“[Women] Should be Helpmates and Not Drags Upon Their Husbands”: Female Education in Sarawak During the Period of Brooke Rule 1841-1941*.
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THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
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Title :
“[Women] Should be Helpmates and Not Drags Upon Their Husbands”: Female Education in Sarawak During the Period of Brooke Rule 1841-1941*. |
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Author :
Ooi Keat Gin |
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Abstract:
The provision of education was not given serious consideration by the Brookes, and it was the Christian missionaries that started the schools with formal curriculum. But the supporters of education for girls faced an uphill task of scaling the wall of conservatism; their eventual success owed to their ability in convincing parents that sending daughters to schools would transform them into accomplished home-makers. Home economics and the practical skills of managing a household were the central theme in the curriculum of female education. Progress in schooling for girls was gradual and achievements modest, particularly encouraging results was among the Chinese which in time appreciated the advantages of an English-medium mission education for their daughters. But within Malay and Iban communities, female education did not make much headway. Most of the Malay community members frowned upon young girls going out of their houses and taught by strangers in schools. The general indifference exhibited by the Ibans towards schools and education in general negated most efforts in encouraging schooling for girls (or boys, for that matter).
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| DOI: XXXX |
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How to cite:
Ooi Keat Gin. (1999). “[Women] Should be Helpmates and Not Drags Upon Their Husbands”: Female Education in Sarawak During the Period of Brooke Rule 1841-1941*. The Sarawak Museum Journal, LIV (75): 225-238 |
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References
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