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Showing posts with the label gender bias

Whose world is it anyway?

     ‘We live in a man’s world’ goes the common refrain. Each time I end a late night phone conversation with my best friend when discussing marriage, family or work we conclude that there still exists an implicit gender bias in today’s ‘emerging’ India. Not confined to the rural areas or the impoverished population, the bias is visible across India. From the villages where a son is treasured as an asset, an incremental working hand on the fields, to the glitzy offices in urban India, where women candidates are looked at with skepticism since career is perceived as secondary to family, the prejudice is ubiquitous. Five million girls were subjected to female infanticide between 1986 and 2001 in India. To prevent this, sex determination for pregnant women is illegal across the country. Even in seemingly modern families, women are pressured to produce a son to continue the family legacy. The bias is universal; its manifestations vary significantly.    I hail from a Marwari family and was