Educating Rita (Gilbert & Russell, 1983) is a film about a 26-year-old hairdresser who decides to resume her education by entering herself for Britain's Open University. The university tutor assigned to prepare her for her examinations is Frank, a professor of literature, sometime poet, and full-time drinker. He is enchanted by the witty Rita, whose real name is Susan, and in the ensuing relationship worries that her growing sophistication and textbook knowledge will 'spoil' her innate charm and intelligence. Her presence at first alleviates his depression but later deepens it as she succeeds in the academic pursuits he has come to regard as worthless. As she points out, however, it is easy enough for him to squander his gifts and advantages because he has always taken higher education for granted while she--as the film has shown--has had to struggle against a variety of deterrents to get to the point where she could--as indeed she does--pass a difficult university examination with 'distinction.' In the course of the film, Rita's share of the drama focuses on the elements in her life that work against her desire to get an education and Educating Rita is almost an illustrated version of the professional literature on deterrents to adult education (Rose, 1993; Valentine & Darkenwald, 1996; XXXX, XXXX).
Rose, who concentrates specifically on women learners, notes that studies have consistently found that "family support (both emotional and financial)" is a key concept for adult women who have families (1993, p. 5). And in a very large number of these cases women also have the pressure of work to add to the difficulties. But numerous colleges and universities have devised programs to overcome institutional barriers (as the absence of minimum pre-requirements at Rita's Open University, for example, enables students to prove themselves first). In addition, acknowledging how large a segment of adult education students women are, ...