On Woman - Speeches by Indira Gandhi

We must concern ourselves not only with the kind of world we want but also with what kind of a man should inhabit it. Surely we do not desire a society divided into those who condition and those who are conditioned.

And in this perspective, women may have a special role to play. It has often been said that the level of any society should be judged by the level of its women. It is certainly true that a country's progress can be measured by the progress of its womenfolk. But we have to think carefully about the meaning of ' progress." My father had a pet quotation about women, it was written some 20 years ago not about India, but I think it is largely true of the Indian woman: "She lives in her own time, in the rhythm of her own history which does not quite keep time with the clock of the twentieth century."

Women should have equality in wages and such matters. They must have better services and conditions of work and living, etc…

I believe in the liberation of women in the same way as I believe in the liberation of men, that is, liberation from all kinds of obscurantism and superstition, from the narrow confines of outdated thoughts and habits’ .

The India concept of women has been governed by two parallel currents – the visible one of the women in a subordinate role, the cabala or weak one; and underlying it, that of women as a symbol of energy, the active principle. Thus women are visualized as the stabilizing factor as well as the quickening one.

Normally, when there is a discussion on women, it's limited to those relatively few of the upper strata. Women of the lower economic levels in towns or villages and from the tribal areas have, by and large, enjoyed more freedom and less social inequality. Somehow it is the middle classes that bind themselves in the narrowest and most rigid social attitudes.

We know that every child is formed by the genes which it inherits. Thus each individual, male or female, has masculine and feminine traits in varying degrees. Character and abilities are further influenced by experience acquired in the environment, through training and by the events which interest one's family and acquaintances. The notion of the superiority of one race or of one sex is out-of-date. Hence the movement for women's liberation should not deteriorate into some kind of confrontation between men and women, nor should it lead to women being treated as a separate species. We do not wish to imitate men, we do not seek high positions for a handful of women. What we want is true equality of opportunity to develop our latent talents and an end to discrimination on the basis of sex in training, education or in social attitudes.

‘Through the ages, the Indian woman has consciously or unconsciously helped to preserve, to reconcile and to carry forward our traditions and culture. Today, every home is buffeted by winds of change from all directions. How can we progress without being blown from our moorings? Our future depends greatly on whether the Indian woman has the wisdom and discrimination to distinguish between what to respect and what to reject, whether she is able to ‘achieve a harmonious synthesis between the best of our tradition and; the most desirable of the modern.