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Summary of Question:	Response To Women's Role In Sikh Society;
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Friday, 2/07/2003 8:24 AM MST

sikh women's role in socitey

according to sikhism, a man and a woman are equal but their roles could be different in society. Wife is the queen of household and husband is the bread provider for the family. but recently it has changed.
both of my parents were working in india. they always shared responsibilities. of one of them was late from work other cooked, or helped us doing our homework and other things. as more women are working outside of the house, men need to share household chores with wife. and raisind kids is not only a woman's job. it takes two to conceive and it takes two to raise also. both should be spending time with the kids not just one parent otherwise kids lack bonding with their own parents.
sikhism teaches that all human being are equal and so are their responsibilites. 100 yrs back, a woman's role was different and now it is different. in sikh history, women went to wars and fought against injustice havig swords in their hands while other women stayed home and took care of babies. i think that it shows that none of the work is only for men or women in sikhism. it all depends what kind of role ur daughter wants to take. if she wants to be a full time wife and mother that is her choice. if she wants to work full time, sikhism does not stop that. if a women's role is to stay home, take care of babies and cook etc then why we see men cooking LANGAR in gururdwara. why we see women carrying mud, bricks etc in SEWA as it is considered to be a man's work.
so, sikhism does not stop you from sharing household chores, raising babies or being a working mother. and if a man insist that his religion is stopping him to do so then he is not following religion very well. SIKHS in punjab are different. if ur son in law has been living in states for a while,he knows both cultures. if he came recently from india, then may be he is one of the conservative type but he can also be very open minded. two individual are never the same. i see that in my cousins who are born and raised in india. a few of them are so open minded that they dont care about staying home and taking care of babies while a few of them would not dare to touch a diaper.
it also depends if his dad shared any household responsibilites. mostly sons are very similar to their fathers.

(REPLY) Sat Nam. Well said! Thank you. SP