INVOLVEMENT OF MALES IN HASTENING WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Women empowerment indicates to the process of providing females with equal opportunities
like that of males in every aspect like economics, politics, management etc. and in turn let them
reach their maximum potential. This has become the need of the hour and the same has been
recognised by all institutions and governments across the globe. In order to curb out the gender
disparities among the two genders, the governments of various states have made a number of
legislations to uplift the females. A lot of legislations like The Hindu Succession (amendment)
Act,2005 which gave women rights in their ancestral property which was denied to them for a
long, long time. Protection of Women against violence Act, 2005, this gave them a remedy
against the atrocious behaviour of males under influence or otherwise and many others. As
analysed, all these legislations still fail to uplift the status of females in Indian context. the
reason to the failure of these well thought legislations is that all of these laws are narrowminded
and focus on only one section of the society i.e. the females, the male section of the society is
completed overlooked and ignored. What the legislators lack to understand is that the males
constitute half of our population, and in order to actually uplift the female sector, the support
and coordination of the male sector is a pre-requisite. India follows a patriarchal pattern. The
males have always been treated as the stronger section and due to the same we tend to look
right through the hardships faced by them in order to become an accepted part of the society,
the obligations they fulfil so as to fit in as respected members of the society which in-turn turns
them bitter towards these legislations. Male sector is the major bridge of bringing change into
the social scenario. Legislating on gender equality laws are not enough to empower women,
educating and changing the mindsets of the males about how they perceive the gender equal
laws so as to support them instead of pushing back to its implementation. Making men more
aware of the costs of conventional forms of masculinity, both for themselves and for women
and children is an important step towards challenging gender inequalities. With the change in
the ideology of males about the term female empowerment, the process of empowering females
would happen more precipitously.

-BY VAIDEHI KOTHARI

SEMESTER 5TH B