The findings are both astonishing and saddening, for they highlight that all talks of growth and women’s empowerment notwithstanding, certain basic gender biases still stubbornly cling on. At a time when millions of women across the globe are effortlessly proving their might by juggling home, work and family with equal ease, it is nothing less than a setback to be told that people across the world, by and large, still consider the fair sex a weak one in the professional sphere. Just as the liberal Indian Muslim’s constant refrain is that they are expected all the time to prove their loyalties, the working woman is treated as a different breed, almost un-earthlike, in that she’s looked upon with unnatural skepticism. We have seen more than our fair share of Kiran Mazumdar Shaw’s and Indra Nooyi’s and yet, a whole lot of people like to look at the idea of a ‘successful woman leader’ as if it possessed an inherent oxymoron.

Back home in India, the word ‘homely’ is still an oft-repeated word in matrimonial columns, with a large number of young mamma’s boys finding solace in ‘convent-educated, homely and traditional’ brides. Mind you, the convent part has nothing to do with the quality of education and everything to do with the girl’s supposed ‘character’ (it implies she interacted with as few members of the male sex as possible). In the same breath, several of them clarify that they’d love the stay-at-home type of women who wouldn’t bother their pretty heads too much with matters that lie beyond the purview of home, leaving all that to their male counterparts. Intellect is purely incidental, what matters is how well she copes with the follies and foibles of the kitchen. With this for an attitude, it is not surprising to see that even today in India, the idea of working women causes apprehension in most minds.

Needless to say, where proving yourself is not even a priority, being considered equal to the ‘stronger sex’ is evidently far, far away. I remember a conversation I once had with this patriarch of an affluent business family in Delhi. Their younger son had attained what they considered marriageable age and they were on the lookout for a suitable bride. They almost found the elusive one, only to hastily ‘reject’ her. The reason: “bank mein service karti thi” (she had a job with a bank). According to the head of this well-endowed family, she’d have brought disgrace. Shockingly, what is a sign of emancipation to the average educated girl is a threat to a whole lot of others. It isn’t surprising then, that when women are deemed as nothing better than pot-and-pan queens, their presence in enviable positions in the corporate world is looked upon with everything other than respect.

If the researchers of the above-mentioned survey are only talking about the situation as it exists in a few economically developed countries, I shudder to think what the findings would be if one were to undertake a similar project in India. All talk of emancipation aside, it looks like the battle for financial independence will have some stiff competition from the age-old, now-outdated belief of women being created for home alone.