New milestone for gender parity
The SC on Monday asked the army to give permanent commission to all women officers within three months, and asserted that women should be considered for command roles
SC OBSERVATIONS
The submissions advanced by the central government are based on sex stereotypes
Arguments of centre were based on socially ascribed roles of gender which discriminate against women.
Such stereotype are based on deeply entrenched and flawed notion that women are weaker sex and assume that domestic obligations rests solely on women.
The submission that women by the nature of their biological composition have a less important role to play than their male counterparts is disturbing.
Such notions go against constitutional values and there is a need for change in attitudes and mindsets to recognize the commitment to the values of the Constitution.
CENTRE’S ARGUMENTS AND SC RESPONSE
Centre: Permanent Commission (PC) should be restricted to women with less than 14 years of service Supreme Court: No reasonable justification to restrict PC to women with up to 14 years of service. There is fundamental fallacy in the distinction which has been sought to be drawn between women officers with less than fourteen years of service with those with service between fourteen and twenty years and above twenty years.
Centre: Women officers not fit for command appointments because of physiological differences between men and women since they have to deal with pregnancy, motherhood and domestic obligations towards their children and families.
SC: Reliance on the inherent physiological differences between men and women is based on a deeply entrenched stereotypical and constitutionally flawed notion that women may not undertake tasks that are “too arduous for them”. Argument based on motherhood and domestic obligations towards their children and families is a strong stereotype which assumes that domestic obligations rest solely on women.
Centre: Male soldiers are not “mentally schooled” to accept women in command roles.
SC: .... Time has come for a realisation that women officers in the army are not adjuncts to a male-dominated establishment whose presence must be “tolerated” within narrow confines.