Women are the pioneers of nation. Indian culture attaches great importance to women, comprising half of world’s population. According to a report of secretary general of United Nations, women constitute 50% of human resources, the greatest human resource next only to man having great potentiality.
Women are the key to sustainable development and quality of life in the family. The varieties of role the women assume in the family are those of wife, leader, administrator, manager of family income and last but not the least important the mother.
1. As a wife – Woman is man’s helpmate, partner and comrade. She sacrifices her personal pleasure and ambitions, sets standard of morality, relieves stress and strain, tension of husband, maintains peace and order in the household. Thereby she creates necessary environment for her male partner to think more about the economic upliftment of family. She is the source of inspiration to man for high endeavour and worth achievements in life.
2. As a mother – The whole burden of child bearing and greater part of child rearing task are carried out by the woman in the family. She is primarily responsible for the child’s habit of self-control, orderliness, industriousness, theft or honesty. Her contacts with the child during the most formative period of his development sets up his behaviour pattern. She is thus responsible for the maintenance of utmost discipline in the family.
3. As a manager of family income – Woman acts as the humble manager of the family income. It is her responsibility to secure maximum return from every penny spent. She always prefers to prepare a surplus budget instead of a deficit budget. She is very calculating loss and gain while spending money. She distributes judiciously the income on different heads such as necessities, comforts and luxuries. The woman in the family also contributes to the family income through her own earning within or outside the home. She has positive contribution to the family income by the work. She herself performs in the home and uses waste products for productive purposes.
4. As a leader of the household – A well-ordered disciplined household is essential to normal family life. The woman in the family assumes this function. She is the chief executive of an enterprise. She assigns duties among family members according to their interest and abilities and provides resources in-term of equipment and materials to accomplish the job.
– Harshil Chaturvedi
