Backward

I am stunned at what I learnt today.

I spoke to two women who are mature-age students. One is in her 70s, the other in her 40s. Neither of them has been educated beyond high school.

What stuns me is that in the year of our Lord 2026 there are still women – white, middle class – whose self-perception and prospects have been blighted by backward, misogynistic, anti-intellectual forces. Both women told me that men close to them conjured the bogeyman of communism as a reason why they shouldn’t attend university. One of them was told by her mother that higher education would be wasted on her since she would marry and never use it, while the other has a mother who has never held a job.

I can see the lack of self-confidence in both women. The 40-year-old is struggling to adapt to the university workload, and I can see how confusing and painful that is to her because she knows she is intelligent and can’t understand why it is so hard for her. I will do what I can to provide encouragement as well as practical support for her. I hope that the people closest to her will keep their fool mouths shut if they have nothing constructive to say.