Emancipation of Women-Changing Opinions

Emancipation of women is one of the features of modern civilization. In all the centers of civilization in the past, women did not have an independent existence of their own. They existed for men and always played the second and subservient role to them. Owing to the influence of westernization and modernization many of the traditional customs and norms have changed, and modern outlook has developed. Under the influence of these the life style of people and many aspects of human behaviour have begun to change. The role that modern emancipated women have been playing in the social, political and cultural life of India is very significant. Therefore, an attempt is made to study the level of aspirations and opinions of mothers regarding their daughter's education, occupation and marriage, belief in fatalism, and wife beating among working and non working women. In accordance with the objectives of the study 300 working and currently married women in the reproductive ages with at least one or more living child and a matched group of 300 non-working currently married women in the reproductive ages with atleast one living child have been selected from Tirupati and Chittoor towns in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh. The results showed that working women with their better status and understanding and changes in society generally will have the higher aspirations regarding their daughters education, occupation and age at marriage and also believe the potentiality of women to achieve greater positions in life and not fatalistic as compared to most of the non-working women.