“All agree in recognizing the fact that females exist in the human species. Today, as always, they make up about one half of humanity. And yet we are told that femininity is in danger. If today femininity no longer exists, then it never existed. But does the word Woman, then, have no specific content? ”
- Simone de Beauvoir
Women Empowerment has been the epicentre of social development in our country for almost a decade now. Ever since we woke into the dawn of independence, bringing women at par with men has been a serious concern for the civil society. Today, with globalisation and technological explosions in the scene, it is believed that the situation is ripe for women to extract maximum advantage out of their opportunities. The recognition of Women’s rights by the Constitution, birth control campaigns, criminalisation of sex selective abortions, improvements in the sphere of education with respect to girl children etc have been pointed out to be conducive to the Women Empowerment movement.
While all this remains, the question is, why women don’t feel internally empowered and secure enough to go out and chase their dreams. It can be seen that women constantly live under a fear of being attacked. While in men the fear is of being robbed or fatally injured, in women the concern is of being sexually assaulted. Unless she feels sure that she can walk on the streets without the fear of being violated, she cannot be empowered. All external instrumentalities of empowerment will fail miserably if the internal empowerment does not happen. The external opportunities designed to bring the fair sex to the forefront of developmental activities are fruitless if they do not germinate a sense of internal liberation within the woman.
This presentation attempts to chronicle the socio political and moral connotations that exist in the collective conscience of the society which bring into existence the sense of insecurity in women and lower the definition of the term ‘Woman’ to that of a mere vagina or a womb.
Analysis of the root cause of this fear in women will be done under the following two main heads:
• Women and the concept of “Virginity”
• The institution of marriage and its decisive nature in determining the social status of a woman
1. Women and Virginity – Societal norms and their effect on women
The primary concern of majority women seems to orbit around their virginity or what the society construes to be their bodily purity. The concept of virginity in the context of the Indian society is about having an intact hymen and not indulging in sexual intercourse before a woman is legally and rightfully married off. The celibate woman is expected to be a virgin. This image of woman has been maintained since times immemorial and is continued to remain so even today.
In such a scenario, it is forced upon every woman to see to it that she remains a virgin in the eyes of the immediate society around her, so that she can lead a socially acceptable life. The society polices her in every move and keeps a ceaseless vigil over her activities. It looks for instances which can be used against her to label her as a vamp.
In this sort of an environment, if at all the woman falls prey to any kind of sexual abuse or assault, the society will look down on her and she will become an untouchable, unacceptable being. She will lose her identity and dignity and will be shunned by the people around her even though the unfortunate incident which took place was not due to her fault.
This fear of being shunned by the society creates an insecure feeling in the mind of every woman. This makes her think twice before she decides to get out of her house. She deliberates on how she will be able to get back home and by what time she will be able to return. All such calculations are made with respect to a careful analysis of the possibility of being attacked by some random pervert on the streets. Such thoughts hold back women from going out and doing the things they love or even doing their hard earned jobs.
When this mental conflict is correlated to the realm of women empowerment, it can be rightfully concluded that unless women feel bold enough to walk out of their homes and be sure to be able to return without being harmed, they will hesitate to involve in productive activities even if they are educated or have been provided with various opportunities to develop their potentials. Apart from having contempt for victims of sexual assault, the issue of female reproductive and sexual autonomy lie at the core of passionately held ideological, religious and cultural notions of female gender identity. Even when there is no direct State involvement, governments have frequently been complicit in abuses against women that are carried out in the name of tradition, culture or religion by purposefully turning a blind eye towards them. Societies in all regions of the world create social arrangements to order interaction among members of the community; these arrangements almost always include distinct gender roles. The failure to ensure that women remain within the boundaries of their socially defined sexual roles is widely considered to tarnish not only the woman’s reputation but also her family’s or even her entire community’s honour. Thus, women, not men who engage in the so called “immodest” behaviour are attacked by the society. The international community has also been timid about condemning abuses cloaked in terms of cultural, traditional or religious imperatives, especially when they affect the sensitive domain of female sexuality. In doing so, governments have failed to uphold the principle of universality of Human Rights. The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights declared- “While the significance of national and regional particularities and various cultural and regardless backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of the States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems to promote and protect all Human Rights and fundamental freedoms.” Further, cultural defences for violation of women’s freedom and rights in the context of female sexuality also warrant careful scrutiny as they often don’t reflect a true concern for public or social order and are exploited by people with vested interests .
This is where we spot the major flaw of the women empowerment movements of the modern day.
These notions of virginity and their decisive role in determining the social status of a woman affect empowerment adversely.
2. Women and the institution of marriage
The institution of marriage is given paramount importance in the social life on India. Polygamy has been prohibited by law and couples are expected to stick on to the marriage and go together for a lifetime. The scene is changing now to a limited extent with the onset of liberal views on individual freedoms and cohabitation without a legal marriage is being accepted to a large extent. But looking at the larger picture, it is seen that the family is treated as the nucleus of civilization even today and thus, marriages become important.
As observed in The Second Sex , marriage is the destiny traditionally offered to women by the society. The celibate woman is defined and explained with respect to marriage - whether she was married, plans to get married, is married or rebellious about marriage.
Every human existence involves transcendence and immanence at the same time; to go forward, each existence must be maintained, for it to expand towards t the future, it must integrate the past and while intercommunicating with others, it should find self-confirmation. These two elements- maintenance and progression- are implied in any living activity and for the man, marriage permits precisely a happy synthesis of the two. In his occupation and his political life he encounters change and progress, he senses his extension through time and the universe; and when he is tired of such roaming he gets himself a home and settles down and has an anchorage in the world. But, the woman has no other job than to maintain and provide for everyday life in an orderly way. She perpetuates the species without change; she ensures the even rhythm of the days and continuity of the home, seeing to it that the doors are locked. But she is allowed no direct influence upon the future nor upon the world. She reaches out beyond herself towards the social group only through her husband as intermediary.
Even though times have changed, this is the basic situation of a woman in almost every marriage. Even if she is employed, she has to adjust her prospects in tandem with the likes of her husband and extended family. She has to give birth within a considerable time period after marriage to gain the love of her in-laws. At the same time, the man has no such restraints on his personal liberty even when he is equally part of the marriage.
Further, the woman is held so tight by the pathological grip of moral beliefs and conjugal obligations that she has to think many times before she decides to walk out of a marriage which of course is not the case with a man. She often loses her right to sexual and reproductive freedom and is made to stick onto the marriage despite all these facts by the society around.
This kind of predominance of the institution of marriage also creates a sense of insecurity in women whereby they hesitate to venture into challenging sectors of work and art. Marriage is considered as an inevitable event in the life of a woman and the people around make it almost impossible for her to live by herself.
This tendency of the woman to give up her identity to maintain her marriage eventually dispenses off her inner strength and her urge to grow beyond her limitations.
While such deep rooted concerns continue to breed inside the mind of women, their empowerment is not possible regardless of how much opportunity they are provided with.
Suggested remedies
Coming to the possible suggestive remedies that can be put forth to correct the internal insecurities faced by women, it is felt that a considerable quantum of difference can be brought about through:
• Strengthening the sphere of education with respect to women and instilling in them awareness about their rights and the willingness to fight against violations of the feminine self
• Ensuring that women become economically independent
• Initiating a change in attitude of the male society around
Empowerment essentially means to equip or supply with ability. Therefore, it does not concern itself with external factors alone; rather it is about the internal liberation of an individual. Empowerment should enable a person to form independent views on various aspects of life and also stand strong and express them without inhibitions. For the women empowerment movements to bear fruit, it has to be ensured that women are empowered from within. They have to realise that they have a self, an identity and worth. They too are human resources who have social responsibilities to fulfil and also take active part in turning the wheels of civilization and democracy. Only if this realisation becomes strong in women and a social environment conducive to the manifestations of such realisations is provided to them, can they be empowered in the real sense of the term.
To start with, education has the most important role to play in shaping up a woman of strong beliefs and awareness. Education should seek to generate a sense of individuality in a woman and help her to break free from the yolks of conventional conditionings. She should be let free to choose her field of work and she should be taught not to give up herself for the selfish and egoistic demands of someone else. While saying this, there intends to be not the slightest hint that women should be made to become self-centred and arrogant (as the modern day Feminists think they should be). But nonetheless, women should be made aware of their rights.
There exists a sense of shame in women which holds them back from admitting the occurrence of a sexual assault or any other incident of the same nature. This sense of shame has to be converted into a sense of rebellious stubbornness through education. There is absolutely no need to die in shame in such cases, rather, women should come up and fight against the perpetuators of their violation.
Moreover, education should mould a woman to understand that nobody has a right over her body no matter at what time or place she is and with whom she is. It is only such realisations that can help women overcome their mental blocks and insecurities. A woman’s life is a constant struggle to find herself as well as to fit into the societal norms of modesty, and in it, most of the times, she is made to drown herself and live according to the unwritten but compelling dictates of the immediate society around, including her family. Only when she is given the autonomy to be herself from within will the external instrumentalities of empowerment offered to her find meaning.
The aspect of economic independence also plays a decisive role in determining a woman’s existence and her options. If she is economically self-reliant, she can make her own decisions with regard to her travelling, lodging, work etc. She can opt to live in a much more liberal fashion and also have a say in deciding matters in the family. Moreover, she will not have to hold on to an unhappy marriage if she has the means to sustain herself and maintain her dependants even if she breaks off from the wedlock. The absence of an alternative source of income often becomes the reason behind women sticking onto marriages and succumbing to the dictates of the man. Thus, economic independence is a great relief and violation of women’s freedoms can be antidoted with it to a large extent.
The most important and difficult aspect which hinders the process of women empowerment is the attitude of the male community around. Women have always been viewed as a commodity for sexual use by man and even today, remnants of that archetype exists in the collective conscience of the male society. They are today the most dreaded beings as we see an indiscriminate increase in the number of sexual crimes against women in the most heinous forms. Even within the family, instances of sexual abuse and incest are on the rise. With such happenings all around, the woman is made to feel all the more insecure and she has begun to feel that nothing can actually give her concrete protection from sexual abuses. This fear hinders her intellectual digestion and creates blocks which form a hard cyst around her sense of freedom.
These issues all relate to the mental frame of women and are inextricably intertwined with their sense of empowerment. Unless a woman is made to feel that she is secure and can assert herself without the fear of being isolated, she cannot be empowered. Legal and political safeguards come only at the next level of empowerment. First of all, these issues should be looked into and then, there should be a synthesis of the external and internal forces to bring about an effective empowerment model.
The discussion here was with respect to the large majority of the Indian women and their mental frame in the context of the morality of the Indian society. The situation is different in the western world as their concept of virginity and marriages are far liberal and they give importance to individual choices above the creation of a community life. Even in India, the situation changes in the case of the elite upper class women who can afford luxuries and don’t often heed to the opinions of the society around them. But again, the large majority of womenfolk in the country are still ignorant of their rights and live by the society’s concept of how they should live.
To empower a woman is to refuse to confine her to the relations she bears to man and not to deny them to her. It is to let her have her independent existence.
Woman must not be made to accept, she must be made to challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must revere that woman in her which struggles for expression.
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