Women have long been fighting for equal rights in every sphere of society. Those in the western world have been luckier. They are not faced with the daily conflict of discrimination like those who live in third-world countries. Westerners can go to school, vote, and work whereas there are still women in developing countries which cannot. The song above is an example of women in a developing country, fighting for their own rights. Its origin is from India.

Indian women have had an extremely difficult time developing under the oppression of a male-dominated soci

struggle is far from over. These programs are not only enough, but too few.

"Women employed in various income generating activities...by liberal women's organizations have complained that they are used as cheap labor" (Desai & Patel). Kaur recognizes that since women have a special circumstance in India, special measures must be taken to solve it. Although the purposes and objectives of men and women should be the same, it must be recognized that women have inherent responsibilities to the household, thus their education and careers must be realized in different ways. Today in India, both boys and girls are beginning to be taught and treated more similarly in the school setting, and hopefully this will have great affects on equality in the future. But, the superiority of males is still persistent and is recognized by many. Many women are beginning to realize that higher education means more income. Thus, there have been many women's organizations which have attempted to bring more women into the workforce. This has been met with both successes!

in all of their household duties. Because of fears of neglecting their family, as well as other reasons, many women still show preference to working at home, rather than outside of it.

every Hindu caste wants a chance to work. Another major change today is that younger adults, as well as younger generations, wants to work, and it is the older generations of women who still wish to stay at home. In Kaur's survey, employed women were asked what professions they were in. The results were: Technical workers 17%, Service workers 15.7%, Crafts, production, and process workers 12%, Sales workers 9.8%, Clerical work 5.5% (Kaur, pg48). Kaur also interviewed many women (employed and unemployed) to see what professions the wanted to go into. The ranked in order from one to ten as, college teachers, secondary teachers, university teachers, nurses, doctors, typists, engineers, military service, government officials and social workers (Kaur, pg 51). This shows that most women want a job in a teaching position, and this is not surprising since one of the first female positions established in India was that of a schoolmistress, or teacher. This position was set up by!

"Even in the western countries, educated married women taking up jobs is not an old phenomenon" (Kaur, pg 46). It has been traditionally thought throughout time that women did not work outside the home, unless it was economically needed, yet, around the world, a middle-class working woman's movement has been taking place. In a place such as India, the conditions of the masses have hardly been satisfactory, let alone that of women, forcing many to enter the work force. Traditionally, Indian women also did not work unless forced to economically, but in recent times, some women have begun to realize that work "gives them personal status and independent social standing" (Kaur, pg48). This has meant that women from all classes have begun to enter the workforce, instead of it being predominantly those from the lower social strata, yet most of these women are from the city, rather than rural areas. The tendency to work is now more predominant among middle class women, although !

Christian missionaries in their attempt to educate the "savages" of India (Billington, pg 32). Thus, it can be seen that many women are forced to work due to economic stress, while others still wish to enter the workforce to achieve a type of independence. Yet, the traditional view of women's duties had worked against this want to work outside the home. This has created an environment for Indian women to work in which can be violent and negative. In response, many organizations have been created to assist women in the workforce.

ccessful. An example of this is "Annpurna" which means provider of food. This group is a woman's cooperative which provides lunch and dinner service to indu

Some common words found in the essay are:
India Hindu, Indian Constitution, Traditionally Indian, Vocational Training, Patel Kaur, Desai Patel, Lijat Papad, India Billington, India Indian, Break Silence, indian women, outside home, tikoo pg, enter workforce, break silence, billington pg, women involved, help women, desai patel, workforce women, desai patel pg, billington pg 22,
Approximate Word count = 2637
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)