Do young Indian women still feel the pressure to seek permission for their professional choices? According to new OkCupid data, an overwhelming 79 percent of women believe they need their partner’s permission to work. Only 28 percent of these women believe they can choose ‘freedom’ for themselves.
According to the dating app, “Users on the platform (87 percent men and 96 percent of women) define feminism as ‘equality between all genders’ and yet, patriarchy is so deeply ingrained that permission is still given or withheld from women who seek the things considered the bare minimum for a man.
“While generations of patriarchal values are finally losing their grip on the Indian psyche, people who consider themselves as progressive still take pride in giving women in their lives “permission” to live their lives. Things that are considered normal for men continue to be considered a privilege for women like pursuing an education, prioritizing a career or being on top of the corporate ladder, etc. Establishing an equal partnership in a relationship should be normalized where women shouldn’t have to be grateful to men and society for ‘allowing’ them to make their own choices,” says OkCupid, which has also launched a campaign on similar lines for International Women’s Day.
The digital video throws the spotlight on benefactors in a woman’s life who think they are allowing them the ‘privilege’ of getting an education, having a successful career, being financially independent, or living on her own as an unmarried woman, but are actually stripping a woman’s agency.
The data also revealed that 90 percent of men and 77 percent of women said they would not like to change their name after marriage. Asked if women should continue to work full time after the marriage, more men (62 percent) than women (50 percent) said they believe it is a woman’s choice.
To another question on women’s domestic roles after marriage, and if they should be responsible for running the household and raising children, almost 9 out of 10 users – but fewer men than women – think that the responsibility of running the home and raising children should be split equally between partners.