Changing perceptions of status and role: findings from a study on bengali women in Shillong

Indian society has been described as a tradition-bound society. In other words, traditions are deeply rooted in the socio-cultural history of the country. The impact of tradition becomes most visible when one analyses the status and role of women in different periods of history. For long Indian society has remained in the control of deep rooted customs, practices, and traditions like the low level of education, rigidity in marriage practices, restrictions on moving alone….etc. However, in recent times, with the growth of education, there has been a change in the way of thinking and attitude of women as well as the society as a whole.. Every status has its role connotations. While status indicates the individual's location in a given framework of hierarchy, the concept of role indicates how the individual is expected to actualize his status in the form of behaviour. Role has been defined as a set of expectations applied to an individual who occupies a particular position in the structure of the social system. A woman occupies various statuses and plays a number of roles such as those in the kinship system, family and the wider social system. Her status in the society is not determined by any one particular status position held by her, but results from merging of her various statuses. Hence, best way to assess the status of women is to analyse the roles, women are being called upon to play and the manner of their performance. The present paper is an attempt to study the changing status and role of Bengali women in the family and society. For the purpose of the study, a sample of 200 respondents has been selected through stratified random sampling method The findings of the study reflect that there has been a change in the traditional outlook with regard to parental aspirations for daughters, pattern of mate selection, granting freedom of movement to women etc. The pattern that has emerged from the study shows that there has been a progressive change in the staus of women