Women - Then and now !!

I read an article about Should women be allowed to serve alcohol? With all these equal rights for women, where are we heading towards? I've been a town girl for 21 years. I had learnt to adopt the modernization but still clinged on to certain moral values. As soon as I completed my degree, I enrolled for an MS at MIT, Chennai. That was my experience in a city and life was so different. Girls smoking.. huh? Within a year, I got a job and was transferred to Pune. What a contrast it was to my small home town !! After my US experience, I'm thinking on a question..Do women degrade themselves in the name of modernization? How has the western world influenced us? The first time, I saw women drinking and dancing in a party in Pune, I was astonished/ashamed. So a few weeks back when the same happened in US, I took it so easily. One of my collegues(girl) said "Come on, Pavithra, its just beer...it doesn't have alcohol...try it". I politely said "No, thanks". She asked me a question, "When men drink why can't women? There is lot of discrimination in this society". Drinking itself is wrong and even men should not be doing it. I politely tried to explain to her that a woman's womb is considered equivalent to the "Garpa Graha" where God resides. She is considered sacred and should have some basic values. She'll get her due respect only when she lives upto the mark. I don't know if she really understood !! I need to definitely say about our men in US. The same guy, who used to stand 5 inches away from me when I was in Chennai has changed completely. But, an american guy here sees an Indian woman with more respect. I'm just afraid even their tendency might change in the coming years !! Personally, I feel equality should not be in Smoking, Drinking Alcohol or Flirting. Then, Women were made to beleive that their only purpose in life was to serve others. Now, women realize they have a life for themselves. Family was their first concern and they had no worldly knowledge and beleived exactly what their elders/husband told them. Now, they have their points of view. Then, they were spiritual and spent most of the time reading moral stories/epics. Now, they want to analyze the meaning of these stories and do something back instead of just telling those to their children. Then, a lot of customs were forced on them and they accepted it as their fate. Now, women, no longer, accept things which their mind refuses to accept. They protest. Then, women never wanted to have a girl child, may be they did not like the way thier life was. Now, things are changing. Then, they did not have a voice to choose their life. Now, they are mature enough to choose their way of life and handle the problems they face. Women, today, have more self-respect. But have considerably reduced tolerance levels !! Once my collegue told me "God has his value only as long as he is in the temple. Outside it's just stone". Though, that comparison sounds bad..Is it true that women would have been better cooking and caring for their family in their house than what they're doing today? With double income families, expenditures have tripled, divorces have quadrupled and happiness and peace have halved. Old age homes and child care centres have increased in number considerably. Who should be blamed? Updated : Since, I wanted to know all your points of view, I restrained from using my point of view and just gave incidents. "Change" is the only word that remains constant. Every change has both positive and negative effects. In today's world, a woman who says "house-wife" is considered as one who is not able to utilize her time effectively. Those days, cooking itself would keep women occupied. Now with the invention of electrical appliances a lot of time is saved. Mixer, Grinder, Dish washer, Vacuum cleaner, Washing machine have reduced the work of women. Husbands required their wive's attention and would literally do no work..now men have changed 100%. Cooking and managing the house alone are not a woman's job. Some women take up a profession be it a doctor, engineer, teacher, nurse, ...anything which is useful to the society. Others can also keep themselves occupied by helping lending help in some form than wasting time in watching TV serials or gossips !! This gives us a lot of self confidence and a sense of satisfaction. For some its money and necessity for others its just satisfaction. Divorces have quadrupled..I think, then men were intolerant now women are also moving towards it. This intolerance explains the reason for old age homes. And indirectly, due to the demise of the joint family system, the reason for child care centres.