The Editor, Sir:

I have just started a business course at one of our premier learning institutions. I am in the usual 80/20 ratio of females to males.

However, there is a phenomenon that I notice every night my class finishes. Like clockwork, at 9:00, when all classes are over, a fleet of male-driven vehicles flood the campus. Boyfriends and husbands, male friends and acquaintances, suitors and sweet-talkers arrive to pick up their respective females - all part of the support system that ensures the women (young and old) become more marketable.

They sit patiently until the lady arrives and then proceed to whisk them away. I have nothing against these men. In fact, I applaud them for giving support in any way. Lord knows tertiary education is a test of the nerves, and support is essential to be successful.

Where are the achieving males?

However, where are the women coming to pick up their men? So I am asking, why aren't women sending their significant others to university?

Demand that he gets a university degree, or a higher degree if he already has one. Men will push and send a woman to get certified, or become marketable. Why won't most women do the same? Is it a selfish reaction, or is it simply that a woman would rather get a man with qualifications rather than help him become qualified?

It seems to me that a significant number of educated women in Jamaica are, in effect, selfish. I personally believe that there would be more males in tertiary institutions if their female counterparts demanded and supported them in the act.

I have never met a man who is attending university full-time while his wife attends to the finances of the household.

Be radical

Why is it, in this time of women becoming significant forces in the corporate world, are we not experiencing such a swing? Would it be a role reversal, or would it be simply equality of the sexes, the same thing women have been demanding? Why is it such a task for women to invest in their male counterparts? Will they not also be beneficiaries in the end?

Radical thinking separates progressive societies from those trying to keep step. It provides the catalyst that eventually creates second and third world countries. Consider this one, ladies, be different, be radical.

I am, etc.,

DAVIN FERRIGON

davinferrigon@hotmail.com