Role of Women, Traditional vs Modern

Moaz S.

Johnny L.

Source:http://www.asiantribune.com/files/images/Child%20mother%20and%20her%20son.jpg

This picture shows the every day life of a traditional mother. With all the everyday chores Indian girls need to do in the household, how is this different from the modern day life?

The status and roles  of women in India has been changed throughout its history. From the ancient times until Modern-day India, the history of women in India has been very interesting.The status of women has been changed throughout India’s history. Today, many Indians ask the question, “ Should women have the same role as women did in old times or should they be given equal opportunities as men?

     This question is first asked when a couple are going to bore a young girl, one of the problems when asking the question of whether or not is this female going to benefit you. After the Indian government banished the custom of getting a dowry with the Dowry Banishment Act, the Indian Government has been seeing a rise in the rate of female infanticide. Many believe that this is due to the fact that the Indian government has banished the traditional custom of the dowry. This brings us back to the question, "Should we stick to our traditions or should we try to be more westernized and modern?" They are many pros and cons with making a decision on whether or not to abolish the practice of giving dowries. When allowing dowries, this will allow the Indians to go back to tradition and decrease the rate of female infanticide. when abolishing dowries, this will allow India to be more modernize and allow it to step forward to the road to Westernization.

    According to the National Sample Survey Data of 1997, the female literacy rate is much lower than the male literacy rate in India. In India, many Indian traditions send the message that women and girls have to stay home and help out by doing chores. In India, they are far more boys than they are girls in India. Also, girls have a higher drop-out rate than boys do. Hencefore, Why are they far more boys in schools than they are girls? Many Indians believe that the role of women is for them to help out within the house while the men work. This has long been the traditional belief. However, the more modern Indians believe that a man should be able to work equally as a man. These two arguments have been listened to India for the past decade. Many people believe that the main barrier to this is because there is lack of school facilities in India. Therefore, many of these schools prioritize men over women because they believe in the traditional way rather than the modern way. This is why today you see many educated women in the cities where modern values overlap traditional ones rather than the villages.

          Traditional Indians values say that a women is her spouse's property. Many traditional customs revolve around this idea. One traditional custom is called sati in which a widow will throw herself into her husband's funeral fire as hindus cremate their dead. This is based on this belief as which a women has to join her husband in the next life. Indian women have to always obey their husbands and do as they say. However, the more modern belief that the husband and wife are both equal and should mutually respect each other. Today, the cities are more leniant to the modern side in the tug of war as the villages are more leaning to the traditional side. Even though india as a whole is leaning more to the traditional side, the modern side keeps on gaining power.

Source: http://images.inmagine.com/img/blendimages/bld088/bld088040.jpg

Today, women in India have been dominating the telermarketing business. Jobs like telemarketing have changed the tradtional idea of women staying home and have brought many women to the Indian labor taskforce.   

Skit plan:

Moaz- A young lady who recently graduated, and became an engineer

Johnny- The mother of the young lady, and is arguing that her daughter should be a good wife, and not so worried about financials, and let her man take care of it.

(Moaz coming out of the side, Johnny at the middle of the stage)

Moaz: Hey, mom, I’m home. Guess what? I got a work at the Toyota plant in San Antonio, I’ll be moving there two days from now. It’s great that I found a job.

(Johnny shakes his head at this notion)

Johnny: No, you should stay at home, like a good wife would be for your husband. It is our cultures tradition, you should embody that.

(Moaz looks worn out at this topic)

Moaz: Look, that is the past, mom, this is the modern world, we must continue, it is how this world is moving forward.

Johnny: No, this is why I don’t like how the schools teaching you, they are bad influences. When I was at your age, I was taking care of the whole family at home, and wait on your father everyday home.

Moaz: That is true mother, but that is long in the past, again, no matter how long, or to what extent I stress. In America we have our rights; it is not like India, where we are pressed back because of our different genders. No matter what you say, I am going to San Antonio.

Johnny: This is not what a good daughter should be….

Moaz storms off the front to the right.

End of the skit.