How Indians View Gender Roles

PEW RESEARCH’S NEW report on India—‘How Indians View Gender Roles in Families and Soci•ety’—released on March 2 sketches an interesting picture. India remains a traditional society but one where women are accepted in public and leadership roles. Majorities across religions feel that both women and men make equally good political leaders (page 40). This, despite a number of conservative perspectives, such as opposing legal abortion, again a majority across all religions except Bud•dhism, and the latter very narrowly (46 per cent of Buddhists think abortion should be illegal in all/most cases) (page 51). Yet an overwhelming majority across religions (80 per cent overall) is in favour of gender equality. The survey casts India in a unique light: unlike traditional societies where public roles for women are circumscribed, India is more open in this respect even as it continues to value traditional gender roles.

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Siddharth Singh

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