Gender-based violence and promises of modernity

Despite the enduring legacy of women's rights movements and the pursuit of gender equality, violence against women remains a persistent issue. Recent reports have highlighted numerous cases of sexual violence, including a girl allegedly harassed in Bihar's Samastipur district, two teenagers allegedly molested in Jamui, and a girl allegedly gang-raped in Delhi by posing as police officers.

These incidents raise questions about the promises of modernity, specifically individual rights and liberty, and whether they align with women's experiences of gender-based violence. The theory of cultural lag offers a framework to understand this apparent contradiction between the ideals of modernity and the lived realities of women.

Modernity and women's rights have roots in the Enlightenment, an intellectual movement in 17th and 18th-century Europe advocating for reason, scientific temper, and rational scepticism. However, women's status as equal citizens was largely overlooked during modernity's early stages. Issues such as property and child rights, voting rights, education, and civil liberties were not given the attention they deserved.

Nevertheless, reformers like Josephine Butler, Harriet Taylor Mill, Emmeline Pankhurst, Flora Tristan, Louise Michel, Clara Zetkin, and others made significant contributions to advancing women's rights during this period.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the discourse around modernity and women's rights became inseparable. India's modern age was marked by social reforms, with women's issues at the forefront, including the abolition of sati, advocacy for widow remarriage, reforms concerning the age of consent, property rights, and modern education for women. However, the persistence of gender-based violence highlights a significant gap between the promises of modernity and the lived realities of women.

Several factors contribute to the persistence of gender-based violence. First, public spaces are often inaccessible to women due to intimidation, harassment, and violence. Second, rape is frequently viewed as the sole serious manifestation of sexual violence, obscuring the continuum of abuse ranging from inappropriate behavior to harassment and stalking.

Third, patriarchal notions of honor and female sexuality may expose women to violence when they are perceived as violating the honor code or being sexually available. Finally, recordings and circulation of sexual assault online can intimidate and silence survivors, exacerbating the harm caused by gender-based violence.

The theory of cultural lag, proposed by William F. Ogburn, offers a useful explanation for the continuity of sexual violence in an era of rights. Culture is divided into two types: material culture, comprising technology, physical objects, and resources, and non-material culture, encompassing beliefs, norms, values, and ethics. Ogburn's theory suggests that non-material culture struggles to keep pace with advances in material culture, resulting in cultural lag.

Applied to gender relations in India, this framework emphasizes the need to address the lag between material progress and the advancement of non-material cultural norms, particularly those pertaining to women's rights and safety.