Nurturer or the hunter?

The intrinsic strength of a woman since the beginning has been that of a procreator and nurturer, and that of a man has been of a provider and protector. This by no means implies that these roles cannot overlap or not be carried out efficiently by either of them. Also both the roles are equally important and demand the same level of respect. However, our Indian society seems to devalue the role of women and places more value on the economic aspect of the role of a man. This years of lopsided psychological mindset has in turn not only given women an inferiority complex ( especially in the absence of education and prevalence of poverty) but has also led to an insidious attack on their very existence at birth. The minute a daughter is born the societal expectations of what is demanded from a girl's parents jumps into the mind--- she will marry and leave as opposed to a son who will not. This means that she is an expensive liability with dowry to be given and not an asset who will add to the economic well being of the family. This mindset is really absurd. We need to change this psyche. Son or daughter, both, will eventually have lives and families of their own. It is not necessary that sons will always be living with you. Also why should the financial burden of a girl's marriage should be that of her family only. Why dowry? Why should marriages be occasions of financial excesses? Unless woman don't start valuing themselves as individuals and stand up to fight these norms they will continue to pass this complex down to their daughters. We need to educate our women, make our sons more sensitive and respectful of women and quit thinking that marriage should be the goal of every girl's life.  If we don't stop marginalizing women in our society future generations will inherit a skewed population where the tender, gentle, nurturing,spiritual influence of a wife, mother, daughter and friend will be lost.