Is women’s empowerment ‘spoiling’ society?

A Bangalore High Court Judge made a sweeping statement recently when he said that women's empowerment was spoiling society. We spoke to women movers and shakers from the city for their views.




In a recent hearing of a marital dispute, Justice Manjunath made a broadly generalized, but disturbing statement when he said that society is being spoilt because of women's empowerment. While the vox populi raised a cry of disagreement, we caught up with some of the city's prominent women for their views on the issue. "This is absolute nonsense," exclaims danseuse Vani Ganapathy, "Are you telling me there were no divorces and bad marriages earlier? During those days, women were suppressed and went through the most disastrous marriages quietly. Thanks to empowerment, women are now able to express their feelings more openly. Women are amazing in the kitchen, they always have been; but with empowerment, they are no more relegated to just that. People have come to realize that women are great time managers and business managers too. I'm sure that men are feeling threatened by the equal stature being offered to women, and the judge, I'm sure, was a man." According to young professionals, it is an era of equal opportunities for men and women and people have to learn to keep up with the times. "The judge cannot make a broad generalization like this," says model Apoorva Vishwanathan. "I don't think the urban Indian woman benefits from or needs empowerment anymore. That may have been the case in the time of our grandparents, when women were expected to be homemakers and even the ambitious women couldn't do much. But today, it's a completely different scenario and there are equal options for both men and women," she adds.

Women Empowerment:Challenges @ 21 Century

Women Empowerment in India

For centuries women were not treated equal to men in many ways. They were not

allowed to own property, they did not have a Share in the property of their parents, they had no

voting rights, they had no freedom to choose their work or job and so on. Now that we have

come out of those dark days of oppression of women there is a need for strong movement to fight

for the rights of women and to ensure that they get all the rights which men have or in other

words a movement for the Empowerment of Women. The present seminar has been planned with

a view to discuss the various issues related to the Empowerment of Women and to suggest

measures for achieving this end.

Empowerment –Conceptual Framework

The origins of the concept of empowerment go back to the civil rights movement in the USA in

the 1960. It has since then been interpreted differently and filled with new meanings and is today used in

such different sectors as business, social work, development discourse and by advocates of very different

political agendas. The different definitions of empowerment range between defining it as a largely

individual process of taking control of and responsibility for one’s life and situation, and defining it as a

political process of granting human rights and social justice to disadvantaged groups of people. At the

former end of the continuum, where empowerment is defined largely as an individual process,

empowerment can be used in the conservative political rhetoric of freeing the government of

responsibility for injustices and for granting social security. Instead, the argument makes individuals and

communities responsible for their own social security and welfare, without providing the necessary

support and resources.

The empowerment of women is located within the discourse and agenda of gender equality and is

increasingly being taken in the agendas of international development organizations, perhaps more as a

means to achieve gender equality than as an end in itself.

At the Social Summit in Copenhagen in 1993 and the International Conference on Population and

Development in Cairo 1994 Governments committed themselves to the empowerment of women. This

commitment was operationalised and formulated into a clear action plan at the Fourth World Conference

on Women in Beijing 1995 where Governments committed themselves to the “empowerment and

advancement of women, including the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief, thus

contributing to the moral, ethical, spiritual and intellectual needs of women and men, individually or in

community with others and thereby guaranteeing them the possibility of realizing their full potential in

society and shaping their lives in accordance with their own aspirations.”

Different Levels of Empowerment

In line with most theorists on empowerment the one has to view empowerment as taking place on

different levels and that change on all levels is necessary if the empowerment of women is really to occur.

We have to relate empowerment at three levels: empowerment on the individual, group, and societal/

community- level and the interaction between these.

The individual level deals with individual women’s abilities to take control over their lives, their

perceptions about their own value and abilities, their abilities to identify a goal and work towards this

goal.

The group level deals with the collective action and sense of agency that woman experience

together, in a group.

The societal level deals with the permissiveness of the political and social climate, the societal

norms and the public discourse on what is possible and impossible for women to do, how women should

behave etc.

The different levels are seen as interconnected and mutually reinforcing, e.g. when empowerment

on individual level occurs, this will have effect on the group and societal level. Women who are

empowered on an individual level will most likely go on and affect the other levels. Empowerment on a

group level e.g. women organizing around a particular need is likely to have effect on the individual

empowerment of the women in the form of increased self esteem and sense of agency.

Historical Background of Women Empowerment in India

The status of Women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few

millenium. In early Vedic period Women enjoyed equal status with men. Rigved & upnishads mention

several names of women sages and seers notably Gargi & Maitrey. However later the status of women

began to deteriorate approximately from 500 B.C., the situation worsened with invasion of Mughals and

later on by European invaders.

Some reformatory movements by Guru Nanak, Jainism, Rajaram mohan Rai, Ishwarchandra

Vidya Sagar, Pandita Rama Bai and others did give some relief. It is not that Britishers didn’t do any

thing for improving the condition of women. Some laws were enacted such an “Abolition of practice of

Sati”, Widow Remarriage Act 1856 etc.

The real change came after independence. Constitution of India guarantees equality to women

(Article 14). There are other articles too which ensure rights of women e.g. no discrimination by the state

[article15(1)] equality of opportunity (Article16) etc. Feminist activism picked up momentum in India

during later 1970’s. Later on Many groups and NGO’s have been working for the Empowerment of

women. We are proud that in India Women got voting right much before USA and some other European

countries.