Pew Study on Gender Roles | 9 in 10 Indians think Wife must Always Obey Husband

The Pew study found that for a variety of historical, social, religious and economic reasons, families tend to place a higher value on sons rather than daughters.

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Pew Study on Gender Roles- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: Salient features of Indian Society- Women in Indian Society.

Pew Study on Gender Roles- Background

A Pew study on Gender Roles titled “How Indians view gender roles in families and society” was released recently, highlighting the status of women in contemporary Indian Society.
The findings of the Pew study are based on a survey of 29,999 Indian adults conducted from November 2019 to March 2020.
The study found that for a variety of historical, social, religious and economic reasons, families tend to place a higher value on sons rather than daughters.

Pew Study on Gender Roles- Key Findings

Favour Traditional Gender Roles for Women: The study found that while Indians accept women as political leaders, they mostly favour traditional gender roles in family life.
- While 55% of Indians believed that men and women make equally good political leaders, “nine-in-ten Indians agree with the notion that a wife must always obey her husband”.
- Indian women were only slightly less likely than Indian men to agree with this sentiment (61% versus 67%).
On Child Care: Although most Indians expressed egalitarian views on gender roles, with 62% saying that both men and women should be responsible for child care.
- However, traditional norms still held sway, with 34% convinced that child care “should be handled primarily by women”.
On earning roles: 54% of respondents say that both men and women” should be responsible for earning money.
- On the other hand, as many as 43% believed that earning an income is mainly the obligation of men.
- 80% of Indians agreed with the idea that when there are few jobs, men should have more rights to a job than women.
Male Son Preference: While Indians valued both sons and daughters, nearly 94% said it is very important for a family to have at least one son, with the corresponding figure for daughters being 90%.
On the Inheritance Rights: About 64% of Indians also said that sons and daughters should have equal rights to inheritance from parents.
On Parental Care: while four-in-10 adults said that sons should have the primary responsibility to care for aging parents, only 2% said the same about daughters.
On Sex-Selective abortion: 40% of Indians saw “sex-selective abortion as acceptable in at least some circumstances”.
- However, 42% found this practice “completely unacceptable”.

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Pew Study on Gender Roles- How India fares on Global Scale

On Gender Equality: A global median of 70% said that it was very important for women to have the same rights as men.
- Similarly in India, 72% of Indians believe that gender equality is very important.
Indians were less likely than people in North America (92% median), Western Europe (90%), and Latin America (82%) to place a high value on gender equality.
They were more likely to do so compared to sub-Saharan Africa (48% median) and the Middle-East-Northern Africa region (44%).
- In South Asia, Indians were more likely to bat for gender equality than Pakistanis (72% to 64%).
Indians with a college degree were less likely to hold traditional views on gender roles, although this did not extend to all gender-related issues.