Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The status of women in India
Education of women
The status of women in India
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The status of women in India
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...
... middle of paper ...
...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.
That being said, women were extremely limited in their role in society. First of all, women were expected to be homemakers. By homemaker, I mean the women w... ... middle of paper ... ...ay."
In Nehru’s India, women were victims of a “passive revolution” that subtly advanced bourgeoisie men of higher castes under a guise of parliamentary democracy. Though women have presided over the Indian National Congress, served as a prime minister, and represent a large part of India’s la...
Within the earliest of civilizations of India, pre-pubescent girls were offered to men as wives, which ultimately lead to the destruction of women’s domestic independence. As said in Document 1, “because girls married before they could finish their education, they were not qualified to perform ritual sacrifices. Furthermore, wives’ legal rights eroded.” Likewise, Indian women became politically subordinate to men. However, by modern standards, women’s social
Growing up in a traditional Punjabi family with both of my parents being born and raised in India has been an experience that I can only fully comprehend now at the age of twenty-three. Realizing how backward our culture is when it comes to women’s equality among family and society is an astonishing thought. Even though there is more gender equality here in America than in India within our households the women are still subjected to live and serve the men of the house. This custom has become almost an unconscious thought, to think of Punjabi women living in a traditional family more than a maid or babysitter would be blasphemous and heretical talk.
Women who only served as housewives during the 18th centuries have been able to create a place for them in the society in the 21st century. In the past, women did not have as much influence as men in the society. Now, women are encouraged and they have been able to improve their social and economic status and express their opinions properly. Women have played a vital role in the improvement of society over the last few decades till
The reason why women are scarcely mentioned throughout the history textbooks are because women are conformed in their status of the private sphere. Women are related to “nature” considering their roles in society such as child bearers and housewives. Culture is considered as a sustaining force that transcends nature to create and control a new interest. Because of this “nature” status put on women, they are considered inferior to men. However, this is not the case for everyone and not all society understands culture and nature like westerners do. Some consider what women and men do rather than the symbolic attributes that are placed on them.
(Christine Skelton, 2006). Evidence from various researches suggests that gender is socially constructed and children learn them through their everyday social interactions within their families, schools and societies as a whole. It can be noted that not all research or studies on gender necessarily look at ‘where gender comes from’ because many of these approaches only look at the existing social relation without exploring the origins. Talcott Parsons (1956) argued that the different roles of men and women are complementary and perpetuated because they are the most effective way to ensure the social and economic functioning of the society. Looking further indications of gender disparity in the Indian society are rooted in historical literatures on patriarchy found in the early brahmanical texts which illustrated ways to control a women’s sexuality by confining them to household duties or seclusion from the outside world in
Gender roles have been a predominant factor in our world since the early emergence of human societies whether they are positive or negative. They are based on expectations that societies have over the people in them. The Epic of Sunjata, shows us how men and women are treated almost equally in different forms. Women are praised for their ability to birth leaders, which is similar to the early Greek Society. In most societies, women are treated less equal than men. This was prevalent in the early Indian society. No matter the gender role, it has been shown that any society cannot survive without both men and women.
Women are frequently malnourished since women are normally the last member of a household to eat and the last to receive medical attention. Women in India receive little schooling, and suffer from unfair and biased inheritance and divorce laws. These laws prevent women from having financial assets, making it difficult for women to establish themselves.
Indian gender roles were well defined, and men’s and women’s responsibilities were equally crucial to
...ng their own property, they were encouraged to join athletics such as gymnastics, and some rose to be estate managers. They were even capable of participating in religion and could leave the house during holy days. During the Hellenistic age the treatment of women started to lighten up. Many started to realize that they have a greater value including their intelligence (Sacks 264). Chinese women didn’t start to rise up until the 20th century when communism began. Communists believed that women were equal to men; they felt that it would help the population of china to thrive (Dillion 346). The women of Egypt were treated well and did have a say in many of the things that involved them so they didn’t rise up too much more. Unfortunately for the women in India they have never truly risen up. They are still victims of being very subservient to men.
Today, for the most part, women are seen as equal to men. Women are given the same opportunities as men and an equal chance at getting a job as men. In today’s society, women do not just have one role and that role and that being to have kids, but they can pursue any career they wish. However, it was not always this way. According to feminist theorists, western civilizations were patriarchal which means that the society is dominated by males. The society is set up so that the male is above the female in all cultural aspects including family, religion, politics, economics, art, and the social and legal realms. The patriarchal biases of gender between male and female say that a male must be active, dominating, adventurous, rational, and creative. In the novel, A Passage to India, Forster expresses this male dominance by writing, “He took no notice of them, and with this, which would have passed without comment in feminist England, did harm in a community where the male is expected to be lively and helpful” (Forster 52). They say that to be female is to be passive, agreeable, timid, emotional, and conventional. The feminist theorists’ argument of a male centered society is definitely present in the novel A Passage to India. E.M. Forster reveals cultural, economic, and educational factors within the patriarchal society of India that limit women. In E.M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India, Forster exposes derogatory stereotypes of women and portrays women as inferior to men to uphold the view of women during the time period.
Second, /in a society in which castes and/or slaves exist, that is, /in/ a non-egalitarian society, women are more likely to have a lower social status. My point is, /in such a case/if/ the public believe/s that human beings are not equal, and thus/,/ they classify people into different classes, socially or politically. Then speaking of genders, there must be a higher class as well. Would that be male or female? I suppose it to be male. The reason is that/,/ males are physically advantage/d/ous/ relative to females, and therefore, males are traditionally valued over females in many cultures. (Females could hardly talk about equal rights with males in jungles/[but look at the Mbuti of the Iruri forest for example-- doesnt it depend on the society?
Women have often been called upon to make sacrifices and suppress their personal desires.They have often been left on the margins of the social set-up as far as their personal desires and fufilment of those desires is concerned. Women are not a minority in our society but their “lives, experiences and values have been treated as marginal” and men’s experiences have been assumed to be central to society. One also needs to contest the often stated view that in India women have always enjoyed a place of respect and dignity, that they have been respected as ‘devis.’ It needs to be seen that “the respect and privileges which accompany the position of a ‘devi’ are not only anti-individualistic,” they are also anti-humanistic and “deny women a personhood”.
The current manifestations of the caste system are now far more generalized across the Indian subcontinent than was the case in former times. Caste as we now recognize has been endangered, shaped and perpetuated by comparatively recent political and social developments. This is evident even i...