Violence Against Women: Root Causes and Reasons for its Continuity

Abstract

The control and coercion exercised over women are gender specific and arises due to the hierarchical gender relationships, where women are subordinate to men who have a dominant place. Most women seem to not have any status outside the family, and they are severely reprimanded if they dare to fight male authority and are exposed to quick retributions which confirm their vulnerability.   

From birth or we may say even before birth – the female child is subjected to discriminatory treatment even within the family.  She is deprived of proper nutrition and her education is neglected in comparison to the male child in many rural families. As a result, she is less fit to carve a proper independent status in the world. This social conditioning and discrimination is reflected in her personality and her mental make-up as she grows up.

The equality of women has not reached all sections of the society and not recognized by many. Women in India are still the worst sufferers of socio-economic discrimination and exploitation. India is the one among a handful of countries where female infant mortality exceeds that of male-notwithstanding the fact that the female child is biologically stronger at birth.

The basis of man’s behavior towards women today in our generation is not only because of the original nature of man and woman, but also the accumulated cultural legacy of man and woman through the centuries.

Every human being at every stage of history or pre- history is born into a society, and from his earliest years is influenced by that society. The language which he speaks is not an individual inheritance but a social acquisition from the group in which he grows up. The environment helps to determine the character of his thoughts, his earliest ideas come to him from others.