Exploring Indian Women's Perception of Women Empowerment
Tapan S. Yadav*
Nilansha Tiwari**
Abstract
Women Empowerment is not only an important aspect of development strategy
but also as a development goal in itself. An established fact in the
development research is that societies which discriminate by gender tend to
experience less rapid economic growth and poverty reduction than societies
which have a relatively more equal approach towards men and women. It is
therefore, not only in best interest of women but also national development
process as a whole, to mainstream women empowerment in development and
economic efforts. The Indian National Policy for Women Empowerment 2012
recognises that the gender inequality in India is based on economic and
social structures that hamper the full and uninhibited participation of
women in economic and political process. It is therefore a necessary
exercise to analyse and understand how the beneficiaries of gender
development interventions respond to the idea of empowerment and how do
they understand it. This article is an attempt to explore the various ways
in which women in India interpret empowerment within their own contextual
realities. At first, through various theories of empowerment it aims to
build the case that empowerment is a phenomenon that is characteristically
contextual. It then attempts to understand the various perceptions of women
empowerment among Indian women through a cross sectional preliminary
qualitative survey.
Keywords: Perception, Theory, Concept, Strategies, Development, Case study
1. The Evolving Concept of 'Empowerment'
The word empowerment is a slave to context. It has different meanings for
different people, entities and organisations. It is a process and an end
goal in
_______________________________________________________________
*Consultant, IFFCO Foundation, Sector-17B, Gurgaon. He can be reached at
[email protected]
**Senior Manager, Research and Programme, Indian School of Microfinance for
Women, Ahmedabad. She can be reached at
[email protected]
itself. The fact that the same word, 'empowerment' has been used and
continues to be used in fields of education, social work, psychology,
politics, economics, community development groups and feminist literature
and organizations development demonstrates the nuances in meaning that the
word has acquired over time due to its extensive usage. Since empowerment
is a context specific word, its understanding and definition change with
the kind of organisations, fields of study or individuals use it.
Though the word "empowerment" cannot be completely defined by one
definition, the central theme of the word that is common to all contexts is
'power'. This power can be defined in a variety of ways depending on the
entities that are a part of the power structure. Depending on the context,
power can be understood in a variety of ways. In an attempt to understand
power within the context of empowerment, Oxxal and Baden (1997) identified
the key understanding of power within power structures as follows:
Power over
This power involves an either/or relationship of domination/subordination.
Ultimately, it is based on socially sanctioned threats of violence and
intimidation, it requires constant vigilance to maintain, and it invites
active and passive resistance. Some theorists who believe that power is a
zero sum game have defined empowerment in development practise as a
transfer of power from one entity of the power structure to another. This
definition of empowerment is rooted in understanding power as "power over."
Such an understanding of power involves subordination or domination of one
entity in the power structure over the other.
Power to
This power relates to having decision-making authority, power to solve
problems and can be creative and enabling.
Power with
This power involves people organising with a common purpose or common
understanding to achieve collective goals. This definition of empowerment
in rooted in the understanding of "power with" which emphasises
collaboration and collective decision making. Many theorists who endorse
participatory systems of governance and development accept this
understanding of power and empowerment.
Power within
This power refers to self confidence, self awareness and assertiveness. It
relates to how individuals can recognise by analysing their experience, how
power operates in their lives, and gain the confidence to act to influence
and change this. This stems from the understanding of power as "power
within." It lays stress on building capacity, self reliance and self
confidence in an individual so that they make independent ideas and
decision making process.
From this multi-dimensional definition of power, it is evident that
empowerment has several different and inter-related aspects. Empowerment is
not only about opening up access to decision making, but also must include
processes that lead people to perceive themselves as able and entitled to
occupy that decision-making space. From a gender perspective, the term
women empowerment is just as context specific. However, referring to the
understanding of power in the previous section, the feminist movement has
mainly stressed on collective organisation (power with). The movement has
also played a pivotal role in developing ideas about "power within."
Feminist perspectives offered a unique view on empowerment and power
structures. It demonstrates that empowerment does not necessarily take
power from another entity in the power structure. The objective for this
approach is that empowerment can be defined as power that can be exercised
collectively by all entities in the power structure achieve outcomes that
benefit all entities. The implication of the term 'women empowerment' in
this theory is to benefit the women who can transform into active
participants in the decision making processes. However, this does not mean
necessarily taking the power away from the other gender. The assumption of
the theory is that men would also benefit from this model of empowerment as
they would experience a more gender equal society which will give them
freedom to explore gender roles that were previously inaccessible to them.
The assumption of the "power with" theory of empowerment is that as
fallout, women by participating actively in the power structures, they can
build skills and capabilities in the public and social spaces which would
foster self reliance, capacity development and self confidence within them.
As a consequence to this fall out, empowerment through "power within" would
be achieved.
This theory on women empowerment is best summarised in the words of
Development Alternatives with Women of a New Era (DAWN), an international
alliance of researchers and policy makers, "The women's movement at its
deepest it is not an effort to play "catch-up" with the competitive,
aggressive 'dog-eat-do' spirit of the dominant system. It is rather an
attempt to convert men and the system to the sense of responsibility,
nurturance, openness, and rejection of hierarchy that are part of our
vision" (Sen and Grown, 1987).
2. Empowerment from a Gender Perspective - Exploring the Concept of Women
Empowerment
The 1980's saw the global acceptance of Human Development Indicators (HDI)
as an important measurement for economic development of the country. The
contemporary human development indicators focused on "political
empowerment" of all members of the power structure. This idea of "political
empowerment" was met with feminist movement's efforts in empowering women
to participate in the political process. The synthesis of these major
developments led to the conception of the idea of "Women empowerment."
During 1990's economists also recognised the importance of mainstreaming
gender in development efforts. The motto was "development if not
engendered, is endangered." There was a consensus among various
international multi lateral agencies like the World Bank, United Nations
that women were largely left out of the economic planning and development
efforts in the developing countries. This was identified as a crucial
bottleneck in economic development of the country. The idea of women
empowerment to mainstream women in these processes contributed heavily to
the evolution of "women empowerment" as a phenomenon and a development
goal.
3. Women Empowerment Approach to Development: Case for Strategic
Interventions to Achieve Women Empowerment
Though the theories, definitions and perceptions of empowerment differ in
their understanding of empowerment, there is an established consensus that
Women Empowerment is both a very important goal of development efforts as
well as a means to development. A policy research report by the World Bank
identified gender equality both as a development objective in itself, and
as a means to promote growth, reduce poverty, and promote better
governance. A similar rationale for supporting women's empowerment has been
articulated in the policy statements put forth at several high-level
international conferences in the past decade (e.g. The Beijing Platform for
Action, the Beijing+5 declarations and resolutions, the Cairo Programme of
Action, the Millennium Declaration, and the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women [CEDAW]" (Malhotra et al,
2002). The authors of the World Bank report explain the dual benefits of
strategising development efforts to facilitate the empowerment of women in
the development process. A synthesis report titled "Pathways to Women
Empowerment" jointly published in 2012 by various multi lateral
organisations such as United Nations Women, Institute of Development
Studies (IDS), UK Aid etc. stated that, "Our research shows that
interventions directly focusing on women political, economic and legal
empowerment and on enhancing women's sexual and reproductive rights provide
an important resource to those who are struggling for change on the
ground." Hence strategies enhancing participatory development and
empowerment are complementary to each other. Women empowerment strategies
entail a bottom up approach to development efforts and practices. This
facilitates a participatory style of governance involving grass root level
organisations and agencies in the process. To achieve the objective of
women empowerment, it becomes crucial to involve grass root level
organisations along with central planning and implementation agencies.
4. Economic Women Empowerment - An approach to poverty alleviation
Women empowerment has its inception in mainstreaming marginalised women
within power structures. Therefore the main focus of this approach towards
development is empowerment of poor women as they lack access to resources
and power positions. "Empowerment of organisations, individuals and
movements has certain requisites. These include resources (finance,
knowledge, technology), skill training and leadership formation on the one
side; and democratic processes, dialogue, participation in policy and
decision making and techniques for conflict resolution on the other...
Within organisations, open and democratic processes are essential in
empowering women to withstand the social and family pressures that result
from their participation. Thus the long-term viability of the organisation,
and the growing autonomy and control by poor women over their lives, are
linked through the organisations own internal processes of shared
responsibility and decision-making" (Sen and Grown, 1987). Strategies of
empowerment of women are closely linked with the strategies of poverty
alleviation. There is a growing consensus that economic empowerment of
women can lead to better participation of women in the political process,
self reliance, political efficacy and reduction in poverty levels in the
developing world.
One of the major aspects of Economic empowerment of women is improving poor
women's access to credit in the developing countries. In India, one of the
major impediments to women economic empowerment is the lack of capital and
financial resources for women. Despite the considerable improvement in
women land ownership laws in the country, Indian women remain substantially
behind in having a stake in property of the household. Many commercial
banks do not find poor women credit worthy even though there is a large
contribution of women in the poor household. Providing these women with
adequate credit is crucial to the development of such households and help
them break the cycle of poverty. This leads to the lack of tangible
security to avail loans for entrepreneurial ventures. The lack of access to
credit coupled with the severe paucity of available financial resources for
women, especially poor women, it becomes very difficult for them to pursue
entrepreneurial ventures. There is an unbreakable cycle of poverty that
poor women get stuck in. From the early 1970s, women's movements in a
number of countries identified credit as a major constraint on women's
ability to earn an income and became increasingly interested in the degree
to which poverty-focused credit programmes and credit cooperatives were
actually being used by women. Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in
India, for example, set up credit programmes as part of a multi-pronged
strategy for an organisation of informal sector women workers. Since the
1970s, many women's organisations world-wide have included credit and
savings, both as a way of increasing women's incomes and to bring women
together to address wider gender issues. The 1980s saw the emergence of
poverty-targeted micro-finance institutions like Grameen Bank in
Bangladesh. Most of these programs have economic empowerment of women as
their ultimate objective. In the 1990s, a combination of evidence of high
female repayment rates and the rising influence of gender lobbies within
donor agencies and NGOs led to increasing emphasis on targeting women in
micro-finance programmes. Cooperatives and women cooperative Banks have
paved the way to the notion that poor women are bankable. They have
demonstrated that giving poor women access to credit for their
entrepreneurial ventures is a fruitful exercise for not just the women but
the sustainability of banks themselves. Micro financing through self help
groups have also made an important contribution to empowering women
financially to pursue their entrepreneurial ventures. They provide a
financial support system to women and enable them to thrive in their
activities thus empowering them financially.
5. Women Empowerment: Increasing Political Participation of Women
One of the main objectives of women empowerment is to mainstream women in
decision making process and as consequence mainstream women issues in
policy narratives and processes. A synthesis report titled "Opportunities
and Challenges of Women Political Participation in India" published by the
UN Women and International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW, 2013) has
categorically stated that "Elected women representatives articulate and
emphasize on goals that are different from men, through these goals
largely fit within the framework of development." Hence encouraging
political participation of women is not only integral to the goal of women
empowerment but also equally important to mainstreaming alternate
perspectives in order to achieve holistic and sustainable development
goals.
In developing countries, like India, the participation of women in
political process is very limited. Social norms and perceived gender
stereotypes prevent women from participating the political processes and
seeking leadership positions. "The transfer of power to local government of
decentralisation strategies which form the part of democratisation and
governance agendas has the potential to create spaces at the local level
for women as political actors. However, efforts to increase women
representation in local politics through affirmative action or reserved
seats in India and Bangladesh have shown that female councillors elected
under this system may have little impact, tending not to speak in meetings,
and lacking knowledge about the problems faced by women in their
constituencies" (Oxxal and Baden, 1997). The United Nations Women Report on
Opportunities and Challenges of Women Political Participation in India
found that there is a gender disparity between the Gram Panchayat
representatives in any district of the country (UN 2013). This demonstrates
the limitations of women participation in the political process in rural
India.
To empower women politically, it is important to generate a pool of
capable, confident women leaders who can represent women interests in the
political process. This includes developing capabilities among women,
helping them in their campaigns, raising civil awareness about gender
equality, etc. Such actions can be taken through targeted gender responsive
governance and strategic interventions in creating a leadership pool of
women.
6. A Case Study of Diverse Interpretations of Women Empowerment among
Indian Women
There seems to an established national and international consensus towards
implementing focussed strategic interventions to achieve the goal of women
empowerment. A strong case has been made to undertake a bottom up approach
to achieve this goal which is crucial if not a method to achieving
sustainable, inclusive development goals. However, a study on the various
theories and aspects of empowerment has demonstrated that it is a largely
contextual idea.
As the final beneficiaries of the interventions to achieve women
empowerment, it is necessary to explore what kind of results Indian women
expect from these interventions. Relevant policies and strategies based on
the beneficiaries' perception of empowerment can potentially increase their
impact.
6.1 Rationale for study
One of the key findings of the synthesis report titled, "Pathways to Women
Empowerment" (UN Women 2012) was that "What is empowerment to one woman is
not necessarily empowering to another: understanding empowerment needs to
begin from women's own experiences rather than focus on a predictable set
of outcomes" (UN 2012). At IFFCO Foundation, we attempted to understand the
concept of women empowerment through the experiences of Indian women.
Through a cross sectional exploratory survey, we analysed how the
contextual realities of some Indian women tend to influence their
interpretations of empowerment. The collected preliminary data on how
different women view empowerment in a social, political and economic
context. The findings of the survey is based on a cross sectional analysis
between rural and urban women in the National Capital Region (NCR) in India
and the rural women in districts of the state of Punjab. The women were
questioned on a variety of aspects which included their political opinions,
their experiences or perceptions of their presence in public spaces, their
involvement in financial decision making in the household, their
involvement in decision making in purchase of consumer goods, division of
household responsibilities, their choice in entertainment etc.
6.2 Methodology of Study
A small qualitative study was conducted in Delhi / National Capital Region
(NCR) and village Khuian Sarwar in Firozpur district in Punjab during
December, 2013 and January, 2014 to ascertain what women equality means to
urban and rural women, be it housewives or working women. It may be noted
that "women equality" is equated with "women empowerment" for the purpose
of this study. Purposive sampling was done to select 24 women as shown
below:
"Dimension"Urban "Rural "Total "
" "(Delhi / NCR) "(Village Khuian Sarwar, " "
" " "Firozpur, Punjab) " "
" "Number of "Number of "Number of "Number of " "
" "Housewives"Working Women"Housewives "Working " "
" " " " "Women " "
"Political"2 "2 "2 "2 "8 "
"Social "2 "2 "2 "2 "8 "
"Economic "2 "2 "2 "2 "8 "
"Total "6 "6 "6 "6 "24 "
In-depth interviews of these 24 women were conducted with the help of a
Discussion Guide, which had open-ended questions covering the following
areas:
"Dimension "Information Areas "
"Women Equality "(i) Meaning of women equality in general "
" "(ii) Meaning of women equality in context viz. at home, "
" "at "
" "office and in society at large "
" "(iii) Comparison of the situation now with that 5 years "
" "ago "
"Political "(i) Top-of-the-mind recall about various political "
" "parties/groups "
" "(ii) Women in politics "
" "(iii) Expected voting behavior in the upcoming 2014 "
" "General Elections# "
"Social "(i) TV serials liked "
" "(ii) Depiction of women in the liked TV serials "
" "(iii) Liking/similarity with the female protagonists, if"
" "any "
"Economic "(i) Brand choice decisions in 4 product categories "
" "viz. "
" "ready-to-eat products, home appliances, financial "
" "products and services and consumer electronics "
" "(ii) Person making the payment for purchase of the "
" "aforementioned product categories "
# This article was written in January, 2014, nearly 4 months ahead of the
2014 General Elections
It is noteworthy that the political, social and economic dimensions of
women equality have been ascertained on the basis of behavior of
respondents. For example, the political dimension of women equality has
been ascertained on the basis of top-of-the-mind recall of differentiating
factor for various political parties and expected voting behaviour in the
2014 General Elections.
6.3. Limitations of the study
(i) Small sample size: Since the study was meant to be a dipstick which
can throw up contextual meanings that could be explored further, the sample
size was kept small and therefore more manageable.
(ii) Purposive sampling: The respondents were chosen based on the
researcher's judgment about their knowledge of or experience in the three
dimensions viz. political, social and economic. This could introduce some
bias in the findings. Similarly, the geography of the study is limited to
North India rather than being pan-India.
4. Meaning of women equality - Key findings
(i) Contextual meaning: The meaning of women equality changes according
to the context (place) in question i.e., whether it is at home or at office
or in society at large. These aspects are given below with the quoted
phrases actually taken from women's interviews:
At Home
Equal educational opportunity as a child vis a vis a male sibling
Absence of dowry
Absence of violence ("torture") at home
"Asset allocation to females"
Financial security
Equal participation in the financial decisions pertaining to the
family
Giving respect to females of "every age" in the family
At home, the perception of empowerment mainly seems to involve equality
between the genders and absence of abusive social practices towards
women. Economic independence also seems to be a strong indicator for
empowerment for women at home.
At Office
Equal opportunities in career
Absence of "glass ceiling" ("Representation of women is less at
higher levels")
Equal pay for equal work ("… equal pay … for every deserving
person")
Equal job security (vis a vis a male counterpart)
Involvement of women in major decisions at office ("… depend on the
level of one's role and not … gender")
Absence of (sexual) "harassment"
Equality and access to decision making seems to an overriding indicator
for women empowerment in office space.
In Social and Public Spheres
Physical safety, as highlighted in recent incidents of rape
"More political voice" for women, which can be ascertained through
"representation of women in Parliament" (This can be also gauged by
the representation of women in State Assemblies, Urban local bodies
and Panchayati Raj Institutions)
Respect to be given to women
Achieving "name and fame" in the society
In the public and social sphere, political efficacy, recognition of one's
efforts and physical security are the main factors through which women
measure women empowerment.
In different spaces, the respondents had different set of indicators to
evaluate the level of women empowerment. There is an absence of a single
common indicator to measure women empowerment in all of these spaces.
The various aspects of women equality highlighted above have been voiced
by urban women, and therefore could have an urban bias. This is so
because the rural women, whether housewives or working women, were less
vocal about women equality.
(ii) "Freedom to Choose": Working women are more vocal about the issue of
women equality than housewives as can be gauged from their detailed
responses to various related questions. In fact, one working woman
defined women equality as "the freedom to choose". After all, the freedom
to choose at all levels is women empowerment. If we attempted to
understand this finding within the Oxxal and Baden (1997) definition of
empowerment, the urban working women tend to perceive empowerment with
the "power to" lens. There is a perception that empowerment can be
achieved if there is a freedom to make one's own decisions and solve
one's own problems without unsolicited interventions and compulsions.
(iii)Division of household chores: Husbands in urban areas share the
household chores to a greater extent in case the wife is working, which
is obvious in view of the less time available to her for the same. If she
is a housewife, she takes care of household chores as well as tasks that
involve going out of the house such as going to the market to purchase
vegetables or going to their children's school to attend the Parent
Teacher Meetings (PTM's). In one instance, the housewife selected the
flat to be bought, and told the husband to buy the same. On the other
hand, women in rural areas typically handle all the domestic chores
themselves without any support from husbands. This is so irrespective of
the fact whether the rural woman is a working woman or housewife.
Moreover, urban housewives think that they can handle household chores
such as managing children better than the working women. In fact,
housewives also think that they do more chores which require going out of
home than working women.
(iv)Equality in relationship : All the 24 women interviewed, be it urban or
rural, working women or housewives, thought that they are equal partners
in the household along with their husbands as they are involved in all
the important decisions pertaining to the household such as children's
education and purchase of consumer durables. The situation was aptly
summarized by a rural working woman in Punjabi as "Ek dooje da poora
saath hai", which translated in English roughly means that "both stand by
each other." In Oxxal and Baden model, definition of empowerment is
influenced by "power with" factor. Women perceive themselves as equal
partners in the relationship where life goals are achieved through
cooperation support of the spouse. For housewives, the inequality with
husband exists only financially, and not otherwise, as is reflected in
one urban housewife's comment viz. "… (I am) only financially unequal, as
he is earning."
(v)Financial contribution: Even if the financial contribution of a working
woman to household income increases over a period of time, this may or
may not translate into a higher say in the family matters – it varies
across households. Though this finding pertains to the rural areas, the
same is likely to be true for urban areas also.
(vi)Physical security: Some of the women felt that the security climate for
women has deteriorated as compared to 5 years ago. This impression is
primarily driven by coverage of such cases in media nowadays rather than
personal experience. Whether these incidents are actually on the upsurge
or appear to be on the upsurge due to greater media coverage now as
compared to 5 years ago is difficult to conclude. On all the other
aspects of women equality, women felt that the situation is either same
as before or better now.
(vii)Geographical differences: The respondents pointed out to regional
differences in women equality – Eastern India and Western India are
perceived to be regions where women are treated at par with men as
compared to Northern India, be it related to physical safety of women or
less prevalence of dowry.
Rural women pointed out that there are not many cases of eve-teasing in
rural areas as compared to urban areas. Perhaps, this is a positive rub-
off of stricter rural society norms.
(viii) Top-of-the-mind recall of political issues: The urban women seemed
very aware of the political issues involved as is revealed by their
"top-of-the-mind" recall of the things that represent the various
political parties / groups. Controlling corruption and inflation seem
to be the top-most priorities for these women.
On the other hand, the knowledge of rural women about political
parties is quite sketchy, let alone the topical political issues
involved. This is reflected in their inability to come up with
differentiating factors of even the national political parties.
(ix) Women in politics: Women are willing to accept and respect another
woman in power or a leadership position such as Ms Sonia Gandhi or Ms
Sushma Swaraj. But most of them would not like to be in their shoes as
they "cannot devote so much time" or make sacrifices necessary for
such a position.
The rural women included the name of local women politicians such as
Vijaylaxmi Badhu. Moreover, unlike their urban counterparts, the rural
women aspired to be in the shoes of these women politicians as is
exemplified by the statement of a rural working woman, "Asi vi kuch
ban ke dikhaiye" which translated in English roughly means that "I
want to show to the world that I can also become 'somebody'." As a
politician, they would like to improve the conditions in their
village, be it law and order, roads, sanitation and drinking water.
This demonstrates the fact that women representatives have development
goals that may be different from the men but fall into the development
framework. It also demonstrates the desire among the rural women to
form an identity in the public sphere beyond the household.
(x) Voting behaviour : As far as the party to vote for in 2014 General
Elections is concerned, the urban women's choice is not dictated by
their husband's choices. They may discuss politics with their spouses,
but the party to vote for is not influenced by their husband's opinion
as is exemplified by the statement of one of the urban working women:
"We don't discuss our votes, even if we discuss politics." The party
for which they will vote for depends on "… their (party's) plans for
women and the … middle class." On the other hand, most of the rural
women would vote for the same party as their husband – perhaps, the low
level of political knowledge among rural women is the reason.
The independence of urban voting women as compared to rural women can
be linked to the level of political efficacy that the urban women
possess.
(xi) Reasons for viewership of serials : Urban women watch TV serials for
3 apparent reasons:
"Reason "Supporting Quote "
"Entertainment ""Mr Castle (the detective) … how he catches the killers?" "
"Empathy ""Yeh rishta kya kehlata hai … does not have a strong heroine "
" "… it depicts day-to-day situations such as differences "
" "between parents' place and in-laws place" "
"Inspiration ""Diya aur bati … shows a wife who wants to become an IPS "
" "officer … her husband supports her while others do not … I "
" "did a beautician course with support from my husband" "
On the other hand, rural women like the TV serials which conform to the
societal expectations from them, as is exemplified by the following
comments:
"I like the role of Radhika (in the 'Choti Bahu' serial) as she has all
the qualities that a wife is expected to have" (Rural Housewife)
(In the serial 'Diya aur bati') "… in the beginning, the wife tries to
adjust to the new household; later, when others start understanding her,
she expresses her desires (ambitions)" (Rural Working Woman)
A notable exception is the respondent who preferred the serial "Diya aur
bati hum." The narrative that seems to influence the choice of the serial
is that if a woman is able to conform to the norms of the society and try
to make certain "adjustments" to conform, she could generate enough
social capital to be eventually understood and supported by the society
to achieve her 'ambitions'.
(xii)Brand choice decisions: In the urban areas, as far as brand choice
decisions are concerned, the wife makes the final decisions for products
such as ready-to-eat products such as noodles, and the husband typically
decides about the brand of financial products such as mutual funds.
The situation is not so clear-cut in case of consumer electronics such as
televisions and home appliances such as refrigerator, wherein the brand
choice decision is typically joint. If the children in the family are old
enough, they are also included in the brand choice decisions.
On the other hand, purchase incidence of expensive durables and financial
products and services in rural areas was found to be quite low to enable
drawing any conclusions about the economic behaviour of rural women.
(xiii)Payer : The urban working women contribute partly to purchase of such
"high involvement" products which are typically high priced consumer
durables. With reference to financial product categories such as
insurance, the urban working woman pays the premium in case the insurance
policy is bought by her.
Conclusion
There seems to be a wide array of indicators through which women in India
define and measure women empowerment. A cross sectional analysis of these
perceptions has demonstrated that these indicators not only differ across
different sections of the Indian society but also differ with the
political, economic, social and professional spheres. Though both rural and
urban women are politically aware and recognize the importance of women
leaders and women representatives, the rural women seem to be more
politically ambitious than the urban women. However, women's decision
making involvement in the financial decisions of the household seems
limited across both the sections of the society. Women continue to feel
threatened due to violence in public spaces. The idea of equality between
the genders is more of an indicator for women empowerment for urban women.
Rural women, though have ambitions in creating identities in the public
sphere, are more reticent on the issue of gender equality. The absence of
abusive social practices like dowry, harassment indicates a sense of
empowerment for urban women in public, professional and household space.
Urban working women seem to recognize the lack of equality in opportunities
and pay in professional spaces and have equated the presence of equality in
these areas with women empowerment.
Need for further research
This study is a preliminary attempt to explore the diverse perceptions of
Indian Women towards empowerment. Understanding such perceptions can not
only influence policy decision, gender development interventions but also
potentially play a role in designing financial and other products in a more
gender sensitive manner. Such a study conducted at a national level can
inform policy to make gender interventions more responsive to the practical
needs of Indian Women and more relevant to their contextual realities.
References:
ICRW. 2013. Opportunities and Challenges of Women's Political Participation
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