The Paradox of Women's Status in South Asia

South Asia has produced more female leaders than anywhere else in the world, yet it has one of the world's worst records on women's rights. This striking contradiction was noted in the 2000 "Human Development in South Asia" report, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and devoted to the state of women in the South Asia.

Indeed, it was Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) who in 1960 became the world's first female prime minister. Her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, held the office from 1994--2005. In 1988 Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto became the first woman to head the government of an Islamic state. Indira Gandhi led India, the second most populous country in the world, for decades. In Bangladesh two women, Sheikh Hasina Wazed and Khaleda Zia, recently served as prime ministers.

The striking number of women in leadership roles, however, has had little, if any, influence on the status of South Asian women generally. According to the UNDP report, the region has the highest illiteracy rates in the world and the largest gap between male and female literacy rates. Women face numerous limitations and violations of basic human rights---from restrictions on inheriting and owning property to purdah (seclusion of women from public observation) to the outlawed, but still widely practiced, taboo on marriage of widows. Women hardly have a voice in the decision-making forums in the region; they comprise only 7% of South Asian parliamentarians.

Is there really a contradiction between the incidence of women in power in South Asia and the disenfranchisement of women in the region? As paradoxical as it may seem, both stem from the same roots---the patriarchal structures and customs prevailing in South Asian societies. In these traditional, male-dominated societies, with their cultural preference for sons as inheritors of property and bearers of the family lineage, the contributions of women are often viewed and treated as marginal. At the same time the clan-based structure of these societies makes family succession in power a vital factor in preserving social stability. However able, strong, and charismatic each of the above-mentioned female leaders might be, none of them likely would have been elected had she not been a spouse or daughter of a deceased national leader. ( Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Mujibur Rahman were all succeeded in national politics by their daughters, and Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike was succeeded by both his wife and his daughter.)

Given the hereditary, hierarchical political culture, it is not surprising that the illustrious female presidents and prime ministers are not easily perceived, or followed, as role models by the majority of women in their own countries. Even when free public education is available to girls (as in India), most female pupils drop out of school at an early age; the prevailing custom demands that they work to earn their dowry instead.

With half of the South Asian nations' populations---namely, women---relegated to low social status, including working as unpaid laborers in family businesses, these nations continue to be economically handicapped. The UNDP report concludes with an agenda for action to help South Asian women achieve gender parity in legal, political, and social arenas and urges the establishment of agencies empowered to be strong advocates for women's equality at both the national and the global level.