Institutions and individuals must look beyond the “male default” that treats the public domain as a male preserve, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud said on Monday, calling for a fundamental shift in societal mind sets and urging people to move away from making mere concessions for women to recognising their rightful entitlement to lead lives with freedom and equality.
The CJI’s keynote address at News18’s “She Shakti” event centered on the “male default” phenomenon, underlining that true equality requires dismantling ingrained gender biases, rather than viewing women’s participation as an additional element in male-dominated structures.
While there may be irony in a male speaker discussing women’s issues, justice Chandrachud said, the broader concerns of women’s safety, dignity, equality and empowerment are societal issues that impact the kind of future we envision. “Indifference is no longer an option,” stated the CJI, calling for collective responsibility in building a more equal and humane society.
Drawing extensively on the work of feminist thinkers such as Caroline Criado Perez, who described the “male default” as a societal framework that inherently positions men’s experiences as the norm, justice Chandrachud said that this bias permeates public life, policy and even data collection, leading to gender disparities that often go unnoticed.
He referenced the British tennis player Andy Murray, celebrated for ending a “77-year-long wait” for a British Wimbledon title, even though Virginia Wade had achieved that feat in 1977. Similarly, Murray was hailed as the first to win two Olympic gold medals, overlooking the achievements of Venus and Serena Williams, who had each won four.
“This is what Caroline Perez terms as the ‘male default’- a phenomenon that treats the public domain as a male preserve and disparages, discards, and erases women’s experiences to the contrary,” justice Chandrachud said. He stressed that this bias not only erases women’s contributions but also influences government planning and policy, resulting in male-centric solutions that fail to adequately address the needs of women.
The CJI advocated for recognising women’s entitlements rather than framing policies as mere concessions. Citing India’s constitutional framework, Chandrachud explained that while legal protections are crucial, they are not enough. The Indian Constitution, in its Preamble, guarantees equality of status and opportunity, alongside the fundamental right to non-discrimination on the basis of sex, said the CJI even as he pointed out: “Good laws alone do not make for a just society. Above all, we need to change our mind sets.”
Justice Chandrachud asserted that mind sets must shift away from treating laws designed for women’s protection as restrictive or patronising. He cited the Supreme Court judgment in of Anuj Garg Vs Hotel Association (2008), where a law that prohibited women’s employment in establishments where liquor was served was struck down, deeming it an expression of “oppressive cultural norms” that infringed upon women’s autonomy.
CJI Chandrachud also called on institutions and leadership to challenge the male-dominated frameworks in which women often have to justify their choices in ways men do not. He pointed to the judiciary’s own experience, highlighting the increasing number of women entering the civil services and the judiciary through competitive exams. However, he lamented that institutional apathy and even hostility continue to plague women’s professional lives, leading to stagnation and high attrition rates.
“The result is high attrition rates and professional stagnation in entry-level and mid-level roles for women. The World Economic Forum flags what is known as the ‘male leadership blueprint,’ which refers to a set of masculine attributes that are associated with effective leadership and how this idea may well be contrary to reality,” he noted.
The CJI further referred to economist Karthik Muralidharan’s proposal for a digital Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS), which could create a more transparent and equitable system for promotions and career progression. He pointed out that mentorship and networking opportunities, which are often inaccessible to women due to gendered social structures, must be addressed to build a diverse pipeline of leaders.
Justice Chandrachud paid homage to Hansa Mehta, the feminist icon who played a pivotal role in drafting the Indian Women’s Charter of Rights in 1946 and in shaping the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He noted that Mehta’s vision was revolutionary, as it portrayed women not as passive recipients of welfare but as active contributors to the nation’s reconstruction. Mehta’s insistence on replacing the term “men” with “human beings” in the Declaration was, according to the CJI, a crucial step in challenging the male-centric view of humanity.
