Educated women Vs Gender role : The Distress Within
- Part 1 -

Nalini Nongmeikapam *

Ima Market - women exclusive market at Imphal

Gender in the general sense of the word is a grammatical commodity that divides up all objects as masculine, feminine and neutral, based on habit or convention. However, Gender has other implications and is also associated with the biological sex. It is accepted as a matter of fact: that a person is either born a male or a female.

'Gender' is considered a social construction and it grants meaning to the fact of sex. The division between female and male is socially created and it is deeply woven into the organization of institutions and of everyday life. The fact of being male and female carries connotations of different power and status.

'Masculinity' and 'femininity' are the terms which came up to define the behavioural norms and expectations of the male and the female sex. They are not aspects of biology or physiology. Nor are they God-given; instead they are a part of the systems of thought and actions which human beings have constructed over centuries.

Our ideas of male and female natures are mostly derived from norms and expectations that govern our lives. The question is - who sets and defines these social expectations? The answer lies in the unique system which one refers to as 'the system of patriarchy.'

Patriarchy has imposed this belief that men and women have innate attributes that cannot be changed. Patriarchal ideology exaggerates biological differences between men and women, making certain that men always have the dominant or masculine roles and women have the subordinate or feminine ones. Men are granted the power to define, interpret, judge and represent the world on their own terms. On the other hand, women are to be defined, interpreted, judged and represented by men.

Men and women enact different roles because the society expects them to act in these ways. These social expectations and norms are being expressed, enforced through varieties of practices and institutions which are placidly accepted as normal and inevitable for men and women to seek exclusive destinies. Such ideology became so powerful through conditioning that women's subordination to men is reinforced and justified; as a result, most women internalize a sense of inferiority to men.

But these gender roles are neither innate nor inherited but constructed, made and remade by human beings as they lived, worked, loved and procreated. To quote Mary Wollstonecraft - "If women appeared stupid and passive, this was not because of some innate lack of intelligence, but because women had not been told to cultivate their minds."

Thus, the root cause of women's suppression is patriarchy. It is the socialization process that makes a woman what she is. It is the society that has nurtured the gender role of a female in a society and made her a silent sufferer.

BREAKING THE SILENCE OF WOMEN:

Women need to be empowered to undo the injustice that has meted on them for centuries. This power is not to be given but acquired, and women themselves have to take up the responsibility of empowering themselves. Economic independence guarantees a woman to be her own mistress and the owner of her own decisions. Education is a vital key for her self reliance. The ultimate aim of education is to create a better place to live in and women, who constitute about half of the population can play a significant role in transforming the society only through proper education.

Women today have come a long way. Their education has enabled them to think about themselves, decide their own careers and play a role in social transformation. Girls today are educated according to their aptitude and ability to attain the fullest development, to stand on their own and enjoy economic freedom.

Being a woman no longer dictate the choice of their subjects or raises questions about her 'suitability' over the choice of their occupation. As per the data published by the 2011 census, India had managed to achieve an effective literacy rate of 74.04 per cent, out of which 65.46 percent constituted of females, a sharp rise which reflects the changing trends.

Thus education has created a new brand of women: a woman of today who believes in herself, her rights, her capabilities, and her potentials and is ready to assert herself and set herself free from the sense of inferiority imprinted on her since her early childhood. This new revolutionary and democratic culture empowered by education has given birth to a new female-ideal, animated by female self-worth, independence and desire to change the world and make it more egalitarian.

The male-female gender equation has undergone subtle changes over the centuries. Women are ready to break their silence. Years of striving and education have brought about several changes but have they broken the silence yet? Are all educated women free from the shackles of orthodox and gender limitations?

If not then the so-called education brings forth more conflict and distress, as it makes the woman more aware of her plight, however the inability to break free of the societal shackles leaves her more frustrated. It might be apt to say that ignorance is indeed bliss as knowledge seems to be more of a burden.

Educated Working Women's Dilemma:

All the measures of empowering women (educational, economical, and political) have not really undermined the belief and the idea of the existence of distinctive male and female role. Today, there is no domain of work or achievement which men can claim to be theirs and theirs alone. What previously was thought as purely male territory has been invaded by womenfolk.

Women may not be wholeheartedly accepted in their new roles but this has not stopped them from doing what they can and wish to do. Things have changed in many ways for educated working-women but their world continues to be under bounds. Their domestic and kinship responsibilities do not grow any less, simply because they have other things to do. They still remain as tied to the notions of traditional female, as the other women.

Double Burden: Sense of Frustration:

Though many a people may not quite reconcile to women working outside home, but this resistance has eroded by the economic imperatives of high cost living. The working woman is an asset to the middle class family as long as she abide by the general decorum of the family. Working women do not necessarily maintain full control over their income yet they pay the price for the privilege of working outside by shouldering the heavier responsibilities at home or outside or they suffer the guilt about neglecting family and children.

The working women today are still bound to carry the image of an ideal woman. - "the ideal woman is one who works at home, at her profession and yet finds time to keep a good home, attend to her husband and children's needs, all of which she manages without appearing ruffled or tired." They are to cultivate a state of mind whereby they put other peoples' interests, husbands, and children, all above their own.

The physical burden on the women and also the shortage of time to meet up the demands of the household as well as their professional work made them a 'discontented lot,' and become 'grudging co-operators' in the family.

Gender Role as a Hindrance to Women's Career

The age-old accepted norm that it is the women's sole responsibility to perform all the household duties has acted as a hindrance for her career development. The 'double burden' faced by working-women both at home and work-place reduces the opportunities to promote their mental caliber.

Working women face extreme odds to exhibit their capacity to perform and the main hindrance of women's advancement in career opportunities lies in the traditional attitude of both men and women (deeply embedded within the social-system) which continues to expect a women to upkeep her 'traditional ideal women role' - of one who subordinates self to family, who are conditioned to sacrifice their own goals and ambitions, who are forced to always adjust, accept and accommodate.

As long as domestic and child rearing chores are considered beneath the dignity of men, women cannot fulfill their duties on their job and even if they have equal caliber and capacity to perform as their male counterparts, they will continue to experience the insolvable dilemma of reaching perfection in the most imperfect circumstances.

(This article was presented as a seminar paper during the two-day UGC-sponsored National Seminar on 'Gender and Racial Discrimination: The Paradigm of Women's Vulnerability' organized by Human Rights Studies of S Kula Women's College, Nambol in collaboration with Women's Studies Centre, SKWC and Human Rights Alert, Imphal from September 7 to 8 2012)

To be continued ...