Read the latest from new Marie Claire columnist Grace Dent

By Grace Dent  on Thursday 2 December 2010

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Grace Dent is a journalist and author who has written eleven novels including It's a Girl Thing and the Diary of a Snob series. She's a regular on TV and radio and now she's bringing her sardonic wit to Marie Claire with her monthly column - Graceland.

Back in the 1990s when I made the leap from a comprehensive school in the north to study English lit in Scotland, I had a brutal time convincing some friends and family that there was a point in further education. If you’re not from a traditionally academic or middle-class background, people will brainwash you into believing that uni is either a waste of time or a three-year skive. Deep down, I know my mum had her heart set on me marrying a local builder’s son I once dated. I’d be living two streets away from her now, close enough to pop by with my own army of children en route to get the weekly shop. Oddly enough, I couldn’t help feeling I wanted my own life. ‘But what exactly are you learning?’ she asked, when I fell off a National Express coach the following Easter with a pierced nose, a bin liner of less-than-lemon-fresh clothes for her to wash, and on the brink of scurvy from subsisting for a term on Iceland crumpets and lemon curd. ‘Dunno,’ I’d shrug.

Unbeknown to both of us, I was soaking up knowledge that would stay with me for years to come.Which is why I’m vehemently against the increase in student fees. It bodes very badly, in my opinion, for the future of British women. The thought that young women from poorer backgrounds might be discouraged from getting degrees makes me very cross.

At present I think of myself as an undercover anarchist, containing my protest to shouting at Newsnight on BBC2 and bickering with people at parties. I’ve pondered taking my anger out on to the streets, just like thousands of students have. However, having my bouffant rearranged by flying bottles and then flattened by charging police horses seems rather a high price to pay for freedom of speech.

Now, in my thirties, I sit in business meetings surrounded mainly by highly confident males from affluent backgrounds and think, ‘Thank God there’s at least one gobby woman here holding her own.’ Because all those random facts I crammed into my brain at uni, about fin de siècle 19th-century literature and medieval poetry, gave me the confidence to pitch up in a strange city with no friends and do something totally fresh on my own.

It terrifies me to think what decisions will be made if female representation in boardrooms and parliament are depleted any further. All those twentysomething women we have fighting against the lap-dance bar on the corner or for a sexist law to be reversed in parliament – will they still be there in their droves in a decade’s time?

For women, education equals freedom. It’s such a simple idea that we forget it. Getting a degree meant I always earned the same or more than my boyfriends. I can’t imagine a life where I’d have to wait for the goodwill of a man before I could have new shoes. By the same turn, education means women have the financial clout to leave men when things become intolerable. In the bad old days there was no way out.

To me, the increased fees are simply a barrier stopping the next generation of less well off young women from achieving better things. ‘But it isn’t,’ a colleague argued recently. (He happened to be a privately educated, highly confident male.) ‘The fee increase doesn’t kick in until the end of learning. Before the woman enters education, the only barrier is psychological. Can’t you see?’ ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘but psychological barriers are the hardest thing to hurdle when you’re from a background where everyone shares your negative view.’

In all honesty, I don’t think he was listening. He wasn’t overly fussed about a mouthy bird trying to get her point across. Luckily for him, he probably won’t have to put up with it very often in the future.

For more from Graceland, look out for the May issue of Marie Claire, and keep up with everything by following us on Twitter at marieclaireuk or on Facebook at facebook.com/MarieClaireUK

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Love this new column!
Comment by Leigh on January 10 16:42

Love Grace's new column. Especially this one it really got me thinking about my own wedding plans. Have written a blog post about it and linked this page for the magazine and Grace's twitter. xx
Comment by Kate Collings on February 05 11:49

Brilliant! Am doing the same in 6 weeks time. No-one knows, no fuss. already have the kids and the mortgage! wymo

Comment by caroline on February 08 16:38

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