Gender relations and the dowry system in India : the case of Hyderabad

This article seeks to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the gender relations and the dowry system in India. It is based on a qualitative study that gave priority to the undertaking of interviews with women from different educational backgrounds living in the city of Hyderabad (South of India). The predominant perception of the interviewees is that education promotes economic and symbolic independence. The higher the educational level, the more critical accounts are found in relation to: the dowry system as a mechanism of reproduction of the low status of women and of the persistent asymmetries in gender relations; the wish to educate sons and daughters under equal conditions; and the value given to marriages based on love to the detriment of arranged ones. The main argument is that education is a fundamental source of women’s empowerment and opens up prospects for challenging the patriarchal regime, changing the status of women and leading to a more gender equal society. However, if this is to happen, then the education system (programs and curricula) needs to be congruent with gender equality, targeting both women and men in the project of challenging the dominant patriarchal structure.

Women Who Kill Women

This article focuses on the phenomenon of women who kill women in the context of India’s dowry murders. Killing by females is rare, and killing of other females is rarer still. India’s dowry deaths, where mothers-in-law are, next to husbands, the most accused and convicted, represents a unique opportunity to examine the mechanics around women who kill, especially in the context of a gender violence crime. The article examines both the roots of the dowry system and the current anti-dowry and dowry-violence legislation to demonstrate the implicit and accepted gender inequities within marriage that serve to under gird an overall system of female oppression within the marital relationship. This inequity is understood to be a positive aspect within marriage, but ironically negative within public Indian society. The article then considers various theories of agency and motivation from social science and feminist literature to answer why some women participate in oppressing other women in Indian society. Finally, the article notes some of the ways in which Indian courts are contributing to the oppressive power structure by limiting the application of the anti-dowry and dowry-violence laws.