iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
In a time and day where gender roles have become more fluid than ever, with women taking over traditionally male-dominated positions in every stratum of life, the bias is still very strong in society.
According to a new study released by the Pew Research Centre, two-thirds of Indians “completely agree” that a wife must “always obey” her husband, and roughly one-third of adults feel childcare should be “primarily handled” by women.
The findings were released just as International Women’s Day is approaching, where the theme of this year is to #BreakTheBias.
In the study is based on a face-to-face survey of 29,999 Indian adults fielded between late 2019 and early 2020, to learn how Indians view gender roles at home and in society more generally.
The study found that most Indians believe that women and men make equally good political leaders – with more than one in 10 saying that women generally make “better political leaders” than men. But in domestic settings, those surveyed leaned towards men having more prominent roles than women.
Geography, to a large extent, influenced these attitudes. Those living in the southern states were more likely to have traditional attitudes towards familial responsibilities as compared to the Hindi belt – defined as 11 states and UTs including Jharkhand, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Chhattisgarh.
For instance, respondents in Tamil Nadu were twice as likely to say men should earn money in a family as compared to those in Jharkhand (55 percent versus 24 percent). Fifty-seven percent of respondents in Tamil Nadu said women should care for children, as against 26 percent in Jharkhand. Yet Tamil Nadu’s respondents were least likely to say a wife must obey her husband.
Kerala and Telangana stood out as having less conservative views on gender than their neighbors – 19 percent of respondents in Kerala and 16 percent in Telangana said men should make financial decisions for a family as compared to 39 percent in Karnataka. Meanwhile, 81 percent of those in Karnataka and 60 percent in Andhra Pradesh said sons should be responsible for a parent’s last rites, as against 40 percent in Kerala.
While Uttar Pradesh was among the most conservative states, the national capital territory of Delhi was at the other end of the spectrum.
Still, many Indians express egalitarian views toward some gender roles in the home. For instance, 62% of adults say both men and women should be responsible for taking care of children. But traditional gender norms still hold sway among large segments of the population: Roughly one-third of adults (34%) feel that child care should be handled primarily by women.
Similarly, a slim majority (54%) says that both men and women in families should be responsible for earning money, but many Indians (43%) see this as mainly the obligation of men. And Indian adults overwhelmingly say that when jobs are in short supply, men should have greater rights to employment than women, reflecting the continued prominence of men in the economic sphere. Eight-in-ten agree with this sentiment, including a majority (56%) who completely agree.
Across several aspects of family life, the report found the following pattern: Muslims are the most likely, and Sikhs the least likely, to support traditional gender roles.
Nearly 74 percent of Muslims said sons should be primarily responsible for a parent’s last rites or rituals. This sentiment was echoed by 67 percent of Jains, 63 percent of Hindus, 46 percent of Buddhists, 44 percent of Christians, and 29 percent of Sikhs.
Similarly, 61 percent of Muslims surveyed said men in a family should be primarily responsible for earning money; as did 44 percent of Hindus, 34 percent of Christians, 31 percent of Jains, 22 percent of Buddhists, and 17 percent of Sikhs.
Comparable patterns were observed for responses to women’s primary roles in childcare, sons caring for aging parents, sons having a “greater right” to inheritance, and men in families being responsible for making decisions about expenses.
According to the survey, most Indian adults “do not believe abortion should generally be legal”. Adults who said religion was very important in their lives were more likely to say abortion should be illegal when compared to those for whom religion was less important (56 percent versus 47 percent).
Four out of 10 Indians found it either completely or somewhat acceptable to “get a checkup using modern methods to balance the number of girls and boys in the family” – a euphemism for sex-selective abortion. It was also found to be more acceptable among those who have had difficulty in purchasing food, medicine or housing for their families.
Interestingly, adults from general category castes were slightly more inclined than those from lower castes to see sex-selective abortion as acceptable (43 percent versus 39 percent). Respondents in the southern states and UTs were less likely to say abortion should be illegal. Six out of 10 respondents who voted for BJP in 2019 also said abortion should be illegal; while roughly half of those who voted for Congress said the same.
Almost all respondents – 99 percent – said it’s somewhat important for families to have at least one son. But 99 percent also said it’s important to have at least one daughter.
Almost a quarter of Indians (23 percent) said there is a lot of discrimination against women in their country, which is more than the number of people who think the same way about discrimination on the basis of religion or caste.
Respondents were asked which of the two options are more important to improve the safety of women in their community: teaching boys to respect all women or teaching girls to behave appropriately. Roughly half said that teaching boys are more important, while a quarter said teaching girls to behave appropriately is a better way to improve women’s safety.
