Women and Media: Changing Roles, Struggle and Impact

The national leadership of the women’s movement in India as in several other countries has largely been in the hands of highly educated, high caste women from an urban background. But at the regional levels several women’s organisations often take highly polarised positions on women’s issues on dimensions of tradition and modernity. One debate that never dies down is the dress patterns of women. Many states require women teachers and women employees of several institutions to strictly adhere to a dress code. There are no such dress codes for men who can freely adopt western dress styles. The debate on women’s dress has seen gone to the courts as in the case of school teachers of Kolkata. The mass media rarely brings out the point that women can be dressed in a dignified manner in several attires including western ones that are designed for comfort and the convenience of working women. If the women’s movement in India can at least throw out these dress codes and allow women to wear what is comfortable to them, it will be a singular achievement of women. But it is not to be so, as many women’s groups themselves criticise the free choice of dress by women who boldly take a stand against such outdated codes that pressure them to conform to traditional norms guided by patriarchal ideology. All the newspapers gave wide coverage to the nude women’s protest, complete with photographs. But later reports of further protests had no photographs of torch-bearing women who were in the rallies. The media found sensational the nude protest of the women but their next protests were regarded less newsworthy and exciting. Except for some expression of solidarity from the Mahila Samakhya, Andhra Pradesh, there was dead silence from all the women’s groups, the National Commission of women, women parliamentarians and leaders. The mass media highlights rape cases concerning starlets and models only for the sensational effect but without focus on the crime against women.