Women on the basis of gender have always been discriminated against in almost all the societies of the world including India. Ours is a patriarchal society. Women face disadvantage, discrimination, and oppression in various ways as mentioned below.

Education: Women are deprived of equal access to education. Thus, the literacy rate among women is only 59.3 percent as compared to 78.8 percent among men.

A smaller proportion of girl students go for higher education because in spite of their better performance than boys, they drop out as parents prefer to spend their resources for their son’s education, they do not want to spend equally on their sons and daughters.

Discrimination in job opportunities and remuneration or salary : Under the Equal Wages Act, equal wages should be paid for equal work. In practice almost in every sphere, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work. On average an Indian woman works one hour more than an average man every day. Yet much of her work is not paid and therefore often not valued.

Preference for sons: Even now in many parts of India, parents prefer to have sons. There are cases where a girl child is aborted before she is born. Due to sex-selective abortion, the sex-ratio has declined from 927 in 2001 to 850 or 800 in some places.

Harassment against women: Women are being harassed by their employers at work. They are sexually assaulted at homes. They are not safe during their journey at night. They are subjected to various forms of domestic violence such as beating and harassment.