Growing up female

M. A. Siraj

Perception of gender roles is changing in India with women being highly educated and making strides in politics and business. But the more things change the more they remain the same. According to a recent Pew report, Indians overwhelmingly agree with the idea that wives should obey husbands. M. A. Siraj analyses the findings.

Most Indians learn about gender roles in home settings. It is here that they come to know of patriarchy or in simpler words, male supremacy when it comes to decision-making and exercising power and authority. Days of Sati are certainly over but domestic violence stays. Economic progress has only reinforced practices like dowry. No wonder then that birth of the girl child in an average household is still viewed negatively. Sex selection prior to birth is therefore an essential corollary. Advances in medical technology have facilitated their gruesome aftermath. A considerable body of men would approve of beating wives too. Lives of girls are regulated, if not controlled. Chastity is a vital consideration when it comes to marriage. This impacts the girls’ movement and social interaction prior to marriage.

India has witnessed considerable social transformation since Independence. Most men now acknowledge the role to be assigned to women. Laws to prevent violence against women have proved effective just as those against dowry-related harassment. Ban on sex selection at foetal stage hugely helped in bringing gender parity at birth. Yet much remains to be done. Conservatism still holds sway in shaping behavior and all of this does not get necessarily expressed. A recent study on perception on gender roles in Indian society by Pew Research Center provides ample insights as to how deep has been the penetration of gender equality and where conflicts still rage. The survey involved 30,000 respondents with religious communities proportionately represented. They were approached between November 2019 and March 2020.

In a nation that elected a woman (Indira Gandhi) as its third prime minister, most Indians (55%) said men and women make equally good political leaders. However, a quarter of the correspondents felt men made better political leaders while 14 per cent opined that women did better than women in matters of political leadership.

However, the space men are willing to concede in public sphere does not match with preferences in domestic sphere. Nine of every ten Indians tend to say that a wife must always obey her husband, including nearly two-thirds who completely agree with this sentiment. Surprisingly, most women (61%) also tend to agree with men.

Preference for son has been a known feature of an average Indian family. A predominant majority i.e., 94% of Indians say it is very important for a family to have a son and separately, to have at least one daughter (90%). Sixty-four per cent said that both sons and daughters should have equal rights to inheritance from parents and share the responsibility to take care of parents when they age.

But survey respondents are far more likely to say that sons, rather than daughters, should have greater rights and responsibilities in these areas. For example, while about four-in-ten Indian adults say that sons should have the primary responsibility to care for aging parents, just 2% say the same about daughters.

Gender discrimination is a widely acknowledged reality. Almost a quarter of Indians (23%) said there is “a lot of discrimination” against women in their country, which is slightly more than the shares who say some religious groups or lower castes face a lot of discrimination. About one-in-six Indian women i.e., 16% said that they had personally felt discriminated against due to their being women in the last 12 months before the 2019-20 survey.

An increasingly growing section (75%) now admits that violence against women is a major national issue in India. This is almost on par with those who acknowledge that crime and corruption (76%) are very big problems. This even surpasses those who say communal violence is a very big problem (65%). It is useful to be reminded that between 2010 and 2019, rape and murders of women have led to massive protests across the nation.

How would the Indian like to address the issue of appropriate behavior with women. The respondents were asked which of the two options they would vote for: 1- Teaching boys to respect women, 2- or teaching girls to behave appropriately is a better way to improve the safety for women. Roughly half of Indian voted for the first option of teaching the boys to respect women.

While a quarter liked this to be done with women, yet another quarter did not take a clear position.

Indians tend to be more conservative than people in most other countries surveyed when it comes to gender dynamics in the home and the economy. For instance, across 6