Do you also feel that feminism and living life by your own rules haven’t reached tier-2 cities yet? Patriarchy is still practiced and embraced by both men and women for their own benefits. It's frustrating tbh..

An observation about my area: I live in a tier-2 city with decent infrastructure and good schools, but average colleges.

What I see is that only a few women understand the idea of being independent and living life by their own rules. I myself, being a NEET aspirant, know only one girl from my locality who cleared NEET.

Most of the girls around me, aged 16-17, are already imagining life after marriage and how they will literally serve in married life. Most of them do end up getting married at 22-23 or right after graduation. And A lot of them score very low marks in 10th and 12th and don’t think of utilising the opportunities given to them. They enrol in average courses that have zero to no scope after graduating.

Most women remain dependent on their husbands and don’t think about what will happen if things go south after marriage. The only goal seems to be marrying a well-settled husband. Girls who marry into rich families, where they don’t even have to do household work because it’s done by maids, are idealised as the perfect rishta.

Men benefit from this because their wives are heavily dependent on them, and the women somehow end up being voiceless in big decisions at home. Men also prefer marrying younger girls so they can mould them according to their own ways.