Husband and wife are the two wheels of the carriage of family. If one wheel is strong and the other one is weak and ousted, the car cannot move on smoothly. Thus we see that an educated wife is an asset to a man in the modern age when life has become very complicated. An uneducated wife in the company of an educated husband is a perpetual clog in the wheel. Such a couple can sever be happy in life and is unable to face the difficulties of life. Smooth domestic life and harmonious co-operation is not possible between the two. In the absence of co-operation between husband and wife, a nation cannot progress and prosper.

An educated wife is a permanent asset. In the long struggle of life, she is a good companion, who at times helps, guides, com­forts and consoles her husband. In the hours of prosperity, she may seem a white elephant and perpetual item of expenditure. In hours of adversity, she is the only sheet-anchor that can be depended upon to any extent. There is, in the heart of an educated wife a spark of heavenly fire which lies dormant in the hours of prosperity but which kindles and blazes in the dark hours of adversity, Sometimes the husband is thrown out of employment and the problem of bread and butter becomes acute. Then an educated wife comes to the rescue of her family and help the husband in tiding over the economic crisis. In these days of economic distress, an educated wife proves a second string to the family’s bow. Today, an educated woman is working as teacher, lawyer, office assistant, etc.

Then an educated wife produces intelligent children. In cases no school is available within the reach of children of school-going age or the parents are not willing to pay school fees, the wife can educate the children to a certain stage at home. She can assist her children in all stages of their education and can explain to them the rules of health and hygiene. Thus, she can discharge her duties as mother more efficiently. Besides, she can maintain the family accounts by placing on record in detail for the family budget. She can take children to hospital for treatment, if need be, and to school for admission. In this way, she minimizes the worries of her husband and multiplies her pleasures of domestic and admired life. She is mentally capable of under-standing the significance of the family.

Sometimes, an educated wife is a good helper to her husband in doing the office work. In case the husband is an author, she can collect material for writing or can fair out the manuscripts. It is well known that the wife of the Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, faired out the novel entitled ‘War and Peace seven times. Shaw became a great dramatist only by dint of the endeavors and sacrifices of his loving wife, Ada. If the husband is a professor, an educated wife can help him by totaling and tabulating the marks at the time of examination. Sometimes, it happens luckily that husband and wife are scholars of the same subject. Then, their conversation is scholarly, which is delightful to them and useful to children. Such a conversa­tion is always a source of recreation to both of them. Sometimes, the husband is quite different from his wife psychologically and it is very difficult for an uneducated wife to deal with him. In this situation of unhappy combination, an educated wife tries to under­stand the husband psychologically and adjust herself to the husband and changes the desert of life into a garden full of ever-blooming flowers.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

An educated wife is not an unmixed blessing. An educated wife needs better clothes, cosmetics and other necessary things to keep herself up-to-date in fashionable living. She is a constant drain or her husband’s purse. Secondly, she tries to dominate her husband and tries to assert herself in all the matters related to the family. Her indomitable spirit and her uncompromising attitude and her will to dominate her husband creates friction in domestic life, Instead of being an asset, she becomes a perpetual liability and headache. Constant discussions between husband and wife sometimes reflect upon children unfavorably and they develop into abnormal persons. Sometimes, an educated wife fails to understand the signi­ficance of these human virtues and becomes a problem to her hus­band and makes the home a hell. No wonder, we often hear of divorces, or suspicious deaths today.

Everything in this world has two aspects—seamy and rosy. An educated wife also has got some merits and demerits. But it is definite that in the modern age, an ideal wife should be educated. The basis of her education should be Indian culture and back­ground. She should be educated in an atmosphere of simplicity and Indianness. Then she will not fall a victim to the vices which accom­pany completely westernized education. While imparting education to our sisters and daughters, we should not forget Sita, Savitri, Gargi and Ansuiya.