The position of women may be defined with reference to the personal rights she enjoys in society as compared to personal rights which, women’s counterpart enjoys in any given society. The status may also be defined with reference to be relative advantage one enjoys in matter of exercising authority and in initiating action.
In we bear in mind the above definitions of status of women we cannot hazard conclusion that the status of women was always low in the primitive society. On the other hand, it would be more in keeping with facts to say that in the great majority of cases of uncivilized peoples, the position of women was in greater or less degree inferior to that of man in point of personal rights. And this inferior status of women also underwent variations during the different phases of early life.
Thus for instance in the early tribal phase of family the status of women was miserable. The society consisted by savage men and the inferior status of women were obvious. The causes were rooted in the technique of the chase, the sexual dominant division of labour, the inherent laziness and roughness of women. Women was a weak partner in hunting and chase. The principle division of labour naturally exploited the weaker partner. Man was stronger and active and women needed their protection. Economically too, she was not engaged in useful and important activities like collecting food or supplying clothing. That was another reason for her backwardness.
Child bearing further reduced her to position of entire dependency. The savage man was callous and calculating to exploit the feminine disadvantage, which refused women to the status of slaves. The concentration of the techniques of survival in the hands of men gave them a superior status which was further cemented by the physiological disadvantages of women. We must add to these contributory factors laziness of the primitive men. Many of the duties which he could have done he forced them on women.
Marriage by capture and exogamy further depressed the lot of women. They were always stranded in strangers family marriage where they had neither any dignity nor any concession.
Finally in an age of savage warfare, men were always united in action, but the women were not. Men were organized, women were not. As a result of all these principal contributory factors, the status of women remained very low in the great majority of primitive peoples.
The truth of the aforesaid conclusion lies in the fact that when the society developed to another phase called high kinship phase, cultivating fields replaced living on hunting. With this position of women changed. Women started cultivating fields, they became the controller of food. And it is an inexorable law that one who controls food controls everything. In this era, women rose to such a high status that they have never reached the same height throughout the succeeding generations.
Then again there arose the idea of acquiring wealth as a means of exchange. Once again man tried to concentrate wealth in his hands. The technique of living passed into hands of men which enabled them to regain domination over women. Once again women are reduced to the status of minors. This position however differed in different places. Women had a circumscribed field, within that field she was honoured in some places. But in other places she had a very miserable existence. The principal factor leading to this low status of women was the rise of patriarchal family wherein the patriarch was law unto himself, and others. The modern age has done a lot to retrieve the lost status of women. Though we have not reached that stage of ‘women dominance’ in our age, we certainly recognize the principle of equality of status between men and women. It is the industrial revolution that has revolutionized the status of women.
It has thrown open before them various careers. Even within the family she has different function in relation to husband and children. She can prevent her physiological limitations of pregnancy by using contraceptives. Besides the industrial revolution has given her back her economic freedom which gives her initiative not only in the domestic field but also in the public field. She can make her own choice as regards her life-partner and social surroundings. She does not have to depend on man to make and determine the choice for her. In the wake of economic freedom she has also regained her political freedom which is also a contributory factor in raising her status in modern age.
Of course where the countries are still economically and industrially backward women are still subject to hardships and servitude. But there is growing desire among nations to establish international agencies for uplift of such backward areas. So woman to-day enjoys to a large extent the status of equality with man. This has also been achieve by progressive legislation which changes the law of inheritance, thus making them co-shares with men. These are the various ways in which modern age has tried to improve the lot of women.
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