Why did women go to university?

[CatsAreAssholes]

Inspired by the 'how were things different for your grandmother' thread.

I was just wondering about the way women in professions were expected to give up their job after they got married, this combined with the expectation of an early marriage would have made Uni fairly pointless if you see it as a means to employment. I'd have thought at the time higher education for educations sake would have seemed very impractical. Unless it was seen as a back up plan for women who couldn't find a husband or a means of meeting one?

My mother came from a poor but aspirational family and studied medicine, back in the day when women had to get much higher marks than men to be accepted. Unfortunately that was my grandfather's wish rather than hers and she ended up leaving half-way through to get married.

In her opinion, though, education also makes women better mothers.

annanadale That's a really interesting bit of family history even if your great grandmothers beliefs were so awful.

grumpyoldfucker I guess great career and fabulously clever just aren't enough for some parents.

I have never felt that I wasted my education^
Oh god I hope I didn't give the impression in my posts that I think education is ever wasted. I'm a sahm too. I'm from a country where university costs and arm, and a couple of legs so I guess I see it as an investment in a job and didn't consider properly that people would do it simply for its own sake or that it might have been seen as a bit impractical back in the day but obviously not!

Ebear your nan sounds fabulous, and thanks for the info re opium Do you happen to know if there was ever any push to retroactively award women who'd completed their courses full degrees?

A university degree as a way of improving ones career options is very much a post-1980s view IMO. Prior to that, and certainly pre- world war 2 a degree was something done for its own sake.

That makes sense

Atenco it's too bad it wasn't what she wanted, but how interesting that her dad was pushing her in that direction.

Ebear your nan sounds fabulous

She was never my nan - she was always quite firm in the point that nannies are staff!

I don't think there's been any retrospective granting of full degrees, but it might be that I'm just unaware. She died late 1980's, and I suspect if it has happened, it would have been later than then.