"It’s well perceived and also, a fact that women in Kerala have highest literacy rate but should this imply that there’re ‘empowered women’? The claims of a progressive state with “empowered women” sits uncomfortably alongside rising levels of misogyny"
It has been a long-possessed belief that Women in Kerala are the most empowered ones, are not voiceless and have controlled property for centuries. These narratives establish the thought that Kerala is a matriarchal society.
However, the truth dismays us all.
It’s very much true that Kerala has a progressive worldview about women. In general, women have access to good education and health care facilities.
But do they have similar fortune when it comes to their participation in workforce and public spaces?
In this context, Kerala continues to pose a troubling conundrum.
Women’s participation in workforce
Despite female literacy rate of 92.07%, women constitute just a fifth of the workforce. Most of them are forced into domesticity as their husbands are in gulf countries and thus denying these women jobs at home.
Violence against women
Kerala has always prided itself for lesser incidents of violence against women. But if you look at crime against women data, the number of rape cases has recorded a rise of 11.5% from 2011. From 1132 cases of rape in 2011, the number has increased to 1263 in 2015.
As per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the incidence of rape in Kerala is 63 per lakh population while the national average stands at 56.3 - thrice as high as the rate in the neighboring Tamil Nadu (18.3). This dichotomy between the social indicators and violent crimes is a baffling one.
Even more shocking is that violence against women is growing at a faster clip in Kerala than in Tamil Nadu, and in fact, is one of the country’s fastest growing. Between 2005 and 2014, rate of rape grew by a staggering 436%, assaults 246%, sexual harassment 980% and cases of cruelty by husband by 82%. Overall, crimes against women zoomed by 210% in Kerala compared to 38% in Tamil Nadu, and 299% in India.
Better Education system than rest of India?
It’s well perceived and also, a fact that women in Kerala have highest literacy rate but should this imply that there’re ‘empowered women’?
No.
Its not merely education but the very source of education. Education in our system flows through deeply rooted patriarchal sources than the democratic or progressive ones.
Precisely because its not merely education but the very source of education. Education in our system flows through deeply rooted patriarchal sources than the democratic or progressive ones. The patriarchal mindsets start chaining women from schools itself. Educational institutions enforce disciplinary measures that control women even more and create more submissive generations of women.
For instance, the rape and murder of a law student in Kerala hardly stirred the conscience of the state’s enlightened people with only a few classmates speaking up for the dead girl.
Women as ‘capital-bearing’ object
Women are still seen as an important “capital-bearing” object, both in how they are perceived as a “subordinate” confined to domestic and caring roles behind closed doors, and how they are represented as a “sexual” form through cultural practices or popular culture, such as films.
Gender Capital
The claims of a progressive state with “empowered women” sits uncomfortably alongside rising levels of misogyny. The marginal participation of women in workforce only indicates that women’s “gender capital” is identified with traits of femininity, such as domestication, passivity and subordination to male superiority (including sexuality).
For example, care work and nursing are largely a female occupation and is often undervalued and seen as a “natural” female attribute. While women have used their feminine capital by entering economic employment in Kerala, this is mostly in the care and service sectors. Such realms of work show how women’s work choices operate within boundaries of gender and social norms. ms.
Matriarchal or Matrilineal?
Is Kerala a matriarchal or matrilineal society? I believe “matrilineal” is more appropriate. While it means that the woman’s kin can say, control the property, they tend to be male relatives too.
Matrilineal societies are often mistakenly connected with female empowerment. In the development sphere, many assume that women in these societies have more rights and access to property. But this is no fact to believe.
By definition, ‘matriarchy’ is a form of social organization where the power lies in the hands of women; this is rarely, if ever, the case. Whereas, matrilineal descent is an anthropological term that refers to a specific form of inheritance (quite often found in Africa) in which property is transmitted through female lineage.
The key is acknowledging exactly which female lineage; property is not transferred from one woman to another but rather through a woman’s male kin. For example, ownership can be transferred from the mother’s brother to the nephew but by no means to women themselves.
When men (and women) in power say that women in a certain community are empowered because the society is matrilineal, it sets us on a dangerous path. It allows decision makers to assume that women in matrilineal societies already have the right to land ownership, without requiring any additional attention.
So, Kerala needs to revisit its model of women empowerment. Instead of tuning to the tempting definition of women empowerment, we need to place more realistic and reliable actions which are designed to create more women’s participation in public sphere, workforce and in decision making processes.
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