International Convention and Constitutional Mandates for Gender Equality

UNIT 3 STATUS OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY: CONTEMPORARY ANALYSIS

Contents 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Aims and Purpose Introduction Status of Women: Global Scenario Demographic and Health Aspects
3.3.1 3.3.2 3.3.3 3.3.4 Sex Ratio and Life Expectancy at Birth Fertility and Mortality Rates Age at Marriage and Child Bearing of Adolescents Health and Nutrition Status

3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8

Women and Poverty Education and Training Economic Participation

3.6.1 Characteristics of Womens Labour Force Participation

Political Participation of women Women in Contemporary Indian Society

3.8.1 Demographic and Health Indicators 3.8.1.1 3.8.1.2 3.8.1.3 3.8.1.4 3.8.2 3.8.3 3.8.4 Sex Ratio and fertility Life Expectancy and Mortality Ratio Age at Marriage and Fertility Rate Health and Nutrition

Educational Status of Women Participation of Women in Economy Women and Political Participation

3.9 Concluding Remarks 3.10 Clarification of the Terms Used 3.11 Some Useful Readings

3.0 AIMS AND PURPOSE

In the previous unit we learnt about the position of women in the society from a historical perspective. The change occured in the position of women along with the economic and other development of the society have been discussed there. As we have seen, while the primitive societies were more or less egalitarian, stereotyped gender roles evolved along with the march of human progress for a better living. The focus of the present unit will be the examination of status of women in contemporary society. This unit will enable you to understand:

An overview of the status of women in contemporary global as well as Indian society; The manifestations of gender disparity in contemporary society; and The reflections of stereotypical gender roles in different spheres of social life.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
As we have seen in the previous unit, in the modern period the distinction based on feminine and masculine gender is very prominant. There are distinctions in terms of access to education, work opportunities, health,

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personal security, leisure etc. The patriarchal system that prevails in almost all world societies gives women a subordinate position in all walks of life. However, due to various factors that worked in consonance, for more than last one century there had been a marked increase in the status of women compared to earlier periods. Compared to pre-industrial society are more visible row. There was an increased awareness among certain groups of women and men alike about the oppressed and subordinated position of women in the society just because of the fact that they are born as women. The initiatives of those groups and the internationalization of womens struggles for gender justice in the twentieth century promoted the cause of gender equality by the national and international agencies the world around. Towards the end of the century the UN declaration of International Decade for Women and various other international and national conferences, meetings, initiatives etc. for womens cause certainly did help in improving the status of women - if not all, at least certain sections - in the society, in terms of diverse socio-cultural and economic parameters (Desai 2001). Access to civil and political rights, participation in political process and in decision making bodies, access to and more participation of education and training, more and more entry of women into labour force etc. are a few to name. But all these achievements are far less than what is desirable. We will get more evidence for this when we analyse the status of women in the contemporary society. The contents of the unit can largely be divided into two parts. The former part of the unit is devoted to discuss the status of women at the global level. The latter part of the unit will focus on the Indian situation. In this unit the status of women has been analysed in terms of the standard status indicators.

Global Debates and their Impacts

3.2 STATUS OF WOMEN: GLOBAL SCENARIO

Along with human progress and development from most primitive condition of hunting gathering societies to industrial to post industrial, which witnessed revolutionary developments in technologies, women of the world found themselves in a more discriminated and marginalisaed position. This phenomenon of discrimination and marginalisation against women exist in all societies cutting across the geographical borders and levels of development, though it varies in degree and areas of operation. Women around the world irrespective of the state of economic development of the countries had little say in the domestic or in the matters relating to the society, spent unending hours in the hard domestic work, which hardly found any recognition, and were generally subservient to men. The awareness of gender based discrimination and the injustice meted out to women by women themselves and by the society at large and consequent movements for the advancement of women resulted in the achievement of several civil, political and legal rights for womens equality. These struggles for the emancipation of women were not confined to one part of the world; it was universal among all countries cutting across national borders, each taking inspiration from others and benefiting from their experiences. Do You Know? 1 Some Disturbing Facts About the Status of Women Around the World

Each year, 1/2 million women die from pregnancy complications and 100,000 from unsafe abortions. A pregnant woman in Africa is 180 times more likely to die than in Western Europe. In the US, a woman is beaten every 18 minutes and raped every 6 minutes. More women are injured in domestic violence incidents than in car accidents, rapes, and muggings put together.

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International Convention and Constitutional Mandates for Gender Equality

Reports from France indicate that 95% of its victims of violence are women, 51% at the hands of their husbands. From 1/5 to 1/2 of women worldwide experience domestic violence during marriage. In several countries, testing for genetic defects is used to determine the sex of an unborn child for the purpose of aborting females only. Women represent 2/3 of the more than one billion illiterate adults who have no access to basic education. The majority live in rural areas. On average, by age 18, girls receive 4.4 years less education than boys. As of 1996, in Washington state in U.S. women still earn only 67 cents for ever dollar a man makes. In U.S. there are more adolescent girls than boys who are diagnosed with HIV, according to the US Centers for Disease Control, 90% of AIDS cases under age 20 are girls. It is estimated that in the US, one in three girls is sexually abused by the age of 18 and one in four by age 14. There are 50 million abortions worldwide annually; 30 million of them are illegal. 20 million of them are legal. Source: http://www.fwhc.org/stats.htm

The international organization of United Nations played a significant role in spearheading the concerted global action for promoting the realization of the principle of equal rights for men and women for more than last half century or so. The UN Charter formulated in 1945 adopts the principle of equal rights for men and women for the first time in the history. There had been several attempts by the International community led by UN and its organizations to improve the status of women in the society. The deplorable situation of women in several countries in terms of their status, their access to rights in various areas like education, health, employment, decision-making in family, society, public and private governance etc. could be brought into sharp focus due to such efforts at the global level. The UN efforts made national governments to accept the pursuit of gender equality in various spheres of life as one of the goals of development process (You will learn more on this in unit 9).
Table 3.1: Per Capita Income, Human Development and Gender Development for Selected Countries Country 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. USA Japan France United Kingdom Germany Italy Mexico Russian Federation Thailand Brazil Philippines Turkey China Iran DGP per Capita PPP (US$) in 2000 34,142 26,755 24,223 23,509 25,103 23,626 9,023 8,377 6,402 7,625 3,971 6,974 3,976 5,884 HDI Rank 2000 6 9 12 13 17 20 54 60 70 73 77 85 96 98 GDI Rank GEM Rank 2000 2000 6 11 12 10 16 20 49 52 60 64 63 71 77 83 11 12 16 8 31 38 53 50 35 63

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15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23

Vietnam Indonesia Egypt India Pakistan Bangladesh Nigeria Congo (Dem. Rep.of) Ethiopia

1,996 3,043 3,635 2,358 1,928 1,602 896 765 668

109 110 115 124 138 145 148 155 168

89 91 99 105 120 121 124 131 142

65 66

Global Debates and their Impacts

Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2002 Notes: FDP per Capita PPP is GDP per Capita adjusted for purchasing power HDI is Human Development Index Calculated for 173 Countries GDI is Gender Development Index Calculated for 146 Countries GEM is Gender Empowerment Measure Calculated for 66 Countries * India ranked 95 according to Human Development Report, 1998.

All these strategies did help in improving the status of women world around to a considerable extend. The special session of the UN in the year 2000 (Beijing + 5) makes an evaluation of the achievements made by the member states towards the goal of status enhancement of women. Many a global states enacted legislation to comply with the human rights and international labour conventions that promote womens economic rights, equal access to economic resources and equality in employment. Affirmative steps taken by the governments could promote progress in education of girls and training at all levels, especially in countries, which showed sufficient political commitment and resource allocation. There had been initiatives to improve womens access to health care from different dimensions. The eradication of violence against women, especially the domestic violence, was adopted by nations as a priority area of national crime prevention strategies. Provisions for guaranteeing the enjoyment of human rights without discrimination on the basis of sex has been included in many national constitutions. Legislative measures have been taken to protect the interests of women. Many countries increased the use of targets and indicators and of special strategies including quotas to increase the participation of women in decision-making until parity is achieved at the national, local and community levels (King 2000). Despite these positive gains the state of womens position in several countries around the world is nowhere near satisfactory level. Even at the turn of the century there exist factors that work against the advancement of women in societies to a large extend. Let us point out some of teh indicators of womens' low position in society:

There is persistent and increased poverty among women, The gender-based inequalities exist in access to education and health care, violence against women in the family and society, Gender based inequalities exist in the economic policies and in all forms of productive activities and in the access to resources, Inequalities exist in sharing of power and decision-making at all levels, stereotyping of women, Persistent discrimination against and isolation of rights of girl child etc. (Agrawal 2004). Against this backdrop, in the following section, let us examine the status of women first at global level and then with special reference to India. The status of women is generally assessed and compared in terms standard status indicators such as a) demographic and health indicators, b) educational and training levels c) economic participation d) participation in political decision making.

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International Convention and Constitutional Mandates for Gender Equality

Learn From Your Experience 1 If you analyse the status take any two aspects for analysis of women of your generation and a generation before, which are the avenues you find a transformation and what are the aspects, which remain as it is?

3.3 DEMOGRAPHIC AND HEALTH ASPECTS

Even though there are tremendous variations among women based on spatial location, linguistic and cultural identities, caste, religious and ethnic backgrounds, class, education, profession etc, there are some important commonalities that a women share. They all might have faced at some point or other gender-based social discrimination in all realms of their lives. Notwithstanding the social change and the status improvement of women witnessed in the last few decades, in comparative terms women are still behind men in all objective and material measures of well being such as economic self sufficiency, education, nutrition, life expectancy etc.

3.3.1 Sex Ratio and Life Expectancy at Birth

Sex ratio is the number of females per thousand males. In the year 1995 the global sex ratio was 986 women per 1000 men. All the developed countries and have a sex ratio of over 1000, favouring the females. In Europe, United States of America and Japan it was 1030-1050 females per 1000 males (Coale 1991). Whereas most of the developing regions around the world show a low sex ratio. There are numerous studies that show a systematic deprivation of women vis--vis men in many societies (Dreze and Sen 1989) and this may reflect in the low sex ratio. In most of the South Asian countries sex ratio is less than 950. Some countries have shown even less than 950 women per 1000 men, for example in China and India. It is widely known that the probability of survival in South Asia is higher among male children than female children. This suggests that the households treat male children differently from female children with regard to allocation of resources.
Table 3.2: Gender Parity Demographic and Health Indicators for Selected Countries
Expectation of Birth (Years) (2000-05) Country Estimated population (million) in 2000 Sex-Ratio (No.of females per 1000 males) in 2002 % of females to males life expectancy Total Fertility Rate 2000-05

Female

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 50

USA 288.5 Japan 127.5 France 59.7 United Kingdom 59.7 Germany 82.0 Italy 57.5 Mexico 101.8 Russian Federation 143.8 Thailand 64.3 Brazil 174.7 Philippines 78.6 Turkey 68.6 China 1,294.4

1,028 1,045 1,053 1,029 1,039 1,062 1,022 1,139 1,022 1,027 986 981 946

80.4 85.0 82.0 80.7 81.1 81.0 76.4 72.5 73.8 72.6 72.0 73.2 73.5

107.8 109.2 109.0 106.6 108.1 108.5 108.5 120.8 108.7 112.2 105.9 107.6 122.3

1.93 1.33 1.80 1.61 1.29 1.20 2.49 1.14 2.00 2.15 3.24 2.30 1.80

14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23

Iran 72.4 Vietnam 80.2 Indonesia 217.5 Egypt 70.3 India 1,041.1 Pakistan 148.7 Bangladesh 143.4 Nigeria 120.0 Congo (Dem. Rep.of) 54.3 Ethiopia 66.0

956 1,007 994 976 940 948 941 983 1,016 1,010

70.8 71.6 69.3 69.9 64.9 60.9 60.8 52.2 53.5 43.6

102.9 107.0 106.1 104.8 102.0 99.5 100.3 100.5 104.9 102.3

2.76 2.25 2.27 2.88 2.97 5.08 3.56 5.42 6.70 6.75

Global Debates and their Impacts

Source: Based on data from U.N. Population Division, World Population Prospects, The 2002 Revision, Volume I: Comprehensive Tables.

Let us see the reasons for low sex ratio in society. The main factors that determine the ratio of women to men in a population are the sex ratio at birth and the different patterns in mortality and migration of men and women. The sex ratio at birth is biologically stable. Although boys outnumber the girls at birth the world over, under conditions of low fertility, low maternal mortality, equal treatment of boys and girls as they grow up, proper access to safe drinking water and sanitation and gender-neutral health care, the mortality rate among women decline after a particular age because of their stronger biological constitution, the tendency will be for women to outnumber men. Thus a gender egalitarian society will exhibit a female favoured sex ratio. If there is no deliberate intervention in sex selection at birth there shall not be any deviation from the standard biological sex ratio. The deviation shows selective interference. Such imbalances is the reported sex ratio at birth might be explained by female infanticides and underreporting of female births and increased availability of technologies that facilitate sex-selective abortion. The low sex ratio in some of the countries is an indication that the modernization and decreasing fertility have led to greater discriminations in some countries against the girl child through interference in selection before (and after) birth ((Rao and Rao 1999). Do you Know? 2 Female Infanticide and Foeticide Female infanticide is the intentional killing of baby girls due to the preference for male babies and from the low value associated with the birth of females. There are a number of methods for killing the infants. Sometimes the infants are fed milk laced with sap from poisonous plants or pesticides. Others are given paddy (rice with the husks still attached) to swallow which slit their throats. Other methods include feeding them salt to increase blood pressure, being stuffed in clay pots, holding the baby by the waist and shaking it - which snaps the spinal cord - or simply snapping their necks. These methods are all believed to be quick and painless, but invite scrutiny by authorities. The government cracking down on infanticide has given rise to methods that are not so quick and painless, such as starvation or wrapping them in wet towels so they contract pneumonia. With these methods, obviously, it appears the infant simply contracted an illness and the homicide wont be as apparent. Sex-specific abortion or foeticide is another popular method of preventing female additions to the family. With the increased usage of ultrasound devices sex of the infant is known well in advance and female foetuses are simply aborted. Other technologies available for sex determination are amniocentesis and chorionic biopsy, which can through chromosomal analysis, help detect the sex of the foetus.

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International Convention and Constitutional Mandates for Gender Equality

When we come to the life expectancy at birth, the tendency around the world is that women live longer than men, for reasons not well understood. There is some consensus that female mortality from birth through the first years is lower than male mortality in societies where boys and girls are treated equally (Source). But there is limited scientific understanding or consensus on why womens and mens life expectancies differ and how much difference is natural due to innate characters. Think It Over 1 In your opinion what are the reason for the low female sex ratio in India? Give some suggestions for improving sex ration in favour of women. Except for Pakistan, Zambia and Zimbabwe, all the countries in the world have a higher life expectancy for females than males (HDR 2004). Howeveer, the difference in the life expectancy of men and women varies from countries to countries. There is also substantial difference in the expectation of life at birth for females across the countries from 82.7 (France, Hong Kong, China) to 32.5 (Zambia). The difference is higher in most of the developed and some developing countries. In Africa and in most developing regions the difference is small and in Southern Asia the life expectancies are almost equal. When the tendency all over the world is longer life expectancy for women than men, a lower difference between the life expectancies of females and males in the society shows unequal treatment that women receive in these societies.

3.3.2 Fertility and Mortality Rates

Total fertility rate is the average number of children that a woman has over her lifetime. The number of children that a couple will have is determined by many factors, including health, religion, culture, economic status, and the ability to have the number they wish to have. Many of these factors relate to the status of women in society and of individual women in different societies. For example, education, labor force participation, and infant mortality, age at marriage, use of family planning methods, breastfeeding etc. have a strong correlation with levels of fertility because these factors help determine the number, spacing, and timing of births, womens choices (or lack thereof) regarding childbirth. Biological, cultural, and socioeconomic conditions influence her exposure to sexual interaction and her ability to conceive a child, as well as the number of children she may wish to have (Visaria 1999). Among others a reason for low fertility rate is narrowing of gender inequality in the society. In a more equitable society women are more active outside the home and exert more control over their fertility and can choose the size of their families. In countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria etc. fertility rate is high. In some of these countries fertility rate is in excess of five. In such societies one can evidently conclude existence of high gender inequality. Think It Over 2 Examine how fertility and mortality rates are related to the status of women in the society. It is important to assess the mortality rate (both infant and maternal) since a high female mortality rate show low level of gender parity in the society. In most part of the world infant mortality rate declined in the past few decades due to increasing control of the major childhood and communicable diseases and the widespread improvement in maternal health services. In the developed countries infant mortality rates are very low. The Southern Asia and the Sub Saharan countries register a high infant mortality rate (85 95 per 1000 live births). Sex-wise infant mortality rate favours girls in developed countries,
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whereas the difference is very low in developing countries. But in countries like India the mortality rate for the female children in the age group of 1-6 is 45 per 1000 live births, which is very high. The corresponding rate for male children is 29. In the case of maternal mortality too, developed countries have a better stand with just 10 to 20 per 1,00,000 live births. Some of the developing countries such as Mexico, Vietnam, China, etc. have rates less than 100. But some of the African countries have high rates of maternal mortality rates of more than 1000 per 1,00,000 live births. The rates are relatively high in some of the South Asian region. The causes for death for men and women may be different. Also women and men differ in the ways they are exposed to disease and how they are treated for that. The differences may stem from socio-economic and cultural factors that may determine nutrition, lifestyles, and accesses to health services etc. These differences may lead to the gap in the preventive and the curative services provided for both the sexes. Thus high rates of female infant as well as maternal mortality point to the gravity of the gender gap that persist in the society. Do You Know? 3 Women and Health > Women are becoming increasingly affected by HIV. Today about 42 per cent of estimated cases are women, and the number of infected women is expected to reach 15 million by the year 2000. An estimated 20 million unsafe abortions are performed worldwide every year, resulting in the deaths of 70,000 women. Approximately 585,000 women die every year, over 1,600 every day, from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. In sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 13 women will die from pregnancy or childbirth related causes, compared to 1 in 3,300 women in the United States.

Global Debates and their Impacts

> >

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Globally, 43 per cent of all women and 51 per cent of pregnant women suffer from iron-deficiency anemia. Source: www.un.org

3.3.3 Age at Marriage and Child Bearing of Adolescents

Generally, the age at which a woman marries first is directly related to the number of children she will bear because it determines the length of time she will be at risk of becoming pregnant. Of course, unmarried women may also have children, but the vast majority of childbearing takes place within marriage in most part of the world, which makes the age at marriage a valuable indicator of a womans lifetime fertility. The average age at first marriage varies widely among the countries and within the same country is very different for women and men. In countries where the average age at marriage is low, the fertility rate of women is high. For example the total fertility rate of German women, who marry around age 24, is 1.3. Conversely, women in Yemen, who marry earlier, average is 6.5 children (Rao and Rao 1998). Child bearing in adolescence is closely related to womens status because it hurts the chances of young women to improve their lives; their health, educational attainment, employment opportunities and decision making in the family and in the community. In most of the developed regions and in Eastern Asia the average fertility rate in the age group of 15-19 is about 20 per 1000. In South Eastern Asia the rate is nearly double of that (37) and even higher in Eastern Europe (47). In Northern Africa, South America, Southern Asia the

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International Convention and Constitutional Mandates for Gender Equality

rate is in the range of 60-70. The rates are lowest in the developed regions, where the lowest value observed is well below 10 births per 1000 girls. Learn From Your Experience 2 Talk to a doctor or subject expert and try to know more on the health hazards for teenage mothers. Also talk to women who became mothers at an early age and ask how it affected her personal development. Based on that write a report on health and social problems of adolescent mothers.

3.3.4 Health and Nutrition Status

Health conditions in one phase of a womans life affect other phases of her life as well as the health and well being of the future generations (World Health Assembly 1992). The health of women is not only a manifestation of her biological but a reflection of socio-political, economic and religious contexts of womens lives also. Health is an important indicator in the achievement of social status of women whose health is conditioned to a great extend by social attitudes. Studies show that there is a difference between men and women in terms of access to health services and the quality of the care that they receive. Discrimination against the girl child as seen in most societies retards her growth and development. It is evident that the health problems that begin in the childhood and adolescence affect the health status of women during their reproductive years and beyond as well as the health of the new born. The neglect of the health needs of women especially that of the pregnant women, adolescent girls and girl babies is responsible for the high rates of infant mortality rates, child mortality rates and maternal mortality rates in many societies (Gopalan, S. 2001). Women in the developing countries are generally more malnourished than men. The additional biological demands due to menstruation, pregnancy and lactation have made nutritional deficiencies the most widespread and disabling health problem among women. The low birth weight in new borns is partly a reflection of poor maternal nutrition. In 1990-94, the proportion of new borns weighing less than 2.5 kg ranged between 13 50% in countries of South Asia. Iron deficiency or anemia is more common among women than in men. About 55% of the pregnant women and 44% of all women suffer from anemia in developing countries. Anemia lowers the physical work capacity of women and their ability to cope with various infections. It has serious repercussions on their reproductive health. Another serious problem afflicting women is the lack of adequate nutrition. One of the reasons for this is that girls and women often get the leftovers because of the patriarchal system, which is reflected in the social custom any practices, poverty and their poor social status.

3.4 WOMEN AND POVERTY

Out of the total poor in the world 70% are women and children (UNDP 2000). It was found some groups are more vulnerable to poverty than others. This includes female lone parents, elderly women living alone, aboriginal women, immigrant and minority women, disabled women etc. There is a strong relationship between gender inequality and poverty. It has been concluded in many international forums as well that there is a direct link between womens empowerment and poverty eradication. The main dimensions of poverty are short life, illiteracy and exclusion and lack of material life etc. Various reasons have been given for the increased incidence of poverty among women or feminisation of poverty. The discrimination against female gender often lead to their lesser accessibility, compared to men, to credit, finance, education, training, employment and other productive resources, which in turn contribute to increased poverty among them. According

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to another view the factors responsible for feminisation of poverty are population growth, the emigration of men, increasing family break up, low productivity etc. The adverse effects of these factors on women are in turn accelerated by the intra-household inequalities. The feminists focusing on the gender implications and social costs of poverty argue that the facts such as growing involvement of women and children in the informal economy, differential treatment of girls and boys in the households, pressure to get girls married off quickly, higher school dropout rates of girls etc. lead to higher poverty among women. They believe that the pervasive gender inequalities and biases within the households, labour markets, legal codes and political system throughout the world render women more vulnerable than men to poverty (Meer 1990). Do You Know? 4 Feminization of Poverty in U.S. There are more women in the total population of the United States than men and there are more poor women than poor men in the United States. The total population of the United States is 266,218,000 out of which 135,865,000 are females and 130,353,000 are males. The total population of poor in the United States is 36,529,000 which is 13.7% of the total population. There are 20,918,000 females that are poor which is 15.4% of the total female population and 57.2% of the total poverty population. There are 15,611,000 males who are poor which is 12.0% of the total population of males and 42.7% of the total poverty population. Thus gender plays a role in the poverty profile and women are more likely to be poor than men. (Source: Ohio State University) From the above discussion it can be concluded that womens poverty is closely related to certain demographic, socio-cultural and economic factors. The number of female headed households are on a rise around the world for the past few decades both in the developed and developing countries and the incidence of poverty is more in female headed families with dependent children. The unequal distribution of resources that favours male members in the family also contributes to the increased poverty among women. Other than the unequal accessibility of jobs and other economic resources, liberalization and structural adjustments of national economies push more women into informal sector employment with less pay and low social protection. All these factors had a cumulative impact on women pushing more and more women into the status of poor compared to men (Socio Economy Research Centre 1997).

Global Debates and their Impacts

3.5 EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Education is a crucial issue for the development of any society. It is recognized that developmental goals and progress of literacy are interdependent and a modern society based on science and technology requires a corresponding increase in the educational base of the country (SAARC Guide Book on WID 1986). It is also found to be related to various other factors that are associated with the advancement of a society. Education is found to be a crucial ingredient in improving the status of women and is considered one of the most important means to empower women with knowledge, skills and self-confidence, so that they can be equal partners and beneficiaries in the development process. Educated women are likely to marry later, have fewer children and are likely to have greater means to improve their economic livelihood, all connected to improvement of status of women (Rao and Rao 1999).
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International Convention and Constitutional Mandates for Gender Equality

There are near gender parity in net primary school enrolment in most countries around the world and a widespread universal primary education and increase in the rate of women above 15 years with basic literacy rates over the past few decades. But still two third of worlds illiterates are women and also two thirds of the school dropouts of the world are girls. High rates of illiteracy among women still prevail in much of the Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia and a few countries in Western Asia, Oceania and Latin America and the Caribbean. Female enrolment rate of girls is only one-third rate for the males in Democratic Republic of Congo and two-fifths of it in Ethiopia. Likewise the female enrolment in secondary and higher education is better in countries where gender parity is more prominent in the case of primary education. But in higher education girls seem to cluster more into those educational streams, which are stereotypical. Table 3.3 Gender Parity - Educational Indicators for Selected Countires
Net Primary Enrolment (percentage, 2000) Country Male 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18 USA Japan France United Kingdom Germany Italy Mexico Russian Federation Thailand Brazil Turkey China Vietnam Egypt India Bangladesh Congo (Dem. Rep.of) Ethiopia 2 100 100 100 101 102 100 101 90 97 95 92 102 95 94 96 95 73 Net Secondary Enrolment (percentage, 2000) Female % of Female Rate to Male Rate 7 104 93 92 87 87 96 54 52 48 46 16 19

%of Female Male Female Rate to Male Rate 3 95 100 100 100 88 100 100 69 76 96 96 92 95 89 100 31 30 4 95 100 100 99 86 100 99 77 78 101 104 90 100 95 96 33 41 5 73 102 103 101 102 100 105 92 104 68 58 63

6 76 95 95 88 89 96 57 48 50 31 9 12

Source: Human Development Report, 2002, UNDP

Studies confirm that family preferences and the need for subsistence agriculture labour are factors limiting girls education in many parts of the world. Rural parents give various reasons keeping daughters out of school. Fear of too much freedom, a preference for investing limited resources in sons education with a view to parental support in the old age where girls move out of the family to be a part of the husbands family, and general control of womens wages by the husband, better job prospects and wages for men, traditional stereotypes of womens roles and customary patrilineal inheritance systems etc. all are factors which work against the prospects for the girls to get educational opportunities.
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3.6 ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION

Womens access to paid work is crucial to achieving self-reliance and their well being and that of their dependent family members. As womens contribution to the households monetary income increases, they are more able to influence how household resources are allotted. In the past few decades there had been an increase in the female labour force enabling them to use their potential in the labour market and to become economically independent. Never before have so many women been economically (in gainful employment) active. Still the gap between the male and female labour force participation is nowhere near to closing. In 2003 for the world as a whole there were only 63 women in the labour force per every 100 men. The gap is the largest in the Middle East and North Africa (where there were 36 economically active women per 100 men) and in South Asia (where 44 women per 100 men were active). This was most likely the result of the traditional role placed on women in many economies in these regions. In contrast, East Asia had the highest female labour force participation rates. Thailand, China and Vietnam have exceptionally high female participation rates, in excess of 70% (ILO 2004). Table 3.4 Gender Parity Economic Activity Indicators
Economic Acivity Rate (2000)
Country Female Index (19901000) % of Female Rate to Male Rate

Global Debates and their Impacts

Percentage of contributing workers (1991-2000)

Male Female Total Ratio of Estimated female to Male Income

1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. USA Japan France United Kingdom Germany Italy Mexico Russian Federation Thailand Brazil Philippines Turkey China Iran Vietnam Indonesia

2 58.8 50.8 48.5 52.8 47.9 38.3 39.4 59.3 73.3 43.8 49.5 49.9 72.7 29.0 73.8 55.2

3 106 103 106 105 100 106 116 99 98 98 106 114 99 134 97 110

4 81 67 76 74 69 58 47 82 85 52 61 61 86 37 91 67

5 41 19 35 25 45 51 58 34

6 59 82 65 75 55 49 41 66

7 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

8 0.62 0.44 0.61 0.50 0.44 0.38 0.64 0.62 0.59 0.46

3.6.1 Characteristics of Womens Labour Force Participation

The conspicuous feature of female labour force participation is that they constitute the majority of the unpaid workers contributing to the household economic activities in the developed as well as the developing countries (82% in Japan, 75% in Germany, 66% in Thailand, and 74% in Bangladesh). One main reason for this may be because the family responsibilities are still very much assigned to women irrespective of the development status of the society.
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When they have to combine child-raising activities with work activities, women are required to find a solution for balancing these two roles. Role incompatibility is likely to be a greater problem for women in wage employment, less for those in self-employment and least for contributing family workers who are unpaid (but still count as employed people according to the standard official definition of employment). In many developing economies where consistent data on employment status broken down by sex is available, it suggests that in the poorest regions of the world the share of female contributing family workers in total employment is much higher than mens and that women are less likely to be wage and salaried workers. The Human Development Report 1995 shows that women work (which includes all kinds of work that women do; paid, unpaid and other household related work) longer hours than men nearly in every countries and of the total burden of work, womens share is 53% in developing countries and 51% in industrialized countries of West. Learn From Your Experiences 3 Talk to five male and five female and male agricultural labourees ask them the hours they spend for (1) paid labour and (2) household labour and time (3) Make a comparison of the time spend by women and men for work and lesuire. Studies have showed that thus womens work is not likely to be status enhancing or empowering for them, especially in situations where they work as unpaid family labourers. Women have a smaller likelihood of being in regular wage and salaried employment than men in everywhere in the world. Women are more likely to find employment in the informal economy than men, outside legal and regulatory frameworks, with little, if any, social security benefits and a high degree of vulnerability. In economies with a high share of agriculture, women work more often in this sector than men. Women have a higher share in agricultural employment in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa and some economies in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially in economies with low per capita income. In all developing regions womens share in industry is lower than mens. This is despite the fact that export-led industrialization has been strongly female intensive, particularly in the exportprocessing zones (EPZs) of developing economies. EPZs have created an important avenue for women to enter the formal economy at better wages than in agriculture and domestic service. However, there is evidence that as the nature of employment in EPZs evolves, with higher technology inputs, the gender profile of the workforce changes. The specialty of the agricultural and other sector labour where most of the women engaged are either falls into the unpaid family work or with very low pay, we have already seen in unit 2 how, with industrialsation women were sidelined in the labour front as well as in family and society. The dimensions of women participation in the industrial sector is dealt in more detail in Unit 5) Do You Know? 5 Indias Service Sector An economy can be broadly divided into three sectors namely: the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Agriculture is the most important constituent of the primary sector including forestry, animal husbandry, mining and fishing. The secondary sector contains all types of industries and tertiary sectors represents the services sector includes banking, insurance, trade, and other services. India is a primarily an agrarian economy whereas the major share of the economy in most of the developed countries is industry. But the last few decades witnessed a phenomenal growth of service sector around the globe. India was also no exception. The growth of service sector is directly related to the development of sophistication in the information technology. Since 1980s the share of services sector in the real

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GDP in India has also surpassed that of agriculture and industry. Today, services constitute around 50% of Indias GDP. Indias service exports recorded the highest growth rate among all countries in the past five years. India accounts for 1.4% of world services trade compared to 0.9% of world merchandise trade. Besides agriculture, womens share of employment in the services sector, where most of the opportunities are in the informal sector, exceeds that of men. Within the services sector, women are concentrated in sectors that are traditionally associated with their gender roles, particularly in community, social and personal services, whereas men dominate the better-paid sector jobs in financial and business services and real estate. Additionally, women are more likely to earn less than men for the same type of work, even in traditionally female occupations. The estimated income of female workers is around 40-60% of the income of the male workers. Even in typically female occupations such as nursing and teaching, gender wage equality is still lacking. In Singapore, for example, male first-level education teachers earned approximately 6 per cent more than female teachers, and male nurse 21 per cent more. In the high-skill occupations where the education and training level of the applicants would presumably be comparable, the wage differentials based on sex exists. As a consequence, women have a higher share in the number of working poor in the world those people who work but do not earn enough to lift themselves and their families above the poverty line. Out of the 550 million working poor in the world, an estimated 330 million are women a share of 60 per cent. Think It Over 3 Do you think that an increase in the rate of womens labour participation automatically improve the status of women in society? Why

Global Debates and their Impacts

3.7 POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN

The political status of women can be defined as the degree of equality and freedom enjoyed by women in shaping and sharing of power and in the value given by society to this role of women. Increasing participation in the political process and in the legislative activities is an indicator of empowerment of women. When we consider the status of women in terms of political participation, it is very clear in no country do women have a political status, access, or influence equal to that of men (Nelson and Chowdhury 1997). Throughout the world women find obstacles to take part in political processes. Although there is gradual increase in the political participation of women over the years it is far from the ideal of gender parity. It will not be true if we say that women are or were never powerful or that they never enjoyed political equality with men, when we had world level women leaders such as Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Sirimao Bandaranayake etc. Countries like Norway, Ireland, Philippines, Turkey also had women heads of state. But as Barbara Ward (1963) noted there is always a gap between few and many; having a woman leader does not necessarily result in an overall improvement in the status of other women on a nation-wide basis. Women frequently do exercise political power in particular arena and their political activism is distinctive or unopposed. But these are exceptional. It is true that all women may not experience their subordinate status in the same way or all groups of women may not be subordinate to all groups of men. Nonetheless it is evident from the status of women in politics world around that women of any group is more able to be active in politics than can the men of the
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corresponding group. It is also evident that the subordinate status of women in politics is intertwined with her other status in the society such as family, religious, economic, legal etc. If we look at the participation of women in politics world around, the highest female participation in Parliament is in Germany (31%), followed by China, 22%. Only 14% of the parliamentarians are women in USA, less than in countries like UK, Mexico and Philippines. The females among the legislators, senior officials and managers are in most cases less than or around one-third and is less than 10% or low in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and in Japan as well (Agrawal and Rao 2002). Thus we see that despite an overall improvement in womens education, employment and reproductive health status, compared to the past there is a huge and glaring divide in the quality of life of women in the developed and developing worlds. Yet despite this, it is equally correct to say that gender discrimination does exist everywhere. In many developed countries as we have seen the gender gap seems to be narrowed down in terms of many standard status indicators, but when it comes to the economic front and power sharing in public and private spheres the gender gap is still very wide. Women are now articulating their needs and asserting their rights as never before; setting their own agendas and bringing their issues to the forefront of international debates and policy. After this brief overview of the contemporary position of women around the world, we shall focus specifically on women in India. Let us now focus on the economic, socio-cultural, health and political status of women in India.

3.8 WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY INDIAN SOCIETY

Within the Indian continent there have been infinite variations on the status of women, diverging according to cultural milieu, family structure, class, caste property rights and morals (Thaper 1975). However, the single point that unifies them is their identification of marginalized group. In the previous unit we have already seen the status of Indian women in the historical periods and how it deteriorated as the time passed. Women got a subordinate position in all arenas of domestic and social life. However, there was a definite improvement of womens status in the last one-century due to initiatives of womens activists and other international and national institutional support to enhance their status in the society. There had been various initiatives by the government of India to improve the status of women in our society. The Indian constitution made special provisions to enforce equality between men and women. Besides that there are legal provisions to maintain the gender parity and institutional support for the empowerment of women in the society. The issues of women had been taken care of in the development policies of India. Indian government declared the year 2001 as the Year for the Empowerment of Women and in the very same year the National Policy for the Empowerment of women was adopted. All these measures did help to some extend in the status improvement and empowerment of women in India compared to the past. But what is achieved is much less than what needs to be achieved. Indian women over the decades have proved that given the opportunity and access to strategic resources, they can enter and excel in every possible field including those considered as the bastion of males. They have demonstrated their potential in almost every field, be it in politics or social service, administration or diplomacy, science and technology, fine arts or sports, medicine or engineering, entrepreneurship or management or even in the unconventional fields of police and military. But the fact is that only a small portion of total Indian female population could enjoy all this benefits of development. The vast majority of women remained deprived of it.

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Besides these individual and other achievement of women, when we look at the status of women as a whole in the contemporary Indian society, it cannot be denied that there is a definite achievement in certain gender related status indicators such as increased female life expectancy, decreased maternal mortality, narrowing gap between male female infant and child mortality, increase in the rate of female literacy, increased female work force participation rate, increased female participation in formal and informal political process etc. Notwithstanding all these achievements, the level of gender parity and standards of gender development indices are much less than the required level or the achievements attained by many a developed and developing countries around the world. Let us see briefly some of the gender related status indicators to analyse the status of women in the contemporary Indian society.

Global Debates and their Impacts

3.8.1 Demographic and Health Indicators

An assessment of status of women in India can be done by examining the status indicators such as sex ratio, fertility rate, mortality rate etc.

3.8.1.1 Sex Ratio and Fertility

Though, along with the population growth in general, the absolute number of female population has increased in India over the years, female sex ratio has steadily declined. In 1901 there were 972 females to per 1000 males while this number has declined to 930 in 1971 and again to 928 in 1991. Factors such as the neglect of the girl child at an early stage leading to a higher rate of female infant mortality rate, death during child birth, female infanticide, and foetus killing etc. largely contributed to the declining female sex ratio in India. As per 2001 census the sex ratio of females per thousand males is 933, a slight increase over the previous decade (927). The improvement in the sex ratio in 1991-2001 decade is claimed to be due to the decrease in the maternal mortality rate. But there is a disturbing trend in the sex ratio of 0-6 age group, which has declined sharply from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001. Both female-male and girl-boy sex ratio show considerable spatial and temporal variations. The highest sex ratio in both the categories is shown in the state of Kerala and most of the South Indian states (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh) showed an improvement over last one decade. But many of the prosperous states such as Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat show a decline in the sex ratio. It is also a matter of concern that in these states the improvement in female literacy could not arrest the tendency of declining sex ratio. Registrar General of India, 2001, pointed out five reasons for the declining sex ratio in India, these are, a) sex determination before birth and elimination of female births b) changes in the sex ratio at birth c) killing of girl children, d) neglect of girl children e) high maternal mortality; all the reasons pointing to low status of women in the society. Do You Know? 6 Sex Specific Health Neglect in India Neglect of the girl child in providing the required nutrition is one of the main cause for the relatively higher mortality among the girls. Gender biases are widely prevalent in the allocation of food and health care in India. In a study conducted in Tamilnadu (Mishra 1996) it is shown that the male children were breast fed for five months longer than the female children in the landed families and for about ten months longer than in agricultural labour families. Another study of children under five by the institute of Health Management, Pochad, shows that the disparity in nutritional status is the highest in the age group in the 1-3 years. The

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same study also shows that the percentage of severely mal-nourished female children was consistently 2-3 times higher than that of boys. Mishra points out that the sex based discrimination is extended from nutrition to health care. Several studies indicate that fewer resources are invested in the health care of girl children, they are taken to the health centers less often, even when they are taken they are taken late leading to their death etc. Source:

3.8.1.2 Life Expectancy and Mortality Ratio

In India life expectancy has increased for both the sexes. In 1921 life expectancy for both the sexes was 26 years. In 1994 the life expectancy for the male and female has become 61.4 and 61.1 years respectively. In 2001, the life expectancy of females recorded all time high of 63.7. Women have a better life expectancy at birth due to their superior biological strength with better chances of survival at older ages. Life expectancy in India is still not as it ought to be. It is lower than in other advanced countries owing to the prevalent social milieu, which is based on patriarchy that places women on a lower status (Gopalan, S. 2001). The Infant Mortality Rates and Child Mortality Ratio declined over the decades and the gaps between the male and female infant mortality rates declined considerably. However female child mortality rate continues to be much higher than the child mortality rate. Both the life expectancy and the infant and child mortality vary across regions. Maternal mortality rate also declined over the last one decade. But the maternal mortality rate of over 400 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births is acceptably high compared to 10 to 20 in developed countries. The interstate variation is seen in the case of maternal mortality rate too. Indias performance in infant, child and maternal mortality rate are much higher in comparison to many other developing countries in the region. Indeed the higher female infant (both prenatal and natal) mortality rate has been a prime cause for the declining female sex ratio in India (Raju, S. 2006). The gender based age specific death rate shows that womens death rate has always been higher than the males in all age groups except for the age group of 50 years and above. The causes for death among women are mostly due to pregnancy and childbirth related reasons. Apart from that causes for death are anemia, tuberculosis, suicide, burns, Jaundice and cancer. Morbidity affects females more than males in India. In both rural and urban areas female morbidity rates, the rate of ailing persons per 1000 population is higher than males.

3.8.1.3 Age at Marriage and Fertility Rate

The average age at marriage of females in India has steadily increased from 15 to around 20 over the last half a century and the minimum age for marriage for girls as per law is 18 years. Still large numbers of girls continue to get married before the age of 18 despite the legal stipulations. This is basically due to the strong and deep-rooted social pressures. Even today almost one in every 5 girls get married before the age of 18 and over 50% of the girls get married between 18-20 years of age. Early child bearing follows early marriages. Early childbirth will have an impact on the life style of women. This may interfere the health of the women and also the quality of life. It may reduce their access to education, training and employment and their productivity. Fertility among the Indian women has declined over the years. It has come down from over 5 in 1970 to about 3 in 2001. Although the total fertility rate is better than compared to many other South Asian and African countries it is slightly higher than the developed countries where it is around 1-2. Preference for sons is closely related to the fertility rate of women in India.

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3.8.1.4 Health and Nutrition

In India, within the given socio-cultural matrix, women get a very low access to medical care. Some factors like levels of earnings of the family, its educational background, attitude to marriage, value attached to the fertility of women and sex of the child, and the ideal role demanded of women by social conventions affect the womens health adversely. The nutritional status of women in India especially that of rural women is far from desirable. Many of them suffer from acute anemia. Early marriage and multiple pregnancies result in lack of opportunity in attaining full bodily growth for women. Micro studies have pointed out that women do not get adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation. The low nutritional status of women applies to all age groups but is more acute in the cases of young girls, pregnant and aged women. According to an assessment of underweight and stunned growth of children, in the age group of 1-5 years, almost half of the girls were underweight. The dietary intake of women in the low-income group is deficient by 500-600 calories. While in the low socio-economic groups, the low nutritional status is mainly due to poverty and the burden of family responsibilities, in the lower middle income groups, it is aggravated by general neglect and is the indirect result of stronger gender discrimination (Aruna Goel). Do You Know? 7 Early Marriage, Pregnancies and Womens Health In 1981, 7% of the girls in the age group of 10-14 and 43% in the age group of 15-19 years were married. Thus, 50% of the girls were introduced to the reproduction process at teenage. Because of malnutrition, over burden of work, illiteracy, ignorance of sex behaviour, these pregnant girls have a higher risk of life. In India, around 10-15% of the annual births is from these adolescent mothers, who suffer form underweight and risk of mortality. In India, women have an average 8 to 9 pregnancies. Study shows that in low income group pregnant women have a deficiency of 1,100 calories and lactating mothers around 1000 calories. They gain only 3 to 5 kgs. of weight during pregnancy which is far less than the required weight. Anemia in pregnancy account directly for 15 to 20% of all maternal deaths. The maternal mortality is 400 to 500 per 1,00,000 births. However, this figure is as high as 1,000 to 1,200 in some rural areas. Again more than 29% deliveries in the urban areas and 71% in the rural areas take place without trained personal (NPPWD 1988). This problem should be viewed from the point of view that early marriage and a large number of pregnancies act as severe blockage for womens educational and economic well being. The events stop the process of their social and economic empowerment in the long run.

Global Debates and their Impacts

3.8.2 Educational Status of Women

With the recognition of the need to direct the process of social change and development towards certain desired goals, education has come to be increasingly regarded as a major instrument of social change (CSWI 1974). The Indian constitution provides equality of opportunity to all citizens irrespective of race, sex, caste and religion. It has also empowered the state to make specific provision for the educational well being of women and other weaker sections of the society. However, in spite of the various commendable provisions available in the constitution and various initiatives undertaken by the state (howsoever serious may it be) even after the 50 years of our independence a vast segment of the female population in India remains illiterate. Though the percentage of literacy has increased among women in India over the years

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form 15.34% in 1961 to 54.16% in 2001, there still exists a wide gap of 21.70% points between the male-female literacy rates. In 2001 only a little more than half of the female population is literate compared to the three-fourth of the male population. Regional variation in female-male literacy level is also wide. Table 3.5: Literacy Rate of Women in India (1961-2001) Year Women 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 16.34 21.97 29.75 39.42 54.16 Literacy Rate Decadal Difference + 6.63 + 7.78 + 9.69 +14.74 Total Male+Female 28.31 34.45 43.56 52.11 65.38 Decadal Difference + 6.14 + 9.11 + 9.55 +13.27

Source: Census Report, various years

The female literacy rates in India are greatly constrained by the drop out rates among girls, especially at the upper primary and secondary levels. According to the NSSO 1997, in rural India for every 100 girls who enrolled in class 1 only one enters class XII. In urban areas it is 14 girls at that level. Out of 100 girls enrolled in class 1 less than 40 joins class V (NSSO 1997). The number of girls per 100 boys is also low especially at the higher education level (table). Table 3.6: Number of Girls per 100 boys enrolled in Schools and Colleges Year 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 Primary 76 75 76 77 77 Middle 66 64 64 66 68 Secondary 57 55 55 59 62 College and Universities for general education 50 52 52 56 66

Source: Census Report, various years The government programmes, such as Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Distance Primary Education Programme, Operation Black Board, Shiksha Karmi Project, National Open School etc., helped improving the educational status of women in India. But there are several structural and socio-cultural and economic factors working against the educational well being of women in India. The traditional normative arrangements of the society, its values, beliefs, culture, institutions and the process of socialization act as barriers for the girls enrolment and retention in the schools. The structural elements of education viz. non-availability of sufficient number of schools, rigidity of school timings, rigid admission rules, insufficient number of women teachers etc. act as severe barriers against womens education in India. Gender bias in textbooks and also among the teachers cause enormous damage to womens education. Think It Over 4 What are the socio-cultural factors negatively influencing the state of womens education in India?

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3.8.3 Participation of Women in Economy

Women play a crucial role in all sectors of the Indian economy. They are predominantly represented in the agricultural and unorganized sectors. The census of India has defined work as participation in any economically productive activity. The rate of work participation in economically productive activities has been steadily increasing for the past several decades in both rural and urban areas. There are various factors that affect the labour force participation of women. The extend to which the traditional patriarchal family systems and values that assign the bread winners role to men and care of the household to women have been weakened, the educational attainments and skill endowments of women, rate of marriage, household size and composition, household assets and income, levels of unemployment, wage rate of women absolute as well as relative to men, extend of urbanization are some of the important factors that seem to have an effect on the work participation rates of women (Agrawal and Rao 2002). The 2001 census shows that at an all India level the percentage of workers (both male and female) to the total population as 39.26%. Significantly the percentage for the male workers was 51.93% as against the female workers 25.68%. There had been a decadal increase in the female work force participation rate; the increase was mainly due to the increase in the marginal workers. The high incidence of marginal workers among the female working population is mostly because of non-recognition of work undertaken by women as economic activity and their irregular participation in the so-called economic activities. The low level of work participation of women does not mean that only around one fourth of women in India are engaged in economically productive jobs. To the contrary there are studies (Ghosh 1990, Bhatia 2002), which show that though female work participation in economically productive activities (as defined by national account systems) is low, her total hours of work, are not less than the total time of work by male. Through his study Hirway (2002) proves that 60-70% of womens time spent on the working for the familys well being is not counted in the National Accounts. Most of the work that women do go unrecognized. He identifies three reasons why womens work goes under-enumerated in India: a) the seasonal, intermittent and uncertain nature of work and the mix up of domestic and economic work b) the under reporting of womens economic activities due to the low esteem given to the manual work outside home c) a belief among women itself that their work is not important enough to be reported. Further womens participatien in organised labour market is very low. Out of the total women in the work force as per the 2001 census report, only 4.2% are engaged in organized sector. Several reasons are cited for the low rate of womens participation in the organized sector. Low access to education and training, employers negative attitude towards the women employees, poor working conditions, gendered role expectations and self Image of women etc. Learn form your Experience 4 You may be observing several women working in the organized sector. Interview at least five women of this category and try to know form them what are the major problems they face in performing their duties

Global Debates and their Impacts

3.8.4 Women and Political Participation

Participation in adult franchise or participation in the decision making processes of the formal bodies of the state (executive, legislative or judiciary) are some of the ways of effectively participating in the decision making processes what

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we shall be calling political participation. The opportunity of both high profile and ordinary women of India to take part in the Independence movement brought them close to the political process of the country. Independent India witnessed impressive participation of women in the election and in related activities. This is reflected in the voter turn out of women during elections as well as the number of women in the legislatures. Moreover the 73rd and 74th amendment of the constitution provided 33% participation of women in the local elected bodies. However the number of women in the highest elected body of legislature which actually give them the opportunity of participating in devision making processes and power sharing had never been more than 10%. The stiff opposition to the proposal of reserving 33% of seats for women in the legislatures at the national and state level shows the reservation of the larger society in accepting and promoting gender equality in the society.

3.9 CONCLUDING REMARKS

This unit has tried to give an overview of the status of women in the contemporary society both at the global and the country level. For more than last one century there had been applaudable conscious attempts at the international and national level to improve the status of women in the society on recognition of their marginalized and subordinate position. There had been a wide spread recognition that the status improvement and gender equality in the society is imperative for the development of the society as whole, and specially poverty eradication. A major achievement for womens rights was the recognition of womens rights as human rights at the international conference of Human Rights at Vienna in 1992. All these attempts and initiatives did help in improving womens status in the society; it is still far away from a desirable position in comparison to the development of the society as a whole and what men enjoy in the society. This is what we conclude from the longthy discussion on the status assessment of women in society. The status of women in the society at the global level as well as that of India has been discussed in this unit. It is shown here that the status of women, as per many a standard status indicators, is much behind that of men, either with regard to demographic and health indicators, or educational, economic or other social indicators. Definitely there are some variations in the status of women form society to society. If we take at the global level, as we have seen, women of the developed countries enjoy an overall better status in terms of many standard status indicators in comparison to their counterparts in the developing and least developed countries. But there also women are nowhere equal in position to that of men especially in decision-making and power sharing fronts. In general we can say that the women of the contemporary society have to strive for gender parity; they have to achieve much more than what they have already achieved.

3.10

CLARIFICATION OF THE TERMS USED

: social exclusion means the various ways in which people are excluded economically, politically, socially, and culturally from the accepted norms within a society. This means marginalisation of individual or groups from employment, income, social networks such as family, neighbourhood and community, decision making and from an adequate quality of life.

Social Exclusion

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Export Processing Zones : These are one or more areas of a country where normal trade barriers such as import or export tariffs do not apply and bureaucratic requirements

are lowered in order to attract companies by raising the incentives for doing business. These are generally located in developing countries and created to attract foreign investment in industry. Generally components of industrial products are imported for assembly and export. Such zones generally offer weak environmental codes and labor rights, as investment incentives. They are also referred to as free trade zones or special processing zones. Service Sector : The tertiary sector of the industry is also known as service sector or service industry. (The other sectors are primary agriculture, mining, fishing etc. and secondary manufacturing and industry). The tertiary sector of industry involves the provision of services to other businesses as well as final consumers. Services may involve transport, distribution and sale of goods from producer to a consumer, provision of a service, such as in pest control or entertainment or restaurat etc. The service sector consists of the soft parts of the economy such as insurance, banking, turism retail, education. : Preventive medicine is that part of medicine engaged with preventing disease rather than curing it. It is designed to avert and avoid disease. For example screening for hypertension and treating it before it causes disease is good preventive medicine. : Affected by improper nutrition or an insufficient diet.

Global Debates and their Impacts

Preventive medicine

Malnourished

3.11 SOME USEFUL READINGS

Agarwal, Rashmi and Rao, B.V.L.N. 2004. Gender Issues: A Road Map to Empowerment. Shipra: Delhi Rao, D.B. & Rao, D.P. 1999. International Encyclopedia of Women 1. The Status of Wolrds Women. Discovery Publishing House New Delhi Ray, Bharati and Aparna Basu (ed.) 1999. From Independence Towards Freedom. Indian Women Since Independence. Oxford University Press: New Delhi

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