Gender Prejudice and Discrimination

Gender prejudice means judging someone unfairly because of their gender. Gender discrimination occurs when this attitude becomes unfair treatment. For example, assuming that women are incapable of religious leadership is prejudice; refusing a woman a religious role simply because she is a woman is discrimination.

Gender equality means recognising equal worth and allowing equal rights and opportunities. It does not require everyone to have the same abilities or make the same choices. Hindu opposition to discrimination often begins with the argument that bodily differences do not make one person spiritually more valuable than another.

Spiritual worth is not determined by gender

The atman is the spiritual self or soul. Many Hindus argue that the body has a gender, but the atman does not. On this interpretation, judging someone’s spiritual worth by whether they are male or female mistakes an outward characteristic for their deepest identity.

Belief in karma, intentional action and its consequences, also gives a reason to oppose discrimination. Deliberately harming someone or denying them opportunities because of their gender is negative action. Respecting their spiritual worth should therefore affect how they are treated, not remain only an abstract belief.

Reverence for the feminine divine offers another argument. The Hindu teacher Ramakrishna (1836–1886) taught that “All women are the embodiments of Sakti.” Shakti is divine power, understood here as feminine. He encouraged reverence towards women rather than viewing them as objects for personal enjoyment. This teaching supports respect for women’s dignity, although reverence alone does not guarantee equal opportunities in everyday life.

Bhagavad Gita 6.29–32: seeing others with an equal eye

The Bhagavad Gita presents Krishna teaching Arjuna. In chapter 6, Krishna describes the outlook of a spiritually developed yogi, someone practising a path towards spiritual union. Verses 6.29–32 connect spiritual awareness with equal regard for living beings.

• 6.29: The true yogi sees all living beings in God and God in all living beings, looking upon them with an “equal eye”. Applied to gender, this supports the view that neither men nor women should be regarded as spiritually inferior.
• 6.30: Krishna says that those who see him everywhere and everything in him remain connected with him. Recognising the divine should extend beyond one’s own group: a person cannot consistently recognise God everywhere while dismissing people because of their gender.
• 6.31: The yogi worships Krishna as the Supreme Soul present in all beings and remains united with him while carrying out activities. Hindus can interpret this as a reason to carry spiritual respect into daily conduct, including decisions about education or religious responsibilities.
• 6.32: Krishna praises those who recognise the equality of living beings and respond to others’ joys and sorrows as if they were their own. This adds empathy to equal respect: another person’s suffering should matter to us.

These verses concern all living beings, rather than being a specific list of women’s rights. Hindus apply their wider principles to gender discrimination. For example, taking a girl’s disappointment at being denied education as seriously as one’s own disappointment gives a reason to challenge that exclusion.

Equality put into action: reform and education

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) used the spiritual equality of people to campaign for women’s rights. He challenged comparisons that measured women against men’s physical strength while overlooking women’s courage, patience and endurance. His argument was that different strengths do not establish that one gender is worth less than another.

Swaminarayan (1781–1830) opposed practices that harmed girls and women. He challenged sati, the practice of a widow dying on her husband’s funeral pyre, arguing that life was given by God and could be taken only by God. He also argued that sati had no sanction in the Vedas, Hindu sacred texts.

He offered parents help with dowry expenses to discourage female infanticide, the killing of baby girls, which he condemned as sinful. Dowry expenses were a financial pressure associated with marriage; offering practical help addressed a reason families might devalue daughters rather than merely condemning the outcome.

Within his movement, male followers arranged education for female family members. Women’s literacy increased, and women became able to give discourses on spiritual subjects. Education therefore widened women’s opportunities to participate in religious life.

Equality put into action: women priests

The contemporary Hindu spiritual leader Amma encourages and appoints women to perform Vedic rituals, chant Vedic mantras and take on priestly responsibilities. She also performs the consecration ceremonies that dedicate temples built by her ashram, a religious community.

Some people opposed these changes because the ceremonies had been performed only by men for generations. Amma defended them by arguing that the God they worship does not differentiate between male and female. Appointing women turns this belief into a practical change: gender no longer automatically excludes them from these religious responsibilities.

Belief and practice do not always match

Hindu communities are diverse. Some social traditions favour men, and some families value boys more highly for financial or social reasons. Many Hindus distinguish these inequalities from religious teachings about spiritual equality and work to challenge them.

The important connection is between belief, reason and action: the atman is beyond gender, so gender should not determine spiritual worth; God is present in all beings, so all deserve respect; others’ suffering matters, so discrimination should be challenged. Reformers show different ways of putting those principles into practice.