Women need more education

Women need more education

PURWOKERTO, Central Java: Only one out of every 100 women
living in rural areas was a university graduate, while half of
them had not even finished elementary school, First Lady Sinta
Nuriyah Wahid said in a written address to a seminar on gender
here on Tuesday.

Sinta Nuriyah said in her address read by Rina Hastuti, a
lecturer at Jendral Soedirman University, that only seven out of
every 100 women in major urban centers had university diplomas,
while 27 of them had not finished elementary school.

She further said that 38 out of every 100 men in rural areas
failed to complete elementary school and only one of them
possessed a university diploma. "Meanwhile, only 19 out of every
100 men in big cities failed to finish elementary school, while
seven had completed university."

She said that gender discrimination occurred at the elementary
school level, citing as an example the pictures appearing in
schoolbooks. "There are pictures of mothers and their daughters
working in the kitchen, while fathers are always shown working in
the office."

Sinta Nuriyah abruptly canceled her trip to Purwokerto for
unknown reasons. But many speculated that she was trying to avoid
an anti-Abdurrahman Wahid demonstration that was awaiting her
there.(45)