Of women and gender bias

M.SWAROOPA RANI

CHANGING ROLES: The confident new-age woman.

Customs, laws and social roles form a part of the culture and society. Today,
women are not only resisting multiple forms of colonial development, but also they
were actively involved in maintaining families. In spite of this, they still
remained oppressed within the very family structures and cultures, which were
reinforced by religious beliefs, economic functions, and patriarchy.

Every woman is the creation of her ethnicity, class and assigned gender role.
Escaping from the `four walls' of the home is a major theme of the women's
struggles for liberation. Society is rapidly changing and with it the roles of
women are changing as well. At one time it was generally known that women's roles
were those of homemaker, wife, and mother. In recent decades, however, new
opportunities have opened before them. Great stress has been placed on the need of
equality for women.

In the present society, women are faced with the challenge of finding new ways to
blend their interests of various skills such as writing, painting and to prove
their talent, that are equivalent to the men. Unfortunately, society does not seem
to be responding to these needs. In the early and mid-1900s, some women began to
recognise this loss and organized networks of women to work for changing the
patterns of relationships between the men and women. They experienced strong
social pressure to learn and practice different ways of communicating, acting,
thinking and relating according to an idealized image of what it means to be a
"man" or a "woman" in their cultures. Gender identity is performed differently in
different cultural contexts. Sex and gender identity must always be viewed in
relation with an individual's other identities such race, class, age, nation,
region, education. There are different expectations for the men and women in the
home, marketplace, or government office. Gender roles also shift along with social
upheaval. In times of violent conflict, the men and women face new roles and
changing gender expectations. The women in every culture experience prejudice,
although in vastly different ways and at different levels. The common experience
of a disadvantaged social position in a patriarchal society often weaves women's
perspectives that reflect a common pattern of concerns and responses.

Men disregarded women writers in the eighteenth century by restricting their

creative writing only to create permissible areas of life. Thus, the creative
talent of women writers was suppressed and it was not possible for them to express
their thoughts. New Woman seek to create and promote a positive current of thought
and action in favour of women. The sufferings of the past have strengthened the
victimized woman, maternity has deepened her, education is broadening her and she
knows that she must perfect herself if she would perfect the race, through her
offspring or her works. The position of women around the world is as much one of
second-class status today as it was in the 1950s, before the birth of the modern
feminist movement. Women believe that the oppression of women is a political,
legal and economic question of first priority. Women's political leadership is
decisive to the outcome of all the separate movements, and accordingly, we are
destined to play a vanguard part in the general movement for revolutionary social
change. The changes needed to free women from the bondage of inferior economic and
social status involve a prolonged conflict, an endeavor that is met with great
hostility and resistance at every step of the way. Feminism was part of a free-
ranging spirit of rebellion and sought to change human consciousness about male
dominance. To do so, they had to create a community of women in struggle against
patriarchy and demanded the removal of social, political and economic
discrimination based on sex and sought rights and duties on the basis of
individual capacity alone. As a result, new feminists sought the emancipation of
woman as a human being.

The women's movement has provided many novelists with the courage and inspiration
to break out of traditional and patriarchal forms to depict how the women have
been exploited and oppressed. There are very few women in positions of power, such
as the managers in an industry, company directors and the members of parliament.
Many women writers have tried to bring forth the role of women in various fields
of art of writing. With the change of the society, the role-played by women are
increased and many universities gave opportunities to the women's education. For
example, in most of the educational institutions, in some of the departments, the
female teaching staff is more than the male teaching staff, it doesn't mean that
the males are not capable for wok, but this is one of the examples of women's
achievement in the field of education. To utilize the opportunities, women should
work hard to fulfill their challenge in various roles of education and reach their
goal with complete justice to their academic work. A woman should prove herself as
a new woman, in the sense of the best woman, results as a flower of all the
womanhood of past ages.