditional female subjects and career paths such as cooking, home economics, nursing/caring as it is to expose girls for mechanics, construction, plumbing etc” - A man who had grown up in Sweden.
 “The main reason for why girls should have an education is so that girls become independent, and education is the means by which they can become independent. Moreover,  Education will allow you to have more options in life, not just for jobs - but for anything.”- A man who had grown up in India.
Here we have two views of men that actively support girls’ education. While we all wish all men thought this way, unfortunately this view is not shared by all men around the world, which is why it is important to understand what the reason as to why these men in particular, have developed these opinions.
This shows that one of the possible ways to encourage girls’ education globally is by starting to target smaller, closed-minded communities and cultures that do not promote girls’ education to the extent that it has to be advocated for.
Khilti Pari did exactly this, the members went to the smaller villages in Jaipur, India and put on plays for the families of the villages. The aim of these plays was to target the narrow-minded families in the audience who have been brought up to believe that girls’ education should be belittled and demeaned. Even though these plays are not something big, it is the smaller changes that will make a huge difference someday. Don’t you agree?