The Status of Indian Women

What is the status of the Indian women in Indian society? To examine this question properly, one must look at a couple different factors. Time period and caste (or economic level) both have an effect on the status of Indian women. There is no one model of an Indian women, and therefore no way to truly pin down her status without examining these changing aspects which build this status in society. However, despite these nuances in the status of an Indian women based off of these different factors, there are also underlying aspects of society that ultimately shape a women's status. These underlying aspects do not change, and have perhaps been ingrained into society since the end of the Vedic period or before. They remain a foundation no matter how different the time or the environment, but they can be built on in a variety of ways.

First, we will examine the changing aspects which define Indian women's status. Time period is one of the most influential effects on the status of Indian women. It is quite obvious that the status of Indian women has changed over time. One can see that there are privileges that Indian women enjoy now which they might not have enjoyed fifty years ago. Many scholars believe that women enjoyed equality with men during the Vedic and pre-Vedic periods. Women in this period received education, married at a mature age, enjoyed the ability to choose their husbands, and shared an equal status with men in practically all areas of life (Tharu & Lalita, 1999). It is believed to have been around 500 B.C. when the status of women began to change. Women were demoted to the inferior sex, with their role in society reduced to that of a reproductive tool. They were displayed as lacking higher moral and intellectual abi...

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...ey are the middle to upper class exceptions, not the norm. The majority of women in India do not get the opportunity to pursue higher education in the universities, do not place their careers above their familial responsibilities, and do not get to step but too far outside the boundaries of what a proper Indian woman is and should be.

Sources

Loizeau, M. (2006). Missing women: female-selective abortion and infanticides [DVD].

Sarasvati, P.R. (1888). The high-caste hindu woman. (pp. 69-93). Philadelphia: Press of the J.B. Rodgers Print. Co.

Sarkar, T. (1993). A book of her own. A life of her own: autobiography of a nineteenth century woman. (pp. 48-60). New York: Oxford University Press.

Tharu, S., & Lalita, K. (1999). Women writing in india, 600 b.c. to the present. (Vol. I, pp. 49-53). New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York.