Sixteen Statements That Reflect Who Can Hurt a Woman in India

Abstract

Although the prevalence of a traditional negative attitude toward women is widely discussed in Indian culture, a scholarly tool to assess the same has been lacking. We developed a psychometric tool (the Traditional Attitudes toward Indian Women (TAIW) scale, Singh and Aggarwal 2019) to measure traditional negative attitudes toward women in the Indian cultural context and report its relevance for predicting violent attitudes toward women. The present paper offers a detailed discussion on the sixteen items of TAIW scale while positioning them in the relevant literature. The discussion is structured around the four broad dimensions (i.e., Perceived Feminine Frivolity and Selfishness; Extra-familial Patriarchal Attitudes; Within-Family Patriarchal Attitudes; Perceived Feminine Weakness) of the scale as identified in the parent study. The insights offered by the different statements, along with their implications for gender-based violence, have been discussed.