Giv­en that women make up near­ly half of the total pop­u­la­tion of South Asians in the Unit­ed States, gen­der equi­ty is a crit­i­cal goal with­in the South Asian com­mu­ni­ty that groups and indi­vid­u­als are increas­ing­ly bring­ing to the fore­front of advo­ca­cy. Sig­nif­i­cant dis­par­i­ties among men and women of South Asian descent are evi­dent along sev­er­al dif­fer­ent vari­ables, includ­ing edu­ca­tion, pres­ence in the work­force, annu­al income, and lim­it­ed Eng­lish pro­fi­cien­cy. For exam­ple, more than twice as many South Asian men earn more than $57,000 than women, while twice as many South Asian women earn less than $12,500 than men. In the labor force, South Asian women are sig­nif­i­cant­ly under­rep­re­sent­ed in com­par­i­son to men, par­tic­u­lar­ly among Indi­ans and Pak­ista­nis.  Final­ly, as over one-fourth of South Asian women are lim­it­ed Eng­lish pro­fi­cient, lan­guage bar­ri­ers are anoth­er fac­tor that con­tributes to the dis­em­pow­er­ment of South Asian women in the Unit­ed States.

In addi­tion to these incred­i­ble dis­par­i­ties in gen­der equi­ty in the South Asian com­mu­ni­ty, there are numer­ous issues of impor­tance fac­ing South Asian women in the Unit­ed States.  Some of the most seri­ous of these issues include domes­tic vio­lence, traf­fick­ing, transna­tion­al aban­don­ment, repro­duc­tive rights, access to men­tal health ser­vices, and eco­nom­ic dis­em­pow­er­ment. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, many South Asian women face one of these issues and, quite fre­quent­ly, they may face more than one of these issues, as sev­er­al of them over­lap. Addi­tion­al­ly, these issues are often com­pli­cat­ed and exac­er­bat­ed by the chal­lenges faced by those who are undoc­u­ment­ed or whose sta­tus is depen­dent on anoth­er individual.

Though none of these issues will be resolved in a short peri­od of time, SAALT strives to move for­ward our com­mu­ni­ty and soci­ety at large in address­ing them. SAALT advo­cates to address and pre­vent gen­der-based vio­lence and exploita­tion with­in the South Asian com­mu­ni­ty, increase cul­tur­al­ly and lin­guis­ti­cal­ly appro­pri­ate ser­vices for South Asian women, and sup­port the eco­nom­ic empow­er­ment of South Asian women. SAALT firm­ly believes that until our women are equal, safe, and have access to oppor­tu­ni­ties and ser­vices, we will not live in a just soci­ety for all.

SAALT Resources on Gender Justice

• Com­ment by SAALT and oth­er South Asian orga­ni­za­tions regard­ing the Pro­posed Rule on Employ­ment Autho­riza­tion for Cer­tain H‑4 Depen­dent Spous­es (July 2014)
• NCSO South Asian Women Orga­ni­za­tions & Allies State­ment  (Jan­u­ary 2013)
• Com­ment by SAALT and oth­er orga­ni­za­tions on Eli­gi­bil­i­ty or Employ­ment Autho­riza­tion for Bat­tered Spous­es of Cer­tain Non­im­mi­grants  (Jan­u­ary 2013)
• Joint AAPI Let­ter Regard­ing VAWA 2012 (H.R. 4970) (May 2012)

Ally Organizations

• Saathi of Rochester 
• Sakhi for South Asian Women 
• Turn­ing Point 
• Man­avi 
• Sne­ha 
• ASHA for Women 
• Rak­sha 
• Apna Ghar 
• Maitri 
• Nari­ka