The Confluence of Individual Autonomy and Collective Identity in India

Abstract

The Problem

In India, more household resources are spent on the education of sons than daughters; access to health and education reflects gender inequalities regardless of caste; poor women in India suffer malnourishment, and under- and unemployment. While there exists a steady stream of research on gender disparities and poverty in India, few studies have focused on gender disparities in wealthier communities. Yet, economic development as a whole will be more equal, more sustainable, and more rapid when gender inequalities are addressed.

The Solution

We explore gender inequity qualitatively through a single biography of an Indian woman, one of the authors. Using the power of cultural differences between researchers; a U.S. American interviewed the Indian researcher, we make sense of a narrative of an Indian woman caught between her desire to pursue education and career and her family’s and community’s expectation that she marry and start her own family. The study offers insights that extend knowledge about the increasing tensions between individual choice and the collective ethic that are experienced in India as the country transitions into a free market economy.

The Stakeholders

By focusing on the biography of a woman caught between family and community expectations and her own aspirations for education and career, the article highlights the impact of globalization, and macro- and micro-level economic, and sociocultural, forces that produce unique challenges and tensions in a fast growing market-based economy. Public policy makers play an important role in assessing the impact of national human resource development (NHRD) policies and practices that emphasize equal opportunities for women and other marginalized communities in a country such as India.