When India celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8 this year, there is further evidence of the progress made towards gender equality and gender equity – a woman President addressing the joint session of the Parliament for the first time, recently.

While women in the West had to fight for over a century to get some of their basic rights, like the right to vote, the Constitution of India gave women equal rights along with men from the beginning. Women have now not only found their niche in work places but are also party to governance. In recent years, there have been explicit moves to increase women’s political participation.

The 73rd and 74th amendment to the Constitution under Rajiv Gandhi gave women representation in the Panchayati Raj system and urban local bodies as a sign of political empowerment. Women have enjoyed this benefit for two five-year terms already with many elected women representatives at the village council level. At the central and state levels too women are progressively making a difference. The Women’s reservation policy bill is slated to further strengthen political participation.

Yet, women in this country are mostly unaware of their rights because of illiteracy and oppressive traditions. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) latest Gender Gap Index report ranks India among the world’s 10 most gender-biased countries. India has been ranked at the 114th position after taking into account economic, political, educational and health parities, among a total 128 countries.

According to the WEF report, India has an overall 59.4 per cent gender equality, while for economic participation and opportunity it stands at 39.8 per cent. Compared to its 122nd rank for economic participation, India has fared much better in terms of political empowerment at the 21st position with 106 women in Parliament and 118 in ministerial positions.

In Karnataka, the Congress and the BJP, which have both endorsed the Election Commission's suggestion to provide adequate representation to women, allotted five and 10 seats respectively to them out of the total 224 seats, in the 2004 Assembly election. Of them, just one Congress and two BJP women nominees won.

The BJP-JD(S) Government in the State, which bowed out of power in November last, had no woman minister. Its predecessor – the Congress-JD (S) dispensation led by Dharam Singh – had one woman minister.

The Indian legal system – like others in the world – is designed by men and almost entirely operated by men. For a long time, there was only one woman judge on the Karnataka High Court bench and the prosecutors, who provide advisory opinions, are overwhelmingly male. Only recently, Justice Nagarathna was elevated to become only the second woman judge in the High Court. It now remains to be seen if her appointment opens the door to a new generation of female judges.

Such examples are many in almost every field. In business it has been estimated that women hold just 10 per cent of non-executive directorships and a mere three per cent of executive ones. From trade unions to academia, and from the police force to the media, the story is the same. The further up the hierarchy you go, the more men outnumber and outrank women.

And the overwhelming question that emerges is, have the women been able to reap the benefits provided for them under the Constitution of India? The answer, unfortunately is not encouraging. There is a long way to go to achieve the goals enshrined in the Constitution.

Today, it is a truism that effective leaders need not sport the knockabout, stereotype male style. Leaders of today wear their authority lightly and are not afraid to show their feelings. In the words of the management guru Tom Peters, they “listen, motivate, support”. In other terms, the Venusian style of leadership is in.

Women may be the sex from Venus but they are still infrequent visitors to the realms of power. Indian politics in particular, still remains a peculiarly Martian institution. Though rules of courtesy govern our elected representatives, they are constantly breached. Not everyone appreciates this knockabout style of politics.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s remark that Members of Parliament (now predominantly male) are working overtime to finish democracy has a telling message. It is increasingly being believed that the recent near influx of women in Indian politics may help exert a positive influence by introducing a more civilised way of doing business.

There would, perhaps, be less shouting and more listening, less point-scoring and more consensus-building.

Yet, if women must participate in public life on equal terms, they should not be obliged to continually prove their professional competence while also showing that they have not lost their feminity. The myth of Mars and Venus only adds to women’s burden. By constantly drawing attention to their supposed difference, the myth helps to maintain the prejudices that are ultimately responsible for making women unequal.