Gender Attitudes in Indian Society

The economic rewards enjoyed by India’s emerging middle class have taken much of the age-old pressures off of young and middle-aged Indian women. Opportunities for professional jobs and employment outside the home have breathed new life into the fight for gender equality. Arranged marriages are becoming rarer as young career-oriented men and women strike out on their own in search of spouses. Dating and matrimony services are a growth industry in all of India’s major cities. The odds are good that these are the men and women a Fortune 100 U.S. executive will encounter in the boardrooms and executive cafeterias during his or her next trip to India. But is this really the India that executives of most small and medium U.S. companies will be doing business with? Not in the near future, I’m afraid.