Women's Autonomy in India and Pakistan: The Influence of Religion and Region

Abstract

This article compares the lives of women and explores dimensions of their autonomy in different regions of South Asia-Punjab in Pakistan, and Uttar Pradesh in north India and Tamil Nadu in south India. It explores the contextual factors underlying observed differences and assesses the extent to which these differences could be attributed to religion, nationality, or north-south cultural distinctions. Findings suggest that while women's autonomy-in terms of decision-making, mobility, freedom from threatening relations with husband, and access to and control over economic resources-is constrained in all three settings, women in Tamil Nadu fare considerably better than other women, irrespective of religion. Findings lend little support to the suggestion that women in Pakistan have less autonomy or control over their lives than do Indian women. Nor do Muslim women-be they Indian or Pakistani-exercise less autonomy in their own lives than do Hindu women in the subcontinent. Rather, findings suggest that in the patriarchal and gender-stratified structures governing the northern portion of the subcontinent, women's control over their lives is more constrained than in the southern region. Copyright 2001 by The Population Council, Inc..

Understanding gendered influences on women's reproductive health in Pakistan: Moving beyond the autonomy paradigm

“…While we do not claim that the specifics of the Jatti socio-cultural setting will necessarily apply to other parts of Pakistan, we do argue that the generic inadequacies of the 'autonomy paradigm' discussed above are likely to be widely felt for the following reasons. One, the foundational principles underlying gender ideologies and values, kinship systems and concepts of personhood tend to be common over large regions (Jejeebhoy and Sathar, 2001;Dyson and Moore, 1983). Second, gender systems are not isolated structures; they are embedded in political, social and economic contexts (Morgan & Niralua, 1995).…”

Women's Autonomy, Education and Employment in Oman and their Influence on Contraceptive Use

“…Jejeebhoy and Sathar noted that traditional forms of authority (such as age) can have a strong effect on women's autonomy in communities with wide gender disparities. 28 An ethnographic study in a working class community in Istanbul, Turkey, questioned the whole idea that education leads to women being empowered and wanting fewer births. 26 Although a study in Pakistan found four ways that education affects fertility (it leads to later marriage, to women marrying men with higher income, to women entering the formal employment sector and to unspecified changes in women's values and interests), it found that domestic autonomy failed to predict fertility.…”

Excess male chronic energy deficiency among adolescents: a cross-sectional study in the context of patrilineal and matrilineal societies in Northeast India

“…Little is known about antimale bias in the Khasi society (Gurdon, 1981;Pakyntein, 1999), which can be considered as comparable to antifemale bias as in other parts of South Asia including India (Jejeebhoy & Sathar, 2001;Fikree & Pasha, 2004). Among the War Khasis, both sons and daughters inherit the parental property.…”

“…Nutritional and health discriminations against girls in India may vary from one region to another depending upon a number of cultural factors relating to beliefs, ideas and behaviours that are socially transmitted from one generation Excess male chronic energy deficiencyto another in a specific population or culture area (Jejeebhoy & Sathar, 2001). Subject to further studies, such cultural factors may in turn act as constraints of the so-called universal factors (socio-economic factors) of social and economic change, such as employment, educational and income levels.…”

“…Female autonomy is, however, widely recognised as one of the important factors in reducing antifemale bias in access to education, nutrition and medical care in South Asia (Jejeebhoy & Sathar, 2001). In matrilineal societies, the rule of descent is reckoned through the female line, and daughters inherit the parental property (Fox, 1967).…”