Comparison & Conclusion

-betweenthe four interviews we conducted amongst our family

members.

COMPARISON
After analysing the interviews, our team compiled the data and compared different aspects of them,
and found out the differences and similarities between the two generations.
We first compared the answers of both the grandparents interviewed, Mrs. Panbai and Mrs. Rekha.
Both individuals lived in Mumbai with their large families. There were more than three children in
each family. Both interviewees said that boys and girls were not treated equally. Boys had more
freedom whereas girls were limited to certain constraints. Girls were told to be “sanskari” as said by
Mrs. Panbai. She continued by saying that girls were obliged to learn house skills such as cooking and
cleaning. Mrs. Rekha also pointed out that while her brothers were enjoying playing outside, she
would, often if not always, work in the kitchen with her mother. Mrs. Panbai said that boys and girls
did not have equal rights to education, girls were expected to study only till the 7th grade whereas
boys were encouraged to secure a business degree. Women were never introduced to the work
field. Mrs. Rekha had a different story to say as she said both genders were given equal and fair
opportunities in education. Women were allowed to finish their education and pursue higher studies
which was not the case when Mrs. Panbai was a teenager. Women did get jobs, but the wages were
very less compared to that of men. According to both individuals, women did all the house chores
except bringing groceries back home from the market, which was done by men. Mrs. Panbai talked
about how the government did not fight for any women's rights back then whereas Mrs. Rekha
talked about how this generation’s government passed various bills favouring women’s rights. She
also voiced the fact that women play a very important role in today’s society.
We then compared the answers of the parents. Both Mr. Pravin and Mrs. Hetal lived in Mumbai with
their nuclear families. The former stated that daughters were treated unequally and were forced to
do house chores. The sons would get rewards like pocket money for doing some of the chores but
the daughters got nothing as it was the bare minimum they were expected to do. Mrs. Hetal said
that her mother treated her brother and her equally. All decisions of her mother regarding her
children were not based on their gender. She saw them as equals. Mr. Pravin’s sisters completed
their education till they were 18 years of age, after this, they prepared to get married. He was
allowed to complete his education and secure a job. Mrs. Hetal on the other hand completed her
education and went on to get a job. Both interviewees said that during the school years, there was
little to no gender discrimination. Mrs. Hetal said she faced no discrimination growing up pointing
out that she even got her first car when she turned 18. Mr. Pravin stated that most women in his
family didn’t work and if they did, they received lower pay. The same was said by Mrs. Hetal.
According to Mr. Pravin, the government now has helped bring advancement in equality for females.
Both the parents and grandparents interviewed agree that girls were not treated equally. All
daughters were supposed to learn the house chores since they were young. This was seen as
preparation for marriage which they were also expected to do after their education if completed.
Boys had a lot more freedom and their role was to provide for the family by working. They did not
participate in house chores and even if they did, it was minimal. All four individuals stated that even
if women worked, they received lower pay. We observed that in the interviews of the parents,
women were allowed a little more freedom than before, and girls completing further education had
become much more common and accepted.

Development is visible from one generation to another. A slightly higher proportion of women
completed their education, and less discrimination was faced in school in the parents’ generation.
The government also improved and focused more on women’s rights which was completely ignored
before. Overall, there was development in the rights of women but not a very drastic one.

CONCLUSION
Since time immemorial, patriarchy has dominated Indian society where men are in a position of
authority and decision making and women have been relegated to a secondary or a peripheral role.
This is evident in the gender role expectations of our society.

In two generations before us, it was common for Indian families to have a large number of children.
There was disparity in treatment of daughters and sons. Girls were discouraged from pursuing
education, expected to imbibe cultural values and carry out household chores whereas boys were
given freedom to play, pursue hobbies and have career aspirations. Families invested in education of
boys who were expected to be breadwinners. Gender role expectations were clear where girls were
expected to be nurturing and performing all household duties. Although some families were
progressive and did not discriminate between providing education to girls and boys, the job
opportunities available to men and women were significantly different with a huge pay gap.

Our previous generation did not experience wide marginalisation of women. Large families
converted to nuclear families. Co-ed schools were uncommon yet girls and boys were treated
equally in school. Regardless of equal treatment in schools, girls were engaged in domestic chores at
home. Girls were allowed to continue their education till a certain age after which they were
prepared to get married. In contrast to this, boys were permitted to continue with their education
to enable them to be gainfully employed. However, there were families which encouraged their
daughters to get proper education. Women working outside their homes were a rare breed and the
pay gap continued to be significantly high.

Over two generations, a lot of awareness has been generated with the help of government schemes
encouraging and subsidising education of a girl child. Increasingly, girls are pursuing higher
education and seeking jobs in various fields against all odds.
 1. Similarities and Differences
There are similarities between both the countries in terms of lifestyle
and even the technology used during that time. However, women
were treated better in The Netherlands even in the past and equality
has grown over the time. Both the older generations had big families
with lots of kids and there were similarities in their lifestyle.
Difference in upbringing of boys and girls in the family was not a
problem in their country unlike India where there was prejudice
between the brother and sisters in the house. One more similarity is
the right to education in both the countries was discriminatory. In both
the countries boys and girls were not given the same rights. Men and
women were given equal opportunity in their country unlike India but
the belief that “men can perform certain jobs better than women”
stays in both the countries. Equal pay for both the genders is still not
enforced however the government has come up with laws for the
workplace for women. Household chores were usually carried out by
women but yes, men in the house have also contributes to some of
them which is a common factor in both the countries. The government
has also played a very important role in terms of boosting rights for
women and get monetary compensation to send their children to
childcare in the Netherlands. This is also done in India as welfare
schemes.

What we learnt about changing roles of the genders in Europe &

India,

When our grandparents were

teenagers,
The gender roles were more
segregated and couldn't be
interchanged during the time that
our grandparents were teenagers.
For females, the role was to
manage households specifically
look after children and complete
chores. For males, the role was to be the bread winner of the family.
There was a lack of access to opportunities for females. In India this
was more severe compared to Europe.

When our parents were teenagers,

In Europe, teens were allowed to express their views without any
inhibitions to the extent that it was common for teens to talk back to
their parents. They could freely express their ideas and perspectives.
This probably developed their self-esteem. The families were large
and there weren't any gender specific roles or gender bias at home.
The children, irrespective of their gender, were given freedom to
exercise their choices and make independent decisions. Parents
respected their children's freedom and choices. Values such as love,
care and importance of family was instilled in the children. However,
in India, it was common to have large families. Boys and men were
allowed freedom to play, pursue education and make career choices.
Women did not have this liberty except in rare cases. Talking back to
parents was uncommon and was not allowed to go unpunished.
Decisions made by elders in the family were more important than
individual life choices. Gender specific roles and bias was not
uncommon. Values such as respect for elders, empathy and
responsibility were instilled in the children.

Now that we are a teenager,

As a teenager there is definitely a more equal environment for all
genders, in Europe and in India. As a teenager, today we have access
to the same opportunities and resources as any other gender. It has
transitioned from discrimination due to gender that caused
mistreatment in the past to having equal rights and a rightful say in
today's world. Even though gender quality is not completely achieved,
we are well educated as teenagers about our rights to not being treated
differently on the basis of our gender.
Personal Reflection

1. Aditi: This project was very engaging and informative. I learnt a

lot from our interviews and now know how much our generation has
changed for the better.

I was in charge of compiling all the interviews and analyzing them for
the comparison report. In the comparison report, I compared different
aspects of each interview which led me to draw the appropriate
conclusions.

The most memorable learning experiences were during the conference

calls we had with our partner school. I learnt about their country, their
culture and even their hobbies. It was also refreshing to see them take
a keen interest in our country. These conference calls helped me gain
confidence when speaking to new people.

All the members in my group cooperated with each other and

submitted all work assigned. We could have been more organized
regarding the process of the interviews but we all did our work
diligently and most importantly I had a good time working with my
group members.
2. Kaashvi:

I was fortunate enough to be the leader of my group. Overtime, I

built strong leadership skills from assigning tasks to my co-
members to individually completing each task with same
curiosity and vigor. I gathered meaningful pieces of information
by interviewing both my mother and my grandmother, designed
and compiled every report, made two movies to submit evidence
and introduce ourselves, and reported similarities and
differences I & my fellow members noticed between our
research and our partner school research.

This overall made me aware of how gender roles changed over

time and gave me deep understanding of what my own family
members faced in their youth. This led me to my most
memorable experience, apart from communicating with our
partner school students, what got me immense joy was when I
interviewed my grandmother and connected to her thoughts
about gender discrimination in her time.

Personally, I grew more adaptable to change when we struggled

with deadlines, understood how collaboration and teamwork is
so essential and how as a leader, I’d have everyone’s back if I
communicated well. If there’d be something I’d do differently, it
would be to conduct more conferences with our partner school
and do a more wide-scale research over this topic.
3. Amruta: My task was to interview my father about the gender roles
during his teenage years. I got to ask him questions and learn about
how differently gender roles were assigned in the past. My next step
was to analyses the interview response. I contributed by providing
data through this interview to help compare the gender roles in
different time stages from the perspective of different family
members.

My most memorable learning experience was definitely the

interaction with the team from Europe. Having a conversation about
life in the countries we live in was very fascinating. I got to learn
about the gender roles in Europe through their personal experiences
and knowledge. Even though we live so far away, there were many
similarities in our ideas of gender roles and what we were
experiencing. I developed my communication skills by being more
confident as the sessions progressed by asking questions and
conversing in the many interesting exchanges we had.

I think the interviews and gathering of information for our research

went well. The information each member got was very thorough and
enlightening. This made making comparisons much easier. We could
have improved on the collaboration with the partner school, in my
opinion. The interactions were great but we did not get into much
detail of each other’s research outcomes. This is what I would have
liked to do differently – be more involved with the partner school’s
research and conclusions so I could learn more about gender roles in
Europe through their perspective.
4.Aarya: The start of this project was when we were put into groups
and given topics to research and compile. Our topic was ‘Gender
Roles’ which was all about how both men and women have been
treated and how it has changed over the course of time and also the
differences between today’s generation and the ones in the past. As
for me, I interviewed my grandmother and recorded it as evidence
where she talked about her childhood. More research was conducted
by me that allowed me to gain a strong foresight about the topic
before I compiled any sort of evidence. I also wrote a report
comparing the lifestyles and other aspect of students in both the
countries, India and The Netherlands which made me retrospect on
how awe inspiring life was back then and in both the countries.
My most memorable part of this project has to be the video
conference we had with the Nordic students. Something that I really
appreciated was their confidence and eagerness to try their best to
communicate with us in English which isn't their first language. The
students gave us a greater insight on how things work over there, and
also fun facts about them and the country. The most important
competence I’d say I learnt during this was communication and
confidence. This really improved my communication as I have always
been shy and timid and used to be very awkward communicating with
new people so this abridged the fear factor I had and made me more
confident and have lots of fun chatting with them. I also became more
curious and responsible. I wanted to learn more about their culture
and lifestyle and I became responsible about report submissions and
other aspects.
I believe everything went well and both groups have imparted lots of
knowledge to each other about various characteristics about both
countries. However, I wish this project could’ve been longer and we
could've spent more time with the students and bonded with them
better. Teamwork would've also been better and I very honestly
believe we weren't the best at coordinating and collaborating when it
came to individual researching and one person compiling it all.
Overall it was an honor to interact with students from another country
and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

5. Arnav: My task was to write a meaningful and concise conclusion

based on the comparison of the individual interviews provided by my
group members. This entailed reading carefully through a lot of
information. After analyzing the available information, my job was to
record and include multiple perspectives of the interviewees in a
coherent and objective manner in form of a conclusion.

One memorable learning experience was when I realized that despite

the societal norms, gender discrimination or reinforced gender roles,
some women managed to smash the glass ceiling. It was interesting to
see how each interviewee in the group had a slightly different
perspective on the treatment given to girls and boys. They gave us a
very granular understanding of their individual life experiences. It
encouraged my analytical thinking where I considered each
individual's experience using logical reasoning process and arriving at
an overall conclusion.

The team was collaborative and presented their comparisons of the

interviews in the most coherent and structured manner. This allowed
next tasks to be processed and finished in a timely fashion. It would
have helped if there were more participants in the group interviewed
belonging to different socio economic backgrounds. This would have
given us a broader perspective of life experiences of such individuals.