Voices of the Marginalized Gender

"How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and sheroes" - Maya Angelou

Well said that men of quality respect women's equality. An equal world is an empowered world where every voice and every gender have equal rights. If gender equality is a human fight and not a gender fight then why do some members of human society experience marginalisation due to their gender?

Status enjoyed by the women in a society determines the very degree of civilization and extent of democratic setup. Three images of women in particular recur in the Indian scenario. They are Sita, Shakuntala and Savitri. These three women characters have come to symbolize the ideal of Indian womanhood and most of the female figures have been molded and fashioned after them. Incidentally, these images also reflect the man-woman relationship in society in that they imply an unquestionable superiority of man cast in the role of the protector of a weak and passive companion.

The positive side is that the Western culture, education, freedom struggle of the country and the changes in economic conditions proved powerful to bring the women out of the shadow of

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Sita, Shakuntala and Savitri image. With the passing of the time the Indian woman has gradually come out of the cocoon of pride in suffering and has started looking at herself as a human being. This approach has evoked in her the germ of realization of 'herself' from all angles.