Sep 8, 2012

After having lived with woman since the beginning of social life, man has become aware that apart from his mother, sister or daughters, there is the entity of woman to be reckoned with. The question of her equality with man has been re-examined along with the nature and content of this concept. However, what has been attempted is purely a beginning of the efforts that are under way to improve matters.

In our history, women have achieved distinction in all walks of life. A Gargi, a Maitreyi, a Chand Bibi, a Rani of Jhansi, or Meera Bai is however no consolation to an ordinary woman who, though protected by law, cannot exercise her rights in full. A woman is not all sex, just as a man is not all muscles. They both lead their lives quite different from the images they wish to project. Women’s lib is thus a protest to mark the end of servility of woman to man.

It has now been accepted, and not a day too soon either, that man and woman together make a home. Like two powerful animals pulling a cart, they would merely jeopardize their position by opposing each other. Ever since the time of Plato the equality of man and woman has been accepted and the Philosopher even wished the women to follow the same course of study as that of men and participate equally in wars against the enemy.

Woman’s role is determined not by her hormones or by mysterious instincts, but by the manner in which her body and her relation to the world are modified through the action of others than herself. The gulf that separates the adolescent boy and girl has been deliberately widened between them since earliest childhood. Later on, woman could not be other than what she was made, and that past was bound shadow of her life. If we appreciate its influence, we see clearly that her destiny is not pre-determined for all eternity.

It is with this in mind that the courses of study should be modified and that problems of women should not be viewed as merely problems of the middle class women alone. We know that in India, women suffer not because of their sex but because of the fact that they belong to a given class or religion. While we are busy providing education to them, let us not over-look these simple facts. The day we are able to wipe out illiteracy among women, we would hopefully, be marching towards better future and a happier life than what we have, for a woman not merely makes a home, she makes the nation too. It is a universally accepted fact that education is linked with progress. A progressive society in the true sense of the term must be an educated society. The structure of the educated society is based on a system where equal opportunity for acquiring education is given to all sections and members of the society, regardless of caste, creed, class and sex. This is the only way to wipe off ignorance and oppression.

‘Eve’ is the perpetual goddess of the masses, the eternal beloved of the poets, the target of male chauvinism and the self-styled symbol of purity, devotion and sacrifice. Her very virtues have become instruments of her exploitation. She is suppressed and pushed far away from many fields of healthy and constructive human activity.

But in the complex set-up of today, an educated woman plays many roles. She has to be an intellectual companion for men, tutor for children, advisor and hostess for friends, relations and guests and cook-maid manager and in some cases bread winner for the family. In this way education increases her responsibility rather than her value. Equal opportunity of education, where it is provided, is not aimed at finding out aptitude but at prescribing set roles for men and women. This traditional distribution of work defeats the very purpose of education. Some of the world’s best cooks, tailors, interior decorators are men and some of the most outstanding scholars, writers and educationists are women. If a man is a homebird, he is ridiculed and if a woman is inclined to read a book rather than cook a meal, she is a bluestocking.

Ironically, the most devastating critics of the changing life style of women are women themselves. I am not advocating reversal of roles as that may create more problems. But it is this rigid attitude, this tendency to stick to conventional roles which greatly impedes the development of personality.

By giving education to women it would strengthen women’s attachment to the family and their family roles. The intellectual gap created between educated men and their illiterate wives and mothers is one of the causes of declining authority of the family. It is clear that illiteracy, child marriage and early widowhood which prevent the development of women’s personality and rationality make them ill-suited companions to their educated husbands and they are often irresponsible mothers. If the family is to be preserved and strengthened as the chief unit of our social organization, it is necessary to improve the status of women within the family through education, abolition of child marriage and by preventing ill treatment to widows. There should be more done to help promote the equality between men and women; efforts should be made to integrate women in the total developmental efforts and to re-establish the dignity of women as individual human beings.

We know in a democratic society both men and women have equal rights and opportunities. Both men and women should equally share the responsibilities of parenthood and also the social and economical responsibilities. But the fact is that this concept and aim of educating women, has not been fully accepted or even understood by society. So it is through literacy that we can imbibe this concept in the minds of the common people and can change the attitude of the society as a whole .We should expand the facilities for scientific, technical and professional education for women. I know this is not an easy job.

First of all, we should change the way of thinking about the women’s choosing such professions. The vitality of the programs also should not be neglected. Sometimes the parents of the girls have a notion in their minds that girls will not be using all the acquired skills in their later lives. The mythical image of clinging, pinning, whining women has to be shattered and replaced by competent, dignified, confident and independent individuals actively participating in all forms of constructive, disciplined human activities as enlightened citizens, equally sharing with man the responsibilities and happiness of home and the world. All this is possible only when we impart the good educational methods and value based education to the masses.

We all know that most of the women population is being neglected because the parents are educating the boys rather than the girls as in their old age they live with their sons. The economic necessity forces them to treat education as an investment, a business proposition. It is unfortunate that these parents do not or cannot realize that education is not business but the deepest need on the sensitive human soul. Today we see that if the parent can educate only one of their children they will choose the boy of the family even if the girl is brighter. This should be changed and it is only possible by making the society literate. Here literate does not mean they will just write their name or they will sign.

Education has entered homes but the ultimate goal of a woman’s life is only marriage. If she can make a success of it she is applauded, otherwise she is doomed. But the society should accept a single woman, either single by choice, that is, an entirely independent career woman, or single by compulsion, that is, a widow or a divorcee. These women should be absorbed in the mainstream with an open mind and without reservations. A man takes marriage in his stride and for him it is a part of the many natural events and situation in his life. He combines marriage comfortably with his career and his manifold activities. Other things being equal he achieves personal fulfillment and social success. But a woman is not given enough co-operation to combine marriage with any other avenue outside home, so that she might like to choose for her mental satisfaction.

Her talent is considered to be just one of the assets and not a profound need of her life. As she is given modern education she has to be given freedom of thought and action so essential to create and enrich a healthy view of life. She may be taught science, technology, medicine, fine arts and all the sophisticated aspects of knowledge. But it is ridiculous that she is trained to be a housewife every second of her existence. A boy is hardly ever deliberately trained to be a considerate, co-operative, responsible and sympathetic husband- the qualities which are expected of a girl all the time. It is all the more essential to have educated mother so that these finer feelings are imparted to her sons as well. That is why the standard of society is determined by the status of its women and the mobility of a family is judged by the position enjoyed by the women in that family.

In villages and some interior urban areas women are comparatively backward because education is not widely spread among these women and the ignorance of one section of these communities retard the pace of their progress. Their mental lethargy makes them afraid of any kind of social change, their narrow view of life fills them with prejudices and inhibitions. But we find that, by and large the educated girls have a positive attitude towards marriage. There is a considerable influence of tradition on their views and attitudes. For example a typically ‘Mod’ girl is often religious minded, believes in fate, respects her parents’ wishes in matrimonial matters, does not like too much mixing with the would be partner before marriage. She wants the marriage to be performed in traditions and her heart is in the future husband rather than wealth, glamour and status, and seeks marriage mainly for companionship and fulfillment of emotional rather than physical needs. But on the other hand an educated girl wants to combine marriage with a career of her own and she is against dowry and considerations of caste etc. in settling of marriages. They may be exposed to modern influences of “Women’s Lib” movement, but are not yet free from traditional thinking with regard to matrimonial matters. However they are fully alive to social ills of dowry, consideration of caste etc. in marriage and they willingly accept their expand role of being a housewife and an earning member after marriage.

To create awareness about the equality of women, the students, voluntary organizations and youth centers should play a very important role by doing street plays, organizing career guidance camps, by explaining the various aspects of their rights given to them by the constitution, by explaining about the way of life, thinking of the educated women, and the way they behave. With the help of doctors and well equipped Govt. personnel we can organize medical camps and give sex education to women and make them aware about the dangers of the present health conditions. We can give them general knowledge courses touching various aspects like family and child care, health and hygiene, nutrition, self improvement, family planning and so on, so that they will be well versed in facing the new challenges of life.

In the field of education outstanding achievements have been made by creating an attitude favorable to women’s education. The role of education for women is being emphasized in building a new society and encouraging participation in democracy. The non-formal systems of education are adopted by many non-governmental agencies to impart technical and vocational training to girls and women. Many organizations and enthusiastic persons are taking pain in spreading a sense of awareness of various rights women have. This should be continued and the shortcomings should be discussed and improved. All these things are being done by literate people in society, and this shows that literary helps in giving equality to women. But only literary will not help in this. The way of thinking of the people should be changed from narrow mindedness to broad mindedness.  Trees give everything which they have to the inhabitants of this world without any discriminations of caste, creed, religion and the nationality, in the same way education should fulfill the task of giving equality to women. It is very easy to talk and write about these matters but very difficult to put it into practice. We hope that as long as there is life, there is hope and as long as we keep on trying, a day will come when we shall surely succeed.