How do Indians feel about gender
issues? It’s a hot topic, in light of recent
events in India. There’s no new data,
but one could turn to a 2010 survey
by the Pew Research Center to gain at
least some understanding of how India
is evolving. First, the good news. In
a sign of changing times, 95 percent of
Indians agreed that women should be
allowed to work outside their homes.
Further, 92 percent supported gender
equality for women.
Nevertheless, there are contradictions
and challenges, showing that
women still have a long way to go. For
instance, 84 percent of Indians agree that when jobs
are scarce, men should have more right to a job. This
was the highest percentage among the 22 nations Pew
surveyed. Also, 63 percent of Indians
agreed that a university education
is more important for a boy than for
a girl. Only 32 percent disagreed. In
India, 60 percent of respondents preferred
a dual income household, with
shared responsibilities for the couple,
to a single-income household where
the wife stayed home and took care of
the family.
In the World Economic Forum’s
2012 global gender gap index, India
ranked 105 out of 135 nations. The categories
for calculating the gender gap
included economic participation and
opportunity (rank 123), educational attainment (121),
health and survival (134). Ironically, India did better
when it came to political empowerment (17).