“A gender-equal society is the one where gender doesn’t exist: where everyone can be themselves.”
A society can never be a progressive community functioning over whims and fancies of one group assumed superior over the rest. History has been evident of the societal chasm between the dominant patriarchal society possessing control over the relegated minority of women and the LGBTQI+. Prevalence of English literature since Anglo-Saxon Period till contemporary PostModern period has been crucial in bringing minority oppression to the fore. Women have always been subject to inferiority in the society in tandem with grievous atrocities, oppression, restrictions and household responsibilities.
India, as well, has a grim past of declined status towards women, who initially in the ancient period were revered as deities. Hijras, the transgender community holds evidence from ancient literature too and are celebrated in religious and spiritual ceremonies till date. Yet they all are victims of the cruelty our hypocritical society offers. Here, although with gradual evolution within traditional norms, societal acceptance and legal safety have been inculcated as a superficial fabric, the dreary misery still perpetuates underneath.
The advent of the 21st century is allured by the evolution of digital technology, a mechanism serving not only in the hi-tech sectors but an acting panacea to the sufferers of social malices. These sufferers, confined within a four walled space are exposed to the digital universe by dint of mobile phones, computers and the online community of social media. A life, diminishing under the prosaic shed of inferiority, is now establishing an independent identity.
Since ages, we have learnt about the sacrificial image of women in our society, but these notions have been fixed by the ideologies of the patriarchs.
Women were objectified with servility towards male counterparts, family and household responsibilities. They had to serve their fathers with passive acceptance, husbands with their bodies, children with caretaking and the entire family with her unpaid laborious works. This vulnerability, especially to deliver pleasure to the whims of her husband, has made her susceptible to a withered body. Her YES, sequelled to multiple pregnancies accompanied by the job of children’s upbringing. But a NO, was the door to a rightful assault with no emotional care. This chauvinist society succeeded in preserving women in every household duty, neglecting her own self. She was to procreate to carry on his lineage, to feed their babies, to look after the old, sick or the non-working family members. She was expected to raise children with high moral values and create a future workforce, especially in the capitalist society. No matter how much the agony of every atrocity crumbled her inner spirit, the guilt of refusal and incapacity to satisfy her husband was deeply imbibed in her. All this constituted a necessary labour, which perpetually remained unrecognised within her duty as a domestic woman.
In English society, whether we study abstracts from Greek Mythology , Elizabethan era or Victorian era, we witness women being materialised, physically abused and burdened within the inferior societal corners.
In an extract from Virginia Woolf's ‘A Room of One’s Own’, several attributes of an Elizabethan society towards women have been highlighted along with an urge to stand for the unheard voices. The sixteenth century women suffered the misogynist behaviour along with brutal infliction by men as their birthright. Women were forced to marry without consent, and any rejection to it was subjected to horrendous battery, without any public deterrence. These cruelties were a component of the designated domestic lives of these women.
Similarly, the Victorian Era has been disguised into the home-centeredness of women contrary to the societal and economic prestige taking responsibility of the men. The difference has perpetually prevailed. The feminine urge to counter this ideology was fictionally represented by Charlotte Bronte. She embodied her vengeance into Jane Eyre who was a rebellious undefeatable soul that fought all the atrocious social divisions and stepped in the outer world, to breathe the fresh air of equality, emancipation and pride. Literature has been pivotal in featuring women especially as influenced by societal conditions. Women have long been deprived of equality and liberty, foreshadowed by denied access to education and freedom of expression. This is reflected through a paradoxical trend that only a limited number of female authors published their tales and the male dominant stereotypical literary characters were pervaded, especially women as a perfectly sexualized object, till the Victorian era.
In Indian society, too, a similar trend has been observed throughout the long past of invading rulers and their kingdoms. A land of diverse culture, has equally witnessed such culturally defined practices being synonymously prejudicial towards women. Sati Pratha, the sacrificial practice of burning oneself on husband’s funeral pyre, has been one of typical examples of barbarism. Other evils like widow remarriage, female infanticide and child marriage too prevailed. The Purdah system was a fine case of physical seclusion of women from the mainstream and the entire concealment of her skin with clothes. This veil of confinement held within it the bleak memories of domestic violence, dowry harassment and sexual abuse. Valourising for women meant devaluing themselves for their family, and this prevails even till date.
The physical and emotional breakdown while menstruation and child-bearing, have made women helpless in contributing to the external works during such periods, opportuning the male to attain supremacy. The more stronger gender that bore the physical pain with distinct superiority had been misinterpreted through all these eras. This susceptibility has been significant in flunging women to the front doors of domesticity.
The dichotomy of patriarchal society is visible in the public and the private space distinguished for men and women respectively. Male have imbibed a condescending attitude with respect to the overall responsibility of the society in terms of economical, political and social affairs. On the contrary women are foisted with daily chores, family and cultural duty. Earlier Indian house structures were divided into 3 portions - front portion, the visiting room for men, centrally located living area for family to meet together and the kitchen in backyard for women to carry out her tasks without intrusion.
Transgenders as well as the prostitutes were other classes of people thrashed under the ferocity of walled lives. The professors of patriarchal society had segregated them from the mainstream into drudgery. Their work has never received any esteem in a so-called good society, even though these male escaped to brothels for sexual fulfilment. Transpeople remained hidden with their fake identities to survive within the open space, although their inner self stayed bound to a room of gloominess. In earlier times, revelation of such gender surmounted to brutal killing, matching the practice of honour killing.
The women’s movement that stood for gender equality, and a step ahead to acquire recognition in the society, has been piloted in four phases with the progression of society into the modern world. The first wave was popularised as the suffragettes movement of the 1920s in the European and North American territories. It became successful in gaining voting rights for women in parity with the male. Women became active in their participation in the community by accessing the universities, intruding the work culture in factories and shops. This initiative was succeeded by the wave of liberative feminism, with a candour towards women oppression suffered through all the years of patriarchy, accompanied by the emergence of capitalism in the 19th century. Revolution since the 1960s saw social reformation, a stand against oppression that moved the sentiments of women to an open space. This initiated the real establishment of feminist ideology, surpassing the misconceived notion of men being superior to women. With an essence of dismissing feminism by patriarchal conservatives, and the surfacing media and pop culture gave impetus to the third wave. It promoted an enhanced deliberation of the shrouded significance of women in the historical pieces and raised women participation and awareness towards the liberal world. This phase was boosted by the innovative and digital technologies supporting the way forward.
Innovative technologies, since earlier periods have been an essential component in liberalising women from the corner space of dependance to self governance. Bicycles, for example, in the Victorian era proved to be a symbol of emancipation for young ladies. This was the gate to travel the unlocked world independently. The gradual evolution in mass media from print media till modern digital devices, have been commendable in influencing the internalised communities along with liberating their domestic space. Print culture popularised the social norms where women were either the holy goddess or sex objects and housewives. But little inroad access from feminist leaders also delivered sparks for anti-patriarchal reforms. Televisions and radio were two instruments very popularised among the domestic range. They could be heard and watched in women’s private capacity while performing her daily chores like cooking, washing, or sometimes as leisure exercise too. The shows casted on these platforms especially family drama, too depicted as a docile household worker, equipped within the homely politics. But, record breaking achievements by women were circulated through news and radio channels, lending an inner boast to the internalised women. More number of books written by women, such as Kate Millet's Sexual Politics were published in 1970s, accompanied by women's strike for equality on suffragettes movment’s fiftieth anniversary. These sources had also played crucially in bringing women to forefront in national movements such as in India. Inspired by social reformers like Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant women occupied roles in the public sphere during war periods when men went out and this change was significant in liberalising their confined boundaries. Succedingly in the 1990s we witnessed the invention of the internet, which in current times has percolated in every sector of every tier in our societies. The last and current phase of the cybernated revolution, has enabled in generating a sense of connectivity even with those still consigned in the shackles of gloominess. It has catered a platform of free expression within the global reach from the underprivileged till the most affluent group. Certain movements within it have attracted people all over the online community with an increased sense of awareness and support. #METOO movement was one such very publicised event against sexual abuse and rape culture, a tool of the patriachal owners to repress the raising female voice in the outer space.
The digitech invention has been a catalyst in diminishing this gender gap. It has opened multiple avenues in political, economical , social, cultural and every other sector. The community that were bereaved of independence can now access the global world through their own lens. The benefit of social media has let women and other genders establish their undeterred identities on the global platform, and freely express their opinions, raise voice against the wrong and become self aware. Usually, the inferiorised sections like lgbtq, who fear facing the stereotypical society find social media a comfort space to resort to. Modernised features within digital devices have been helpful for women safety, anti-bullying, privacy features, emergency SOS and several others. Digital autonomy through mobile phones, laptops, computers have enabled self earnings. Women have proceeded in setting up their own ventures on digital platforms, from domestic space to money making. Economic independence gives way to political recognition, and so women participation in the political sphere has increased through online campaigning and votings. Women make their savings from their incomes instead of begging from their male counterparts and hence defeating the long continued of male earning tradition.
Moreover, online markets and payment systems have increased personal expenditure backing women in pursuing her desires, as well as in nutritious food and have secured her with self sufficient character. Recently covid pandemic has decelerated the education field for girl child, and hence e-learning proved to be a viable source for educating the deprived students as well as the elderly mothers denied education in early times. Awareness has been a powerful tool in pervading bodily autonomy and reproductive rights for every female either mother, unmarried girls, prostitutes or the LGBTQ along with healthcare. Contraceptives, tampons, pads that were accessible in markets have been widely delivered to the rural areas as well, only through the online marketing feature. The schemes for female beneficiaries are available through phone apps and websites, thus benefiting a larger audience.
The Internet has been important in accelerating the pride movement for the hidden class of LGBTQI+, by awakening the masses towards equality and individual freedom towards their independent gender identity. People have grown sensitive towards them by acknowledgement of atrocious memoirs circulated through these platforms and have attained success in securing legal rights for the pride community.
Women have grown from dependence to independence. Male tendency to assume control and suppress every other gender, too dominated this digitech phase. Initially, only men had access to newly launched devices or women had to share her device and this exercise prevails in geographically remote and low income households. In India, only 29% of women are internet users, contributing to the report findings that it will take nearly 132 years to curb gender gap even through digital medium. Digital technology that poses a boost to gender parity, has a dark reality with certain challenges as well. There have been heinous cyber crimes like sextortion, online sexual harassment, mental bullying, cyber stalking and myriad others. Governments are moving ahead in securing cyber legal framework and safety infrastructure but the procedure needs to be hastened. Education literacy has always been a goal to be accomplished, digital literacy has added a supplement to it. Deficient digital skills may make women more vulnerable to cyber crime. Moreover, it may contribute in widening the digital gap instead of minimising the societal chasm.
Women have long suffered to re-establish their lost esteem under cultural norms. Digital platforms have initiated newer cyberspace which women can benefit from to flourish with independent identities. She can build her community, professional career or satisfy her desires without the male pressure. Education and digital skills in tandem to government initiatives towards equal participation and resource availability for women will benefit society towards a gender-equal future. In the world domain, nations like Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Netherlands have excelled in gender equality index through their exceeding performance in digital economy and society index.
Innovation has always been a benefactor of women within their domestic space, and this digital innovation has been a key to unlock her confined domestic space.