Equality for Women: The Constituent Assembly Debates and the Making of Equality Jurisprudence by and for Women

Abstract

This article explores how 15 women members in the nearly all-male constitution-making process contributed to crafting of sex equality in India’s Constitution. Women members, opposed to positive discrimination and having faith in personal merit and ability to overcome odds, asserted their voice in India’s Constituent Assembly to redress women’s subordination caused by socio-religious androcentric practices, customs and laws. But the outcomes depended upon the religio-masculine complex which never permitted the issue of gender inequalities to take centrestage in the constitution-making process. However, for women members, as evident from this enquiry, the mere removal of sex as a constraint upon them was of paramount importance as merit, ability and competence could further help them achieve progress and equalisation. Second, what appears is that in the women's imagination, the guarantee of equality being crafted included an eradication of historical gender inequalities.