The topic of my research was "The impact of patriarchy on women in India".

This
project throws some light on various concepts like Patriarchy, gender roles, indian
gender stereotypes, male domination and its effects on women, etc. All of these
topics are very relevant in today's time as the concepts of feminism, women
empowerment and gender equality are under the spotlight and are being heavily
discussed and endorsed by the youth.

The word patriarchy is derived from the Greek words patria, meaning father, and
arches, meaning rule. Whereas previously patriarchy was considered to imply an
autocratic form of leadership by males, as head of family or clan, today the term
denotes a social system of adult male leadership.

It was very interesting to find out that the roots of patriarchy in India can be
traced all the way back to the origin of the caste system and how caste and gender
are interrelated with each other and how patriarchy eventually became a part of our
"culture and tradition", probably due to the internalization of the same by the men
and women of that time period. It was also interesting to note how crucial of a
role that family plays in socializing an individual about issues like patriarchy,
gender equality etc because at the end of the day, the values taught and reinforced
by institutions like schools and families are the ones which shape the thinking of
an individual.

Some notable works like "History matters; Patriarchy and the challenge of feminism"
by Judith M. Bennett, "The history of doing" by Radha Kumar, "Seeing like a
feminist" by Nivedita Menon etc beautifully deal with the concept of Patriarchy and
provide an in-depth understanding of the same through different perspectives.Sir
Robert Filmer's mid-17th-century work entitled Patriarcha was a significant study
on patriarchy. Several documentaries and movies have also featured Patriarchy as
their central theme. Bollywood movies like "Lipstick under my burkha" talk about
the impact of the control of men over Indian women.

The question derived from my research is "How far are the Indian women affected by
the varying forms of Patriarchy and male-dominance in their day to day lives?"
According to me, the answer to this question is that patriarchy, male dominance and
its varying forms have a major impact on the day to day lives of Indian women. Upto
some extent, every woman is still being controlled by men in some way or the other;
from basic things like the way she dresses, the time she comes back home, the
people she talks to, whether or not she earns money to major things like to whom
she's married to, property relations, etc. I think that women still haven't been
able to break free of those shackles completely and make fully independent
decisions for themselves without being influenced by anyone else, let alone the
opposite gender.