Several women guest lecturers have applauded the fact that our group has thirty girls and only five guys because when they were in school it was the opposite ratio. One speaker who helps to run women’s empowerment group for rural women even stereotyped all men as incompetent, power-hungry people who waste all money on women and alcohol. In fact, their group sponsors microloans and they only give them to women because the men don’t pay them back and spend the money on women and alcohol. This portrayal bothered me, but during the next couple of days I saw a few things that proved it true. I think we men need to shape up.
However, men still have a lot of power in Indian society and there are cultural restrictions on the women. I can pretty much do whatever I want here, but that’s not the case for the girls in our group. They are expected to be back at their homestays by 8:30 or 9, so no staying out late, and some parents want the girls to always let them know where they are. They girls in our group cannot wear shorts, tight-fitting clothes, or expose their shoulders in public, and so the first few days here there was a lot of shopping for light pants, long skirts, and light, long sleeved shirts.
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