Status of Women: From the Past into the Future
“The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women. There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved.” — Swami Vivekananda, Indian Hindu monk
The status of women has been a topic of grave discussion, for many years in the past. It encompasses various burning issues of girl and women education, maternal health, economic empowerment of females, and the role of women in family, community, politics, and more.
The Real Picture
Throughout the world, various social norms, in some form or the other, deny women their right to education, health services, economic opportunities, and political participation. This gender inequality hinders the progress of environmental sustainability, financial stability, global health, and human rights and is the primary cause of hunger and poverty.
According to a study conducted by the United Nations, women constitute more than two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population. Another research depicts that 80% of the world’s refugees are women. Also, women only own 1% of the world’s resources and earn a small part (1/10th) of the world’s income.
The place of women in society is a critical factor in judging the success of any civilization. Talking about India’s culture, Manu, the great law-giver, said ‘where women are honoured; there reside the Gods’. In Hinduism, a man without the participation of his wife cannot take part in any religious ritual with perfection. The wives are called ‘Ardhangani’ (the better-half), and without them, any crucial work is impossible to accomplish. Hence, they share equal positions with men.
But does this happen in reality?
Literature writers and filmmakers, through their works, have tried to demonstrate the roles and identities of women in family and society. These pieces bring out the status of women in the past centuries and the present-times very well. An ample amount of information and statistics on different interrelated factors is also available in the form of research publications and magazines. It includes several areas of debate viz., comparison between the condition of women in the past to that of the modern woman, their achievements around the globe, their lives after marriage, numerous opportunities available for them, the social and cultural attitude of the world towards them, to name a few. All this portrays the one aspect very clearly, time and time again — Gender Inequality and the horrors (in the form of its uncountable consequences) for females associated with it.
Inequality, Traditions, and Society
In previous times, men dominated society while women were secondary to them. At the family level, women had very little to no opinion, and the men were the sole in-charge of all decisions. A woman was considered a man’s possession. Great heights of academic achievements and formal jobs were for men, while women fulfilled the family responsibilities and bore the burden of house-chores. A patriarchal and oppressed society with an inhumane caste system led to the immense suffering of women in various parts of the world. They were (and are being) mistreated inside and outside their homes.
The Constitution of India clearly states that women have equal rights with men and are legal citizens of the country. Despite this, a majority of them suffer from poor health and malnutrition. It creates a significant problem, especially for pregnant and nursing women. They have to complete the household chores on top priority. If the women even think of themselves first, in any manner (academically, financially, etc.), society makes them feel guilty about it. Earlier, the majority of women were uneducated, now, many of them have education, but most of it is not adequate.
We have not made much difference, have we?
There are certain beliefs like females can eat (whatever is left) when males have finished eating. What is their base? How did it originate? When I was small, I saw my maternal grandmother practice this custom with utmost devotion. I asked her the same questions. The answer I got was rather astonishing — we don’t ask questions, we follow the traditions, they are for our wellbeing. Can you all see what has happened? After years and years of being improperly treated, women have lost their ability to be practical, ask logical questions, and participate in debates and discussions! They follow such customs blindly in the name of worship and prayer. Although efforts to ensure gender equality are underway in the present, such incidences are still happening around the world.
More than half of our country’s population resides in villages. The women living here do not go for medical care during and health problem or pregnancy because it is a temporary condition which will soon get better on its own. This carelessness, which is prevalent even today, is a major cause of India’s high maternal and infant mortality rates. Another point worth mentioning is the female foeticide. The conventional thinking that since women have always been a burden, no good can come out of a girl being born. These thinkers are entirely incapable of grasping the horrors of a world without women. If girls are born, they do not receive the same commitment and care as boys would. Even though our constitution firmly guarantees free primary schooling to everyone up to 14 years of age, only about 39 percent of females in India can attend the primary schools.
Times are changing. Although very slowly, but they indeed are shifting in favour of women.
Towards Improvement
Numerous movies vividly express how the shifting from traditional to modern culture has brought about a modification in the issue of gender discrimination. “Water” by Deepa Mehta, “The Phantom Lover” by Ronny Yu, and “Rashomon” by Akira Kurosawa are lively examples of the same. All these films demonstrate the fight of the female protagonists, their endurance, and finally, their overcoming of the old culture or religion, which was responsible for restraining their friendship, love, and life. “English Vinglish” is an Indian film that efficiently portrays how a housewife can independently live in a foreign country without the help of a man and how she can achieve great success in whichever field she desires.
In the past four decades, women’s status in western countries has undergone dramatic and remarkable changes. Since the days of World War II, these changes have occurred both at home and in the workplace. In the USA, the role of women during the war sparked the movement of women empowerment outside the home. The 60s and 70s saw the economic necessity for many households to maintain two-income families further strengthen a woman’s status as an employee. The parallel and vital development of the rights of women furthered solidified the status of women. The society realized that women are the indispensable pillars for advancement and success, and thus various policies were brought into action, which promoted female empowerment. Women also started getting involved in public politics in large numbers and formed groups like the National Organization for Women (NOW).
In the Scandinavian countries, the political offices started electing women at significant positions. Similar remarkable developments took place in Northern-European countries. Women now had the right to make their own decisions regarding their lives — one such example at the family level was to plan when to have children, made possible through the revolutionary birth-control pills. Towards the end of the 1970s, they were no longer ‘put on a pedestal’ as was the case a few decades ago. They were no longer expected to be limited to the household work and raising the kids. They moved towards academic excellence and high-salary professional jobs.
Human rights and fundamental freedoms are the birth-right of all human beings; their protection and promotion is the first responsibility of the Governments. Apart from the preliminary policies such as those against female trafficking, promoting gender equality, women’s human rights, right to food, employment, and the abolition of child marriage, more laws have been enacted to enhance the status of women all over the world. In India, Raja Ram Mohan Roy started a movement against the subjugation of women. The contact of Indian culture with the Britishers also brought some improvement in the status of women. Another factor in the revival and betterment of the position of women was the influence of Mahatma Gandhi, who encouraged women to participate in the Freedom Movement.
The Indian Take
Indian women have begun their journey on the path that the women of the Western world took more than eighty years ago. The role of women in shaping modern India has been phenomenal. The Indian sub-continent is gradually emerging as a powerful nation since women began playing notable roles for the development of this land — its culture and economy. The transition in the status of women from the past to the present is worth appreciation. Women are now considered to be the forces that develop a country. They are capable of making a perfect balance between their household and professional lives. Indian women have adorned high offices and respectable posts like that of the President (Mrs. Pratibha Devi Singh Patil), Prime minister (Mrs. Indira Gandhi), Speaker of the Lok Sabha (Mrs. Meera Kumar), first woman IAS (Isha Basant Joshi), and first woman IPS (Kiran Bedi), in the list long list of many others.
1975 was declared the International Women’s Year. Gradually, the women are solidly made aware of the role they play in the building of a prosperous society. They are awake and moving fast. There is no field, which has remained unconquered by the women. They are slowly grabbing the top positions in all the sectors. In education, they are performing even better than their male counterparts, giving them a fierce competition. They have changed from being under the veil and following the directions of a man to having a strong stand in what they believe. With the eradication of many superstitious traditions, women now have a valuable chance to prove themselves — that she is, by no means, less than a man but is even better than him!
Women are becoming more noticeable and prominent in the professional as well as the public spheres. No longer considered as a financial liability, they have become independent and are the earning members of the family. The future of Indian women is bright and flourishing. The society is opening all the doors for them to progress and succeed, realizing their true potential. They are conquering every field, be it science, technology, research, defense, politics, space, literature, or arts.
With the advancement in technology, women have maximum opportunities to rule the world in different ways. Some examples of women achieving great heights of success include Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams (astronauts), Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra (Miss World and actresses), Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza (players), Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal (singers), Sushma Swaraj (former Foreign Minister), Tessy Thomas (defense researcher), and Indira Hinduja (scientist and doctor), to name a few. Oprah Winfrey (first African-American world billionaire), Angelina Jolie (actress and humanitarian) and Melinda Gates (co-chairperson, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) are some of the most powerful women in the world. A recent addition is New Zealand’s current PM Jacinda Ardern, who has helped her country reach tremendous heights in a small span of two years!
Towards The Future
The future of women will be bright only if social evils like inequality, dowry, and female foeticide undergo complete eradication from the society. Specific laws, policies, and rules which provide empowerment to the women need to be developed (and the older ones should be revised!) so that they can progress better in different fields. Targets should be set-up for the completion of tasks such as zero-female-foeticide by the year 2025–30, and so on. An excellent example is Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (save and educate girl child), a campaign started in 2015 by the Government of India (Prime Minister Narendra Modi), which aims to spread awareness and improve the welfare services intended for girls in the country.
Understanding the importance of strong and independent females, the educational institutes of India have also taken strict measures to ensure proper academic support for them. IITs of the country have increased their intake of female students recently. Moreover, the course curriculum and campuses are being designed to provide maximum exposure to females in all spheres of life. IIT Gandhinagar (from where I completed my M.Tech) has taken significant steps for reaching out to aspiring female candidates for its academic courses and programmes. Some of these include social media pages and exclusive helpdesk to interact with people. The Institute offers several avant-garde options on curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular fronts. These include the first-of-their-kind-in-India Foundation Programme, Explorer Fellowship, and Invent@IITGN, various national and international collaborations, and research opportunities with renowned universities of the globe. IITGN also organizes events to educate girls and women in the trending fields of the present times, the most recent being the ACM-W India Summer School 2019 on algorithmic game theory. Progression towards a minimal gender bias environment throughout the campus has resulted in female students showing active participation in sports as well. The Institute also offers non-degree programmes for non-IITians of India and Abroad and runs community outreach programmes which educate the children of construction workers and provide comprehensive training for developing the employability and entrepreneurship mindset of the grassroots communities. A significant part of all these initiatives is for the females, by the females. But, we still have a long way to go.
The future of women is full of success in every field they pursue. They have numerous golden chances starting from the school-level to professional careers. Today’s women are being boosted up to do better in their areas of interest by family members (especially after marriage). Females have no foolish restraints to tie their feet and hinder their path to success. They are emerging as a much stronger physical, mental, emotional, and economical personality day-by-day. The journey has just begun, and it will continue in the future.
Society needs to understand that a woman is key to the survival of human species. She is the backbone of the development of civilizations. When the status of women improves, the quality of life improves for everyone.
“The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” — Albert Einstein, renowned theoretical physicist