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Unit 9: Status of Women

The denial of rights to women may be related to individual, economic, and demographic factors. The Notes
individual factors refer to the personality characteristics of those males who possess low intellectual
ability (IQ); who suffer from immaturity, depression and frustrations; who are alcoholics; or who
have unrealistically high expectations from women and expect them to remain docile and passive.
As regards the economic factors, the non-earning women are denied rights more than the earning
women; the low and middle-income families deny rights to women more than the upper income
families; and among the earning women, those engaged in non-professional or low status jobs enjoy
less rights than those engaged in professions or high status jobs. Lastly, as regards the demographic
factors, women in the upper castes are denied less rights than women in the intermediate or the
lower castes; the older males deny rights to women more than the younger males; and rights denied
by women to women are more than the rights denied by men to women.
This helps us in identifying males who deny rights to women. These men are those who have
depressions, inferiority complex and low esteem; lack-resources, that is, skills and talents; are
sociopathic or psychopaths, that is, have personality disorders; have possessive, suspicious and
domineering nature; were victims of violence in their own childhood; and face stressful situations in
their families.
Further, women who are denied rights most may be identified as those who have feelings of
helplessness, suffer from inferiority complex, have poor self-image, lack social maturity, and are
economically dependent.
We may also identify six types of denials of rights: money-oriented, pleasure-oriented, power-oriented,
victim-precipitated, deniar’s pathology-resulted, and stressful family situations-resulted.
9.3 Changing Status of Woman

The disadvantaged situation of women in the labour market is a consequence of their illiteracy, lack
of training and skill, and low position in the social system, including their total exclusion from the
structures of decision-making and power.
The Working Women
There has been a remarkable increase in the number of women getting out of the four-walls of the
household and becoming workers in both cities and villages, according to the 1991 Report of the
Census Commissioner. According to the 1971 Census figures, only 13.0 per cent of Indian women
were regarded as workers in the total country’s workforce. This percentage rose to 25.89 in 1981 and
28.57 in 1991 (The Hindustan Times, April 6,1993) About 80.0 per cent of the working women are
indirectly engaged in agriculture. Only 12.0 per cent of the total employees in central and state
administrative services and public sector undertakings are women. The Table 9.1 and Table 9.2 below
show the total female population and as ‘unpaid’ workers. In the field of (paid) agriculture labour,
the number of women increased from 20.76 million in 1981 28.27 million in 1991.
Table 9.1
Female Population and Female Workers in India
Category Female population Female workers main Work participation rate
(in millions) and marginal or female workers
(in millions)
1961 1971 1981 1991 1961 1971 1981 1961 1971 1981

Total 206.2 255.0 318.2 406.5 57.5 36.2 66.3 5.75 3.62 6.63
Rural 170.6 205.6 245.1 304.0 53.6 32.7 58.5 5.36 3.27 5.85
Urban 35.6 49.4 73.1 102.5 3.9 3.5 7.8 0.39 0.35 0.78

Source: Social Welfare Statistics, 1981, pp. 103-105.

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