--- title: How I Overcame My Country's Cultural Bias Toward Women description: Tibet must embrace education and change attitudes canonical: https://time.com/4245020/tibet-women-education/ author: World Pulse article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-03T14:00:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:09.089Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How I Overcame My Country's Cultural Bias Toward Women og:description: Tibet must embrace education and change attitudes og:url: https://time.com/4245020/tibet-women-education/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfce09c356301daf3/69887fefe20a877c2aa8fcd4/notebook-flashlight-table.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 7500 og:image:height: 4219 og:image:alt: notebook-flashlight-table og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How I Overcame My Country's Cultural Bias Toward Women twitter:description: Tibet must embrace education and change attitudes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfce09c356301daf3/69887fefe20a877c2aa8fcd4/notebook-flashlight-table.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How I Overcame My Country's Cultural Bias Toward Women > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a80fa586-745f-4fb3-ac16-d44cedbf9959&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Melinda Gates on Women's Biggest Problem in the Workplace [Watch (HLS stream): Melinda Gates on Women's Biggest Problem in the Workplace](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/umfaJAjz.m3u8) (1:00)  _Published 2014-11-19. Melinda Gates talks to TIME's Belinda Luscombe about the biggest problem for women in the workplace_ by [Jampa Latso / World Pulse](https://time.com/author/world-pulse/) ## Jampa Latso / World Pulse Mar 3, 2016 2:00 PM UTC  leather bag an fashioned flashlight, on wooden background leather bag an fashioned flashlight, on wooden background Getty Images by [Jampa Latso / World Pulse](https://time.com/author/world-pulse/) ## Jampa Latso / World Pulse Mar 3, 2016 2:00 PM UTC Women’s education is emerging as a top priority of the international development community, yet gaps in education exist on a global scale—as evidenced in my home community in Karze County of Tibet. My own birth illustrates the challenges faced by many Tibetan women from the moment they enter the world. I was born in a narrow horse stall on a pile of straw covered with a worn-out, hand-woven rug. Long, thin pieces of timber separated the horse stall from the nearby cow and yak stalls and is one of the filthiest areas of a typical two-story, mud-walled village house. My mother vividly recounts how my father piled black stones in front of our family’s gate when I was born and burned a piece of dried yak dung on top of them. The color black has a negative connotation in Tibetan and Buddhist culture. Black stones are used when a female child is born. Ironically, this practice is a way to banish evil spirits and protect the newborn child, but for girls it is the first of a lifetime of messages teaching them that they are less worthy than boys. As a newborn girl, my arrival was not a noble or joyous event for my family. Given the Tibetan cultural view that privileges the male lineage and sees newborn girls as already “taken” or wedded to other families, my parents felt disappointment. I shattered their expectations and prayers for a boy. Even though I hold no grudges against my parents for the disappointment they experienced at my birth, I realize that a more critical educational system would have created different social conditions for my parents, thus lessening the burden they may have felt at having a girl instead of a boy. Tibetan girls tend to internalize the socially constructed beliefs that they are born inferior to boys and are the property of other families. Therefore, they rarely attend school and usually remain home herding livestock, doing house chores, and collecting yak dung. By the time they give birth to their own children, most women in my culture have accepted their fate. These conditions create barriers for women to access education in my community. I myself had to withdraw from school in 8th grade because of family obligations. The turning point in my life came when one of the Great Lamas in my village offered financial support for my schooling because he recognized my talent and potential. This was the first of many steps that led me to discover the world outside my village. A scholarship and more financial support brought me to Xining City, a three day bus and train trip from my village, for four more years of studies. My time in Xining gave me the opportunity to take gender studies and development studies with the Shem Women’s Group. I met inspiring women mentors who made me more conscious of the position of girls in our society and helped me to believe that I could be a source of change. Today, I firmly believe that quality education for girls can bring about multi-dimensional changes in communities. I propose a bottom-up approach to reform, where civil society and individual grassroots leaders play significant roles in shaping societal attitudes regarding gender and women’s education. Education ought to be primarily for improving the lives of people. We need to improve local-level school governance in order to ensure that education programs are built to meet local people’s needs. We need to work on improving more than the quantity of education; we need quality education to transform individuals and allow them to perform well in society. I understand changing cultural attitudes towards women takes time. However, I have witnessed the changes that have occurred in my home community since I myself became an active proponent of girls’ education and social causes. Many rural families have benefitted from my small-scale development projects, and more girls are now attending school. Structural reforms, leadership initiatives, and social change start from individual educators like myself. We are in a position to establish close connections and mentorships with parents, share our own educational experiences with women, and inspire other young girls to be a strong force of positive changes in society. Through one-to-one conversations, we can promote the importance of education, raise awareness about health, and help empower girls to realize their full potential. Such efforts will help all of us to discover our own talents and will challenge us to vault over obstacles and unfold our lives with gusto. [_Jampa Latso_](https://www.worldpulse.com/en/community/users/jampa) _is a contributor from Tibet. This_ [_piece_](https://www.worldpulse.com/en/global-issues/stories/tibet-discovering-world-outside-my-village) _was originally published on_ [_World Pulse_](https://www.worldpulse.com/en/global-issues)_. Sign up to get international stories of women leading social change delivered to your inbox every month_ [_here_](https://www.worldpulse.com/en/my-pulse/register) ## Transcript When a job opens up and you say hey theres this next job opening. A woman won't necessarily won't put her hat in the ring for that next rung up and you'll have ten men that say, whether I'm qualified or not, I'm ready for it. Women don't tend to see themselves as ready for the next role as, as they ought to. They doubt themselves. Whatever it is about self confidence, that's something I think we, you can absolutely work on and. In an organization. And I think it's up to the managers, men or women to reach down and pull those women up. And say, no you are ready for that promotion. Or you're at least as qualified as the other men. Put your name in the hat, whether you get the job or not, it'll be great experience for you to go for it and try it. For me it's all about making sure we lift up women [ UNKNOWN ] Because I feel like we have a chance to do that. We're talking about it as a world. There's a lot of conversation about it, we're moving in the right direction. But we need concrete action. I absolutely used my 50th birthday to look forward and say I basically have 25 maybe 30 great years of working life left. 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