Successful yet lesser than their husbands

I just remembered something -- I studied in Boston and in 2000-- and attended a seminar once of an Indian lady student at Harvard who was working on her Ph.D. in anthropology. Her name was Seeta Pai.

Anyway, her presentation was absolutely fascinating.

Her Ph.D. was on the Nair community of Kerala, women's rights and the role that education played in DIMINISHING women's rights. (!)

I dont remember everything clearly --

but she took seven families with seven generations of women in each set. [49 women in total]

What this means is that in each family there was a great-great-great grandma, a great great grandma, a great grandma, a grandma, a mother, a daughter and a grand-daughter.

(Since nair women marry early and have a really long life span this was possible, where the grand-daughter might be 10 and the eldest woman in the lineage might be 110 years )

She also took 1950 (or somewhere thereabouts) as the dividing line between the generations of women (meaning it would be that three of these women would be educated before 1950, and four of them had received education after 1950).

1950 is when the Indian government started compulsory schooling for girls etc. in Kerala.

Now what she found was something fabulous --

the three 'uneducated' generations in each of the families before 1950 were in a completely matriarchal society. The men took the women's names; after marriage the men moved into women's homes, the women had all the decision making power in the homes; the sons-in-laws had to give their money to their mother in law and the mother-in-law would decide how money was spent.

However, the four younger generations of the family who considered themselves 'educated' and had been to some format of school and college -- the education system overturned the power system in the households. Because the British western way was to put father's name, husband's name in the forms for school admissions, for other things etc!! So the grandmother, mother, daughter, grand-daughter somehow all turned into a patriarchal society!! The remaining four generations all were takign their husband's names, moving into their husband's homes after marriage, they were giving their income to their husbands and father in law -- and the male Nair men would decide how money was spent!!

Her thesis was focused on the paradox of 'girls education' as defined by the west -- which says that education empowers women.

Here instead of empowering women, in many cases worked as detrimental to an already existing power structure where women were at the top!! Instead of empowering girls, it was actually stripping them of their power.

The funny thing/irony was that the 4 younger generations because of their 'modern' education as determined by a degree certificate/formal school all considered themselves highly progressive than the older three three generations. They considered their three generations of women 'illiterate' and 'backward' -- so the matrilineal society had swung to a patriarchal system by virtue of the system of education implemented in Kerala.

Food for thought!! [Apologies for not remembering all the details -- but this was just so fantastic) -- she completely blew the lid off the myth of education and feminism through her case study so I remember it vividly -- and the whole audience gave her a standing ovation!!