The sociological analysis of the problems of Indian women requires unpacking the etymological and conceptual foundations of gender subordination. The term gender, derived from the Latin root genus (meaning kind or type), was popularized by feminist sociologists to distinguish socially constructed roles from biological sex. In Indian society, women's problems are deeply intertwined with structural institutions such as the family, marriage, and kinship, theorized extensively by classical and modern thinkers.
- Patriarchy and Power: Defined by theorists like Sylvia Walby and classical sociologists as a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress, and exploit women. In India, patriarchy operates through institutionalized mechanisms such as endogamy, patrilocality, and patrilineal descent.
- Classical Sociological Perspectives: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, 1884) linked the subjugation of women to the rise of private property and class stratification, viewing monogamous marriage as a tool for ensuring the inheritance of wealth through male lines. Émile Durkheim examined how division of labour within the family assigns expressive roles to women and instrumental roles to men, reinforcing organic solidarity with traditional gendered constraints.