STATUS OF WOMEN THROUGH EONS

ABSTRACT

Life in the 21 Century has changed, developed albeit rather slowly evolved to a higher dimension with the advancement of technology and education. However, one thing that has been dragged from the medieval ages into this new era is the status of women in the society. Women in the new eon are still ill-treated, and it is not astonishing at all. However, when a deep study of the subject is made in history, we understand that it is surprisingly a newer concept. In the ancient India, somewhere around the Vedic period, women were respected and valued highly in the society. A woman could fight wars, take part in philosophical discussions, join in festivals along with men, or even remain unmarried if she desired so. So, how and why did such concepts of inequality and discrimination arose in the past are interesting studies which are yet less-known to people. Later on, around the eleventh century, women lost these perks, and consequently their status in the society due to some social, political and economic changes. The rise in evil customs and traditions like female feticide, dowry deaths, sexual assault, rape enslaved women to the boundaries of their houses. Women were mentally threatened and emotionally handcuffed from being active participants of discussions, hence their role in the society became passive in nature. The process of reawakening of the human conscience begun in the 19th Century. Reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Swami Dayanand threw light on the need of eliminating all forms of gender discrimination and biasedness. The logic behind this activation of mind was simple- without women, life on the planet wouldn't have sustained. A woman is the source of creation, she bears a child and hence the progeny maintains the continuum of life. For the species to survive, both the genders were to be conserved equally. Hence, the society started acknowledging this perspective of mind, though with a steadier pace this time. This change wasn't easy to accept for most of the people who now considered men to be on the cliff, i.e. above and higher than a woman's st position. This paper displays the status of women and her empowerment in the 21 Century in all aspects of life due to the rise in education.