Psychological determinants of women's social freedom

By Kumari Punam

Women empowerment means making women able, competent, effective, skilled and manipulating so that they may develop their potential and be parallel to men in all aspects of life. Presently, the share of women in all walks of life is not sufficient. Their social freedom is not equal to men. Human beings have proud of being part of civilized societ

• Language: English
• Publisher: hrithik
• Release date: Jan 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781805240051

Book preview

PSYCHOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF

SOCIAL FREEDOM OF WOMEN

Punam Kumari

CONTENTS

Chapter – I

INTRODUCTION

Chapter – II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Chapter – III

AIMS AND HYPOTHESES

Chapter – IV

METHODOLOGY

Chapter – V

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Chapter – VI

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Chapter – I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 SOCIAL FREEDOM :

Women empowerment means making women able, competent, effective, skilled and manipulating so that they may develop their potential and be parallel to men in all aspects of life. Presently, the share of women in all walks of life is not sufficient. Their social freedom is not equal to men.

Human beings have proud of being part of civilized society. But this is one aspect of the coin. It has another aspect also and that aspect is very dark, gloomy and disappointing as well. According to an estimate hardly 35%

women are at lower levels of organizations, while in china their share is 76%.

They are the subjects of discrimination, exploitation and deprivation in different spheres of life even today. Unless and until the society does justice to them, the dream of empowering women cannot take material shape. It is urgently felt that without empowering women like men, an ideal society cannot be imagine. A powerful and productive nation cannot be procured.

Empowering women is the need of the hour. This movement has received impetus from several events and views of the past, but its relevance was properly recognized in 1948, when a universal human rights declaration made it an issue. Its need was further emphasized openly in 1992 during Earth Summit, as a consequence, 2001 was marked as the International Women Empowerment Year.

Undoubtedly, several schemes and ordinances have been sponsored to empower Indian women. For this, several constitutional amendments have also been done. Among such efforts and attempts, 73 constitutional amendments in 1992 has proved to be a milestone from the viewpoint of women empowerment in India. This amendment ensured 33% reservation for women in Panchayats.

1.1.1 Social biases-gender justice: There are numerous biases against women in Indian society. Human beings are living in 21st century a period of post modernity and advanced technology. But unfortunately, social evils against women are continuing even today. A number of restrictions are imposed on them which restrain them from being open to worldly experiences and proper development, learning and opportunities of development. For example, how sad it is that even today in Saudi Arabia, women are forbidden to drive (Beyer, 1990). Indian Hindu women are for bidden to attend funeral of their fathers and husbands.

1.1.2 Stereotypes about females :

Baron and Byrne (2001) opined that negative traits or less desirable traits are assigned to females in comparison to males. No doubt there may be some behavioural differences between these two groups of society, but it becomes awful when differences are exaggerated and discrimination is made against women simply on the basis of gender stereotypes. For example, the general assumption is that women are passive submissive, indecisive, emotional and dependent in comparison to their male counterparts (Aube and Koestner, 1992; Deaux, 1993; Unger, 1994). Such assumptions are said to be gender

stereotypes and in many cases prove toe major hurdles for women’s development, achievements and empowerment (Myers, 1988, Singh, 2009).

Indian women are very often fall prey to domestic violence. The main reason behind it is the complex of males. According to UN reports, about 70%

women aging between 15-49 are victim of domestic violence of one or other type. An increase of 9.3% was noticed in domestic violence in 2004 as compared to 2003 with police owing to some of the reasons (National Crime Record Bureau). Not only in India, but in a well advanced country like Britain too, about 25% women fall prey to domestic violence and the government became bound to pass a bill against domestic violence. In India Domestic Women Violence Law 2005 was passed in 2005 due to these reasons.

As regards crime against women outside the family that too is on rising pattern. U.P. happens to be at the top in crimes against women followed by Bihar, Haryana is however comparatively safe.

It is striking to note that sex ratio in India is steadily changing. The number of girls as compared to the number of boys is gradually decreasing. It will disturb the sex ratio and will also create social problems.

From this point of views, it would be obvious that except Kerala, the life of female foeteses is at relatively higher risk and Delhi happens to be the most sensitive state followed by Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Researches have revealed that majority of parents prefer boy baby (Lyons, 2003; Simmon, 2000). With the widespread use of ultrasound to determine sex of foetus are

affecting the number of boys and girls (Wallfish, 2001; Dugger, 2001). The net result is tens of millions missing women (Myers, 2005).

The advocacy of the women empowerment is on increase, but on the other hand there is rapid increase in divorce in the society also, which is said to be the country of religion and faith. In India marriage has been conceived as a sacrament, but this spirit is badly weakened due to modernization and materialism. In Delhi alone, an average of 40 cases of divorce is registered daily. It means about 12 to 15 thousand cases of divorce are registered each year in Delhi alone. One out of five marriages in Delhi is broken due to divorce. Developing Society Study Centre and Save India Family Foundation report 40% increase in divorce in the country and the growing between 30 to 35 years is at higher risk. It makes the women hopeless, helpless