There is no one experience of womanhood. But there is an aggregate — a collective experience, and collective cost to society. The statistics below combine to provide a bird’s eye view of female life in India. It is, of course, a select view; just as there is no single, universal experience of what it means to be female, there is no single way to measure the sum of one life or many. We could have added many more stats; we could have focused on fewer. But the story they tell is unlikely to be that much different.

Conception and birth

 School

Work and ownership

Marriage and family

Pregnancy and health

Old age