Tradition Versus Transformation: Psychological Attitudes Towards Women’s Empowerment in India

Abstract

Debates on women’s empowerment in India are often framed as a contest between tradition and transformation. This article argues that the contest takes place not only between social groups but within individual minds. People hold values that pull in both directions. Drawing on Schwartz’s theory of basic human values and moral foundations theory, the article treats tradition and transformation as competing value systems. One prioritises conformity, security, loyalty, authority and purity; the other prioritises self-direction, universalism, care and fairness. It then examines how attitudes toward women’s empowerment are structured, with attention to attitudinal ambivalence, the gap between explicit and implicit attitudes, and gender schemas acquired in childhood. Evidence from national surveys and field research is reviewed to show how attitudes vary by gender, generation, education, region and residence. The article identifies psychological sources of resistance to transformation, including perceived threat to status and identity, psychological reactance and the tendency to defend familiar social arrangements. It also identifies pathways that facilitate change, including value-congruent framing, peer influence, experience-based learning and the integration of traditional and egalitarian values. The article concludes that transformation in India is likely to be most durable when it is presented as consistent with, rather than opposed to, values that people already hold dear.