User talk:YokeeEric

==  Women In Colonial India ==

Women’s roles have drastically changed throughout the course of history. In different parts of the world, women were given different roles. In most areas of the world, women are the ones who do domestic work, while men are the ones to go out and work to support the family. However in some parts of the world women hold power, and positioned to where they are looked up to. During colonial times, India women held different roles. Some were taught to stay home as housewives and daughters to help out at home and other tried hard to fight for a place of equality with men, while others they stood up for political reasons.

Women In the Home Most of the women in the entire country of India stay at home to take care of children and other domestic work. Women’s work at home depends much on how poor they are, “the poorer the family, the greater its dependence on women’s [household] economic productivity” (Gender and Poverty in India, 1). Women in India were taught to believe that their nature was to serve men and be “involved in domestic work” (Gender and Poverty in India, 21). This belief also come from their religion, they are required to cover their face “when male visitors enter [their] home” (Aluisio and Menzel, 108). Domestic wives are quite sad; they work from day to night non-stop. The only times they would rest are when friends or relatives decides to visit. Women would stay home and work all day, while the men or husband of the family “spends [their] time working. . . to feed the family” (Aluisio and Menzel, 108). The oldest daughters of the family are also required to help at home, they would “help with the household chores” to gain experience for when they becomes wives themselves (Aluisio and Menzel, 108).

Women in Public Some women worked to obtain the same rights as men. Women were treated as the servants of men; when women should deserve much more. Men are in control of women where men deserved more than women. To get to where they want, these women would participate in movements and protests. There were “women storming into the streets; women marching not in hundreds or thousands but in tens of thousands” (Omvedt, 77). Some others go to school to get higher educations but only few can get jobs. “Women comprise about 48 percent of the total population of the country they constitute only 13.8 percent of the total work force” (Souza, 2). Many women were given the right to have a greater expand of education “but the gainful employment of educated women has not increased proportionately. . . only 36 percent of unemployed women aged 15 and above are illiterate” (Souza, 10-11).

Women in Government Some women were naturally born to be placed in high positions. Some women actually held place in political economy. There were “many Indian women [who] were also active in the Indian National Congress movement and in women’s suffrage in India both before and after the First World War” (Burton, 30). They continued fighting for their share of the country and equally, although only a small amount had made it to higher place, only “3.8 percent of the Union Cabinet consisted of women,” even though only 3.8 percent but “women are included in twelve out of the nineteen state cabinets in [India]” (Souza, 12).

Women may be suppressed by the ways of the past, where they are supposed to stay home and take care of children, but new influences and courage can bring about a change. There are only few at first but as time pass by, more will fight for the dream of equal rights. Soon men and women will share the weight of the family and country together.