Page 22 - English Tehelka Issue 5 - March 15, 2018

CoverStory
Indian culture treats its women as Mother notion that men are ultimately superior to women
Goddesses and assigns them roles pertaining to and have a right to regulate women’s lives.
domesticity on the premise of protecting and A contemporary reason for females being
respecting them. It has been conventionally believed undesired, whether in families as children or at
that women are the source of life and the givers of work places as employees, is the new-found security
care, thus must be restricted to the confines of the concerns that have arisen with increasing incidents
home and the hearth to look after and nurture their of sexual attacks against girls and women. What
families. On the other hand, men are believed to be is interesting is that while sexual assaults against
the heroes — the breadwinners and the protectors females are themselves a consequence of women
of women. This belief is so widespread in our coun- being assigned secondary status and being treated
try that it appears to have been passed on geneti- as objects rather than humans, such predatory
cally! Not only men but a large number of women assaults further add fuel to the fire of sex-based
themselves hold such beliefs that have resulted — discrimination, thus creating a sequence of recipro- tires of girls and women are often pre-approved by
after being combined with religious norms that are cal cause and effect.
often biased against women — in the entrenched
Women Lack autonomy
despite making In India, girls and women have culturally been pro-
tected and taken care of by the males of their fami-
progress on various lies — fathers, brothers, husbands and sons. Even as
we claim to modernise as a people, significant life
fronts, we seldom decisions for females are often taken by their fami-
lies without giving much weight to what the daugh-
ter or the wife desires. Matters pertaining to the
change regressive education, professional choices and marriages of
women are subjects of discussion in families across
traditions passed on cultures that keep in mind the restrictions placed by
societies on women’s capabilities and freedoms. In
across generations that the case of males, even if such decisions are taken by
families they are based on what would be best suited
reduce females into to the male child’s happiness and progress and are
taken keeping in mind his demands and desires.
Moreover, traditionally it is the father’s decision that
lesser beings than males is the last word, not the mother’s.
Another significant factor that must be discussed
here is the economic vulnerability of women.
According to the India Development Report
released by the World Bank in 2017, our country
has one of the lowest female participation in the
workforce, ranking 120th among the 131 countries
for which data was available. This is an offshoot of
the traditionally assigned primary role of women as
homemakers. A large number of women do not opt
to participate in the workforce at all due to percep-
tions that their priority is to look after the household
while it is the men’s job to go out and earn a living.
Even qualified women choose to give up their pro-
fessions after matrimony and motherhood due to
the same notions.
Also, domestic work and child care are consid-
ered to be the responsibilities of women; husbands
and fathers seldom share these ‘feminine’ works.
This makes many women who choose to work take
up jobs that are beneath their qualifications and low
paying as long as they can take out the time to focus
tehelka / 15 march 2018 22 www.tehelka.com
18-23 5th Cover story.indd 6-7
women’s day
on looking after their homes and families, a task that
requires a lot of time and energy. It is also a fact that
in case of a large number of women who are a part
of the workforce, their earnings are in the hands of
their husbands or families who collectively take all
financial decisions, thus rendering women finan-
cially subservient. Thus, most women in our country
are financially dependent on men and this leads to a
chain reaction of subjugating women to inferiorities
in various areas.
Women have for generations been denied bod-
ily integrity. Even in the twenty-first century, the at-
their families. From a young age, girls are discour-
aged from wearing the clothes that their families
disapprove of. Women who choose to wear clothes
that are frowned upon by the societies they thrive in
are judged and labelled in the most insensitive and From very young ages
outrageous ways. Every time there is debate over
sexual violence against women, someone or the we teach our little boys
other raises the point of women “asking for it” by
wearing the wrong kind of clothes. This mindset and girls to take their
stems from the archaic and misogynist belief that
women are primarily means of sexual gratification
of men and of procreation. preordained places in
Talking about procreation, most women in our
country are denied reproductive control by their social structures rather
families, communities and societies at large. While
it is believed across global cultures that it’s women’s than make choices for
duties to bear children, in India and similar patriar-
chal societies it is believed that it’s a woman’s bound- themselves
en duty to produce male heirs for their families. The
decisions of a small minority of women who choose
to remain unmarried or of married women (or cou-
ples) who choose to not have any children cause out-
rage among even the most educated people. While — when girls are allowed to make their own choices
women who cross their pre-set early ‘marriage- and govern their lives themselves without caring
able age’ are pitied, most married women are under about what people will think; when instead of being
immense pressure to produce sons, failing which saved for dowry money is spent on the daughters’
they are at the receiving end of a lot of social stigma. education and giving them happy, independent lives;
when boys and girls are taught that they are equally
time to Stand up and capable; when sons are given lessons on equality
and respect for girls; when children grow up to see
change the StatuS quo their fathers and mothers as equals rather than the
former ruling over the latter.
Whether consciously or not, from very young ages It is quite a complicated and daunt -
we teach our little boys and girls to take their preor- ing process to challenge and change
dained places in social structures rather than make traditional outlooks towards women but there is
choices for themselves. This is exactly how gender no other choice than to stand up to such regressive,
prejudices get ingrained in mindsets and get passed misogynist and illogical norms and do away with
on across generations. Gender biases that have been them. For this, both men and women must share
going on for centuries are accepted and assimilated responsibility so that when a daughter is born, it isn’t
rather than questioned and done away with. hoped that it will be a son the next time.
Regressive attitudes towards girls and women
will change only when they are nipped in the bud letters@tehelka.com
tehelka / 15 march 2018 23 www.tehelka.com
27/02/18 4:32 PM