Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Faces of Indian Women
Faces of Indian Women
Women
One of the most enduring cliches about India is
that it is the country of contradictions. Like all
cliches, this one too has a grain of truth in it. At
the heart of the contradiction stand Indian
women: for it is true to say that they are among
the most oppressed in the world, and it is equally
true to say that they are among the most
liberated, the most articulate and perhaps even
the most free. Can these two realities be
simultaneously true?
Urvashi Butalia
Outline of the
presentation
Gender gaps:
1971
1991
2003
Fema
le
22%
39%
48%
Male
46%
64%
70%
Male
23.0%
39.9%
2.1%
8.8%
10.8%
15.5%
Cultural Restrictions
Discrimination at Workplace
Empowerment
Social Empowerment
Education
Economic Independence:
Economic independence does not imply
significant improvement in social standing
Culture and tradition play an important role
A small fraction has opened up towards Western
values
Economic Empowerment
Property Rights
Patriarchal society
Political Empowerment
Representation in democratic
institutions
Government reservations policy for
women: the constitutional amendment
of 1990s
TRIVIA
Famous Faces
Indira Gandhi
Mother Teresa
Mira Nair
Kalpana Chawla
Gurinder Chadha
Arundhati Roy
Jhumpa Lahiri
Aishwarya Rai
Sushmita Sen
Introspection
Faces of an Indian woman
Wife
Mother
Sister
Bread earner
Compassionate member of the society
1994