Earlier this week, I was on a national TV panel to discuss the Women’s Reservation Bill. Along the expected lines, the most interesting and thought-provoking lines were spoken in the green room, before and after the show. A bunch of middle-aged women, displaying different political affiliations and proclivities, quickly moved from realpolitik and policy to other things. Like, discussing how their younger nieces were dressing up for parties. How it was easier to raise boys these days. How “innocence” is getting lost as early as primary school. “Vulgarity”. “Obscenity”. “My body, my right”.

Why are we so quick at trash-talking our daughters and nieces and their friends and every other young girl? The phenomenon of older women criticising younger women’s clothing and sexual behaviour is nothing new. But it is more than hypocrisy or internalised misogyny. A useful starting point is the concept of patriarchal bargaining, articulated by Deniz Kandiyoti. Women across generations have had to navigate systems that reward conformity and punish deviance. For many older women, especially those who came of age under stricter........

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