Are Women Equally Unequal in India? Looking across Geographic Space

Abstract

Gender studies tends to focus almost exclusively on women, a focus which is needed to restore balance to the heavily skewed gender equation. However, the perception that “gender” connotes the balance of power between women and men is lost along the way. A single-minded focus on women will miss scenarios where men may be equally vulnerable. This article will attempt to shift the focus back to the significance of the gender equation by assessing the intensity of gender disparity across geographic space, and enquiring into the reasons for the persisting in-equalities. A basic question which we seek to answer is whether women are equally unequal across geographic space. India’s multitude of distinct regional contexts provides a good testing ground. As the states of the Indian Union tend to have distinct regional entities, inter-state gender disparities would reflect both economic and sociocultural diversities grounded in historical realities.