‘. . . there was a touch of the tall young
virgin witch about her, that made
the house-dog men shy off. She might
metamorphose into something uncanny
before you knew where you were.’
— D.H. Lawrence,
The Virgin and the Gypsy
While the men were blissfully enjoying their position on top, the England under them was shifting. A tiny little pill was about to topple their position and put women on top! The arrival of the contraceptive pill meant that women now had an option to decide when and if they wanted to procreate. It gave women the freedom to have a career, which translated into financial security. She reversed the fortune of the demigods as now she was physically and financially independent. The men do not understand women, and, to this day, they have to come to terms with these demigoddesses.
In some parts of the world, especially in the East, the women are still caught between doing justice to their traditional role of an ideal wife and daughter-in-law and that of the modern woman who makes financial contributions in running the household. It is going to take a couple of generations for women to snap out of the roles stencilled by the society, but for now, it continues to be a struggle.
East or West, when it comes to household chores, the majority of the men are all thumbs. While these men have cultivated the image of being metrosexual, who have no qualms about women sharing the household expenditure, when it comes to actually sharing the household chores, they turn Victorian. Because according to them, household chores continue to be a woman’s domain. Such a scenario has made women question the ever-binding thread of matrimony.
In ancient times, marriages offered little in terms of freedom to women; she neither had social nor financial freedom. In the Hindu tradition, a woman was presented with jewellery and limited amount of cash, known as streedhan, as a means of security. In the West, a certain amount, per year, was arranged for her upkeep by her family. Her married life was all about her husband, in-laws, children, and the house—in the order of priority. In the East, a woman’s priorities were dictated by her glorious mother-in-law.
The pill and all the freedom that it offered, came as a reprieve to this repressed lot. The liberated or emancipated women, as they were popularly known as, finally got the chance to explore their sexuality.
According to the book Why Men Want Sex and Women Need Love, in the 1950s, 60% of women lost their virginity to the men they were engaged or married to as compared to just 1% today.3 But despite her emancipation, why is today’s woman still seeking marriage?