Online GD Topic 2
Click here for the Complete Analysis
Hi guys,
The complete analysis for Topic 1 will come tomorrow. I have given the comments for everyone who participated though. Good try for the first attempt, but we need to move up up and away from here... Yes, it does require a superman effort :)
So here comes the second topic, "Women empowerment - A cause for increasing divorce rate in India"
Certainly a controversial topic and a lot to chew on. I want to see people thinking various angles and making some good points.
A piece of advice: Dont jump to solutions right away, you will drown :)
Click here for the Complete Analysis
Hi guys,
The complete analysis for Topic 1 will come tomorrow. I have given the comments for everyone who participated though. Good try for the first attempt, but we need to move up up and away from here... Yes, it does require a superman effort :)
So here comes the second topic, "Women empowerment - A cause for increasing divorce rate in India"
Certainly a controversial topic and a lot to chew on. I want to see people thinking various angles and making some good points.
A piece of advice: Dont jump to solutions right away, you will drown :)
Click here for the Complete Analysis
Labels: GD Topics
Gyan-ee 8:11 PM
10 Comments:
Women empowerment stands for empowering women with the legal and social rights ,
education , awareness about self and the world.
The increased divorce rate can be attributed in part to women empowerment
since
1) women being more aware of their legal rights would not mind walking out of
a violent or unfulfilling relationship.
2) as women become more independent financially ,there is a lesser probability
that a women stays in a relationship out of sheer necessity and obligation.
3) On the other hand with women doing as well as men if not better
the traditional indian male might find it difficult to have
a more succesfull second half.
On the whole it cannot be taken as a negative trend since awareness among women
regarding their political rights ,education and a better support system lead
women towards independence where they have the right to a free and fair existence.
It might be used to ill effect by a few, who go overboard to victimise men
for their personal benifits , but here again the onus to entertain true claims lies on the
law enforcers and the judiciary.
I would like to add something more here -
Empowerment can mean different things to different sections of society , while to the urban elite / middle class women it might mean education ,awareness and acceptability in the poor / rural women it could mean right to livelihood siting the NREGA that has come to fore with a major percentage of people employed being women. This in no way would contributes to a higher divorce rate.
START:
Women empowerment and Divorce -- both can be viewed as indications of personal freedom in today's society.
Now, it can be a personal opinion that how much freedom is warranted and upto what level, it is collectively good for the society, but we can surely discuss the issue at hand by looking at both terms more closely:
POINTS:
1) Looking at causal relationships: In case of zero women empowerment, Cases of divorce will purely be decided by whim of husbands; While in case of a society of empowered and aware women, Divorces will be a mutual affair where any gender can start the proceedings.
But to say that divorces in second case will be more than in first case, we will have to assume that women are more unhappier in marriages than their male counterparts. Or that, unhappy males and unhappy females are mutually exclusive sets in overall married population. Since we can not say this for sure, and figures will vary from culture to culture, It is difficult to establish a correlation.
2) Some people would say that the number of cases of divorces have been going up in recent times in India, and the reason for this is women empowerment. But we can also say that this is due to male empowerment -- previously, males in India might be embarrassed to ask for divorces due to family pressures and guilt of leaving his wife and children without proper financial support.
But today, societal attitudes are changing, and with increased prosperity in India, It is now possible for males to support their previous wives and children, while becoming able to sustain a new family and live a happily married life with a different person.
CONCLUSION:
Women empowerment and Divorces need not be looked as synonyms in a changing Indian society, as increased personal freedom will benefit the Indian society in the long run. But as we discussed, It isn't very clear also that empowerment of women leads to a bitterness in relationships and marriages.
-- Himanshu
START: Women empowerment and increasing divorces, both are considered relatively recent and mostly urban phenomenon. It is obvious that a cause and effect relationship will be drawn between the two by many. Let us look at various social, legal, psychological and labor market changes in recent times that may have caused this increase in divorce rate and then establish which are directly or indirectly related to women empowerment.
Points...
1) Laws have broadened the definition of domestic violence to include not just physical, but mental and emotional abuses as grounds of divorce. These laws have contributed to many unilateral decisions to walk out of abusive relationships. Although these laws apply to both sexes, these were meant to be a step towards women empowerment.
2) Popular notion is, women empowerment leads to women being educated, more aware of their rights and hence able to assert themselves, leading to clashes and ultimately divorces. If we look at causes mentioned in divorce application filings in metros, incompatibility with spouses and in-laws are two most common and relatively new reasons. The merits and demerits these trends are debatable but some causal relationship existing between the two cannot be denied.
Conclusion:
I have a question instead of conclusion. Conclusion is supposed to be given after having heard all viewpoints. Wouldn’t it be a better practice if we try giving conclusion after reading other’s comments? Otherwise it will be a summary of one’s own viewpoints.
-nee
The awareness amount the masses have taken an upbeat. The Woman class is more aware of there rights which can be attributed to increase in education as one factor, and other one the rise of organization which caters to awareness and fights for women
Women empowerment however doesn't necessarily enunciate the fact that there is rise in cases of divorce in India because of that. Though the organization which works for women rights did empower women and this has led to increase in confidence and with media taking an active stance has helped in the spread of awareness augmenting women with confidence and boldness reqd.There are still other points which one should look into
Points
1.It can be said because of rise in status of the women , the unrest is on side of men and men are more exercising the divorce as an option
2.Divorces are more prominent in case of the pressure from the side of groom's family bcoz of dowry.
3.awareness among women doesn't mean they become aware of divorce . Initially also it was more pronounced ,
4. Media is taking active part and hence more cases are coming forward
5.with women becoming more financially strong, Men often find it easy to divorce.
-TP
Women Empowerment is in the news now a days... And so are cases of Dowry, Wife beatings. Also making rounds are figures of increased divorces. Is it fair to correlate the both. In a statistical approach, the answer would be no. Unless one can say that no other factor is affecting the increase in divorces, it is not possible to conclude so. Some factors that may also be looked at are:-
1. Influence of Western Culture.. With globalisation, increased communication and more issues breached on television, increased divorces may have been encouraged...
2. Divorces-or- divorce rates...
If we are talking about increased divorces here then it may simply be becuase of increaed number of marriages as we all know that majority of the Indian population is in the age band of 18 to 30... How ever this may not hold true if it says the increase is in the divorce rates...
3. Lifestyle change: Increased work hours, inter-action between colleagues of the opposite sex.. These may also lead to divorces although not only from the womens end... It would be intresting to note whether increased divorce rates are in cities only or villages also....
It may also be possible to say that the above points are all a part of women empowerment, but that another debate all together...
But unless solid data is compiled, it may be difficult to say so...
Shubha,
Brownie points for
1. A clean start
2. Well elucidated and crisp points
3. Structure
4. For saying it is not a negative trend. People usually get sucked into the negative trend idea. I may not agree with you, but brownie points for a good thought
5. Trying to bring the rural angle. So very important
On the other hand, I think victimization was a weak point. How can men be victimized by empowerment... Were you thinking of dowry and false cases here? I think it is more to do with law and only remotely links to empowerment
Himanshu,
Brownie points for
1. Great start.
2. Good angle bringing male empowerment.
3. The first point was good too, though the second half of it moved into numbers and was not put across very well
A suggestion in general: In such wide open topics, where everyone will have lots to say, the GD will usually be very competitive. The quality may not be great, but everyone wants to talk. In such cases, you need to bring in strong points and crisply if you want to catch the attention of the panel. Everyone is getting brownie points here.
And many times, early birds take the worms
nee,
Brownie points
Great structure in the start
The point of legal empowerment, very good
And though incompatibility with spouses and in laws are reasons, i believe these existed before too. The question is - Has empowerment brought it in the open?
In an ideal world, conclusions come in the end. But given the limitations of online GDs, where people are participating asynchronously, it may be difficult to implement. Thanks for the suggestion though
TP,
Good start. You could have refined it a little though
Good points, but you have just hovered around a narrow lane. You need to break away into getting more points from different angles. Explore more and you will do good
The last point I think was weak. If a woman becomes financially strong, I would think it becomes difficult to divorce since with a wife, you are also losing money :)
Utsav,
You need to work on the start. The start has to give a direction to the group on the topic. It needs to set a structure or a framework for discussion. Dont start with conclusions. As nee put it, conclusions are for the end
The start you have made is more for the middle overs.
More marriages, more divorce - Very interesting angle. Dont agree but you will get points for this
You have brought in some out of the box points, but you have to be careful that you dont stray too far outside.
And key point is that you havent focused on empowerment and its impact.
And you have pushed too much into statistics. You need to do qualitative analysis too. And the best part of GDs are that you bring in qualitative analysis and not the statistical tools. That is where MBAs differ from Pollsters and statisticians.
My analysis and points will come in a while. The group did fairly well, but it was an easy topic. Note that this will be a fish market topic. You need to dig deep and provide stronger insights to score in such a GD.
yes i was basically talking about the trivialization of certain legal protection such as the domestic violence act which though is a strong
tool to bring justice to women can be used as a sword to victimize men by filing unjustified claims , where the legal machinery needs to do its job. ( the law extends to ex lovers / even live in relationships bringing them into the ambit of law).
I think the GD has almost ended. Anyway, here are my points:
1. Since centuries we have been living in a male dominated society. Man was supposed to be the bread earner of the house and woman was the housekeeper. But, today the times are changing and women are more liberal, educated and aware. Moreover, more and more women are joining the workforce and entering the mainstream corporate environment. Hence it becomes difficult for a man to adjust with these situations.
2. However, women empowerment is not the only cause for the increase in the divorce rate. It is also the change in the social and family structure. Inclination to nuclear families, work pressure, lesser adjustment and a declining trust to the institution of marriage.
3.In a family with both the patners working, it is important that both the partners share the household responsibilities as well. If the male partner is not willing to do this, there is more stress in their relationship and hence may lead to a divorce.
4. Nowadays women are aware of the various laws for the prevention of domestic violence, dowry act, etc ,and they are ready to fight against discrimination. Earliar also these incidents took place, but the fairer sex has always been dominated and too shy to come out in the open. Today, the scenario is different. Women opt for a break-up rather than bearing the pain of a terrible relationship.
--- Sneha..
Hey Sneha,
It is never too late to get into a discussion. It is important that you got into it. Note, that is a great strength in a GD. To get it to the discussion when things have slowed down.
On your points, very good point on changing social fabric. This gives a good turn to the whole focus on women empowerment.
Increased awareness also was a good point
On improvements, you need to be crisper. The more crisp and clear you are, the more people will listen.
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