The topic is almost a platitude today. Its basic concept cannot be denied and in the present day context the equality of status between the two genders is no longer a debatable issue. On the contrary aggression, presumptuous behaviour among women sometimes overawes society. One feels that the age-old classifications of ‘patriarchal’ and ‘matriarchal’ society need to be redefined.
Men have dominated, nay, even exploited their superior status through centuries. Some tribes like the Amazonians or some African ethnic varieties and aboriginals in the North-East of India are matriarchal. But, perhaps, their women domination does not betray that kind of atrocity of human behaviour as in cases of male domination.
In short, women are still in the darker side of the penumbra. But their awakening today cannot be gainsaid, although undoubtedly our society lacks the courage and charity to concede them their rights in the parliament.
Women have been grossly neglected in the race for life through social injustice and because of rank social laws and customs. But today they are not content to remain indoors. The greater world of life and light has drawn them out of their dark confinement, and they have struck. The renaissance has changed and is still changing the complexion of the nations ‘Socio-political’ life. ‘fast-food’, ‘fast-life’ – a characteristic phrase of today that is used with a slighting sneer – is, in fact, a sequel to this changed life. Women rub shoulders with men in offices, games and agitations, and in consequence, Kitchen-culture is not able to retain its old essence.
In ‘Matrimonies’, too, the equality in status is becoming a staggering reality for the old-livers in values. Boys seek working girls, girl’s interview boys; new relationships are spawned like ‘living together’ or ‘together yet separate’.
How this feature of ‘equality-in-status’ is emerging is a great matter for sociological research, no doubt. But the goal is yet afar. It will not do merely to concede rights to the weaker section. The great need is for a consciousness among them of their importance in society. They need to be educated, to be initiated into the great truth that their enlightenment is the first and foremost step in the building of a healthy civilization.
Another important facet of the issue needs emphasis. The phrase in the proposed question is not as innocent as it looks. The rudiment of civics entails that rights and responsibilities are interrelated; it applies to both sexes. Here the males appear to be defaulters. Right to families, in institutions, to education, to justice and many other bodies that constitute our life at large in the world imply also duties and responsibilities towards the same. Women have long been relegated into the shunt-yard in life’s journey. They have borne silently this dumb cattle-like existence. But now there is a thaw, a deluge that has broken into their suicidal sleep.
It is impossible to bring about this ‘equation’ as in the two halves in a sum of equation. The ‘plus-minus’ factor is here inevitable. The days are not far – it may be a century or half a century – when the neglected and harassed partner in the race would ride rough shod over its other half. It is not due to any revolution. It is the law of evolution that had as its watchwords ‘the struggle for existence’ and ‘the survival of the fittest’. No longer can men bask in their rights; they have to be vigilant lest women steal a march on them. And in this vigilance will thrive to a balance and harmony that is the most ideal kind of existence.