Modernity vs Tradition: Article Response

Welcome back to my blog! Today I’ll be talking about some information that I learned from a article that I read on how South Asian women are stuck between tradition and modernity. The article is from 2011, but I think it still applies to South Asian women today. It talks about common issues such as marriage, education, and families still “investing in sons”.

Girls and women are not considered “long time investments” as they are given away to their husbands’ families. The families of the women and girls feel that they need to spend unnecessary money on them as they often pay a dowry when girls get married.

Sons are seen as the better investments. Thus resulting in the big gap between the number of women and men. In 2011, there 914 females for every 1,000 males which has gone down from 1901 where there were 972 females.

The traditional way of living, patriarchal connections, and dependence on families restricts women from choosing what’s best for them rather that choosing what others think it best for everyone.

Currently there is a shortage of female educators in rural areas, which prevents young girls and women from getting a basic education. As women get more education and access to health, there would be better opportunities for South Asian women.

 

https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/south-asian-women-caught-between-tradition-and-modernity

 

Marriages Today: Original Post

Welcome back to my blog and Happy New Year! As I narrow down my research on women in South Asia for my project, I decided to conduct a mini study of my own. As I have previously discussed in my book review, marriage is very important in South Asian communities. Girls are still considered as a burden in many parts of South Asia, where the only way to get rid of them, is to get them married. So I wanted to find out at what age women in my family got married at. For this “investigation”, Ii went to my mom, who provided me with the following information:

My Mom: 22

My Nani (grandma): 15

My Aunts: 18, 20, 21, 24, 23

My Dadi (other grandma): 16

My Cousins: 25,26, 28

From my mini investigation, I was amazed at the age my Nani and Dadi were married. At that age I had just started high school, meanwhile they were already married and having children. All my aunts and my mom married relatively young as well for American standards, but India today that just the ripe age to get married. On the other hand, men however in India get married in their 20s, 30s, or 40s, and no one ever questions it. If a male does not get married quickly after finishing their education, they are simply trying to build their careers, but if a woman was to do the same, she probably has something wrong with her.

Though most women don’t get married in their teenage years now, they still get married pretty young. Around this age here in the US, most women are working or getting graduate degrees to build their careers. The tradition of getting women to marriage quickly stops them from achieving their full potential.