“Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong; it’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.” -G.D. Anderson
“In a country where we had a women prime minister for years, we still are years behind in understanding and respecting our women and giving them equal social status as compared to their male counterparts. Despite continuous efforts made to uplift the status of women in India, there are still huge gender equality gaps related to education, expectations, health, labor force, wages, unemployment, and underemployment. As compared to men, women continuously face different kinds of violence in the form of domestic violence, verbal abuse, mental torture, emotional distress, and physical assault which leads to psychological problems such as stress and tension which further leads to physical problems, leaving women unable to keep up to the demands of family and society.”
Every human being needs to be treated with respect and dignity. If the creator did not discriminate between men and women, why do we fellow humans discriminate between the two sexes? If a fetus is growing insidea mother’s womb, the growth of the fetus is not different for a girl or a boy. Only after we come into this world, we are labeled as males or females. “Beti hui hai,”“beta hua hai,” these short sentences have different meanings for different individuals.
Our Indian scriptures show great reverence for women in all rolesbut when we look at the state of women in India, I am very disheartened to see the treatment of women in today’ssociety. Woman all over the world are treated relatively inferior to males, let’s look at a few differentiating factors:
AgeDiscrimination: Newborn girls are killed at birth in some communities, child marriage is still prevalent in some societies, and girls are raped at any age. Women are treated as the weaker and inferior sex as they grow up andneglected as they grow old. Our culture has always respected women to the extent of giving them the status of Goddesses, then why this disparity?
Work Roles and Household Duties: We live with a female stereotype in India, and many other parts of the world, that women are the weaker sex and can only perform certain kinds of jobs. Despite spending hours working outside the home to earn money and support the family financially, women are still expected to make time to complete all household chores and fulfill demands of all family members at home; whereas men have the freedom to just provide financially and not be subjected to other household commitments. Even though a woman might be the bread winner for the family and work outside the whole day, when she returns home, she is still expected to cook, clean, do laundry, and take care of other family members.
Education:“Beti Bachao Beti Padhao”
While there is still a growing awareness to educate women in India, the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative focuses on bringing more awareness to women’sissues by attempting to improve the status of women in society by making them more mentally, physically, and financially independent.
Wage Inequality: Working at the same job, women are compensated way less than their male counterparts. This is not only related to underprivileged women or women who are working in poverty but also women in professional and high-level jobs.
A study on “Gender-Based Wage Discrimination in Indian Urban Labour Market: An Assessment” observed “…that there is a male bias in wages in both the categories, namely, regular and casual workers. Female workers are also at a disadvantaged position via-a-vis male counterparts, and there is considerable disparity exists with regards to employment and earning standard between sexes.” (Padhi, Mishra, & Pattanayak, 2019)1
“Although India has certainly come a long way in addressing the issue of pay equity, there is lots more to do. The principle of equal pay for equal work needs to be strongly advocated and promoted by the government, starting with itself!” (Shroff & Mohapatra, 2020)2
Mental Health: According to a paper published by Usha Ram (2014)3 in International Journal of Population Research on Gender Socialization: Differences between Male and Female Youth in India and Associations with Mental Health, “…female youth experienced more mental health problems when their households engaged in practices that favored males over females…family violence and restrictions to independence were associated with mental health problems for both male and female youth…these findings suggest that gender inequality permeates family life in India.”
An article on “Women and mental health in India: An overview” written by Malhotra & Shah (2015)4states “Gender is a critical determinant of mental health and mental illness… …Social factors and gender specific factors determine the prevalence and course of mental disorders in female sufferers…Around two-thirds of married women in India were victims of domestic violence…Concerted efforts at social, political, economic, and legal levels can bring change in the lives of Indian women and contribute to the improvement of the mental health of these women.”
Domestic Violence: Women are stepping outside the house to work shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts, but domestic violence is still prevalent and a threat to the happiness, health, integrity, and life of many women. There are more cases of domestic violence against women than men.
Findings from A study of Domestic Violence among Currently Married Females of Haryana, India concluded “Awareness regarding domestic violence needs to be made, and law enforcement regarding it needs to be made stringent. Rehabilitation of victims of domestic/spousal violence should also be considered on priority.” (Nadda et. al., 2018)5
I, like all my fellow immigrants, am fortunate to be able to experience both the Indian culture and Western culture. I know and have seen numerous women as the bread winners for their families. In many cases, it is the women who take up jobs to support their families and are the initial building blocks of financial and emotional support.
In a country where we had a women prime minister for years, we still are years behind in understanding and respecting our women and giving them equal social status as compared to their male counterparts. Despite continuous efforts made to uplift the status of women in India, there are still huge gender equality gaps related to education, expectations, health, labor force, wages, unemployment, and underemployment. As compared to men, women continuously face different kinds of violence in the form of domestic violence, verbal abuse, mental torture, emotional distress, and physical assault which leads to psychological problems such as stress and tension which further leads to physical problems, leaving women unable to keep up to the demands of family and society. I use the word “society” because collectively as a culture, more often than not, the solution to a woman’s problems’ is more influenced by the concern of “Log kya kehengey?” instead of what is the right decision for her wellbeing. Such remarks made by her own loved ones, makes a woman feel that her issues and concerns are of a lesser value then a man’s.
Growing up I have heard stories of strong women who have brought big changes to this world, from all different walks of life.The unfair practices against women are not only prevalent in Indian culture, but all over the world. This can be seen in a plethora of different movements such as “me too,” “pink tax” and “breaking the glass ceiling.” As great as it is to see these issues coming to light, simply discussing, and advocating for change is not the same as society and policy makers evoking those changes. Many women openly discuss the need to be treated equal to men in whatever they do. Our world needs to wake up to the fact that the only difference between men and women is physical composition. Apart from that, both sexes arerelatively similar. There needs to be more awareness and discussion to shine a light on the struggles and challenges that many women face in the hopes to ignite social change for future generations of women.
“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.”
Michelle Obama
Sources:
- Padhi, B., Mishra, U.S. & Pattanayak, U. (2019). Gender-Based Wage Discrimination in Indian Urban Labour Market: An Assessment. Ind. J. Labour Econ. 62, 361–388 (2019).
- Malhotra, S. & Shah, R. (2015). Women and mental health in India: An overview. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 2015 Jul; 57(Suppl 2): S205–S211.
- Nadda A, Malik J.S., Rohilla R, Chahal S, Chayal V, Arora V. Study of Domestic Violence among Currently Married Females of Haryana, India. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine. 2018;40(6):534-539.
Be the first to comment