India 's The Ideal Woman

According to Hinduism the female was created by Brahman as part of the duality in creation, to provide company to men and facilitate procreation, progeny and continuation of family linage. The Vedas suggest that a woman’s primary duty is to help her husband in performing obligatory duties and enable him to continue his family tradition. Her primary duty is to give birth to his children and take care of them. Hinduism is a predominantly male dominated religion. Woman play a secondary role. The situation is gradually changing. It is difficult to draw generalizations about the status of present day Hindu women because of society is complex. In general, life in cities is much different from life in the rural areas. Those who live abroad live in different conditions than those who live in the country. Yet, we have ample indications that women are still subject to many restrictions and disabilities in rural area as well as urban areas. The financial independence of woman and the education levels of the family play an important role in this regard. Women in urban areas face numerous challenges in their professions and personal lives. But overall, life is better for them compared to the past. Love marriage outside of the caste or community are scorned and sometimes the couples are killed or excommunicated by the elders in the family or village. Widows can now have a life of their own and even remarry. They draw a lot of sympathy. But

In the typical Indian family, gender construction manifests itself especially in the roles of men and women in the household. As Judith Lorber so aptly put, “gender is a process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities” which in turn, creates the social differences that define a “man” and “woman” (Lorber). It is these differences that are used to construct and maintain an established gender order within the family. In the conventional Indian family, the order is such that the roles of the women in the household revolve around the roles of the men. This structure was something that I saw from an early age in my parents’ marriage. Though my parents defied the Indian norm of the arranged marriage, they still represented the quintessential model of an Indian couple in many other ways. My mother left her job to become a stay-at-home mom when I was about six years old. However, even before she left her job, she was implicitly expected by my father to shoulder most of the housework including cooking, cleaning, and caring for my older brother

Mohandas K. Gandhi once proclaimed, “There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or inferior to men” (Gandhi n.p.). Women all throughout the world have been forced to endure innumerable hardships and struggles. Merely accepting women as a rightful component of society and a necessary aspect of culture has taken countless numbers of years. And to this day, unfortunately, gender equality has yet to become a reality for many. Certain judgments and stereotypes have been placed onto women from the very beginning of time. The belief that the female gender should only be seen in society as homemakers is something that is widely accepted by people in a multitude of countries and places. Despite the setbacks, various

The behavior of men towards women in a patriarchal society is described by Manju when she describes society in India by stating, “In Indian society stress is given to create female persona for different stages, docile daughters, chase and obedient wives and sacrificing mothers. The only domain ascribed to female is to fit in this good daughter, good wife and good mother criteria. Husband and wife are considered soul mates. But man assumes himself superior to woman, and he never tries to create emotional bonding with his wife, to understand her wishes or act according to her consent” (234). The rest of this paper will analyze the effects that male dominance had on the women.

Women are married young, become mothers quickly, and are burdened by stringent domestic and financial responsibilities. Like in Greece, they have little chance to progress in the work force. Females, in certain regions of India, are frequently malnourished since they are the last member of the household to eat typically and the last to receive medical attention. Also, only “54 percent of Indian women are literate as compared to 76 percent of men” (Gender Equity Issues in India). Unlike in Greece, women of lower status still receive little schooling, and suffer from “unfair and biased inheritance and divorce laws” (Gender Equity Issues in India).

“Every society has its own challenges and aspirations, but how these are handled makes a lot of difference.” (Akujobi) However, our society today and in the past have had the same challenge, which is the suppressing of women by men. Anais Nin asked; “How wrong is it for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself?” In today’s life it is getting better since women finally start having their own carrier instead of getting married with 20 while already being pregnant.

In today’s society, women impact the world around them in many different and significant ways. Some women influence their communities with great force while others never notice their true importance in their societies. In India, Mishri Yadav is bound to her life as a modest, confined woman who cannot talk to men and must remain in the shadows. In the United States, Michele Noonan is bound to her life as a caretaker for her family who can express herself in whichever way she feels. These two defined people show the importance of how women are viewed extremely different as their countries vary. Some women, such as those in India, are viewed as lower than men with less value, knowledge, and potential. These places do not believe that women contain

As women are expected to be a particular way depending on their culture, by challenging what is normal in their society they find a sense of individuality and in this case can be dangerous. As women find their true selves, they become stronger than a society’s masculinity can hold. Therefore, there are expectations that cultures place on women but not men to keep them in their place. These include the nurturing, doting wife and mother role or the polite, dainty and modest bachelorette role. When a woman breaks from this, she finds no need for a man to care for her, and can

Throughout history, women have been treated as a subordinate. Especially in marriage, women have been taught to think of themselves merely as housewives as their ultimate achievement in life. With this, “Patriarchy is the prime obstacle to women’s advancement and development” (Sultana). The broad principle of men being in control keeps women dominated and subordinate. Patriarchy is characterized by current and historic unequal power relations between women and men whereby women are systematically disadvantaged and oppressed. Accordingly, the male-dominated system existing today forces women to merely accommodated in it in a variety of ways. Traditionally, men went to work and women stayed home to take care of the children. With this, the ideas that the woman’s place was in the home and the glorification of a very traditional role for the woman emerged. Women were celebrated as being pure and submissive while the man’s role was a more aggressive, greedy, competitive one. Many traditional norms follow a basic rule that men are dominant in status and power, so they should be the protective provider, while women should be obedient and

Nowadays, women are judged for not embodying the vision of the ideal woman- housewife and housemother. As a result of this, women yearned for more purpose in life, rather than restricted to the societal norms which defined women worthiness, or the capability of women. Women are beginning to become more independent, breadwinners, and in general, taking the roles of standard male figures. As a result, society is beginning to discourage women for their hard work, instead of encouraging women as a whole to continue to strive for better. Going back before culture was established. “In the

The women is only fit to take care of children doing laundry and making sure the house is clean and comfortable. Women is always culturally devalued and considered as sexual objects either privately or publically with a threat for sexual and domestic violence. But women ‘s growing opportunities are taken as evidence that the “woman’s problem” are fixed, by disregarding the problems still associated with female inequality. Unknowingly the stereotypes are used, depicting females in a negative way and drawing the conclusion that men are more important and influential than women. Family traditions are passed down to each generation considering that males are the head of the households and females simple housewives.

Women and men have had certain roles in society that were understood amongst them to be specified for their particular gender. Males were known to have the leading role as head of the house hold and the bread winner while the woman’s duty was to stay at home and take care of the house and children. While many people years ago deemed this way of life and practice to be the right and ethical thing to do, times have changed and so this kind of treatment towards a woman’s equality must be questioned. Even though times have changed, this mindset of a woman’s ability to be as good as a man has not completely gone away. In today’s society a woman contributes to the economy and her family as equally as that of a man. Therefore, women should share equal rights and opportunities as their gender counterparts.

Throughout this essay, I will discuss the social roles of men and women in the home, within rituals and within creation. I will look at the roles of a husband and wife, as well as Goddesses and Kings. The main traditional texts that support these roles are the Rg Veda, the Kalpa Sutras, the epics (the Ramayana and Mahabharata), Tryambaka, and Manu Smrti. They are believed to lay the foundations for order in society, as well as giving people the knowledge of their duty. I will show how these separate texts have defined roles within castes and genders and show how their different styles of writings have defined roles in different ways.

Throughout history and today, we women are constant victims of stereotyping from our society. Certain “rules” have to be followed and certain “ideal” women images have to be kept. We are raised in a way to fill certain position where the society wants us to be and as a result, the opportunities are always limited for us and ideas of our importance in the society are diminishing. Even though women gained some independence, where women can work and take various position in society, the society’s idea of typical role of women never seem to change.

Throughout history, women have been seen in many different lights. From a woman’s perspective she is strong, smart, helpful and equal to men. In the eyes of men, she is seen as the weaker being, the housewife, and the caretaker. By looking at the following pieces of writing, one can see that through the centuries, women have struggled to break out of the mold that man had put her in and make themselves known in society as important.