Changing Role of the women in the past 25 years

Introduction:

The women, non a days, are playing a stellar role in advancement of the value system in the life

of a family to which they belong. It may be a joint family or a nuclear family. The families

which are financially sound, do not send their women folks outside their houses since they have

to handle various tasks as house wife. Whereas, in the families which are not economically

sound, the women try to supplement the income of the households by seeking employment. In

both theses cases, the women contribute immensely.

Literacy and education are the two main factors where we can observe the development of

women from past 25 years. Women empowerment, employment, decision making,

individuality, are medium factors.

Women in India now participate fully in areas such as education, sports, law enforcement,

military, politics, media, art, and culture, service sectors, space travel, science and technology,

etc. Indira Gandhi, who served as Prime Minister of India for an aggregate period of fifteen

years, is the world's longest serving woman Prime Minister.

The Constitution of India guarantees to all Indian women equality (Article 14),[20] no

discrimination by the State (Article 15(1)), equality of opportunity (Article 16),[20] equal pay for

equal work (Article 39(d)) and Article 42. In addition, it allows special provisions to be made by

the State in favour of women and children (Article 15(3)), renounces practices derogatory to

the dignity of women (Article 51(A) (e)), and also allows for provisions to be made by the State

for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief. (Article 42).
One of the first national-level issues that brought women's groups together was the Mathura

rape case. The acquittal of policemen accused of raping a young girl Mathura in a police station

led to country-wide protests in 1979–1980. The protests, widely covered by the national media,

forced the Government to amend the Evidence Act, the Criminal Procedure Code, and the

Indian Penal Code; and created a new offence, custodial rape. Female activists also united over

issues such as female infanticide, gender bias, women's health, women's safety, and women's

literacy.

In villages : 

       Joint families: Lot of women are occupied to their houses and doing household works. Only

few women will attend to government school that is upto 10 th class. They can't pursue for

their higher studies. Because of relationships like brother in laws and uncles make them to get

married early in 18's. So they stick to their homes. Some women help their husbands in

agriculture and some do lot of house hold work. They don't have much freedom.

Nuclear family: they start to send their child to school, pursue higher education. Let's say

undergraduate. After that they look for a  bridegroom for marrying. They don't care about her

interests. Later it depends upon her husband interest to work or not.

Some don't send their girls to higher education. They will engage her sooner of later when she

is 18. Some parents encourage their children to work like as teacher,engineer,doctor etc. It all

depends upon her parents and her interest.

Towns and cities:

Joint families: lot women gets well education if they are from rich family. Else they get

education upto certain stage. Here money is the important factor. People living in joint families

may have money problems. I saw every girl gets education if she is lives in urban areas. It

doesn't matter.

In case of nuclear families also it is same. A girl gets education and parents encourage her

employment to be independent.

They motivate them for higher education.

In our country growth of women in all areas are increasing by observing from past 25 years. Those above

cases tell you that due to lack of awareness in remote areas are the major reasons why growth of

women development is not done. Although government is providing them everything. Not everything,

say some. The superstitious beliefs and their ideals which are coming from fore fathers makes the

women in remote areas to stick to their home in joint as well as in nuclear. 

Living in urban areas is different. 

Mostly we can see assaults on women are also taking place whether she is either from joint or nuclear.

We need to protect our women no matter what. 

The Changing Role of Women in Society

A women's role has changed tremendously and is making its greatest impact in our society today.

Many years ago, women's contribution to society was limited and controlled by men. Women are

standing tall and are playing a major role in many important areas.
Women's role has changed at an accelerating rate and have part in areas such as Politics,

Professional Training Jobs, Medicine,Business and Law. Formerly they were not part of any

political matter, but they have advanced in many aspects. For example, women have attained

power and have been growing in political office.

Changes in the requirement trend of mixers, washing machines, micro wave and

standard of living.
In any country, women represent half of its population but no one has realized their

development potential if half of its people lag behind. Women have traditionally played

animportant part in rural life, its economy and politics. Technology has been introduced in

arural society due to which political, economic and social structure have become complex and

affected women’s life directly or indirectly. Technology has brought a major change in

women’s life as far as their workload is concern especially in household chores. They have

started using electric motors, juicers, and grinders etc., to speed up their work in a shorter

"These innovations changed the lives of women"

time. Changes in women’s work can be measured by the time spent in a particular task by using

home appliances. Mechanization has great influence on women’s life; they have enough time to
spend after finishing their household chores. Some of them help their husbands in earning

livelihood through different means; some pay more attention to their children and families.

During the course of the 20 th century labor saving technologies, from running water to modern

appliances, have transformed home production. In India, rural women cover about half of the

total population and an enormous proportion of agricultural labor force in the rural part. About

70% of the female labor force is engaged in agriculture sector but their contribution goes

disregarded and undocumented. Indian women play a vital role in agriculture and contribute in

all operations related to crop production such as sowing, transplanting, weeding and

harvesting, threshing, winnowing, drying etc. in addition to look after the livestock they keep.

They handle the animals, arranging for fodder and milking them at two times a day. The rural

women have also to look after the household chores included cooking, taking care of children,

elderly and disabled; fetching water and fuel, cleaning and maintaining the house. Women

participate 25 to 45 %of labor input in rural economy. Pakistani women work in agriculture or

agriculture related activities 68.9% compared to 38% of men are engaged in these activities.

Nearly 36-38% of economies women work on their own family farms. The woman of rural areas

is absolutely dependent on men or an elderly woman of the family who are mostly mothers or

grandmothers. They do not take decision independently but without the consent of their males,

they maintain the livestock, its handling and milking is their responsibility but the sale of the

animal or meat is the right of men. The work of women which she performs inside the

household is always unpaid, but is essential for the survival of the society and maintenance of

family in the village.

Conclusion:

Historically women in India were revered and the birth of a girl was widely believed to

mark the arrival of Lakshmi – the Goddess of wealth and riches. Women have been

considered ‘janani’, i.e., the progenitor and ‘ardhanigini’ i.e., half of the body. Women

are also considered to be an embodiment of Goddess Durga.

Women have shouldered equal responsibilities with men. Widespread discrimination

against women is, however, reflected in recurrent incidents of rape, acid throwing, dowry

killings, wife beating, honour killings, forced prostitution, etc. Some of these issues were

highlighted by ‘Satyamev Jayate’ (Truth alone prevails) – an acclaimed television show

hosted by Bollywood icon Aamir Khan.

A global poll conducted by Thomson Reuters in 2012 rated India as the “fourth most

dangerous country” globally for women, and the worst country for women among the

G20 countries.

Gender discrimination is not only inequitable but also hampers the development of the

nation. Evidently no country can sustain its development if it underutilises its women,

who constitute almost half the population.

Despite some basic changes in the status and role of women in the society, no society

treats its women as well as its men. Consequently, women continue to suffer from diverse

deprivations from kitchens to key-boards, from the cradle to the grave across nations.

But, as Kofi Annan stressed, no development strategy is more beneficial to society as a

whole than “treating men and women alike”.

Besides, their entrepreneurial role in cities, Indian women contribute significantly to

agricultural activities, handicrafts, village art and crafts.

Factors impeding the advancement of women include lack of access to housing and basic

services, inadequate support services and technologies for reducing drudgery and

occupational health hazards and for enhancing their productivity. This necessitates

devising of a broad-based strategic action plan for the realisation of equal partnership of

men and women in all spheres of life and economic activity.

Hillary Clinton, former First Lady of the United States correctly observed: “In country

after country women have demonstrated that when given the tools of opportunity –
education, health care, access to credit, political participation and legal rights – they can

lift themselves out of poverty, and as women realise their potential, they lift their

families, communities and nations as well”.

True, there are some striking cases of breaking the glass ceiling. The names of Meera

Kumar, Speaker of the Lok Sabha; Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the

Parliament; Chanda Kocchar, Chairperson, ICICI Bank; Shikha Sharma, Chairperson,

Axis Bank; Kalpana Morarka, India Head, JP Morgan and Sudha Sharma, Chairperson,

CBDT easily come to mind. But as one swallow does not make a summer, the fact of

some women occupying top positions does not make the development process broad-

based, equitable and inclusive. Clearly, much more needs to be done.

The gross under-representation of women and the attitudinal bias against women is

strikingly reflected in several areas of employment like the police, the judiciary and the

law, etc. The correction of this unhappy situation requires focused intervention targeting

education, training, child care, health, nutrition, credit, employment, welfare services

support and legal safeguards.

In the struggle for independence, it was stressed that political freedom must ultimately

lead to emancipation of women by eliminating shortcomings in terms of education,

nutrition and health. But this aspiration is yet to be realized. Investing in women’s

capabilities and empowering them is the best way to advance economic growth and

overall development.
The Indian political system has also been characterised by concern with women’s status

and rights. This is reflected in various constitutional provisions. But robust gender laws

need to be effectively enforced.

Laws relating to marriage, divorce, maintenance and inheritance have not been fully

effective because of their inherent problems. Hence, attempts to provide de jure equality

to women must be carried to their logical conclusion. This requires tougher laws, stricter

enforcement and exemplary punishment.