SECTION B
Essay
125 marks
Fulfilment of 'new woman' in India is a myth.
WRITE IN
90 min
1,000–1,200 words
Reading the topic
The 'new woman' is the educated, earning, self-determining woman of modern India. The topic claims her fulfilment is a myth; the examiner expects a balanced test of whether legal rights and visible success have turned into real choice and freedom, given the double burden of work and care, safety, and family control.
ThesisThe new woman is real in law and aspiration but her fulfilment remains partial, because unpaid care, safety fears and social control still limit how far her choices are her own.
Dimensions to cover
- 1Education: girls now match or exceed boys in school enrolment, a real change that makes the new woman more than a myth
- 2Work: women's job participation is low and concentrated in insecure self-employment, so economic independence remains limited
- 3Household: women carry most unpaid domestic and care work, so careers often add a second shift rather than freedom
- 4Law and rights: laws on workplace harassment, adultery and inheritance have widened rights, though enforcement lags
- 5Politics: reserved seats in panchayats created many women leaders, and the 2023 Act extends reservation to legislatures after delimitation
- 6Culture: marriage, mobility and dress are still policed by family and community, making choice conditional
Counter-view
- Some say the term itself is elitist and that many women find fulfilment in roles they choose, including homemaking. The essay should accept plural ideas of fulfilment while arguing the question is whether those choices are free
Open and close
- Open: Open with a software engineer in Bengaluru who leads a team by day and returns home to cook, check homework and answer her mother-in-law, asking whether she is the new woman or merely busier
- Close: Conclude that fulfilment becomes reality when care is shared, safety is assured and choice includes the choice to say no
Where marks usually go
- Agreeing or rejecting outright without defining who the new woman is
- Writing a list of women's schemes, turning the essay into a GS answer
- Ignoring rural, Dalit and working-class women and writing only about urban professionals
Examples that fit
- DataThe Time Use Survey 2019 showed women spend several times more time than men on unpaid domestic and care work, the main barrier to fulfilment.Time Use in India 2019, MoSPI
- CaseThe Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 reserves one-third of Lok Sabha and assembly seats for women, to take effect after delimitation.Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023
- CaseIn Joseph Shine v Union of India (2018) the Supreme Court struck down the adultery law as treating wives as husbands' property.Supreme Court of India, Joseph Shine v Union of India, 2018
- LiteratureShashi Deshpande's novel That Long Silence portrays an educated middle-class wife who realises she has silenced herself to fit a marriage.Shashi Deshpande, That Long Silence (1988)
- LiteratureIbsen's Nora leaves her husband to discover herself, the archetype of the new woman whose freedom comes at a social cost.Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House (1879)