See the link to the NY Times articles in the comments section. I am very proud of my motherland right now. :)
The discrepancy between India and the US when it comes to gender roles seems surprising to me many times. It appears that the US is more progressive in liberating women, and I think that in some ways it is. Not being married here by a certain age is not stigmatized as much as it is in India, and it's much more common for women to live on their own in the US. (There are my perceptions from my visits there, I don't have any data.) And I do think that men are taking more responsibility for parenting in the US these days compared to India. Yet, how is it that the US has not had a female president, but India has had a female prime minister? Further, in no industry in the US that I can think of are women the top executives. And in India, women are running the top banks! Further, gay marriage is legal and people openly fight for rights of sex workers.
My perception of Indian marriages, particularly in orthodox families, is that husbands have more power and control than their wives. For example, I noticed that when my cousin and his family were visiting, he flat out bossed his wife around with the parenting. E.g. "Go, give her a bath so we can go out to eat." This is fairly common in my family, but perhaps my family is a unique, orthodox, one. My cousin's wife works hard outside of the home too, and I've never seen him offer to help with their daughter. And she rarely asks or speaks up when he talks to her like that because she's socialized that that is how the family operates. She had actually said to me that a lot hasn't changed for him but a lot has for her, and that is just the nature of motherhood. It's not like she can't ask for help in feeding their daughter if he's just sitting on the couch watching a football game.
In the US I don't see the power being used blatantly that way (of course there are a lot of situations of so much power and control that it leads to abuse, but I'm not referring to those types of cases), but women still take on more of the housework and child-rearing (even when they also have a job outside the home). And women get paid less. And there are not very many women executives. There are only a handful of female senators, and the percentage in the House is even more staggering. And most of the time, the woman is the one choosing between a career and family. The article I mention states that many bosses in India had the attitude, "You're quitting?? But I've invested so much in you." and have given provisions to the women for childcare, etc. so that they can continue to work. Here in the US, "family values" are important but we don't care to invest in programs that can help families in such a way.
So how can you explain the discrepancy when it seems like the US would be farther along in these areas? Anyone have any ideas?
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/world/asia/28iht-windia.html?pagewanted=2
ReplyDeleteI just had a thought regarding the discrepancy. India's culture is heavily influenced by the Hindu philosophy, which includes acknowledging a female part of a supreme being (i.e. goddesses). I think the violence against women is attributable to factors that are common across cultures: men being bigger and stronger which led them to have more power in many ways and in many cases that power can turn to abuse. Aside from those cases, it appears that women's work is more valued in the Indian culture, whether it be work inside or outside the home. The mother has higher status in terms of respect compared to the father given what she provides the home. (And as a side note, from observing the lives of my family in India, stay-at-home moms there have a lot more work to do given that they don't have gadgets to make their work easier, nor is it a culture yet of fast food or take out). Thus outside the home, women there are treated equally as well in terms of wages and the value they bring to the jobs. Higher respect for women in that culture probably also brings along with it a respect for soverignty of a woman's body, i.e. abortion not being a political issue and women having access to reproductive care.
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