A Sociological Study of Gender Equality and its Various Determinants to Provide Gender Justice in the Indian Society

There are variety of understandings of the term empowerment due to its widespread use. So when empowerment is viewed in terms of the ability to make decisions, disempowerment means denying the choice. The term empowerment is that it is inevitably tied to the condition of disempowerment and refers to the processes by which those who have been denied the ability to make decisions acquire that ability. This paper is an attempt to develop conceptual clarity of the term empowerment, delimiting it from several other overlapping concepts of gender equality, social inclusion, power, etc., and proposing and advocating an integrative approach to policy action, with planners taking the work towards an empowerment approach, develop ways that enable women to critically review their own situation and to participate in the creation and shaping of society as agents of change themselves. Present paper studies opinion of 500 housewives and workingwomen from Ahmedabad with reference to their perception of gender equality.