“If you educate a man you educate an individual, however, if you educate a woman you educate a whole family,” was a proverb made popular by Dr. James Aggrey, a renowned Ghanaian philosopher. This proverb was a pioneer in a time when the education of women was unheard of as men dominated opportunities given by education. Most People underestimate women, and do not expect them to achieve what men are perceived to do naturally. For example, in Athol Fugards’ My Children! My Africa! Thami states that “Women cannot do the same jobs as men because they’re not the equals of us” (3).
This is not true, yet women must work harder to become educated to be held and be regarded at the same standards as men. To become equals to men, education formulates the key objective for their development. Educated women have higher capabilities to benefit their society as a whole. Through education, one develops a deeper understanding or wisdom, which then leads to their empowerment. Women seek knowledge in order to gain wisdom, and once they do, they become empowered.
Women seek knowledge so that they can discern and make choices, all for the purpose of understanding. Knowledge is defined by the awareness gained by an experience or situation. In Persepolis, Marjane desperately wants to be seen as an educated individual and laughs along with her parents and grandmother about the joke the word “martyr” has become. She discusses her search for knowledge when she was a child in her caption saying “I realized then that I didn’t understand anything. I read all the books I could” (32).
Marjane constantly seeks for ways to understand the events that are unfolding around her. Listening to the stories of her family members and their conversations, her knowledge of her surroundings is “pooled” through these experiences and books she read to help create her own opinions. Knowledge is also pursued through storytelling. In Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie shows the Little Seamstress searching for knowledge, when she says “About those books of his—what if we stole them? ” (89).
Sijie uses the em dash to exemplify the Little Seamstress search for knowledge. It creates a strong break in her sentence, emphasizing the crime she is about to commit for her pursuit of knowledge. Each women’s pursuit of knowledge allows them to become potentially helpful to others and a reliable source of information. With the knowledge, women have the ability to gain wisdom. Wisdom is the body of knowledge and principles that develop within a specific society. Women can only gain wisdom if the knowledge they seek changes their actions and efforts for a greater purpose.
In The Odyssey, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, has the ability to see what she needs to do to protect Telemachus. She tells Telemachus in warning to “Take it to heart… picked men of the suitors lie in ambush… [who are] poised to kill you before you can reach home”(320). Even though Athena intervenes on Telemachus behalf, she leaves his eventual success or failure. Women can also achieve their wisdom in different ways. In Persepolis, Marjane discusses how she gained her wisdom in a speech balloon when her parents “to enlighten [hero] they bought books” (12).
She uses the information that she learns from the books she has read and begins to inspect it from a deeper perspective. Applying her own ideas to a situation, she is able to evaluate and criticize the event to reach different conclusions. With this wisdom, she also learns the true meaning behind her emotions. She states, “The reason for my shame and for the Revolution is the same: The difference between social classes. ” Marjane understands the hypocrisy that both her parents and country holds.
Satrapi eyes are finally open to the plight of those who are a lower social class and sees how anguished they are. She feels ashamed that people like Ashraf Darvishian had to work at a young age to stay alive, but since she is coming from wealthy family, she did not have to work to make a name for herself. Through both knowledge and wisdom, women can make important decisions. Empowered women are capable of creating different beliefs of gender relations, destroying the widely accepted stereotypical version of a “women”.
Homer describes an example of an empowered women in The Odyssey, as Athena disguised herself a Mentes, to “get” Telemachus to listen to her. She empowers Telemachus and “urges [him, to] think how to drive these suitors from [his] hall” (86). Her intervention in both Telemachus and Odysseus life is essential and allows them to earn their destinies. [analyze why this makes her an empowered women as she takes over Telemachus and Odysseus life]. Another example of empowered women is also seen in Persepolis, as Marjane takes a stand on her own person opinion and did not allow anyone to change her ideals.
She steps up to her teachers in class, denying their false teachings that contrast her own knowledge and asks her teacher: “How dare you lie to us like that? “(144). In this speech balloon, Marjane rebels against the oppressive education system. Becoming an empowered women, Marjane gained a new sense of identity and is motivated by her accomplishments. The formation created through knowledge and wisdom, allows women to become empowered individuals and no longer inferior to any individual.
Each women works hard to successfully take their knowledge and gain the wisdom that allows them to succeed in changing the beliefs of society that women are inferior. Society is slowly holding women to the same standards as men. In Fugard’s My Children! My Africa! , Isabel states that, “Sheer brute strength is not the determining factor anymore” (5). Women are no longer thought to be submissive to a dominant male figure, but are now allowed to use their voices in a fight for their equality. Theit empowerment is essential for the continual success of development in all areas of life.
