How did large-scale participation of women in the Civil Disobedience Movement become an important feature?

  • During Gandhi’s salt march, thousands of women came out from their homes to listen to him.
  • They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt and picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops.
  • Many went to jail in urban areas.
  • They considered service to the nation as a sacred duty of women.
  • Yet, increased public role did not necessarily mean any radical change in the way the position of women was visualised. And for a long time, the Congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position of authority within the organisation. It was keen only on their symbolic presence.