Description

CHANGING ROLE OF THE WOMEN

The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia. The status of women in modern India is a sort of paradox. If on one hand, she is at the peak of ladder of success. on the other hand she is mutely suffering the violence afflicted on her by her own family members. As compared with past, women in modern times have achieved a lot but in reality they have to still travel a long way. Their path is full of roadblocks. The women have left the secured domain of their home and are now in the battlefield of life , fully armoured with their talent. They had proven themselves. But in India shows that the Indian society is still prejudiced against female. There are 933 females per thousand males in India according to the census of 2001, which is much below the world average of 990 females. There are many problems which women in India have to go through daily. These problems have become the part and parcel of life of Indian women and some of them have accepted them as their fate.

ROLE IN JOINT FAMILY

In the joint family set-up, the workload is shared among the members, often unequally, The role of the women are often restricted to housewives and this usually involves cooking, cleaning, and organizing for the entire family. The patriarch of the family (often the oldest male member) lays down the rules and arbitrates disputes. Other senior members of the household babysit infants in case their mother is working . They are also responsible in teaching the younger children their mother tongue, manners, and etiquette. Grandparents often take the leading roles due to the fact that they have the most experience with parenting and maintaining a household. Amy Goyer, AARP multi generational issues expert, said the most common multi generational household is one with a grandparent as head of household and his adult children, an arrangement usually spurred by the needs of one or both to combine resources and save money. The second most popular is a grandparent moving in with an adult child’s family. usually for care-giving reasons. She noted that 2.5 million grandparents say they are responsible for the basic needs of the grandchild living with them….

ROLE IN NUCLEAR FAMILY:

The term nuclear family can be defined simply as  a wife /mother, a husband/father, and their children. The phrase “Nuclear Family” became commonly known during the first half of the 20th century. Historically, households in many societies had often consisted of groups of extended family members.

In a nuclear family, there is relatively more autonomy. She has the freedom to enjoy an intimacy, a closeness with her spouse and her children without having to include others.

When a child is born , the women has to commit a tremendous amount of time to looking after the child. In a nuclear family mother may not have the help of other members of the family for looking after the child.

In  a nuclear family unit, there is less pressure on the value of an ‘obedient’ daughter-in-law than is often observed in most joint families. Since value in placed on the individual’s own abilities and attributes, women in nuclear families may be more likely to take the initiative in carving out their own identities. On the other hand, in nuclear households, women’s mobility is limited since they have to take responsibility for the full burden of housework, while there is much more sharing of tasks between women in extended households.