Lack Of Female Participation In Discussion

[kds1980]

I am member of almost all sikh sites and i have seen that participation of punjabi sikh women in discussions is very low.On the other hand participation of western converted sikh women is quite good compared to their population.

Is there something in sikhism that punjabi sikh women are not interested in sikhism while western women are attracted to it.

comments appreciated

 

[Sherab]

It seems to me around my area that sikh women do not spend time discussing sikh dharma, but rather are practicing it.

 

[Astroboy]

I thought women were more towards wanting to be heard than men.

 

[spnadmin]

kds ji

This is a good question, and I have myself wondered. There seems to be more than one reason. Both cultural.

Think about the responsibilities of Sikh woman at every level of society in almost any country, except those who are highly educated and who do not have careers of some kind because they do not have to work. The time and energy for forum participation is not there for most. Particularly after they go onto school or marry and start families or both. All of the Sikh women that I know personally are up at the crack of dawn, taking care of family and are then off to their jobs -- most of which are professional in nature so they take work home with them. Then back at home they have more family issues (supervising homework, cooking, planning the next day). On weekends - shopping, participating in Gurdwara activities. They never never never rest. Until they are older.

The older women probably do have more time, but they are also products of cultural expectations that women should slip in and out of situations silently like shadows. This is not about Sikhism but about culture.

Anyway, the next time I see a Sikh woman shepherding a bunch of kids into an SUV and driving off anywhere on a Saturday morning I will remember that she was cleaning up after breakfast, tying hair and padkas, keeping everyone on task, and the Internet was the last thing on her mind.

After the bull who holds up the world, there are Sikh women holding up everything else.

 

[Archived_Member1]

I am member of almost all sikh sites and i have seen that participation of punjabi sikh women in discussions is very low.On the other hand participation of western converted sikh women is quite good compared to their population.

Is there something in sikhism that punjabi sikh women are not interested in sikhism while western women are attracted to it.

comments appreciated

i don't think it has anything to do with sikhism, rather culture. in general indian women are not really encouraged to speak their mind openly among strangers, or to disagree with strange men in the same way that is acceptable in the west.

this is only a generalization, yes, there are many exceptions.

i do see a lot of young western born punjabi sikh women speaking out lately, which leads me to this conclusion that it's more cultural than religious or ethnic.

 

[drkhalsa]

After the bull who holds up the world, there are Sikh women holding up everything else.

nice way to put it

and yes I tend to agree with you and Kelly Kaur !

 

[kds1980]

kds ji

This is a good question, and I have myself wondered. There seems to be more than one reason. Both cultural.

Think about the responsibilities of Sikh woman at every level of society in almost any country, except those who are highly educated and who do not have careers of some kind because they do not have to work. The time and energy for forum participation is not there for most. Particularly after they go onto school or marry and start families or both. All of the Sikh women that I know personally are up at the crack of dawn, taking care of family and are then off to their jobs -- most of which are professional in nature so they take work home with them. Then back at home they have more family issues (supervising homework, cooking, planning the next day). On weekends - shopping, participating in Gurdwara activities. They never never never rest. Until they are older.

The older women probably do have more time, but they are also products of cultural expectations that women should slip in and out of situations silently like shadows. This is not about Sikhism but about culture.

Anyway, the next time I see a Sikh woman shepherding a bunch of kids into an SUV and driving off anywhere on a Saturday morning I will remember that she was cleaning up after breakfast, tying hair and padkas, keeping everyone on task, and the Internet was the last thing on her mind.

After the bull who holds up the world, there are Sikh women holding up everything else.

Dear antonia ji

What you said is absolutely true for many sikh women but not for all.On punjabi cultural sikh sites the partcipation of sikh girls is quite high in useless talks.But in the religion and community section it is again boys that mainly induldge in discussions

 

[Archived_Member1]

Dear antonia ji

What you said is absolutely true for many sikh women but not for all.On punjabi cultural sikh sites the partcipation of sikh girls is quite high in useless talks.But in the religion and community section it is again boys that mainly induldge in discussions

what or who determines what is "useless talks"? isn't this discussion itself somewhat useless?

 

[drkhalsa]

OOPS ! Useless was the wrong word and seems to be too much judgemental

I think no religious /non spirtual talk was the wrod KDS might want to use

Yes One thing is for sure that on culture oriented sites and also networking sites like ORKUT ,H15 There are considerable number of girls speaking out their mind on every possible topics right from Sidney Sheldon , Shakeapear to Stock Market. This also makes me wonder why not spirtual sites

May be Girls are too afrais to of Religious Male Bullies they find at there local gurdwara and communities so they just decided stay away from this thing even on net

may be


Jatinder Singh

 

[Astroboy]

What are women looking for in a forum ?

I don't see why Yahoo Answers can have so many women participants but not SPN. We have a general discussion section - does not need to be spiritual philosophy.

 

[kds1980]

what or who determines what is "useless talks"? isn't this discussion itself somewhat useless?

i wanted to use word bakvaas .but i thought non punjabi participant are unable to understand it.actually some sites do have section called bakvaas.

 

[kds1980]

OOPS ! Useless was the wrong word and seems to be too much judgemental

I think no religious /non spirtual talk was the wrod KDS might want to use

Yes One thing is for sure that on culture oriented sites and also networking sites like ORKUT ,H15 There are considerable number of girls speaking out their mind on every possible topics right from Sidney Sheldon , Shakeapear to Stock Market. This also makes me wonder why not spirtual sites

May be Girls are too afrais to of Religious Male Bullies they find at there local gurdwara and communities so they just decided stay away from this thing even on net

may be




Jatinder Singh

I wanted to use word bakvaas,gup shup,idhar udhar ki baatein .Please give me a translation of these words

 

[spnadmin]

kds ji

I agree and disagree. You are correct. Participation of younger women "girls" is high. I like "women" better -- but anyway.

What happens when the same go to college, graduate school, professions, careers, marriage, children, older parents who are sick, and all of these at once? No time for the Internet then.

Bullies, as DrKhalsa says, are an issue. Women, and this not about culture, will walk away from a fight most of the time, unless the problem is very important.

Good conversation.

 

[kds1980]

i don't think it has anything to do with sikhism, rather culture. in general indian women are not really encouraged to speak their mind openly among strangers, or to disagree with strange men in the same way that is acceptable in the west.

this is only a generalization, yes, there are many exceptions.

i do see a lot of young western born punjabi sikh women speaking out lately, which leads me to this conclusion that it's more cultural than religious or ethnic.

Kelly ji

PLease don't think that all indian women are so oppressed.condition of indian women is different
in different families.I myself grew up in joint family where women were quite influential even more then men.

 

[kds1980]

kds ji

I agree and disagree. You are correct. Participation of younger women "girls" is high. I like "women" better -- but anyway.

What happens when the same go to college, graduate school, professions, careers, marriage, children, older parents who are sick, and all of these at once? No time for the Internet then.

Bullies, as DrKhalsa says, are an issue. Women, and this not about culture, will walk away from a fight most of the time, unless the problem is very important.

Good conversation.

You are right but there are still who could participate.In india one of the biggest advantage
we have over developed countries is that a person with decent income could afford very good quality servants.so unlike developed countries where people have to all the work themselves, majority of middle class and above have part or full time servants and sikhs
generally have decent income.so you can find plenty of sikh women in india who have time to participate.

 

[spnadmin]

kds ji

Thanks for pointing this out -- having servants. In the US if you can afford help just one day a week, it costs a lot, and we serve the servants. They call the shots.

So now there must be other reasons, some of which have been mentioned. I will have to think about this more. And I am wondering, as Kelly Kaur and also Begum have mentioned -- there are sites where younger women participate. So why not SPN. Wasn't female participation a strategic goal for the forum a few months ago?

Regards!

 

[drkhalsa]

kds ji

I understood what you meant to say by useless
I just interviened to remove the confusion word useless was creating .I apologise for appearing rude I never intended to do so

the word we usually can use is Gossip , Chit chat
But what ever you used was OK with me

And about servant thing you have VALID point I never thought about it
and remember our healthy ( or over healthy)females from survey thing in other post so I can already appreciate your poit about the servant thing

thanks

Jatinder Singh

 

[spnadmin]

DrKhalsa,

You are really funny sometimes - "over healthy femaie thing" -- well you don't loose weight typing on the computer as I know from personal experience.

 

[drkhalsa]

there are sites where younger women participate. So why not SPN. Wasn't female participation a strategic goal for the forum a few months ago?

yes Dear Friend

we also had two very energetic Ladies to say the least on our spn in the recent past .
But sometiing just drove them away within days of each other , Honestly I still dont have the clue what happened there .although I tried to find it out.
any idea ?
can also PM me if needed



Jatinder Singh

 

[drkhalsa]

You are really funny sometimes - "over healthy femaie thing" -- well you don't loose weight typing on the computer as I know from personal experience.

yes add ji ,
I was just trying to funny ( and also worried as I am single so still to find one for m e!) , but the point that I was trying to make is that servants in home give them plenty of time to do something on net and also they can loose wait by reading some nice tips from varpus health sites and thats a bonus


Jatinder Singh