Empowering tribal women: a comparative analysis of matrilineal and patrilineal societies in India

Abstract

Tribal societies are often considered egalitarian, especially in contrast to the hierarchical caste society. However, tribal societies are not homogeneous, as both matrilineal and patrilineal tribes exist in India. This study examines whether matrilineal tribal women from Meghalaya are more empowered than patrilineal tribal women from Assam. Using NFHS 2015–16 and 2019–21, a revised survey-based women’s empowerment index (SWPER) is created to measure empowerment in four domains: attitude to violence, freedom of movement, decision-making and social independence. Multivariate regression was used for further analysis. The analysis reveals that while both groups of women had positive scores in the attitude to violence domain, patrilineal tribal women were more empowered in this domain. In contrast, matrilineal tribal women were more empowered in freedom of movement and decision-making power. However, in social independence, women from both societies were poorly empowered and the situation was worse for women from patrilineal society. After adjusting for other demographic and socioeconomic variables, societal lineage structure became insignificant in freedom of movement. This study highlights that while matrilineal societal lineage provides a means of descent rights from mother to daughter, this does not necessarily translate to an improvement in overall empowerment across all aspects of life. Empowerment for the tribal women is an interplay of lineage structure, tradition, geography and socioeconomic conditions. Policymakers can address socioeconomic disparities for women from both societies by implementing skill-building and social support networks for women.

Keywords

• Women empowerment
• matrilineal
• patrilineal
• tribal women
• SWPER index
• India