Are Modern Woman as Much a Slave as were Her Predecessors ?

Recently the engagement of a close friend’s son was broken much to our surprise since the couple seemed to be well matched – both being software engineers and educated in the same type of social milieu. It emerged that the boy had objected to his fiancé going out with her friends (male) to the beach and told her that she should go out only with her family members or girl friends. The bride was offended and called off the wedding in spite of protests by her family members. This piquant situation raised as expected many eyebrows but it also threw up several questions.
Why did the boy – ostensibly a modern one - react in such an archaic fashion?
Was the girl too hasty in her reaction? How is it that similar backgrounds resulted in such dissimilar thinking in the boy and the girl? And so on…
What was very interesting to me is that most of the older people (both friends and relatives) and not so old also supported the boy and found fault with the girl.
It appears to me that all the freedom that we desire for our women is only a superficial one. Educationally we want them to reach the heights; professionally we want them to break the glass ceilings (while ensuring that they do not surpass their husbands); economically they should contribute significantly to the family kitty.  So far so good but………… no further! Socially and at personal levels they should be self-effacing and emotionally mature enough only to say to her partner, “Yes your Royal Highness! Your will is my first command”. 

There can be no doubt that the modern woman is as much a slave to the modern man as were her predecessors. What Mahakavi Subramania Bharathiyar said in the 19^th century holds good even now in the 21st century, two hundred years later.
   “I am quite aware that we still retain something of the old idea that the mother must be looked upon as a goddess by her children…… But every woman is a wife before she is a mother; and the position of the wife, with us, is that of a petted slave-more slave than pet; she must not even speak to strangers; in the North she is not supposed to see men, except the prescribed ones…..The root evil is the idea that has almost become instinctive among our men-folk that a woman enlightened and liberated who can face the world boldly and treat all as her equals cannot remain chaste.”  



I do not blame the boy who behaved as he did – he is only a victim of the social system that perpetuates the inequality between men and women. This mind set is also responsible for the increase in the incidence of rapes in various parts of our country. As long as women continue to be treated as commodities and possessions of men to glorify their status, the dreams of reformers like Gurjada Apparao, Raja Ramamohan Roy and others will only be on paper to be used to pat ourselves about the empowerment of women while in reality women continue to be slaves to the whims of a man and his relatives.  

PS - I do not deny the existence of Supportive husbands but they constitute a very small minority and do deserve the appreciation and salute of the women folk.