• The status of women refers to her position in the network of social role structure, privileges, rights and duties.

• It refers to her rights and duties in family and social life.

• The status of a woman is generally measured in the comparative amount of prestige and respect accorded to her with that of man.

STATUS OF WOMEN IN INDIA – HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

• The status of Hindu women in India has been fluctuating.

• It has gone through several changes during various historical stages.

• Historically speaking, women in India have passed through two phases of their life – the period of subjugation and the period of liberation. At times she has been suppressed and oppressed and at times she is regarded as the deity of the home.

• From the Vedic age till today, her status and position has been changing with the passing of time.

WOMEN IN VEDIC SOCIETY

• The Rig-Vedic society was a free society.

• The Aryans evidently preferred male child to female child.

• However, females were as free as their male counterparts.

EDUCATION RIGHTS

• Education was equally open for boys and girls.

• Girls studied the Veda and fine arts.

MARRIAGE RIGHTS

• Women never observed purdha in the Vedic period.

• They enjoyed freedom in selecting their mates.

• But divorce was not permissible to them.

POSITION IN FAMILY

• In the family, they enjoyed complete freedom and were treated as Ardhanginis.

• In domestic life women were considered to be supreme and enjoyed freedom.

• Women helped their husbands in agricultural pursuits also.

• Husband used to consult his wife on financial matters.

PROPERTY RIGHTS

• Unmarried daughters had share in their fathers’ property.

• Daughter had full legal rights in the property of her father in the absence of any son.

• Mother’s property, after her death, was equally divided among sons and unmarried daughters.

• However, married women had no share in father’s property.

• As a wife, a woman had no direct share in her husband’s property.

• A widowed mother had some rights.

RELIGIOUS RIGHTS

• The woman was regarded as having an equally important share in the social and religious life because a man without woman was considered as an inadequate person.

• She regularly participated in religious ceremonies with her husband.

• There were many scholars who composed hymns of Rig Veda. Lopamudra, Gargi and Maitreye were the pioneers among them.

• Lopamudra, the wife of Agasti rishi, composed two verses of Rig Veda.

LATER VEDIC PERIOD

• However In Later Vedic period, the position that the women folk enjoyed in the early Vedic society, was not retained.

• Manu assigns to the Women of Vedic age, a position of dependence, if not of subordination.

• The Arthasastra attests to considerable restraints placed on their movements.