EMPOWERMENT of women



Contents
1. Introduction
2. Impact assessment
3. Social structure
4. Cultural structure
5. Emotional structure
6. Political structure
7. Economical structure
8. Educational structure
9. Conclusion



Introduction
This paper attempts to study the situation of women in various sectors and analyze and assesses the impact information technology has on them. The e-society has created opportunities for women as well as posed new challenges for her at various levels of her life. Her social identity and understanding as a product of agreement and disagreement is being discussed in detail has she lost her identity as a woman or has she gained a new identity as an e-educated woman is the major discussion. This argument sketches out a sociological and cultural framework for thinking about the modern identity of woman in this e-society, which addresses questions like what is her economical position or political status.
Impact assessment
Sometimes a changed or strange situation makes a lot of difference to the members of that society: An unfamiliar neighbourhood, an ethnically divided city or even a casual encounter. We are now in a society that is managed and ruled by a knowledge revolution. This knowledge society has expanded the opportunities for the woman and given her new horizon to reach. What changes and negotiations does coming out of her earlier position as the ruler of the house require? How can she assume her new role in a society that expects her to take positions in a knowledge situation? What kind of response is the right response? And what does such a process represent? The construction of a new identity, or the revelation of an authentic and primordial self? Social identity is also important on a wider stage than the encounters or thresholds of individual lives. How does her sense of herself as unique individual square with the realization that, always and everywhere, she shares aspects of her identity with many others? To what extent it is possible to become someone, or something, other than what she now is? Is it possible for her to remain just what she is? What is the impact of the knowledge society on her? These are some of the questions that would be discussed.

Social structure
In a patriarchal society the social structure has put the woman in charge of her family. She shapes the life in her house and decides how to run it. Her social identity revolves around her home. Now the woman is able to manage her home as well as a career. She is aware of the changes that are taking place in the society and has responded to it in her own pace without disturbing the natural set up of patriarchy. She has been able to mange her time and her space to reorient herself in the new role that society expects her to play in the e- society. Her identity is undergoing a major change as she commands respect and power in institutions out side family too. Women have learned to shed traditional submissiveness and withstand family and community pressures, and have begun to work together to improve economic conditions for themselves and others. Women have organized themselves to use cultural forms to raise the consciousness of men and women about injustice and inequality. At the same time to what extent has she been able to justify her position is a serious question to be tackled. Has she managed to find a place in the world of men to establish her cognitive skills is a question that has to be tackled. Can she manage to combine her values and still cope up with the real life situations? She has now acquired an intellectual personality that poses a problem to her and the society, as the world out side is still not ready to accept her in the new role. It still thinks her position as a woman is to fulfill the primordial desires of man and when a woman gets outside to society it creates a conflict in her mind. Her technical participation has monetarily taken her to a higher position while posing fresh problems for her to tackle. Society expects an intellectual woman to be traditional and conservative by forcing its values and ideologies on her creating blocks with its efforts to limit her role in real life. Financial empowerment has also put more pressures on her as the social expectations on a woman financially are more that earlier as she is looked upon a prospective earning source for the family. It has also increased the pressure of certain existing forms like dowry. E- society has intensified the existing problems to women. It has reduced her internal works and has increased her social responsibilities and commitments.

Cultural structure
The traditional Indian society is women centric in its structure. If a woman breaks her home the social structure takes a shock. The modern changes have posed a lot of challenges to society in this field. Woman was and is the indirect force in her family. Tradition gave her a role to play and she has been doing it for immemorial time. Technology has shifted this position and put women in other roles. It is a major paradigm shift in society. The substantial self of yesterday is now undergoing a change. This is an argument for interrogation. Her silence is now breaking. Social action is taking place in her. She has become an individual coordinating her mind and body and is thoroughly and reciprocally implicated in, and constituting of social relations and the social order.This shift has given her new pressures. It is a new dimension of human behavior and she is not equipped to face this challenge. This new consciousness emerging has to be understood by her and analyzed carefully. In the development of her new self she has to accommodate the changes of time. She has to learn to adopt attitudes to suit this role of a powerful woman in society without harming existing systems of thinking. Her attitudes must symbolize the ancient wisdom of the woman with a modern social identity. She has to combine a personality model of self and society. Society has to bring inside her internal world as never before. She has to acquire a language foe herself responding to these needs of times, a language of self-realization. Mental processes have to be incorporated.

Emotional structure
The knowledge society has framed the character of women. It has given her goals to reach and fresh dreams to reach out for. The physiological mechanism of the human individual’s central nervous system responds to the stimuli of others, as it is the expressor of human nature. Mind and self are only social constructs says the sociologist Mead. The woman’s ego has started moving into the future. She is trying to evoke the coexistence of the cumulative, organized resources of learned culture and draws upon in the ongoing production of her life with the evanescent immediacy of being in the world, which is perpetually in the present tense. Her personality is constituted by the social role she is playing. Her individuality is not against society in this context. Her mind has evolved from the conversation of social gestures, from social interaction. She has responded as a species with specific capacity for intelligence. Her processes of mind and selfhood within the model of an internal-external dialectic have to be understood by society at this juncture. It has given her too many conflict and depressions. Decision making in her life is still in the hand of the formal patriarchal structure and it clashes with her new self that does similar things in the society. What is accepted by the society is not accepted her in her own home. The conflicts when unsolved give her agony leading into frustration and lack of interest in living. The internalized voice of social control suppresses her freedom that she has gained because of technology. This division of her self leads to personality problems like split personality, possession, dissociation, multiple personality and changeling. To recognize the self in many models would need the proliferation of bits into potentially infinitely complex models. The woman needs a unitary model of behaviour so that it can accommodate the changes that have occurred in the society that reflect on her too.

Political structure

Women now participate in decision making in the social life out side her family. Her political self is slowly making inroads into the social structures of the world of governance. She is just becoming aware of her possibilities and potentials in this field. The political world of intersubjectivity, the wider environment and the effects, which the individual has upon both of them, is opening avenues to her. She has to focus on her selfhood and self-identity. Her potential for individual selfhood and self-identity should be realized. As the human developmental process is a social process and cannot be any other, this process has to continue throughout her life. She has to adapt herself to these changes. That presentation is accepted or not should not be her question. A new model of presenting her self in the field of public life has to be evolved.

Economical structure
The public image of the woman has changed with self help groups and working in international firms. This allows heterogeneity and differences in the social identities of women. Eventually these changes will lead to making further changes in the consciousness of her construction of her social self as different from the present one. The collective changes that are occurring in the society in the economical sectors can lead to the development of a new confidence in her character. These economical changes have brought in a shift in mental attitudes and a force to break away from established social constructs of traditions. The woman has come on her own with the help of this economic freedom she has got after the survival efforts that have been put by her as a movement of social changes. As a competitive, discrimination is inherent even in this sector as a continuation of earlier structures of society. Decisions are controlled by factors outside her concern. Organizational recruitment decisions and the criteria that determine them and inform them are among the processes whereby gender differences are maintained. The spatial materiality of identification is generated in the market transactions between private individuals, mediated by financial organizations.

Educational structure
Formal ratioalization is demanding cognitive and social competences. What is possible with training and education is limited. Symbolism, myth, notions of fate or luck, sexuality, religious or other ideologies, ethnic attachments, emotional ups and downs also play a major role in the individual self of the woman’s life though will not come under the sector of education. Bureaucracies themselves acquire rituals, , symbols, history, and other notions around them in the course of time. The complexities of modern social life run neither smoothly nor mechanically nor deterministically. The system is creaky, partial, and contingent upon so much that there is always room for some manoeuvre, space for some self-determination. Society is no more monolithic than history is the linear revelation of the inevitable. Struggles for a different allocation of resources and resistance to categorization are one and the same thing. Education has opened doors for the woman to help meet the internal and the external to accommodate her in this modern society.

Conclusion


The Indian educated woman right now is carrying two crosses- the family and a career. She finds it challenging as well as frustrating to meet the demands put on her. She will not give up her position at the international scenario. At the same time she is not interested in breaking up the sector of family and tradition. She intends to combine both –the career and home however difficult it is. Her role as a mother is of immeasurable value to society and the Indian woman is not going to give that up. Her contributions to society will continue in more important fields also when the traditional sectors realize she is not intending to break them.

The invisibility of women at the top positions in powerful portfolios is a major concern of feminist thinkers as well as economists as certain managerial qualities that women have can be utilized for the welfare of society. How to reach the top in the corporate sector with high emoluments should become a major career concern to women. Let us look at certain statistics at the global scenario of women at top positions:

Only 10% of senior managers

Only 4% of women are as presidents and vice-presidents

Less than 3% as top corporate earners

Only 5.68 % of the total work force of public sector units (Madhavi, The Hindu).


Let us also look at the statistics of women working in the informal economy:

At least 118 million women work in the informal economy – farm workers, vendors, ‘piece-rate’ workers, casual labour, construction workers and domestic helps.

They form around 96% of the female workforce.

They are estimated to be contributing at least 20% to India’s GDP, which works out to Rs 5,66,093 crores at current levels.

Over 77% of these women work in the agricultural sector and nearly 10% in manufacturing (Puri, Outlook)

The gap is a little too much between the two types of women and we have to take steps to empower women to help them reach higher goals.


To sharpen their abilities in reaching the top certain skills are put forward. As they have to compete with men who still think it is a man’s world the woman has to be smarter in every aspect of her career.

Emotional skills for women
Women in Tamil Nadu have been put within the social framework of ‘fear, shyness, --------,------------,(acham, madam, naanam, payirppu). Acham means fear. A girl is expected to have fear for others. This is a doctrine of the society expressed openly in its literature. The grammar is written for a woman’s conduct in public. Madam is actually stupidity. A woman has to remain stupid to get the approval of the society





Thiruvalluvar in his thirukkural exalted as the principles of living defines the role of women in married life. He says the gods and everyone else will worship a woman who worships her husband in the world. Patriarchy was established so clearly in the hearts of women thus giving them hopes of the ultimate respect possible.
. Trained by these concepts women students sit in classes sometimes not even looking at the teacher. They think asking a question and sitting in a commanding manner are the priorities of male only. When these girls get jobs they easily give in to men and tell them clearly in their mannerisms and behaviour that they are not interested in competing with them at all. They remain shy and men use this shyness to their advantage.

The contrast to this woman is the one who is expressive who is easily labeled as the bad woman. The cinema entertains this division as it addresses the boys and men and not the women particularly. Even when it addresses women it insinuates to present the ‘good’ woman as silent and the bad woman as talkative. The ‘silent girl’ is good and dependable. Men do not want any opinions from women. ‘That girl is good. She doesn’t talk much’ is a common way of defining characteristics of women. Intelligent women find it extremely difficult to come out of this ideological prison. Men shun the talking girl, as she will make herself into a shrew. Men are scared women will dominate them so that they have spread this ideology of women looking at themselves as shrews if the other women tend to talk.


Nowadays in educational sector, when a woman does well her male colleague is not able to bear it so that he blocks her growth by making simple comments in front of other women, with the full support of the other women. All the time women suppressing has been going on with getting full support from women themselves. Men divide the women among themselves so that ruling is easier.


A woman’s intellect becomes her doom because then she tends to have opinions. The opinionated woman is the worst kind of woman as she is an open threat to man. Men join together to gang against this woman. Similarly if one woman is straight in a corrupt organization her stand, instead of being feared, will be laughed at by everyone and she stands alone against society.


No one has the capacity to hurt your chances of success. No body has the power of the God to create or destroy another person. In that case how can anyone try to destroy you? Therefore there is no point in keeping the mistakes of others in your heart. Of course you cannot forget and forgive the hurts totally. But you can rationalize hurt and its role in your life and keep yourself detached from it.
Friendships can become bitter experiences only if our expectations are lesser from others. In your career you cannot choose friends. Either it happens or not. In such cases, it is safer to keep our healthy distance from people unless we are sure of ourselves. Friendships with healthy distances will be comfortable in an office atmosphere.
Generally we are told not to show anger. God has given these emotions to us to serve a purpose. The so-called evil emotions have their purposes in life. A man without capable of showing anger will be victimized in any social place. An office is not an exception. Anger can be shown in a charming, manner. Sometimes a look would be enough. Your eyes can turn into lead or still expressions to tell others that you are not happy about what they are doing. Mere shouting is not showing anger. We can learn and develop our own method of showing anger.
Eyes have to be used to express and communicate emotions. They can be used to build relationships, to show anger, to tell others about your level of confidence and make others listen to you. A part of your mind should always watch the expressions of your eyes, listen to your words, and closely observe what your mind is thinking. Only if we know what we are doing, we will be able to understand what others are thinking about us.
Many of us feel shy to look at people straight in the eye, as we feel shy and diffident. In a professional place it may create a negative opinion of us. When your boss is talking it is better to look at him in the eye than look elsewhere. A person looking at the speaker’s face straight creates an impression of confidences and responsibility.
Though most of the times it is better to speak softly, once in a while it is safe to increase your volume as it may tell people that you are a force to be reckoned with. Instead of talking at the back and making comments at the back of others, it is better to give them straight, loud and clear. It will not only make things clear, but also will stop such mistakes from repeating again.
No one respects a harmless man. People will say this person is harmless, and therefore we can say anything, do anything. Such a personality is great for a family, and definitely not for an office. We have to put some fear in the minds of the colleagues who might otherwise try to bully us. If you think you can make others get scared of you, you can.
Work gains you the true respect that you deserve. It saves you from depression and gives you a goal. A life dedicated to some good work is worth living. Respect gained from such work is respect earned. It is like a shield. Working for money is secondary. Work for the pleasure of working.
A happy heart is a contented heart. It is graceful and doesn’t have unnecessary fears. It also keeps away high blood pressure and other diseases. The feeling of being blessed acts like petrol to work with more efficiency. It also makes you more kind and approachable.
These are just a few skills to be practiced for making you more alive and alert. Religions have always tried to teach these things guiding men to live better and smarter. These emotional skills when acquired will help the learning process.

Questioning as an intellectual skill
Apart from emotional skills certain other skills are necessary to tackle life better. They help us to learn a language faster, implement our knowledge in actual situations, and make us successful in our endeavours. They are analytical skills, decision-making, sharpness in thinking and patience.
Philosophy has always emphasized on analytic skills. Analysis begins with questioning, everything and anything. Whatever theories may be put up in front of us, we should look at it closely, study it, and question it mentally – just a routine check. Questioning to most of us has a negative connotation. We think asking questions is bad culture. Such thinking is against analysis. Reading any material with a question in mind makes the reader more alert. Listening to any lecture with a question makes us remember things better. Effective writing is possible only if we constantly ask ourselves if this is right or not. If you want to speak well, then you should cultivate the habit of listening to your self while you are speaking and constantly question your logic and coherence. Questions therefore are the foundation to analysis and thus to knowledge it self.
Too much of analysis will lead us towards confusion, if we do not learn when to stop it and take a decision. At some time in our work or life we have to take decisions whether we like it or not. Decisions will tell others if we have understood the problem or not. A decision taken after complete analysis of things will have a higher quality. When to speak and when not to speak it self is a sign of thinking and analyzing. There are times when one has to be quiet and there are times when one has to speak. Decisions have to be taken even in small things like this.
A good self-image of ourselves will help us analyze things better and take quick decisions. Our image of ourselves should not be influenced by what others think of us .it should be based on our own analysis of ourselves. We must decide what we are going to think about us. Faith in us and in the inner power of God within us should help us take decisions. A confident man speaks without any stammering, can present reports without any nervousness, can easily learn skills and practice them too. He has the boldness to question and the smartness to decide on his own. A confidence, which is accompanied with sensitivity and kindness, will make any person more likable, a quality that is important for promotions. Finally, if a man is not confident of himself he cannot learn new skills, as it may block his capacity.
A successful man is also very patient. Analysis takes time. Understanding anything needs tremendous concentration and focus. Confidence has to be built very patiently, day by day. A man in hurry cannot learn much. He becomes impatient to get into details on which knowledge is built. He wants to learn things in a day, which is not possible at all. Patient practice alone can take us to our goals.
All these qualities, once we develop them will start showing in our body language. They will affect the way we look at things, the way we walk, the way we speak, our attitude. They will show a mind ready for learning, to compete, to meet life directly and face its challenges, with alertness and sharpness making the learning process faster.

The art of listening
How do you listen – in a meeting, seminar, conference, and project assessment situations? Some times the speaker uses too much of emotions, making you very alert. But some times the speaker does not use any emotions at all, making you go to sleep with boredom. At times you may hear unsaid things due to your own imagination. That is, you may have certain opinions in your mind and when some one else says something similar, you come to the conclusion that he has expressed the same opinion. Putting your thoughts in the message that you have heard is a usual mistake we make generally when we are not alert in listening. In documentation after listening to a meeting, such mistakes will be costly, making your report wrong in content. A good report needs good listening to experts as well as the customer. Similarly friends will respect you if you listen to them sincerely. Gender-neutral thinking is essential to get friendship from the other gender too.

How do you listen with alertness?
Active listening is possible only if your mind is full of questions, before the meeting and throughout the meeting. As the speaker continues talking, questions have to keep coming to your mind regarding the matter in the form of questions. Socrates believed in questions. Knowledge begins with questions. A question gives you more alertness. Alertness gives you the focus necessary to understand any difficult concept or the complex issues brought about by the customer or by any other colleague.
Listening involves physical features like eyes and senses, apart from ears and of course the mind. Our eyes watch the speaker’s body language, facial expressions, the movement of the eye and especially the movement of his hands and come to our own conclusions. Our ears hear the flow of words, the enunciation, the number of pauses he is making and if he repeats any points, and if there is any special reason for doing so. All the while our mind has to ask questions, checking on the information given by the speaker and checking its logic and analyzing its reasoning. We use our previously available knowledge to do all these works simultaneously.
Effective listening is the foundation to all kinds of acquiring knowledge systems. Training our mind to ask questions is a practice one can learn to make our careers a successful one.
Along with these skills if we develop skills of effective reading and writing skills we will find our careers comfortable and successful. With these enhanced abilities women can begin to fill up the vacuum meant for them in top positions in their respective fields. And can manage in a way entirely different from others. These skills will help them to accept responsibility, to tackle administration well and further help them to get the job done effectively. Anu Aga, The Chair person, Confederation of India Industry (CII) National Committee has pointed out that there was a healthier ratio of women managers at the junior management levels, this ratio declines in the senior management positions, coming down to almost universal levels of male leadership in the top most positions, published in the Hindu on December 15, 2005. If this situation has to change women have to sharpen their abilities, so that they can still continue to be competent family organizers as well as top executives in the corporate world competing with men on an equal basis.






















Bibliography



Madhavi, C.V. (2005), Invisible at the top, the Hindu, Sunday, December 11.
Puri, Anjali (2005), Informal Economy, Outlook, December 15, 2005.