The two previous posts are excellent. My wife worked with three wonderful Indian women, all of whom moved to America (at least in part) because of the second-class stature they would have faced in their native land. All three are in the medical field--two are doctors--and they have found far more success here in Florida than they would have found in India. One of the women married an American doctor, and they seem to be the happiest of married couples; she has adapted to the American lifestyle totally. Another women still wears native Indian clothing--of her own choosing, not her husband's--while the third woman, who is single, is still fighting her parents' attempts to provide her with a contracted Indian husband. Even half a world away, Indian women still face the pressures that can be found in their homeland.
I don't think that there is an easy answer to this question. More in way of assessment and understanding is needed to fully grasp the implications of the topic. Certainly, with the increase in globalization and the larger role that India is playing in the world economy, there is greater opportunity for women to advance. The Indian workforce features women playing a role and being able to step out of the dominant tradition that has specified women remaining in the domestic realm. More Indian women received education than before, and it is almost accepted that these girls will pursue jobs and find career advancement as part of the lives they will lead. Yet, I think that this might be contained in the urban sector of modern India. In the rural sections of India, which is most of India, there is little change in that women find themselves having to address and deal with the rather challenging and propensity for oppressive realities to confront these women. One has to examine the practices for many rural women in assessing the state of women in India. I tend to think that while so many women hold political positions, this is a disconnect between the reality that so many rural women, in particular endure, and the promises and possibilities of women being politically active. Congress Leader Sonia Gandhi is not doing much to reach out to those women who are victims to honor killings or who are silenced in their desire to gain more education. Other female MP's and other political leaders are not leading substantive charges against human trafficking in which women are victimized in such a massive way. The disconnect between Indian women political leaders and the lives that so many women in India live have to be assessed in terms of how women are...
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treated.
At the same time, I think that part of this assessment might be relative. Many Pakistani women are enduring realities far worst than their Indian counterparts. I tend to think that while India's treatment of women might not be great, so many Pakistani women look to Indian women as "inspirational" because of the opportunities that are denied to them. It is here where I think that one has to recognize that India's treatment of women is a condition in which more discussion both in how it must strive for a higher ideal as well as its relative position to other nations has to be addressed.