Interesting statistics just released from Statistics Canada. Evidently the percentage of Ottawa respondents to the 2011 StatsCan survey reveals that 31.5% of those living in the city stated they had university degrees. Generally, throughout the country, about 37% of women age 25 to 34 had at least a university degree in comparison to 26.5% of men in the same age demographic.

"Men are lagging behind now. That's a bit of a concern for me because in a knowledge-based economy, where are they? Employing a lot of young people, I found a lot of the young women coming out of university, they're focused, they're disciplined and they made better employees than the men did", a news story quoted Doug Norris, chief demographer at Environics Analytics.

That kind of focus and determination reflects the attitude and psychology of our granddaughter. Back when we were young, her grandfather and me, it was largely men who attended university, woman were an academic-achieving disposable afterthought. And even at that, far fewer young people attended university than now do.

We hadn't the opportunity, ourselves. Neither of our sets of parents conceived of us returning to higher levels of education post-high-school graduation. Nor were they particularly interested in having us complete our high school education. My husband attended high school to grade 12. At that time and long afterward in Ontario, those planning to attend university needed to complete grade 13 to qualify.

By that time, we were 18, and married. Our concern was to be able to support ourselves financially.

From age 13 onward my parents expected me to get out into the workforce. At first, in the summer months. And if my own search for employment was unsuccessful my mother entered and hauled me off to apply for factory jobs. I worked for a garment manufacturer and for a manufacturer of toys. My boyfriend, soon afterward my husband, worked nearby in a chocolate factory (Hershey's) and for a company that manufactured chrome-and-plastic household products. He hauled heavy loads onto transport trucks and sometimes drove those trucks around the factory compound as he was ordered to do.

Unlike him, though, I went no further than Grade 10. I recall doing some clean-up chores in my parents' kitchen when suddenly my mother informed me, close to the end of that summer when I was complacently contemplating return to high school, that I was expected to find a permanent job, to add to the admittedly modest family coffers. I was aghast, utterly disbelieving, even back then in 1953.

But that's the way it was, and despite my disappointment I entered the workforce.