Rich Comparison Essay

The Different Views of the Sexes In these essays the writers back up there views with examples of how either man or woman has been oppressed throughout the history of education. While Adrienne Rich is talking mainly about the college system and David Thomas is talking about the school system in general, their views do conflict each other. Rich believes that women have been exploited throughout the history of time. Thomas on the other hand believes that by being forced to have women teachers has disadvantaged boys. Though these views do no directly conflict, they are pretty close. Rich tells why she feels that women have been oppressed and Thomas tells why he feels that boys have been disadvantaged. In Rich’s essay “What Does a Women Need to Know?” she argues that women have been demoralized throughout time. Rich says “when we think of what an independent women’s college might be: a college dedicated both to teaching women what women need to know and, by the same token, to changing the landscape of knowledge itself.” (Rich 45) This means that she believes that women should be taught the skills that they will need to succeed in life as a wife and as a “self conscious, self-defining human being.” (Rich 45) She then gives examples of her life experiences and how her life experiences with men trying to force her to think and see things one way, and how she struggled to see things from a different perspective, “through the eyes of an outsider.” (Rich 46) She ends her speech by talking about how these women have to change the ways of the past and they have to step into the now and become educated of the past and present. She ends the speech with, “Get all of the knowledge and skill that you can in whatever professions you enter; but remember that most of your education must be self-education, in learning the things that women need to know and in calling up the voices we need to hear within