Atrocities On Women
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violence against women
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Perspectives on Gender Inequality:
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biological, cultural,
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Marxist, Feminist and
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Postmodernist.
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Gender based division of labour/work:
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Production v/s reproduction,
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Domestic work,
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Feminization of Work
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Women in India :
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Status of women in contemporary India
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Women’s Movement – A Historical Background
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Women’s Movement in India
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Movement against dowry
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Movement against rape
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Anti-tadi movement
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Ecology-Feminism-Women and Environment
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Women’s Movement in Contemporary India
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Constitutional provisions and State initiatives.
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Gender Issues :
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health education,
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Land Rights,
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Personal Law and
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Hindu Law
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Muslim Personal Law
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Women and Civil Code
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Laws relating to marriage
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Dowry
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Divorce
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Adoption and guardianship of children
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Inheritance
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Uniform Civil Code,
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Empowerment and Development (WID, WAD, GAD),
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Empowerment and Development
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Concept of Development
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Need for women empowerment
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Women and Development
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Family Planning and Birth Control
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Ecology, violence.
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Nature, extent and characteristics of violence against women
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criminal violence
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Women and Ecology
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Women and Environment
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Gender Differences in the Experience of Nature
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Ecology of Patriarchy
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Gender and Disability
single post
- There are different forms of crime against women or Atrocities On Women
.Sometimes, it starts even before their birth, sometimes in adulthood and other phrases of life. In Indian society, the position of a woman is always considered in relation to a man since birth and she is dependent on a man at every stage of life. This belief has given rise to various social customs and practices. An important manifestation of these customs and practices has been the practice of Sati. It is seen as the pinnacle of achievement for a woman. This practice of self-immolation of a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre was a centuries-old practice in some parts of the Kingdom, which attained divinity. The popular belief was that the goddess enters the body of a woman who takes a vow to become a sati. The practice of sati was abolished by law in the early decades of the nineteenth century at the initiative of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. However, in the last few decades there has been a significant resurgence of the practice of sati.
- Male violence against women is a worldwide phenomenon. Although every woman
may not have experienced, and many do not expect, but fear of violence is a significant factor in most women’s lives. It determines what they do, when they do it, where they do it and with whom they do it. Fear of violence is one of the reasons for women’s lack of participation in activities outside and inside the home. Within the home, women and girls may be subjected to physical and sexual abuse as punishment or in the form of culturally appropriate attacks. These actions shape their outlook on life and their expectations of themselves
- Violence against women or Atrocities On Women inside and outside the home has been an important issue in contemporary Indian society. Women in India constitute almost half of the population and most of them are grinding under the socio-cultural and religious structures. From time immemorial, the social, economic, political and religious fabric of India has been controlled by one gender.
- The condition of widows is one of the most neglected social issues in India. Widowhood diminishes the quality of life of many Indian women. Three percent of all Indian women are widows, and on average, elderly widows have an 86 percent higher death rate than married women of the same age group. Various studies indicate that (i) legal rights of widows are violated, (ii) they face forced social isolation, (iii) they have limited freedom to marry, and (iv) limited employment for widows. (v) Most of the widows have very little financial support from their family or community.
- It is common to read news everyday about violations or wrongdoings done on women. Our conservative society is so prejudiced by age-old habits and customs that a victim woman, whether forced or coerced, has no place in the society.
- Another danger in India is that Indian law does not differentiate between major and minor rape. Of every ten rape cases, six are of minor girls. There is a crime against women every seven minutes in India. A woman is molested every 26 minutes. There is a rape every 34 minutes. There is a sexual assault incident every 42 minutes. Every 43 minutes a woman is kidnapped. And every 93 minutes a woman is burnt to death for dowry. One-quarter of reported rapes involve girls under 16, but most cases are never reported. Although fines are severe, convictions are rare.
- Max Radin defined dowry as property that a man receives at the time of marriage from his wife or her family. Dowry can be broadly defined as the gifts and valuables received at the wedding by the bride, groom and her relatives. The amount of dowry is governed by factors such as the service and salary of the boy, the social and economic status of the girl’s father, the social standing of the boy’s family, the educational qualifications of the girl and the boy, whether the girl works and her salary, the beauty of the girl and the boy. Is. and characteristics, future prospects of economic security, size and composition of the girl’s and boy’s family and such factors. The special thing is that the girl’s parents not only give her money and gifts at the time of her marriage but also keep giving gifts to her husband’s family throughout her life. McKim Marriott believes that the sentiment behind this is that the daughter and sister at the time of marriage become helpless to a foreign kinship group and that lavish hospitality is offered to her in-laws from time to time to secure her good treatment. Should be known
- One of the reasons for dowry is the desire and aspiration of every parent to get their daughter married in a high and prosperous family so that it can maintain its prestige and also prove comfort and security to the daughter. Higher marriage-market prices for boys belonging to families of wealth and high social status increased the amount of dowry.
- Another reason for the existence of dowry is that giving dowry is a social practice and it is very difficult to change the customs suddenly. The feeling is that the practice of rituals generates and strengthens solidarity and harmony among people. Many people give and take dowry because their parents and forefathers have been practicing dowry. The practice has stereotyped the age-old dowry system and people will stick with it until some rebellious youth gathers the courage to end it and girls resist societal pressures to give it.
- Among Hindus, marriage within the same caste and sub-caste is determined by social and religious practices, as a result of which the choice of selecting a partner is always restricted. This results in a dearth of young boys who have promising careers in high paying jobs or professions. They become scarce commodities and their parents demand huge sums of money from the girl’s parents to accept her as their daughter-in-law, as girls and property have to be bargained for. However, their disadvantage is further compounded by the practice of marriage within the same caste.
- Some people give more dowry just to show their high social and economic status. For example, Jains and Rajputs spend lakhs of rupees on their daughters’ weddings, just to show off their high status.
or to maintain their reputation in the society, even if they have to borrow money.
- The most important reason for taking dowry by the groom’s parents is that they have to give dowry to their daughters and sisters. Naturally, they look to their sons’ dowries to fulfill their obligations in finding husbands for their daughters. For example, a person who may be against the dowry system is forced to take fifty to sixty thousand rupees in cash in dowry as he has to spend the same amount in the marriage of his sister or daughter. The vicious cycle ensues and the amount of dowry keeps on increasing till it reaches a scandalous proportion.
domestic violence
- An alarming finding from the World Development Report states that globally rape and domestic violence accounts for nearly 5% of the burden on women aged 15-44. The term domestic violence is preferred to family violence. A physical act, frightening event, or violent abuse can result in a variety of symptoms known as posttraumatic stress disorder. Evidence continues to show that the effects of these disorders can often be much greater and last much longer than the task or event itself. There is little information available in the form of books or academic essays on the whole issue of violence against women, despite the silence about non-physical acts of aggression such as verbal abuse and denial of food, education and care. While the statistics and reports provided by official sources and the media reinforce the view that this form of gender violence is becoming a feature of daily life in contemporary India, it is still in its infancy in research. Furthermore, about half of what is available pertains to violence within the family.
- Why is social differentiation and social stratification along sex lines a constant feature of social life? There are two conflicting sociological interpretations. Some give a cultural argument. These people, encouraged by women’s emancipators, attributed learning to all but the most obvious physical differences between the sexes. If Russian women, the argument goes, can load box cars and be doctors, why are these considered strange occupations for women in other cultures? Thus, the most important difference between men and women lies in their cultural heritage. Opposing these environmentalists are those who argue that the basic sexual division of labor (women working in the home, men working outside the home) finds its origin in inevitable biological facts.
- It is difficult for women to translate their learned interests in things like dolls, fashion, and homemaking into the skills they need to succeed in business, government, or the professions. It is infinitely easier for men to transition into the world of work because their many sporting activities—cowboys, astronauts, and sports—prepare them for the “man’s world.” As a result, many women never question their traditional social positions, some consciously choose marriage rather than employment, and others find the barriers to professional achievement in traditionally male positions too high and long. The socio-psychological cost of fighting is very high.
- Yet, in advanced industrialized countries, an increasing proportion of women are working outside the home. Because of this, discrimination against women in the labor market becomes more significant. A very small percentage of women reach higher levels in their professional lives. It is true that women have made significant legal gains.
- There are many reasons for this disparity between the sexes. First, women may choose marriage and family because their cultural background tells them it is the right path, or the difficulties they face while competing with men may lead them to go down this path. Second, despite strong currents of emancipation for women, they still have to give birth to children. Furthermore, they are still expected to handle their primary responsibility – the home – before pursuing a career. Attempting to strike a balance, both put women at an disadvantage. Third, because women may stop working
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Withering away for marriage or other family responsibilities;
- Employers are discouraged from placing them in responsible positions and investing money and training time in them. After all, it is primarily men who hire, fire, and reward women. of course, cultural
- Derived biases often cause men to evaluate and reward women on grounds unrelated to merit and performance. However it should be kept in mind that these are the current rules of the game; The future shows that autonomy is not destiny ((Sheppard: 1974)
- Carroll Gilligan developed an analysis of gender differences based on adult women’s and men’s images of themselves and their achievements (Gilligan: 1982). Women, she argues with Chodorow (1978), define themselves in terms of personal relationships, and judge their achievements in terms of their ability to care for others. traditional place of women in men’s life
It is more of a caregiver and friend. But the qualities developed in these pursuits are often devalued by men, who see their emphasis on personal achievement as the only form of ‘success’. Worrying about relationships on the part of women is often seen as a weakness rather than a strength.
- Gilligan conducted several in-depth interviews with nearly two hundred American women and men of varying ages and social backgrounds. He asked all the interviewees a series of questions related to their moral attitudes and self-concept. There were frequent differences between the views of women and men. For example, interviewees were asked: ‘What does it mean to say something is morally right or wrong?’ While men answered this question by referring to the abstract ideals of duty, justice, and personal freedom, women consistently raised the theme of helping others. Given the potential conflicts between following a strict moral code and avoiding harm to others, women were more tentative in their moral judgments than men. Gilligan suggests that this approach reflects the traditional position of women. Based on caring relationships rather than the ‘out-and-out’ attitude of men, women have in the past deferred to the judgments of men, even though they know they possess qualities that most men lack. Their view of themselves is based on successfully meeting the needs of others rather than on taking pride in personal achievement.
- This silence, in Patricia Oberoi’s opinion, is explained by a certain reluctance to subject the family and its intimate relationships to scrutiny. Also, if there is any data base on the nature and kind of violence that occurs behind closed doors, it has been largely formed. Because of the women’s movement and the activities of NGOs in the police. Patricia Oberoi believes that although the family is also a site of exploitation and violence, sociologists avoid issues of social pathology, at least in relation to the family.
- The family being a cultural norm and the focus of identity, its inviolability as an institution is reaffirmed by an environment that limits interaction and discourse between professional academics and activists. The situation is compounded by the fact that family concerns with propriety, dignity and reputation make it difficult for researchers who are interested in investigating violence within the household to gain access to those who pose as victims. it happens. A large percentage of available data on violence against women finds the family as a major cause of victimization and subsequent poor health and loss of identity. There is no doubt that marriage and family are essential stressors leading to mental illness in Indian women.
- Violence is usually an act of aggression in interpersonal contact or relationships. It can also be aggression of a woman towards herself such as suicide, self-mutilation, neglect of diseases, sex determination texts, denial of food etc. Indian scholars in the field of women’s studies have emphasized the dynamics of power and powerlessness involved in a violent act. It is a coercive mechanism to assert one’s will over another in order to prove or feel a sense of power.
- Perpetuation of violence by the powerless in retaliation against those in power against the powerless or coercion by others to deny their powerlessness. Govind Kelkar places violence against women in the socio-economic and political context of power relations. According to him, the idea that violence is an act of illegal criminal force is insufficient and must include forms of exploitation, discrimination, maintaining unequal economic and social structures, creating a climate of terror, threats or retaliation, and religio-cultural forms. and political violence. This definition of violence finds relevance in a hierarchical society based on exploitative gender relations. Violence often becomes a tool to socialize family members according to prescribed norms of behavior within the overall perspective of male dominance and control. Physical violence as well as less overt forms of aggression are used as ways to ensure their obedience.
- The female body is both an object of desire and control at every stage of the life cycle. Women in most parts of India enter an already structured world as strangers, which generates its own tensions and conflicts in the loyalties and commitments of men already concerned. According to M. S. Gore, the two main causes of tension in the joint family are the difficulty in socializing the female members in developing a strong marital bond and developing a community outlook and sense of identity with the family groups. Conflicting identities are particularly important in the current context for understanding the external dynamics of a group united by blood and living with other families.
- Arguing that the family, more than the caste system, is responsible for reproducing inequalities within society, Andre Beteille feels that the entire family, despite a number of psychological failings, can pass on its cultural and social capital to its younger members. Works towards delivery. this inequality a family
Embedded in an oppressive framework of ideology committed to an age and gender hierarchy that operates within a household. who will
- Access to which scarce resource of capital is thus determined by gender as well as the age of the family member.
- Girls are often the victims of such discrimination as families develop coping mechanisms over the sharing of resources. There is discrimination and violence at all levels, especially against girls and later women of the household, be it at birth or in marriage. Marriage is considered universally necessary for a girl in India regardless of class, caste, religion and ethnicity as the control of her sexuality and its safe transfer into the hands of her husband is of prime importance. The persistence of a dominant family ideology that links a strict sexual division of labor and age and gender hierarchies means that young wives have to invest considerable time and energy in forming new relationships, not all of which are caring or benevolent. are not. These take precedence over all other relationships in the house of birth. It is a common saying that a girl is someone else’s money or someone else’s money. It not only establishes the notion of belonging but also that a girl child is wealth that belongs elsewhere.
- In marriage traditions the bride is a vehicle for the passage of valuables from her kin to her husband. The unequal nature of marital relations sanctified by the exchange of significant gifts, rituals and expectations set the parameters for later intra-family behavior patterns. Within this framework of matrimonial and conjugal relations many women try to carve out a space for themselves to assert their individuality. This often leads to intra-couple discord over roles and the woman’s search for her own identity.
- An important part of the power relationship between husband and wife and their families related to dowry and its implications. In the Indian context the primacy of structural disparity between the two families and the resulting burden of gift-giving on the bride’s family reinforces the inequality. Madhu Kishwar feels that harassment of wives for bringing insufficient dowry is another pretext for violence against them and that even without the added allure of dowry, inter-caste violence is endemic. The payment of dowry does not in itself turn the girls into a burden, but dowry creates some burden on the daughters because the daughters are unwanted from the beginning. Middle-class parents who are asked to pay lakhs as capitation fees for sons in medical or engineering colleges do not see them as a burden, but set aside a similar amount for daughters’ marriage. Kind of considered.
- Ranjana Kumari remarked that dowry is inextricably linked with the general status of women in society. According to a survey conducted by her, the dowry-related murders followed two patterns – first young brides were either murdered or forced to commit suicide when their parents yielded to constant dowry demands. refused. Other murders were also carried out on the pretext of complicated family relations. The conflict escalated as young brides refused to bow down to proposals made by father-in-law, uncle-uncle or brother-in-law. There were also cases where wives accused husbands of being impotent. Ranjana Kumari also found that dowry giving and taking is universal across caste, religion and income groups. Its role in promoting violence within the home is significant. The fact remains that dissatisfaction with dowry payment and subsequent appearances leads to exploitation of the wife not only by her husband but also by other relatives.
- Abuse of wives and wife or wife beating is the most common form of abuse across the world irrespective of class, religion and community and caste background within India. It is not a woman’s dependency that makes her particularly vulnerable, even a wife in a high status job can be beaten. Battered women are also seen as lacking self-esteem and confidence, and as apathetic and nervous. In a detailed discussion of wife abuse, Flavia Agnes refutes the popular myths surrounding the incidence of wife-beating in India, such as that middle-class women are not battered, that the victims of violence are small, fragile, helpless working-class women. And a wife beater is someone who is frustrated in his job, an alcoholic, or aggressive in his relationships.
- According to the data provided by the organization Saheli it is clear that wife beating was common across all social classes as it is a reflection of the power relationship between a husband and wife which reflects the secondary social status of a woman. However, the pattern of violence varies from class to class, with a slum dweller beating his wife, while a middle class professional physically assaulting his wife is extremely personal in nature. Marital rape is another area that is rarely talked about and discussed in India. This is a common occurrence in most marriages and goes unreported
- According to Meenakshi Thapan, even in love marriages, women have internalized notions of the perfect female body and femininity, as a result of which they are often oppressed.
are involved in the mechanisms of sexual attraction, especially those aspects related to physical and sexual attraction.
are involved in the mechanisms of sexual attraction, especially those aspects related to physical and sexual attraction.
are implicated in the mechanisms of sexual attraction, especially those aspects that relate to physical and sexual attraction.
It is ironic that the family, which is supposed to be a refuge against all odds, becomes the arena of legitimate physical and mental abuse of women. While the legal and police systems have become more receptive to some excesses, many remain unaccounted for, invisible and repressed.
- In all societies the difference between men and women has been converted into social discrimination. Sex is used everywhere as a basis for social action. Social differentiation by gender has implications for the stratification structure in general. Although some societies have displayed a reasonable equality between the sexes, the most common historical experience has been the dominance of men over women.
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- Violence is often used as a tool to make family members behave according to prescribed norms and rules and in the overall context of male dominance and control in India. The family and its operational unit – the household are places where suppression and deprivation of individual rights is a part of the structure of consent and obedience. Physical violence as well as other forms of aggression are used to ensure obedience, mostly from married women and children. The term domestic violence is preferred over the term family violence as the former refers to violence within the home or physical space of the home. Domestic violence can be differential treatment of family members based on their gender that can lead to physical impairment or emotional trauma – such as girls with inadequate nutrition, sexual abuse, wife-beating or intimate partner violence in relation to boys even dowry again
- Delayed abuse, etc. Domestic violence includes the following:
- • Physical violence including slapping, kicking, beating, hitting, pushing, choking, burning and threats and assault with a weapon.
- • sexual violence, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape;
- • psychological abuse including humiliation, humiliation, threats, isolation and abandonment;
- • Financial abuse which includes deprivation of material goods, control of money and control of property.
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- Different forms of domestic violence can exist:
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- 1. Intimate terrorism- This form is almost entirely perpetrated by men and is found in studies of women who suffer long-term abuse and harassment from their husbands.
- 2. Violent Resistance: The form of violence that some victims of intimate terrorism use to resist the control of their partner.
- 3. Situational couple violence: It does not come from one partner’s need to exert control over the other, but stems from certain circumstances or situations that lead to tension and conflict.
- Wife beating is the most common form of abuse across the world, irrespective of class, community and religion and even caste background. It has been argued that it is not only a woman’s dependency that makes her vulnerable to violence, but working women are also subjected to domestic violence. An important feature of intimate partner violence or domestic abuse is that many women do not report or even acknowledge it as abuse. The occasional slap or reprimand is taken for granted as part of being a woman and it is only when the abuse is extremely violent or life-threatening that women seek help. There is a wide tolerance for wife-beating and certain reasons are also considered to be justifiable- eg, disobedience, neglect of domestic duties etc. That’s when the Delhi-based organization Saheli came out with its findings that wife-beating was common across social classes. The difference was in the pattern of violence that was followed by the different classes. For example, the beating of a woman in a slum was witnessed by all the residents, whereas the beating of a middle-class wife was secret and suppressed.
- Marital rape is another form of violence under the umbrella of domestic violence and it is a very quiet topic. Like child rape, marital rape is also under-reported and women mostly don’t talk about it. So far, India has not passed any law to include rape as an issue within marriage. This is an extreme form of sexual abuse.
- From the 1980s, feminists developed new organizations and new institutions, inspired by endemic violence against women. Till now, violence against women was not a new topic or phenomenon that arose during the colonial period. It was present in pre-colonial India as well with reports of dowry death and sati or widow sacrifice, but whenever feminists raised these issues, they were repurposed to serve some or the other male political agenda. I went. Sati became not a women’s issue but a religious issue. During the freedom struggle, whenever women raised the issue of domestic violence, they were asked to focus on the nationalist struggle, and after independence, women were asked to give priority to nation building.
- Initially, domestic violence cases were plagued by poor legislation and slow litigation. Police viewed domestic violence as a family or ‘private’ matter
She often used her chambers as a place for mediation and conciliation. Such indifference to domestic violence has led to more and more women making false or exaggerated allegations of dowry harassment, as the anti-dowry laws promised legal
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- Action against abusive husbands: Dowry Death Act (Section 498A) and Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act of 2005. Introduction of new law criminalizing violence in the home has been successfully passed. The law does not differentiate between married and unmarried couples and instead focuses on intimate partner violence. One of the more important features of the 2005 Act was to secure the rights of women in-laws in the event of eviction or abandonment. It provides protection against confiscation of her property as well as protection against harassment by the husband towards the wife or her family members. The Act significantly changed the way the public viewed domestic violence (Menon, 2008). It has been the first comprehensive state response to domestic violence and puts the concept of human rights at the heart of gender relations and the family. It redefines the boundaries of privacy and the extent of public interference (Nandi, 2013).
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Honor Killings:
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- Honor killing is an act of retribution or retribution, usually committed by a male member of a family against a female member who is believed to have dishonored the family or community. This alleged disrespect may be for one of the following reasons: (1) goi
- Against cultural norms of dressing and behavior or conduct. (2) wish to end their arranged marriage or enter into a marriage of their own choice, especially an inter-caste marriage; (3) engaging in sexual activity outside marriage; (4) Indulging in non-sexual relations considered inappropriate. Honor-based violence such as acid throwing and honor killings occurs in societies where there are collective notions of honor and shame. Such crimes are usually justified as protection of traditional values and social norms. At the core of these norms is the woman, whose control of sexuality and its gift in marriage is of intrinsic importance to who controls her reproductive and productive labor, which is vital to patriarchal forces. Therefore, honor and shame are often associated with the expected behavior of families and individuals, especially women. In this sense respect revolves around the public perception of individuals rather than their actual behavior. Being the cause of a scandal or the subject of gossip in your community or group usually results in an offense against the honor of your family and extended community.
- According to Chowdhary (2007), the criteria for arranging marriages in India depend on adherence to prescribed caste, class and other marriage norms. Violation of these norms is not tolerated and provokes violent reaction from the communities. In matters of marriage, the pervasive ideology of patriarchy, kinship and caste is further compounded by the ideology of guardianship of women, i.e. a woman, whether minor or adult, is always under the guardianship, typically of a male guardian—the father. , husband and son. Violation is seen as very dangerous in the ideology of guardianship as it can mean a potential loss of control over a woman’s reproductive and productive labour. The assertion of one’s choice in marriage is seen as an affront to even the most virtuous concepts of modesty and chastity. situations in which
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- Marriages are arranged by senior members of the family, an independent claim or love-marriage disrupts the family hierarchy and power relations within the family as well as the social hierarchy. There is a huge increase in conflict and violence when these individual claims to marriage are inter-caste in nature. The overwhelming concern with ethnic endogamy outweighs all other traditional concerns regarding marriages.
- In rural areas, most inter-caste marriage alliances are settled at two levels: the immediate family, its kinship network, and/or at the level of the community functioning through the traditional panchayat; and by a state that functions on modern egalitarian principles. community or
- ‘Fraternity’ functions through open displays of disapproval and through actions such as social and physical ostracism of family and individuals who are perceived to have violated norms and punishment for serious violations In this case, the punishment may increase for violent and public murders that may involve the whole community – such as lynching, burning, hanging, etc. In the case of the state, which operates through local police, these crimes are often ‘ is recorded as a ‘sex offence’, with charges of abduction, abduction and rape on the male- away or eloping couple. The eloped couple thus become fugitives of the state and are chased and on being caught, the girl is usually tortured to implicate her husband as a kidnapper and rapist. The reason why the state apparatus functions in this way is simple – the state apparatus is also made up of people drawn from local areas who hold the views and beliefs of the local community.
have been drawn (Chaudhary, 2007).
- Contentious marriages and relationships are a reflection of tensions in society. In Chowdhury’s view, such pairings raise unexpected questions against traditional authority, power, legitimacy and law. By expressing their own agency in their acts, they only activate other sources of power as opposed to traditional sources which lead to conflict between traditional and non-traditional sources and in the process lead to violent lash-back from the former. give birth to
- Despite legislations and state intervention, the notion of family privacy remains prominent among subjects’ attitudes and perceptions. According to the 2009 Monitoring and Evaluation Report, 86% of security officers in Rajasthan and over 50% in Delhi agreed with the statement that ‘domestic violence is a family affair’. These studies, replicated in 2012 by the lawyer’s collective Women’s Rights Initiative and ICRW, have shown that more than half of officers still agree with the statement and also believe that the purpose of counseling under the PWDVA is to save families from breaking up. Despite conciliation and conciliation, the Act states that only and if the court is of the opinion that counseling can end violence and lead to empowerment of the woman, the court should direct counseling (Nandi,
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, It becomes clear that even such a law has not infringed on the privacy of the family, but at the same time it is questioning patriarchy in its private sphere by opening the law to include unmarried couples and couples of any gender .
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- In the Indian socio-cultural imagination, the family occupies a special place of personal veneration and idealization that is seen outside the purview of laws and state-led reforms. With years of feminist activism and women’s rights movements, the state finally enacted state-of-the-art laws against domestic violence informed by feminist thought and a human rights perspective but also showed that public regulations can be rendered ineffective by current notions of privacy that Promote and perpetuate a culture of silence on issues of family violence. Part of the reason the institution of the family is still entrenched in a culture of secrecy and intimacy, or that remains outside the purview of public scrutiny, is the high moral, cultural and political stature allotted to the heteronormative family unit, which is protected by law and Perpetually validated by religion. The sources of violence against women lie in personal and secular laws restricting women’s economic rights, socio-culture notions of honor and shame, patriarchy, nationalism, communalism, popular media etc. Change requires a planned push that destabilizes traditional norms and beliefs of identity, power, and hierarchy in the institution of family and community.
- Power is seen as a central feature of gender relations, and is at the heart of gendered violence. Gender relations do not arise from natural or biological determinism, but are experiential in nature and they are socially and culturally constructed. Therefore, these experiences should include strategies to combat gender-based violence that aim to reverse the internal power structure in gender relations. To do this, the most important thing is to accept the institution of the family/community as a site of violence and violent acts. The state and radical discourse have established the role of women within the family and community, thereby redefining equality as harmony. In this discourse, a woman’s pursuit of identity and rights is seen as selfish and going against the needs of the family, community and nation. It is then important to open up to other discourses that seek women in their own identities and within society, discourses that are based on notions of equality and human rights.
- Finally, it must be remembered that there is no easy way to answer how laws relating to gender-based violence should be made and enforced. Special legislation also reinforces traditional gender norms and ideas about the privacy of the home. Enacting special laws that apply to the domestic sphere of life can reinforce the notion that the family or home is the domain of women. There is a need for a more constructive analysis of the family in the context of being a social and economic unit rather than taking it at face value and spreading the belief that the family is not beyond the ambit of law and state intervention.
Violence against women in India
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- Social histories and novels in several Indian languages record violence against married women in India, mainly perpetrated by their husbands. Yet, only in the last two decades has there been a systematic attempt to estimate the magnitude of violence, its determinants and causes, the forms in which it manifests, and its health, social, legal and economic consequences.
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- Survey-based studies have indicated that anywhere from 35 to 75% of women in India face verbal, physical or sexual violence from their partners or other men they know (see Jeejeebhoy 1998; Mahajan 1990; Karlekar 1998; Jain et al. al 2004; Visaria 2000). Qualitative in-depth studies have thrown light on several issues such as support-seeking behavior of women,
generational influence, culture of silence, and adherence to social norms • to maintain the honor of the family to tolerate, accept, and even rationalize domestic violence (Hassan 1995; Miller 1992) ; Jaisingh 1995; Koenig et al 2006). However, most of these studies were conducted with small samples and the findings may also be generalized to the states where they were conducted. Also, very few studies have been conducted to examine these issues from the perspective of perpetrators of violence.
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- To overcome this limitation, the Second National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2) conducted in 1998-99 took the bold step of publicizing some questions related to domestic violence at the national level, essentially to assess whether Whether or not women will answer these questions in a large survey. them. The questions were relatively general and sought to measure the prevalence of violence and to understand the situations in which ever-married women justified wife-beating. Respondents were read about six situations where wives violated their traditionally accepted roles or social norms. The women were asked to answer whether their husbands were justified in beating them when they deviated from their alleged “duties”. The success of publicizing these relatively sensitive questions prompted the coordinators and counselors of the 3rd NFHS (2005-06) to publicize an entire module on domestic violence with 25 key questions in addition to wife battering (IIPS and Macro International 2007). inspired.
- In NFHS-3, two more conditions were added and one was removed from the wife-beating question. Two new situations were arguing with the husband and refusing to have sex with him. A separate module was prepared for situations where the woman’s family did not provide requisite money, jewelery or other items (including dowry) and promoted to only one woman in each household, not to all eligible women having more than one. But. More importantly, the respondents were clearly instructed to respond to the violence module only when they were assured complete confidentiality. Though
- Background characteristics of female respondents in NFHS-2 and NFHS-3 as well as estimates of lifetime physical violence are available for all states, it would not be prudent to understand the time trend given the variation in the method of data collection.
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violence against women
- A significant proportion of women, regardless of socio-economic background, subscribe to power differentials based on sex and accept that men have the right to discipline them, especially when they are involved in tasks such as taking care of the home and children Fail to fulfill gender-specific duties. Or cooking food on time in a way that pleases the husband. Furthermore, women who are beaten or otherwise physically abused tend to justify their husband’s behavior as a way of rationalizing the treatment meted out to them.
- The supposed subordination of women and dominance of husbands when they are perceived as transgressors from their wifely duties is not unique to India and cuts across cultures and nations. Nonetheless, the experience of violence, or even the threat of violence, and controlling behavior by their husbands lowers women’s self-esteem, instills fear in them, and impairs their ability to perform daily tasks to the satisfaction of family members. and reduces. , controlling behavior that motivates hu
- Doubting the moral character of their wives and distrusting their behavior with other men, including their male relatives, undermines the foundation on which a marital relationship rests.
- Witnessing violence between one’s parents while growing up has been found to be a significant risk factor for perpetrating partner violence in adulthood. Men from violent homes are significantly more likely to believe in husbands’ rights to control their wives and be physically and sexually abusive toward them. The internalization of prevailing norms related to violence, and the subsequent behavior and rationalization of that behavior, need to be examined by addressing the issue of violence and the means to break the cycle of violence.
- As in other surveys, hardly any women in NFHS-3 reported seeking redress from formal organizations or authorities to deal with the violence they faced because of fear of being ostracized and stigmatized by the community in which they live. or seek support. The fear that they themselves will be blamed for inciting men to use violence against them looms large. In the absence of supportive shelters or other avenues, it is very difficult for battered women in India to muster up the courage to challenge their abusers in court or seek support from the few social service organizations that exist. The humiliation of those who approach the judiciary due to long court battles, and the treatment of insensitive police and others with little sympathy irks most women. They prefer to suffer quietly in their homes, which turns out to be useless.
- Even education is universal to support women.
Nick does not give the right to enter the area. Better-educated women or women belonging to better-off families who experience violence are less likely to share their experiences or seek support from others. This needs to be understood in the context of a culture of silence, where women try to explain what happens in the home environment. Equally important is the sense of shame associated with being abused by someone they know and with whom they share an intimate or marital relationship. Even when physically injured, women remain silent and bear it alone. Furthermore, social norms that tolerate and accept violence are widely prevalent in Indian society and their adherence prevents women from receiving care.
- The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (United Nations General Assembly 1993) defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering to women” is or is likely to be.” , coercively or arbitrarily deprivation of liberty, whether in public or in private life, including threats of such acts”. Women experience violence across a wide continuum: in private, public and virtual domains – from strangers, family members, intimates, etc. Current research and factual data have shown that various forms of abuse and violence occur within the family but at the societal level, the family is still considered a private domain that is outside the bounds of legal observations and sanctions. A recent study by the World Health Organization (WHO) states that family violence is prevalent in almost all countries of the world. In India, the Indian National Family and Health Survey officially recorded data from various states pointing to the existence of domestic violence. The new bill for the prevention of domestic violence has been passed in India after a lot of struggles and efforts. Although commendable, these efforts are difficult to implement because of the ‘culture of silence’ that shrouds gender relations within the family. It then becomes very important to look into the socio-cultural factors and causes that are associated with such issues.
- The traditional norms of Indian society, being largely patriarchal in nature, ignore and shelter the existence of such gender-based violence which are not only inscribed in individual socialization but are also embedded in the structural structures and institutions of the society . There is a need to study and examine these social constructs that lead to such behavior so that more informed and action-oriented policy directions can be formulated and implemented to combat family violence. Research needs to focus on dispelling the myths and ideas associated with, among other things, family roles, gender hierarchy, their relationship with the larger world and the manipulation of material and authority that takes place through them.
- Among all social institutions, the family occupies a unique and special place in the social imagination of the people as an ideal unit. It is seen as the most important and more importantly the most private existence. Thus any inquiry into the sacred space of the family is often met with resistance and skepticism. The view of the family as a site of power contestation, domination or subordination is met with adversity and shaped by the tug of war between religious discourses, individual identity versus community identity, etc.
- In India, a person’s identity belongs to and is reflected by his family and community, which is further bounded in caste, religion, cultural and other such affiliations. The institution of the family remains the primary venue for gender relations and family and kinship ties play an important role in establishing such relations as well as power hierarchies and rules and norms of resource allocation. Kinship, which is one of the most important factors for organizing social relations, also becomes the basis for organizing economic, cultural, as well as sexual and reproductive practices. Marriage and family in India are seen more in the collective interest than in individual interests or desires. These institutions are underpinned by values such as ‘honour’, ‘shame’, ‘respect’, ‘sacrifice’ and ‘putting family first’.
- All these values tend to make the family representative of the larger community and so far put all its actions under the scrutiny of any community. This sense of collective honor and shame leads to violence in the face of any crime that threatens the honor or status of a particular community. Furthermore, these acts of violence are usually perpetrated against women because the notion of honor in the Indian patriarchal structure is closely linked to the sanctity and movements of women within the family or community. The patriarchal fact of controlling women’s sexuality leads to a violent lash-back towards any kind of transgression by women, such as going against caste and community lines for marriage, or within the family- determined by male members Non-adherence to norms. ,
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According to Dubey (1988), gender roles
Conception is learned through a complex system of enactment and relationships that is embedded in the wider context of family structure and kinship.
Conception is learned through a complex system of enactment and relationships that is embedded in the wider context of family structure and kinship.
अवधारणा अधिनियमन और संबंधों की एक जटिल प्रणाली के माध्यम से सीखी जाती है जो परिवार संरचना और रिश्तेदारी के व्यापक संदर्भ में अंतर्निहित है।
Conception is learned through a complex system of enactment and relationships that are embedded in the family structure and the wider context of kinship.
अवधारणा अधिनियमन की एक जटिल प्रणाली और रिश्तों के माध्यम से सीखी जाती है जो पारिवारिक संरचना और रिश्तेदारी के व्यापक संदर्भ में अंतर्निहित हैं।
The family structure serves two very important functions – one, it reflects the law of recruitment and marital residence and how one generation succeeds the other; Two, the configuration of role relationships that determine the allocation of resources, the gender-based division of labor, and the socialization of children to future roles. in
- Family structure and kinship patterns in India are also closely linked to the institution of caste. Membership of caste groups is determined by birth and has a strong component of boundary maintenance, the responsibility of which falls on females because of their role in biological reproduction. The patriarchal system supports certain acts of violence as preventive measures against women taking control of their own sexuality which can disrupt this system of material and resource allocation. Acts of violence like female foeticide, dowry death, domestic abuse, rape, etc. operate and perpetuate themselves under the patriarchal banner which pervades community and family life and is also internalized by men and women at an individual level Which in turn leads to such values and ideology permeating the state machinery and legal institutions and their policies.
- According to Kumari (2009), the process of globalization is imposing yet another set of complexities and contradictions on this notion of family and community at large across the globe. New meanings of family and community are increasingly being defined
- Market forces and it has both positive and negative consequences. On the one hand, it has led to greater freedom and democratization in the sense that women have been educated and allowed a degree of autonomy to move and work independently, to better standards of living . This modernity has allowed policy interventions for the purposes of women empowerment, economic and political power for women, legal reforms etc. Women, on the other hand, seem to lack control over their resources and income and are victims of discrimination and violence.
- In Kumari’s view, even though women have entered the public sphere of formal work and labour, their private sphere of family values and violence is a strictly protected private sphere from which they cannot secede. She mentions in her article that studies indicate that one of the definite consequences of globalization and marketization has been an increase in the rates of domestic violence against women. The nature of conducting marriages has changed from being based on the physical characteristics of the bride and the economic status of the groom to the intellectual and earning capacity of the bride and the economic capability of the groom. Many marriage bureaus help in selecting and deciding marriages based on such criteria within the larger criteria of religion, caste and sub-caste. One of the major effects of globalization has been the excessive exposure to worldly pleasures and luxuries that constitute the dowry essentials. The combination of family and violence was one of the leading causes of death due to the dowry system and consequent dowry-related violence. Apart from all the traditional norms of physical features, religion, caste etc. women and girls now have to deal with the additional norms of being educated, worldly and working. Also the demand for dowry is increasing due to globalization due to the desire for new and better resources available in the market. Records from the National Crime Records Bureau show that there has been a 10% increase in the incidence of dowry deaths and atrocities by husbands between the years 1998-2003 (Kumari, 2009). In the following sections, this paper will follow the shame/honour argument and how it underlies violence in families and the way they are functioned.
- For Patricia Uberoi, the family is often the site of abuse and violence but sometimes even academics ignore this fact. This is probably because the family is considered a cultural ideal and the center of identity. The matter is complicated by the surrounding environment which limits the interaction between professional academia and the private sphere of the family, thus making it inviolable. Further complications arise from the notion of ‘izzat’ or family honor which enables a culture of silence and exploitation to flourish within the family.
- The system is not available for querying from outsiders as well. This notion of respectability fuels violence as well as prevents women from seeking help against violence. The honor of a family or community is embodied and represented by the women of that family or group. It is symbolic in the sense that, women’s bodies are seen as the property of their family and as a body that is protected from violation from outside. This makes it imperative for families and communities to create strict rules aimed at controlling women’s sexuality to prevent threats to their honor. Women have to follow strict rules regarding mobility, conversation, marriage etc. It is considered the moral responsibility of the woman or girl to maintain the honor of her family and to keep up with any crime or even the alleged crime.
- Family and larger community
It causes violent outbursts.
- Kandiyoti (1998) describes classic patriarchy as a system where girls are married into a household headed by their husband’s father and subordinate not only to men but also to senior women. Was This patriarchal system shapes gender relations which include the construction of masculinity and femininity for men and women to follow and socialize. Not only for women but also for men there are many characteristics prescribed which are directly related to their social identity of man and woman. Women have historically been seen as caretakers of children and home, expected to fulfill the roles of daughters, wives and mothers, passive, non-expressive about their sexuality, submissive, obedient, etc. Is performed. On the other hand, men are seen as The protectors and bread earners must be in control, strong- physically and emotionally etc.
- These norms are enforced and reinforced through media and popular culture, state and religious institutions. In both the public and private spheres, men have a responsibility to uphold their honour, the honor of the family and the honor of the larger community. This notion of honor is strongly linked to notions of masculinity and femininity and is maintained by following social rules/norms regarding it. Violating these norms is not only considered harmful to the individual but also tarnishes the reputation of the family and possibly the community to which they belong. There is a widespread understanding that honor is embodied by the woman but in India, a man’s personal honor is linked to the women of his home and family. Therefore, patriarchy provides certain incentive methods of protecting honor such as restricting women’s mobility, seclusion or
- ‘curtain’ to limit dialogue, and violence. Honor-based killings are defined by Human Rights Watch as “acts of retaliation, usually death, committed by male family members against female family members who are perceived to have brought dishonor upon the family”.
- Since patriarchy gives great importance to males, as they are seen as heirs and it is through them that a lineage is carried forward- it ideologically supports the practice of son-preference. In this system women are seen as temporary members of their paternal families as they have to go to their husband’s house after marriage. Thus they are excluded from inherited land which is the property of a dominant clan. Their temporary membership in the family of birth leads to their lack of value and the existence of the custom of dowry further reduces their desirability in a household.
- Dowry is seen as drain of wealth which is caused by daughters due to which their birth is seen as a burden and thus leads to violence in case of sex selection in favor of sons during pregnancy Is. It also leads to a large number of female infanticides and abandonment, in order to free oneself from the burden of producing dowry and to raise a daughter who will be a prestige in the society, unlike sons who are protectors. And has the ability to harm respect. And the dynasty will continue. Sons are expected to provide financial support during the life of the parents, especially in old age as they continue to live with their parents and also prefer sons over daughters than spend time with grandchildren. There are some personal reasons to like. While culture cannot be directly blamed for the practice of violence, it does shape and mediate how abuse and violence occur in different groups at different times.
- The process of socialization in India actively reinforces values that justify and reinforce existing power relations in the social system. A high premium is placed on conformity, dependency and disrupted self-identity. The dominant image of women broadcast in the media is that of a mother and wife and these representations tend to create feelings of inadequacy in women and consequently the need to incorporate these roles into their behaviour. It is an effective way of controlling women to shape their perceptions about life and to establish values and norms that women themselves have had no hand in formulating.
- Surveys and studies show that women tend to validate and rationalize acts of violence against themselves within their families because they see them as acts that should be expected and not as a social deviance. Thus they accept and tolerate such acts of violence within their families which shows how socialization plays a huge role in the lives of both men and women, for them to not only internalize such acts but also validate them . The stereotypes of loving mothers and obedient wives create oppressive structures and situations that limit the way women can think and grow and limit their opportunities as independent citizens.
Ti is Boys, on the other hand, are trained to be aggressive, competitive, and controlling.
- His glorious role of bread-winner can be achieved by him. The shroud of silence worn by women is powerfully institutionalized throughout our society. Women are silenced on their subjection with the idioms of lost respect, public shame, shame and humiliation. Even in professional counseling, women are asked to focus on keeping the marriage intact rather than breaking up, and to think of ways to cope, understand and adjust rather than change things. This is the effect of patriarchal nature of our society and state and thus also of their reforming institutions.
- To understand the nature of violence in India it is also important to understand the position of women in the structure of material production. There is a need to question the extent to which the institution of the family is responsible for creating and maintaining structures and ideologies
- Subordination and silence, structures that limit women’s participation in decision-making, and help perpetuate existing hierarchies of power relations. According to Kelkar (1985), violence runs along the lines of power in the sex/gender system and the family, with the division of labor by sex, as the primary institution underpins the sex/gender system. Thus the study of the power relations of the family is an important means of creating visible violence that organizes around it. The subordinate role of women in the family is replicated in the larger society which can be seen in low wages, sexual harassment at the workplace, poor health care and educational facilities for women, etc., which is justified by the belief that since men are the main breadwinners and Head of the household, women’s employment opportunities and their concerns are not as important as those of men.
- The following types of gender violence are linked to the family, that is, these acts of violence can occur within the family and the larger community, violating norms of son-preference, crossing caste and community lines. Domestic, and acts of violence arising from sheer position of dominance.
female foeticide
- Feticide is the practice through which the sex of the fetus is determined with the help of ultrasound, in-vitro tests, scans etc. and then the fetus is killed through the process of abortion. Female feticide is a practice whereby a fetus is aborted after it has been determined that the sex of the fetus is female. It is also called sex-selective abortion.
- According to the results of the 2001 census, there is a shortage of young girls compared to young boys, especially in the western regions of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The practice of female infanticide, which was rampant during the colonial period, ended with the spread of social reforms aimed at empowering women. With the advent of new reproductive technologies such as amniocentesis and ultrasound, which van be used to determine the sex of an unborn fetus, it is sex-selective abortion that is gaining ground,
- Means female feticide. The simplicity and availability of the tests, as well as the prevalence of son-preference, made female-specific abortions very popular. India is a pioneer in legalizing induced abortion under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971, which specifies the reasons under which an abortion can be performed. One of the conditions under the Act is that abortions not performed by doctors trained in facilities registered to perform abortions are considered illegal. Also, the limited number of facilities and lack of access to them by people leads them to seek illegal facilities which puts them at risk. The rising number of female feticide led to the passing of another act—the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act of 1994, which forbade individual practitioners, clinics or centers from conducting tests to determine the sex of the fetus or inform couples about it done. Even with these measures and monitoring, in
- The act has been violated at many places due to market created need by the inherent desire of sons by majority of people.
- The state-promoted family planning method of two children and a small family is widely accepted, but it also leads to the unintended promotion of female feticide as most families want at least one son, if not two. If the first child is a girl, most families opt for sex-selective abortion to improve their chances of having a son. In states such as Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, which are economically prosperous, the practice of female feticide is remarkably non-progressive. According to Bose (2007), the main reasons seem to be: (1) easy access to medical facilities such as ultrasound and abortion facilities; (2) lack of money to pay for these tests and abortions; (3) Good infrastructure like roads which reduce the cost and time in travel. causes that contribution
- This abominable practice is the fear of dowry, but families who are rich and can afford to pay dowry also participate in these practices and according to Bose it is quite
The Tak is due to the high respect and social status that families with sons were accorded.
The Tak is due to the high respect and social status that families with sons were accorded.
The Tak is due to the high esteem and social status that families with sons were conferred.
One reason could be that sons do not have mobility restrictions and can migrate in search of better opportunities and jobs that are important to their families. Globalization which has given rise to mobility in terms of labor has added to this phenomenon and has become another reason for the continuation of this practice. The practice I supported: The demographic structure of the household and the practices of marriage and gifting that make girls a sexual, social and economic burden. According to Patel (2007), the ability or inability to reproduce has cultural connotations. Sonography gives people the potential, or at least the potential, of a desirable biological result, thereby reducing the gap between desirable and actual results. Social pressure and the process of socialization lead women to realize their ideal – more importantly to be the mother of sons if they want to rise in social stature. This combined with their lack of decision making in the area of family planning makes them more susceptible to agreeing to and even perpetuating such practices.
Dowry related violence:
- In linking dowry deaths to dowry greed, the state names dowry as the main culprit instead of addressing the subjugation and devaluation of women. There is a belief that only dowry abolition will drastically improve the lives of women, ignoring the prevalence of other forms of violence against women such as sexual assault, female foeticide, forced marriage, etc., all of which have the same pattern of female subordination. Built-in flow.
- In the 1950s, dowry was seen as a problem of expensive marriages and unreasonable demands, which prevented many middle-class families from finding suitable grooms for their daughters. In addition to the demands made before or during the marriage, there were often demands for more money and items from time to time.
- The failure of the bride’s maternal family to meet these demands often resulted in the bride being tortured and sometimes killed by her husband and in-laws, which is called dowry death and usually in the house. The girls were burnt. , The Dowry Prohibition Act passed in 1961 did not do much to curb these incidents as according to the law, dowry-giving families were as guilty as dowry-seeking families and thus no complaints were registered for a long time Was. As a result women’s groups started focusing more actively on these dowry deaths and started calling them forced suicides and murders. There were 358 cases of women in the year 1979.
- “accidental” burn deaths. These numbers continued to grow and in 1982 a small-scale women’s center was opened in Saheli to provide counseling and shelter to endangered women. The rising number of dowry deaths led to amendments to the Dowry Act (passed in 1986), but it still did not curb the practice. Dowry deaths bought the great law nearly a decade but unfortunately for its implementation the state was dependent on men whose attitudes about women and their place had not changed. Eventually the facts of violence against women in the form of dowry-related deaths and harassment were mixed with issues of communalism and thus sidelined. Dowry related deaths happen due to many reasons. One of them is the apparent subordinate nature of the bride’s birth family in relation to the matrimonial family as the bridegroom’s family is at a higher level due to the devaluation of women.
- Fearing slander or losing respect in the community, most families of the bride demand dowry so that their daughter does not return them in disgrace. Despite all the legislative changes brought about by the movements of various women’s groups, the dowry system and related violence still continues.
aspects of violence against women
- Briefly present some key findings on the extent of violence reported by women and their differences according to their background characteristics and the region they live in. Compared to women aged 15 to 24, a greater proportion of older women experience violence throughout their lives. A higher percentage of rural women (36%) were victims of violence than women living in urban areas (28%), and a greater proportion of women with little or no education experienced violence than their educated sisters . Only 14% of women with 12 or more years of schooling reported experiencing violence, compared to 44% of illiterate women. Violence was reported by a higher percentage of currently married women (37.4%) than unmarried women (16.1%). But 66% of divorced, separated or abandoned women reported experiencing physical violence. Violence was more prevalent among women belonging to scheduled castes and tribes (39–42%) than those belonging to upper castes (27%). Violence was also inversely related to the wealth index.
- Violence against women varies greatly between states. In the relatively backward states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, more than 40% of women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical or sexual violence. Interestingly, among the larger states, the percentage in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Ta
was only slightly less. On the other hand, in states like Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka, less than 20% of women have experienced violence. It appears that rather than the economic development of an area, it is attitudes toward women, social norms and perceptions of their worth and status in the household, and men’s self-esteem that influence husband’s behavior as better or worse. Affects for the worse. Despite these differences, it is important
- Note that one in five women in the wealthiest group and one in seven women with 12 or more years of education reported experiencing violence within the home, almost always by a spouse.
- Relatively high percentage of Tamil women reported violence as compared to many other states and this is noteworthy. An in-depth study conducted in the slums of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, reported that men believed that women should be disciplined. They required their wives to be chaste, submissive, respectful, and accepting of their imperfections (Go et al 2003). Wife beating was condoned in order to ensure that women behaved themselves and remained under the control of men. According to NFHS-2, while 21% of ever-married women in the country said they had experienced violence in their lifetime, Tamil Nadu’s percentage was 40, the highest in the country (IIPS and ORC-Macro, Tamil Nadu, 2001). According to NFHS-3, almost the same percentage (39%) of Tamil women reported experiencing physical or sexual violence.
- In addition, acceptance of violence as justified behavior was also higher in Tamil Nadu. According to NFHS-2, across the country, about 56% of ever-married women said it was justified by their husbands to beat them if they failed to perform certain duties, such as respecting or taking care of their in-laws Children and Home. In Tamil Nadu, 72% of women accepted violence as a justifiable act, attesting to the widespread gender disparity there (Kishore and Gupta 2004). According to NFHS-3, almost two out of three Tamil women agreed that it was okay for husbands to beat their wives in some situations. An in-depth exploration of the acceptance of domestic violence by Tamil Nadu women would help in understanding the cultural and social norms governing marital relations in Tamil society. However, no such behavioral guidelines or restrictions apply to men in any Indian society.
- Husbands exercise control over their wives by clearly indicating how they should behave. In the NFHS-3, ever-married women were asked for information on six specific situations: whether the husband gets jealous or angry when he talks to other men; whether the husband accused her of being unfaithful; whether the husband will not allow them to meet their female friends; whether the husband tried to limit contact with his birth family; Has the husband insisted on knowing where they are at all times; And didn’t the husband trust her with the money. These conditions reflected various dimensions of women’s lives, ranging from economic independence and mobility to the freedom to interact with friends and men who knew them without suspicion. While many women may not personally accept such controlling behavior, their inability to accept or reject it shows that they are not empowered even within their marital home.
- Women’s responses, classified by their background characteristics, are presented in Table 1. Slightly more than a quarter of ever-married women reported that their husbands (or ex-husbands if respondents were not currently married) became angry or jealous if they talked to other men. Some micro-studies have also reported this control behavior to be quite widespread in several states of India (Jain et al 2004; Visaria 2000). Husbands also show their anger or displeasure when women allegedly talk to their brothers, cousins or other male relatives from their native villages, or neighborhood in case of urban areas. A married woman having a male friend or visitor is almost blasphemous and becomes a subject of gossip not only in rural areas but also in many urban settings. A large proportion of young, recently married women in rural areas, those with little or no education, those from poor households, and those who are divorced or separated, are at the wrath of their husbands (or ex-husbands) for this matter. copes with better. Educated older women or urban women. The logic seems to be that women’s behavior should be checked when they are young and so that they learn to behave according to social or family norms (i.e. not to be acquainted with or befriend other men).
- Husbands’ anger, jealousy or suspicion sometimes manifest in accusations that the wife is unfaithful or having illicit relations with other men. About 9% of women reported that they were frequently accused of being unfaithful. Again, the differences were in the same direction as with jealousy. About 12% of the women’s husbands insisted that they knew where their wives were at all times. This desire to know the every movement of their wives, to a large extent,
Arises from the desire not to see other men or talk to others about family problems. Less educated young women, women living in rural areas and women from lower wealth groups who were divorced, separated or remarried suffered more than other categories of women.
- In addition, about 16% of women reported that they were not even allowed to meet female friends. In areas or communities where exogamy is practiced and marriages are arranged by parents or other elders, women are not always more familiar with their place of origin or the areas near their marital home. The restriction imposed on women to interact with other women known to them is a very harsh control measure. About 10% of women also reported that their husbands tried to limit their contacts with members of their birth family. This is manifested by women not being allowed to meet their birth family unless it is absolutely necessary, or not welcoming their family members, or showing displeasure when they visit.
- When women are married to men from the same village or town, they may feel more independent or find ways to meet or interact with their family members without being seen. But when distance is a factor, this restrictive or controlling behavior has a detrimental effect on women, mainly because they have no opportunity to share their problems with family members or those close to them.
- Denying even a modicum of economic independence, especially to women who do not have any other source of income, is another controlling practice. This leads husbands to say that women cannot be trusted with money, meaning they do not know how to spend money judiciously. More than 18% of married women indicated that their husbands do not trust them with money. This controlling behavior is expressed by asking women to explain how each rupee is spent and to spend some if the husband considers unnecessary. Background characteristics hardly made a difference in the case of this controlling behavior, which stems from the general belief that women are not careful about what they spend money on.
- The NFHS-3 estimated that 12% of women reported three or more controlling behaviors by their husbands. The differences were not significant when background characteristics were taken into account, except that women from poorer families encountered more controlling behavior than those from better-off families. Instead of grouping any three types of controlling behaviours, it would be interesting to group three types of behavior that lead husbands to suspect and mistrust their wives when they interact with other men, even their male relatives. deal with. In a sense, this type of behavior undermines the very foundation of the marital relationship.
- Interestingly, there was little difference between women belonging to different socio-economic groups in terms of restrictions on meeting female friends and handling money. The former controlling behavior stems from the fear that women will share news about family matters that husbands or in-laws do not want outsiders to know. The underlying fear is that women may do this until their loyalty to their in-laws’ family is established. Therefore, young women, even educated women, are not trusted.
- Table 1 also shows that 57% of women reported that their husbands do not exhibit any such typical controlling behaviour, which means that their husbands trust them. In contrast, 43% of women reported that their husbands displayed at least one type of controlling behavior, and were asked about their opinion of this. As expected, the extent of confidence was higher in older women (some
- those of whom may feel more control over their behavior when they are young; With the passage of time, they gain the trust of their husbands and in-laws), among better educated women and those belonging to better homes.
- The extent of violence experienced by women based on certain characteristics of husband and selected indicators of women’s empowerment was also examined. The data presented in Table 2 shows that a higher proportion of husbands who perpetrate violence (physical, sexual or emotional) on their wives are either illiterate or less educated as compared to better educated husbands. Yet, women’s education is much more closely related to violence than men’s education. One in four men with 12 or more years of schooling used violence against their wives, but only 15% of women with the same level of education reported being subjected to violence by their husbands. It is only education after 12 years of schooling that empowers women and acts as a protective factor. Furthermore, as is evident in Table 2, women who have the same level of education as their husband are more likely to be victims of physical or sexual violence than women who do not.
Women are less likely to be illiterate or less educated than their husbands.
- Drinking is significantly associated with both physical and sexual violence. Seven out of 10 drunk men abuse their wives, compared to three out of 10 non-drinkers. Also, a quarter of men who are under the influence of alcohol commit sexual violence against their wives. The combination of sexual desire and alcohol increased women’s risk of violence if they refused sex. A study conducted in South India indicated that the consumption of alcohol by the husband significantly increases the risk of wife abuse (Rao 1997). Another study from Karnataka reported that alcohol consumption by husbands was found to be significantly associated with violence, independent of caste and economic status (Krishnan 2005). Moderate to high alcohol consumption by men definitely increases the likelihood of violence against women.
- In addition, 81% of men who displayed all five or six controlling behaviors reported physical or sexual violence against their wives. Two out of five men who exercised high levels of marital control also sexually abused their spouses. Controlling behaviors stem from a lack of trust in women and lead to violence against them.
- To understand women’s participation in household decision-making, the NFHS-3 asked women whether they considered decisions on their own health, major household purchases, purchases for daily household needs, and visits to their families and relatives. participated in. If women did not participate in any of these decisions, they received a score of zero. Those who participated in one or two decisions were viewed as moderately empowered and those who had a voice in three or all four decisions were viewed as highly empowered. As is evident in Table 2, there is no clear correlation between empowerment and the prevalence of violence. This contradicts the expectation that women who participate in household decisions, and therefore practice egalitarian gender-role behaviour, are less likely to experience violence.
- On the other hand, 42-44% of women indicated that wife-beating was justified in any one of the six situations in which they themselves were the recipient of physical or sexual violence, while 30% of women said that in any situation There is no excuse for violence. Overall, well-educated women and women in marital relationships where husbands did not display controlling behavior were most likely to avoid violence.
Intergenerational Effects
- In NFHS-3, ever-married women were asked whether their mothers were beaten by their fathers. Responses to this reveal the extent to which young girls who witness parental violence consciously or unconsciously accept violence as a part of their married life. The data presented in Table 3 show that two-thirds of women who knew that their mothers were beaten by their fathers experienced some form of violence at the hands of their husbands. For nearly 60%, the violence was physical or sexual. Probability of children who have witnessed parental violence
- When they grow up they have a similar effect on their spouse and this is a cause for concern. A third of women who said they had not witnessed any violence with a parent also reported being victims of violence by their husbands. It is likely that some of the women who said they did not know, or did not know, about parental violence were reluctant to disclose what happened between their parents.
- Husbands who witnessed their fathers beating their mothers as children were 4.7 times more likely to beat their wives, according to a large study conducted in Uttar Pradesh to understand the behavior of men and were three times more likely to have sex with them than men. such violence was not observed (Koenig et al 2006). Martin et al (2002) showed that witnessing violence between one’s parents while growing up is a significant risk factor for perpetrating violence against one’s partner in adulthood. Compared to men raised in nonviolent homes, men from violent homes were significantly more likely to believe in their wives’ authority to control and physically and sexually abuse them. The study also showed that nonviolence in the previous generation was a strong predictor of nonviolence in the second generation.
- Although the NFHS-3 only includes one question on the intergenerational impact of domestic violence, this is an area that needs further exploration in depth. The impact of witnessing violence on children’s brains, the internalization of prevailing norms related to violence, the subsequent behavior and rationalization of that behavior, all need to be addressed while addressing the issue of violence and examining ways to break the cycle of violence. .
Help-seeking behavior
- In the NFHS-3, all women who reported physical or sexual violence were asked a series of questions about whether they had sought help to end the violence. Women who said they had sought help were asked from whom they sought help. In addition, those who reported that they had not sought any help were also asked whether they
Took Mr. into confidence and shared his plight with him. Table 4 shows some of the data classified according to background characteristics of the women. Only one in four women (23.8%) sought help to end the violence they experienced. Two out of three women neither sought help nor told anyone (family members or friends) about the violence they faced.
- The most surprising thing is that there is really no difference between telling others about the violence or asking for help,
- Neither education nor family wealth act as protective factors in this regard. In fact, better educated women and women belonging to families with better economic status were not more likely to share their experience of violence with others.
- Women who experienced sexual violence were even more reticent about talking about it to others or seeking help. Other nuanced and in-depth studies (Visaria 2000 and Visaria 2002) have reported silence around violence in general and sexual violence in particular. This is to be understood in the context of women trying to maintain the honor of the family by not telling what happened inside the household, as well as the shame associated with being mistreated by someone they know and share with. should also be understood in the context of the spirit of Intimate or marital relationship.
- In such a situation, to whom do the battered women ask for support? This question was asked to ever-married women in NFHS-3. Most women who experienced violence and sought help reported that they did so from their birth family; 71% turned to their parents and other family members for support. About 30% sought help from husband’s families. 7 Neighbors 15% and 9% friends. At times, neighbors witness the violence and sometimes join in in an attempt to defuse the situation. Hardly any women chose to report cases of violence to formal organizations or authorities, perhaps because they feared being ostracized and shamed by the communities in which they live. The fear that they will be blamed for inciting husbands to use violence is all too real. This is the reality of Indian society that women who call
- Be prepared to face a long and humiliating battle with little sympathy from the authorities or family members and even the media, to dare to challenge their abusers in a court of law or seek the support of social service organizations . Interviewing women victims of abuse in New Delhi, Prasad (1999) demonstrated that the legal system and procedures designed to increase women’s access to the law actually hinder it, and that the state fails to respond to domestic and sexual violence. Shows tolerance.
- Examining the widespread acceptance of marital violence among Tamil Nadu women would help understand the prevalent cultural and social norms that govern marital relations in Tamil society.
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Violence against women through cyberspace
- Cyber Detection and Images
- New technologies enable a breach of the boundaries of “physical” or “real” identity, and in these fluid spaces, individuals form new relationships and networks, creating new and often times, multiple identities. These identities become essential to understanding social relations in cyberspace, and as a result, relations that can be abusive and violent. Entry into anonymity and new self-expressive identities may not necessarily overlap, with the former not necessarily bound by the same social context or rules that the latter may operate.
- Images, especially of women, have immense currency in the digital space, due to their widespread and easy access. In this context, the reach of the porn industry is unprecedented both in terms of audience and exploitation, perpetuated mostly through images of willing and unwilling women. In the Indian context, images on the Internet or through mobile telephones are often used by stalkers to defame, intimidate and harass women on-line and off-line. For example, women who have been raped are often re-victimised when photographs of their rape are recorded • and used against them to perpetuate the cycle of violence. Similarly, photographs of rape are often released online to further intimidate and silence female victims. The sophistication of new techniques enables the creation of morphing and simulated images or videos that are often perceived as “real” and “authentic”. The Internet is seen as a masculine space (mainly used by and for heterosexual men). This has many implications for women’s participation in cyberspace. For example, in the case of doctored images posted on extremely violent pornographic sites, the violence would not only be contained within the digital space, but actually extend to the loss of freedoms • that the Internet provides to women.
- If women voluntarily engage in sexual acts online, they can still be booked under ITA 2000, because
Because the consent of the parties involved is not considered. The only provision considering consent is in the case of images taken through phones. th
- Loopholes in the law also relate to • the ownership of images. For example, if a woman has consented to have her photographs taken but does not want them to be publicised, the debates are about what rules of ownership are involved, and how these rules of ownership can be legislated and enforced. Is? Such issues are particularly relevant in the context of the queer movement in India, where the Internet has provided sexual minorities with a visible and vibrant space to communicate and network.
- Policy choices need to avoid narratives of fear about new technologies that can effectively constrain women’s freedom to use digital space. There is a tendency to describe women victims of cybercrime in the name of safety and security as “emotionally vulnerable or unstable” and prevalent paternalism in policies, implementing-institutions, and the justice system that restrict women’s freedom online . There is an urgent need to create a comprehensive dialogue around the interface of technology with the institutions of culture, family and marriage, sexuality, the body, privacy and freedom of expression.
Changing Public Sector
- The discourse on the misuse of technology to perpetrate violence against women is undoubtedly a useful point of departure for opening up feminist technologies, but it is only a partial one and, therefore, insufficient.
- New strategies to understand the totality of the relationship between ICT, gender and development. Feminist constructions require a broader kaleidoscope that problematizes “digital personhood”, and the ways in which such personhood • is gendered in the digital space. This has implications not only for debates around the privacy and anonymity of women on the Internet, but also for the examination of ontological changes in empowered digital spaces. Feminist interpretations of new ICTs also demand a rigorous unveiling of the regulatory structures and processes through which patriarchal and patriarchal discourses are reproduced, and challenged, even in digital spaces – for example, womanhood, modesty How notions of shame, honor are reconstructed. Architecture in relation to digital space and how these given categories can be transformed. Essentially, an institutional-relational analysis is of fundamental value in formulating a gender and ICT dialogue. Such an analysis, using the “information society” lens, would outline a new techno-social reality where relationships and institutions are being reconfigured.
- Gender and development theory, overall, views ICTs as tools that can be used or misused. But the transformational social paradigm of the information society needs to be clearly understood from the technological artifacts that represent this revolutionary change. The meaning of social change in the contemporary context lies in the changing public sphere, an analysis of various phenomena that may provide new avenues for feminist inquiry. The slippage between the private and the public that has come to radically reconfigure the spatiality of social transaction and communication that characterizes contemporary life, disproves the basic concepts of feminist thought around the public and the private. For example, private communication on the Internet actually takes place on platforms that are essentially public (such as chat rooms or Facebook). On the one hand, concerns about digital threats arise as a result of the ambiguous nature of spatial boundaries defining relationships in the information society. And on the other hand, it is the transformative nature of these slippages that allow new types of people to gather • ephemerally, which may redefine the meaning of social protest (as we saw in SMS-based protest court verdict in the Jessica Lal murder case) and for building global communities of solidarity. So how can we understand the changing public sector?
- Furthermore, corporatized governance regimes in the digital space – such as Facebook Inc., which defines the rules and norms of the Facebook social networking space – not only represent contradictions to what we know as an egalitarian Internet, but It has also been reorganized socially and legally. Loud speech. As an example of this growing trend of influence, recently, Google disallowed ads for abortion clinics in several countries, some of which do not prohibit abortion. A more grassroots, Southern information society perspective would lead us to an important insight: that the “non-users” of new ICTs are affected by the changing institutional-systems as much as the “users”. In emerging institutional arrangements that have been scaffolded by ICTs, networked societies create new exclusions that can exacerbate the structural disadvantages of those on the periphery, while consolidating the power of local elite, authoritarian states.
- Ta aur abhivyakti ke and the international grip of corporate capitalism. Thus women’s access to ICT is not only a question of access to the tools that
They may be appropriated for personal change, but more importantly, their disenfranchisement in the new global polity where voice and participation and enjoyment of multiple rights depend on their digital means. Citizenship.
A Feminist Response
- How can feminist analysis shape policy frameworks regarding ICTs? New ICTs offer fundamental options for empowerment and new avenues for citizenship, especially for marginalized women. For example, with regard to the Right to Information Act (RTI) or the National Rural • Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), information • catalyzes a push for ICT-supported architectures
- Institutional transparency and accountability. Yet, as development interventions increasingly adopt ICTs to democratize information, the technical architectures supporting these processes must also provide safeguards for privacy. Policies relating to the information society must address both negative and positive rights, protect individual privacy, and protect and advance women’s rights, while enabling the highest transparency in government. At the same time, the protection of women’s rights to information and communication emphasizes the need to balance concerns of self-expression with concerns of protection from exploitation. While there is no doubt that policies are needed to address online violence, the limits of state involvement in effecting such protection become important. While the government should be able to prosecute those involved in violence against women, the right to surveillance in general without sufficient grounds is likely to violate women’s privacy. The state’s duty to intervene and prosecute violence online should not be used as an excuse for surveillance on the Internet. Thus, policy approaches need to recognize women’s “public”, political rights as well as “private”, individual rights, especially in the context of violence against women.
Neoliberal Approach
- Overall, ICT policies in developing countries, including India, have adopted a neoliberal, market view of ICTs and their default definition as market infrastructure, thus marginalizing the ‘larger social • importance’ of ICTs. has put. Therefore, we find that existing legal and policy frameworks generally address the ICT “economy”. As pointed out before the consultation proceedings, attacks against a person’s image or private life are still not viewed as a cybercrime4 in many countries including India. Since most violations involving online sexual content are directed against women, the gap in policy and law implicitly compromises women’s rights.
- In addition, new technologies are being employed by the sex industry not only to create more violent forms of pornographic • graphic material, but they are also actively used to circumvent the law; Companies only locate servers in countries where they will not be prosecuted. The absence of a global governance framework with respect to ICTs (and as discussed, usurpation of technology governance by corporates) is often to the disadvantage of developing countries. Against the backdrop of poor institutional maturity of legal and policy processes in relation to the realities of the information society, the implications of such a governance deficit are clear. The lack of territorial jurisdiction over the Internet makes it difficult for countries in the developing • world to identify abusers and prosecute the guilty. For example, lack of cooperation from foreign websites is one of the many obstacles in solving cybercrime cases.
- One of the greatest challenges to a strong feminist response to issues of violence against women and ICTs is the fact that feminist analytical frameworks must respond to the advent of new information and communication technologies • The restructuring of gender relations to accommodate changing realities have to be addressed from Piecemeal efforts to tinker with policy domains such as employment, education or crime may fail to add up to a concerted national response to the opportunities and challenges presented by new technologies, particularly to transformative change that marginalises the privileged. Let’s keep Also, feminist engagement with policies needs to approach rights from the vantage of alternative ICT discourse. Policies are needed to promote appropriate technologies that create a safe and secure online space. Feminist engagement with such policies is part of the imperative that can and should shape the emerging technological paradigm. By far the most urgent feminist response is to stop viewing the digital and online space as a separate sphere confined to technology users, but a
- Important • Location of power that requires feminist intervention.
- Feminist thought about technology ties together certain lines of inquiry – the exploration of identity, subjectivity, and the complex representation of the self; Critique of technology and globalization, and gender identity
, the relation between the body and the will. From theoretical efforts that have examined the ways that new technologies reshape dominant taxonomies and categories of gender and sexuality (Stanley 1995), and identity (Harraway 1990), to critiques of capitalism that address women’s embodied and implicit experiences Presents in the context of the problem. Globalization and the information society (Bredotti 1994), new fields of inquiry (or rather, new performances of a contemporary feminist grand theory) have urged a deconstruction of thinking that can bring together the symbolic and the material in the interpretation of current realities. These developments are no doubt exciting, but they also demand a grounding in Third World feminist practice. In the emerging techno-social milieu of the Third World, the “disturbing” of given categories is particularly important to discourses of resistance, agency, and empowerment. Southern feminist interpretations – a reimagining of the female techno-social subject – are, therefore, important to appropriate the emancipatory content of the emerging techno-paradigm and to interrogate its patriarchal and capitalist systems, institutions and representations.
Dowry
The problems of any section of the society are multifaceted and they have many forms and types, major and minor. The number of all these cannot be fixed in general, dynamic social life and because of this, problems arise day-to-day in any part of it. Along with this, in the prevalent or ancient problems also, due to the change of time, the type or quantity variation is present.
Thus it is clear that there is no dearth of problems in any section of the society. The problems of the Indian middle class are also so many and varied that their due analysis and interpretation is a painstaking task. Some of these problems are as follows: – Problem of joint family system – Problem of priceless marriage – Problem of tilak and dowry system – Problem of marriage versus love Widow marriage or maintenance of widows – Problem of women’s helplessness i.e. her economic dependence The problem of marriage, the problem of acceptance and rejection of traditional customs and conventions, the problem of mutual rejection of marriage between man and woman, it determines the free relationship between a woman and a man.
The union of man and woman is essential for achieving the perfection of human life. In this way, marriage is the best means of exchange between men and women, which is different from all social agreements. These social agreements were needed to bring perfection in life and the practice of marriage is changing. Along with marriage, many evils have also spread in our society. And only women have to bear the consequences of this. Dowry is the main problem among all these problems. Among the many evils prevalent in the Indian middle class, the place of marriage related evils is paramount. The parents, especially the parents of the girl child, have to face the following difficulties in order to perform the marriage ceremony _ _ _ They are so complex and diverse that due to this even auspicious work like marriage seems like a burden.
Doctor . Rajendra Prasad has written, “In our society, the marriage of a girl is a big uproar. First of all, it is difficult to find a boy of choice. There is a difference of caste in this, apart from this, it is also necessary to see that there is something in his house. There should also be property so that the girl does not suffer by going there. Due to marriage in childhood, the boy is not yet self-supporting, so the burden of the girl’s upbringing falls on the family members and it becomes necessary to see that the family members Worth it or not”. All these difficulties are in their place, but even more difficulty is present when the house and a good boy are found and when it comes to persuading the boy’s family, the concepts related to marriage in ancient times are based on religious sentiments. .
According to religious texts, marriage for men has been considered as a religious ritual and marriage for women as ‘Vedic sacrament’. As a result of religious instincts, dowry remained prevalent among Hindus in marriage from ancient times till 19th century, but its form kept changing from 20th century and till the end of this century, today its form has become optional. Now-a-days it has become the wish of the dowry to be fixed only on the wish of the bridegroom. As a result, from the family unit to the entire Hindu society, an atmosphere of instability has been created. The evaluation of dowry problem is important and social today not only because the cases of burning of newlyweds are increasing rapidly, but also because a large number of girls are unable to give dowry by their parents even after crossing the age of marriage. remains unmarried because of The problem of dowry is also important and intractable because many girls are harassed or humiliated for not being able to bring suitable dowry to the satisfaction of their husbands and in-laws, which disintegrates their personality. On the other hand, their mothers – The father has to adopt illegal methods to increase his income, due to which corruption increases in the society and on the other hand, different types of difficulties, conflicts and conflicts arise in the individual, family and society.
Therefore, to end the familial and social instability related to complex marriages, Hindu society
Raj will have to make an emotional sacrifice of taking dowry because in the society, when a person marries his son, he takes more dowry than the girl’s side and when he marries his wife, he has to give more dowry. It is also seen that in the families where there are only letters in the children in the current generation, the people of such families mostly do not hesitate to take dowry. And in this way such persons take more and more dowry to get their sons married. In this way, the order of dowry remains in the society. Compared to other sections of the society, this practice can be seen in its gruesome form only in the middle class. The upper class is naturally resourceful. Transactions related to marriage do not bother him that much, on the contrary, he spends excessively on the occasion of marriage etc. But the condition of the middle class is something else and it is clear in the dynamics of collective life that different types of distortions are being practiced to increase loyalty and morale. In group life, a person develops such beliefs which are helpful in the struggle to fulfill his objectives.
The concept of dowry In simple sense, “dowry” refers to those money gifts and things that the wife brings to her husband in marriage. – According to 8 scholars, “Those valuable things which are given by the relatives of one of the two parties related to the marriage for the purpose of marriage.” But this definition does not show any difference between dowry and bride price, rather it is a mixture of both the concepts. Confusion arises in h “The property that a person receives from his wife or her relatives at the time of marriage.” R “It is the property that is given to a woman at the time of her marriage.” Because only the bride has personal property and some is given to the parents of the groom or groom, so the definition of dowry can be like this. “The gifts and valuable things that the bride, groom and her relatives get in marriage. But there should be no confusion in the concepts of “dowry”, “Kanyadaan” or “Stridhan”. As a gift to the girl child in “Kanyadaan”. is given to the groom. “Stridhan” refers to the gifts that are given to the bride by her relatives or husband etc. at the time of or after the marriage and the wealth that she has inherited from her parents or self-earned. is absolutely owned and cannot have a claimant in it. This money can be inherited by his daughters, if he has not made a will against it. Amount of dowry due, boy’s job and income, girl’s father’s economic and social status, boy’s family’s social prestige, girl’s and boy’s education, girl’s job and salary, girl’s beauty and physical constitution, boy’s and girl’s family It is determined keeping in mind the factors like structure and security of a happy future.
The important thing in this is that the bride’s parents give money and gifts not only at the time of marriage, but they continue to give gifts to the husband’s family throughout life. Dowry through the ages – The history of dowry is very ancient, after analyzing it, it is known that there have been many changes in the structure of dowry from ancient and medieval India to the modern era. Earlier, the brides of the royal families used to bring up to 100 cows with them as dowry. Draupadi, Sita, Subhadra, Uttara were all given valuable gifts in the form of horses, elephants and jewels by their parents at the time of marriage. In today’s context it is so clear that the gifts which were given at the time of marriage were considered as dowry. In today’s era, dowry has assumed an inglorious proportion and has become the mouth of Sursa. Now it’s kind of a done deal. In the pre-British period, our society was predominantly agricultural and almost all over India, the economic system of the society was simple. Today, people working in government jobs and holding high positions demand dowry on the basis of their position. Following are the motivating factors of dowry:
Aspiration to marry in a high and wealthy family – Every parent has an aspiration to marry their daughter in a wealthy and high status family so that their respect remains and their daughter gets happiness and security. Boys from high and rich families have high prices in the marriage market, hence the amount of dowry is also getting high.
Misguided thought – Some people give more and more dowry to show their prestige and social and economic status. Like Rajput and Jain people spend lakhs of rupees in the marriage of their daughters just to show their social status high. Even if they have to take loan for this.
Pressure of caste system – According to the social and religious system, there is a practice among Hindus to get married within their own caste or sub-caste. Due to this, the process of choosing a life partner remains limited. As a result, there is a dearth of young people having a high paying job or having a happy future engaged in any profession. They become like “rare commodities” and their parents demand huge sums of money from the bride’s side, as if girls are a bargain.
Social Custom – One of the reasons for dowry is that giving dowry is a social custom and it is very difficult to change the customs at once. There is a feeling of the people that by following the rituals unity and harmony increases among the people.
It is Many people take and give dowry only because their parents and forefathers were also following this practice, if they do not do this, then their honor and respect may suffer. For example, when Sati Pratha was prevalent, many people were against it. Still they could not raise their voice due to the fear of caste-fraternity. Traditions continue forever because there is respect for the past and the present behind it. For this reason, the practice has made the old dowry system irreversible and a stereotype. As long as the rebellious youth does not dare to end it and the girls do not oppose the social pressure by giving it, this practice will remain bound to the people.
Anulom marriage system – In addition to endogamy, Hindus also have Anulom marriage system, according to which a low caste can marry a higher caste. When upper caste marries a non-caste girl, then they ask for more dowry (dowry). Therefore, Anulom marriage encourages dowry system.
Vicious cycle – The important reason for the acceptance of dowry by the parents of the groom is that they have to give dowry in the marriage of their daughters or sisters. It is natural that they use the dowry money received from their son to find a suitable husband for their daughter and make her happy. From here the vicious cycle starts and the amount of dowry takes the form of a tarnished curse. Sociological implications of dowry – People may have dual perception towards dowry but some people have a clear point of view. On one hand there are people who are in favor of rooting out this evil but on the other hand there are some reactionaries who want to keep this practice alive in some form or the other. They understand that there are benefits in continuing with this practice: Some of the benefits, which are not necessarily based on good logic and rationality, are as follows:
- By giving higher education to the meritorious boys of poor class, they get opportunities to make future.
2 . This practice helps in settling the new household. After marriage, the couple has to settle in a new house because nowadays the existence of joint family is ending. Therefore, the money received in dowry helps the newly married couple to set up a new house.
- Dowry increases the respect of a woman in the family. If the bride brings a good amount of money with her to the marriage, she is treated well because of her financial support.
- The chances of marriage of ugly girls increase. It is very difficult for a ugly girl to get a good husband. But if her parents are ready to spend a good amount of money then getting a good groom becomes easy. Because there are some people who love money more than the girl.
- Dowry helps people to increase their status in the society. People of lower classes marry their daughters to higher classes, spend more money in dowry and thus raise their social status.
- Some people think of giving their share to the girls through dowry. If people cannot give land to their son-in-law, then they give the amount of his share to him only after giving money as dowry.
- This encourages inter-caste marriages. Main considerations before father in search of daughter’s life partner
It happens that the future of the chosen boy is secure and he is of good character, so instead of caste, the boy becomes the main subject of election. Dowry must have been beneficial in the past. But nowadays it has become a stigma in the Indian society. There was a time when dowry was accepted by the groom’s side but now it is being “demanded”. The result is that from the day of the birth of a girl, the problem of dowry enters the mind of her parents and if unfortunately that person has three or four daughters, then his whole life is spent in solving this problem. What and how should he arrange the marriage of his daughters. This increases his mental problems.
defects of dowry
, Unethical – The moral values in the society are decreasing day by day. Today it is being felt that we all have fallen far short of our moral obligations to some extent. In ancient times, in this spiritualistic country, where a man did not extend his hand to the female side in matrimonial relations for wealth, there the modern ideology has changed a lot. The person now wants to pay the groom’s price in the boy’s marriage and he is mostly successful in getting desired money, things etc. by force from the girl’s side. .
, Economic crisis – In ancient times, the dowry system was introduced for equal distribution of wealth in the society. But now it has become a curse due to wrong development. Especially for the middle class family, who keep investing money in working for their family throughout their life. Sometimes education, sometimes dowry, as a result, at the time of marriage, loans have to be taken to meet the demands of the groom’s side. Many times this debt continues from generation to generation due to which the economy of the family is destroyed.
Antisocial – Man is a social animal, he cannot live without society, ultimately he works under social rules till his life, this is the symbol of his sociality, in the interests of the society.
Keeping this paramount
The structure remains strong. But by doing some work, the interests get hurt, due to which the social structure gets disintegrated. In the Indian society, some social customs and practices such as untouchability, casteism, widow remarriage, prohibition of child marriage and dowry system etc. are also present in the society. Most flourishing evil practice like dowry in the society is disintegrating the social structure. Due to the development of this practice, social functions and social values are declining, it seems that this bad practice is promoting anti-social activities, which is a symbol of complete anarchy.
, Irreligious – Righteousness is said to be the biggest religion. Religion is worn for human welfare and charity. The meaning of wearing it is that religion does welfare of human life, protects and nurtures it. Religion only teaches good behavior to man. Donation in Hindu marriage is considered a very religious act, today this religion has spread like leprosy in the society in the form of dowry.
, Low status of women – The dowry system makes the giver more poor and the receiver more inferior and the condition of women degrades a lot. The boy considers himself a very respectable person and considers the girl as an inferior and low-level thing, so dowry is a social injustice, it is shameful for us and a stigma on the society. This is an attack on the self-respect of women.
, Solution for the end of dowry system – Looking at the menace of dowry system and Tandav dance, the thought power of the society has not moved towards its solution, so that it can get rid of the bondage of this dreadful problem.
Freedom from the problem like dowry system is possible only when united efforts are made for its solution and solution from all religious, social and political points of view. There is also a great need to create a strong ideological and active mass base for the solution of this problem. anti-dowry campaign
At the government level – In the past, the practice of Sati was very badly affecting the Hindu women in the society, as a result of which women were moving towards disintegration. But as a result of the efforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Lord William Bentinck banned the practice of Sati in 1829. In the 20th century, the then Law Minister of the Government of India, A. Of . Sen introduced the Dowry Prohibition Bill in Parliament on 27 April 1959. On May 9, 1961, it was decided in the joint session that the gifts given on the occasion of marriage will not be considered as dowry, but the condition of exchange of gifts while fixing the marriage will be punishable. After that Dowry Prohibition Bill was approved. There are ten sections in this act.
at the legal level
- All gifts received at the time of marriage Stree Dhan – The Supreme Court has ruled that the bride has the right to all the things received as dowry at the time of marriage and if the in-laws refuse to give them, then they can be sued. will be run
2 . Life imprisonment for dowry greedy mother-in-law, father-in-law and husband If the tadhu is tortured or killed for dowry, then the dowry greedy will be punished for life imprisonment.
- Husband and mother-in-law sentenced to death for killing pregnant bride
- Special Court Marriage Act – The Special Court Marriage Act is also helpful in neutralizing the dowry system. One can get married after attaining the age fixed by the government. With this one can get freedom from dowry. Prohibition on the expensive dowry of the upper class – The upper class itself is promoting dowry and making the marriage process complicated. The effect of these acts of theirs is on the middle and lower class, so it is very important for the government to stop the expensive marriages and dowry transactions of the upper class. At the social level – To bring changes in the expensive social system and to end the dowry system, there is a widespread experience in the society so that a solution to this problem can be found at the social level, because depending on government rules and laws, no one can Even the social problem cannot be solved. Therefore, for this the society should be aware. On Tham R – In the Vedic age, the position of women in the society was elevated and they would have to be seen with reverence and respect. Not only this, women had all the religious, social and political rights, but in the modern environment, the life of women has changed. The price is only dowry. The male society has snatched all the pride that was not received in the respect given to the female caste and the female | It has become a commodity of consumption. Now it is also felt that the religious leaders of all sects, Mahatmas, Saints, Sanyasis should play an active role in opposing dowry through their discourses and lectures in front of the society.
, At the political level – after independence in the country, whenever – whenever any national problem came – then it was solved. There is a need for active cooperation of all political parties together for the solution. Unanimously provided active cooperation to solve the national problem like dowry-practice prevalent in the society. In the same vein, to solve the national problem like dowry prevalent in the society today, unanimously provide active cooperation at the political level and conduct a detailed program against the dowry system, which is beneficial in favor of public aspirations. National level against dowry system Campaigning from up to Gram Sabha level and distribution of literature, propaganda material etc. against it
It will be in the interest of the society and the nation.
At the educational level – Important steps can be taken to end the dowry system at the educational level. For which the Government of India should announce the nationalization policy of education soon. With this, the curriculum of uniform education can be started throughout the country. Today, the need for such moral education for the country has to be emphasized which can strengthen the feelings of nationalism. Along with portraying the character of great men in moral education for the upliftment of the nation, awakening of patriotism and national spirit, knowledge of social events and taking steps for social change also includes extension of education. Only effective teachers can make it. Girl students must be motivated to participate in sports programs compulsorily. With the expansion of judo, women can easily learn and become self-sufficient from a protective point of view. ,
Ending the importance of casteism – Casteism is in vogue since the Vedic period and even today marriages take place within the caste. The caste is also divided into many sub-castes and it also has to be followed, due to which the problem like dowry system is creating a terrible situation. The integrity of this country, caste bias and disregard of encouraging rules and laws are also hindrances for the country’s educational, social, economic, political and administrative works.
Encouragement of inter-caste marriages – It should be encouraged as it will help in ending the evil of dowry, Boys and girls should be given opportunities to choose their life partner. Now marriage with the consent of the parents should not be insisted upon but they should be given the freedom to meet and mingle so that they can make their own destinies. ,
Love marriage – Theoretically, ‘love’ signifies the creation of human power and ‘Ghana’ signifies the destruction of human power. Where there is loving life, it is called heaven and where there is hatred, it is called hell. Love life becomes successful only when human-human, husband-wife, lover-beloved accept love with an attractive and self-surrendering spirit. If the loving couple gets married, then life is spent happily, but the society does not recognize it. Therefore, if it is practiced and there is no hindrance, then evils like dowry system can be stopped.
Ideal Marriage – In view of matrimonial complications and the perniciousness of dowry system, the practice of ideal marriage started from the second half of this century. Ideal marriage with dowry is being brought into vogue to present ideal in the society. To present the ideal before the society, the bride should be accepted as dowry. Unmarried young men and women will have to come forward by breaking the social bonds to tie themselves in marriage in order to present the ideal in the society.
Epilogue – The dynamism of every society comes under a natural process, so there will be no society in which there is no dynamism, social dynamism can be said to be the sign of social change. There have been rapid changes in social conditions, professions, customs, traditions and Indian culture and this trend continues even today. The practice of purdah and child marriage got strengthened due to the atrocities of Muslim rulers on Hindu women. The parents used to hasten the marriage of unmarried Hindu girls for the purpose of saving their honor and maintaining the purity of the blood, and used to give money to run the life of the newly married couple, which has come into vogue today as dowry. Due to the increase in the practice of dowry in marriage, the marital system became increasingly costly and today dowry has become so dominant in the Hindu society that the women’s society has become non-existent and its consequences are that the modern civilized society still does not accept women as family ideals and practices. To develop within the four walls of the house and to lead a life of financial helplessness. Where on one hand the nation is moving towards all-round development and women are walking equal to men in education and other fields, on the other hand exploitation of women continues on a large scale. 100% marriages of even highly educated unmarried girls take place within the confines of the dowry system.
It is meant to say that despite being on the path of progress, women appear non-existent as a result of suffering from the dowry system; today, due to the dowry system, individual family and social disorganization are taking place, as well as there is a continuous increase in various crimes in the society. New-brides are being tortured, not only this, they are either forced to commit suicide when the dowry is less or in those cases they are murdered. In the end, it can be said that the abolition of dowry system will be an important step towards social reform. Whatever may have been the objective in the beginning, it cannot be denied that this practice has failed to accept the feelings and individuality of women as individuals. This injustice has to be stopped.
Even if this education is done by propaganda organizations or scholars, we have allowed this evil to flourish for a long time and have made the society a victim of perversion. Until we become more progressive with revolutionary thoughts and less conservative, dowry will continue to be a curse in our society.
Will remain in the same form. Only with co-operation and mutual understanding, the wheels of the chariot of the society can move smoothly. Today marriages are arranged on the basis of dowry and not on the basis of character or on the basis of modern values of high aspirations, therefore it is high time for the Hindu society to completely destroy the evil of dowry system which has driven many young women to commit suicide. forced to. It should not be forgotten that marriage is a sacred sacrament and not a business or deal. When a girl is accepted in marriage not for her qualities but for dowry then what she brings in the marriage becomes the focal point then the sanctity of marriage is lost so sooner we can get rid of this evil. Take it, it will be equally beneficial for the society.
Marriage – Separation / Divorce
Social acceptance was given to the institution of marriage as an institutional way to maintain the order of the society and to fulfill the sexual needs. Some keep their life organized formally despite family tensions and some keep their life organized on the surface due to religious beliefs, family prestige and family pressures, but there is a situation of family tension from inside. Although many people consider divorce as the only reason for family disintegration. But divorce is only a sign of family disintegration, the reason being that divorce is a legal dissolution of marriage and results in the ultimate disintegration of the family. In the traditional Hindu society earlier marriage was considered a religious act, nowadays it is becoming secular. The tendency to consider marriage as consensual is increasing. Till the mid-1950s, divorce was not permitted under Hindu law. Although according to the local customs in some castes, divorce was allowed by giving some amount of money. Four decades ago, the law makers of our country changed the Hindu society from uneducated and harsh condition to modern ideology and now it has changed from “sacred ritual” to “divorce by mutual consent”. Not all marriages are successful, some end with disharmony and bitterness, some people with unsuccessful marriages continue to drag their lives believing fate and spend the whole life in a state of confusion. Abandonment, whether permanent or temporary, is illegal and unofficial, and is an act of lesser responsibility on the part of the husband or wife because the family tends to wander, while divorce is legally breaking of marital bonds and is the final termination of a real marriage. As long as the state operates the institution of marriage, it is necessary to follow government rules for any kind of freedom from the bonds of marriage.
Divorce is a sad event in which one of the husband and wife prays to leave the other. In modern western societies, marriages have become so temporary that divorce is the main cause of family disintegration there, but it is also said that the problem of divorce arises only after family disintegration when one or both the parties want to break their relationship. Want to Divorce is not the problem of harmonious and happy families. Thus divorce provides legal basis to broken marriages. Along with this, there are many such marriages which are troublesome for the husband and wife, but the problem of divorce does not arise in them. Most of the husbands leave their wives. Divorce is always a sad situation because the rejected partner feels humiliated, despised and victimised, but the social consequences of abandonment are more painful and impractical, especially for the woman. Women have to face social, economic and emotional traumas. On an emotional basis, she always feels that she has been scornfully rejected by her husband and thrown away as a useless thing.
Socially she suffers in such a way that she is not sure whether her husband will return or not and what to tell the children about their father’s absence. Economically, what hurts a woman is the lack of economic resources, due to which she has to face difficulty in maintaining herself and her children. Abandoned woman is neither able to keep herself in the category of married nor in the category of widow. To earn a living, either he himself has to do court work or he has to employ his children. When some women get a job, they have to be more busy. Due to which their children do not get proper care or they find their income insufficient for the family. All these situations give rise to situations like child labour, juvenile delinquency, disintegrated personality etc. But no official sociological study has been done to analyze this problem of abandonment, nor has any such social security scheme been launched in our country under which the cases of abandoned women can be brought to light. But divorce has attracted our attention since a few decades. Divorce should not be considered as a personal incident. Although there are individual aspects of the divorce problem, yet divorce takes the form of a social problem on a large scale because the existence of a state or a nation depends on the success of a successful family life. In this way, the smooth functioning of marital responsibilities by the adult members of the society
Properly functioning stable family life is the first need of the society. Although the form of marriage varies according to the social environment and circumstances, but marriage is an essential institution of every society.
Marriage provides happiness and peace to husband and wife, but when marriage becomes painful instead of giving happiness and peace, it gives rise to many personal, family and social problems, to overcome these problems, when the bonds of marriage are broken. If two partners bound in marital life do not consider it important and necessary, then by breaking the marital bonds, they obtain legal recognition for it, which is called divorce. Historical Background of Divorce – Divorce as a social phenomenon has been going on since the time when the institution of marriage governed by social rules existed in the society. Kautilya has also ordered divorce in four irreligious marriages – Asar Gandharva, Paishach and Rakshasa. First of all, we have the law of legal recognized divorce in the law of Hammarabi.
gets to see. According to this law, the husband could divorce his wife at any time without mentioning any reason. Divorce was a masculine right among the Jews. Presently the speed of divorce is increasing in the Indian society.
Here, due to many processes of social change, industrialization, urbanization, modernization and other activities, life is moving from harmony to disharmony. This state of disharmony has affected all aspects of life. Marital life has also been affected by this coming in the stream of change. Marriage is no longer just a religious bond but a legal contract or agreement, which can be broken on legal grounds. So it is clear that now both husband and wife have the right to divorce by law. Types of Divorce – According to scholars there are two types of statutory divorce
Complete Divorce – In complete divorce, all the rights and obligations of the marriage cease. And both the parties live as single persons in the society. The relationship of both ends.
Partial talaq – Partial talaq or legal separation does not dissolve the marriage but only recognizes the legal separation of husband and wife. In this they neither sleep nor eat together. This condition lasts until the husband and wife decide to live in the same house again. In this, some arrangements are made for the maintenance of the wife. But in such a situation, both husband and wife have a tendency to meet each other and stay together. Sometimes, even after there is a religious ban on remarriage, the husband or wife get bored of the situation of divorce and start living together again. Some people say that this type of divorce encourages illegal practices, it reduces the possibility of reunification between the two people after the divorce. Women sometimes apply for divorce to prevent their husbands from marrying extra or for other religious or personal reasons. But there are no solid grounds to reveal complete divorce and partial divorce. Reasons for divorce Different scholars have given their own reasons for this. According to one the main reasons for divorce are: • Lack of family harmony – quarrels between husband and wife. Misbehavior by husband and quarrels with in-laws. • Sterility of the wife – Unethical behavior of the husband or the wife, due to illness or nature, the husband is unable to perform the family responsibility, and the husband is punished. According to others – abandonment and cruelty, depersonalization, impotence and miscellaneous reasons other than genuine reasons. According to the third – according to them there are two groups of reasons for marriage – separation –
- Environmental reasons and
- Personal reasons
Environmental factors are related to the environment inside the family and outside the family. Environmental causes include extramarital affairs, inadequate home life, physical assault, poverty, wife’s working life and role conflict. In personality related reasons – irritable nature, incurable disease, impotence, sterility, big difference in age and dominant nature. All these studies indicate that divorce is not always due to lack of harmony in married life. Undoubtedly, some wives want divorce because of their husband’s ill-treatment, cruelty and neglectful attitude, but in some cases, women want divorce because they are fed up with their in-laws. On the contrary, some men doubt their wife’s loyalty towards them or there is a big difference between them on the intellectual and educational level. Somewhere, the wife is not able to adapt herself to the social life of her husband, being related to the conservative family with strict rules, because she is not allowed male company in the husband’s house, on the contrary, the woman is quiet, monotonous. And the husband of bad mood is found. In arranged marriages, where mutual attraction is not the reason for marriage, there are many other reasons like respect for parents, good friends – there are opportunities to give and take, high family ties and harmony after marriage. Desire is also very less.
Theoretical view on the reasons for divorce
Perspectives on Divorce Any Commentary on Divorce Must Consider Four Reasons
(1) Factors that affect marriage values (Functional Approach)
(2) The reasons that arise due to the conflict between the changing economic system and its social and idealistic superstructure, especially the family, (Marxist point of view)
(3) The situation of interaction and (Interactionist approach).
(4) In the idea of value and benefit (social exchange approach), the functionalist approach explains divorce in general as a reflection of changes in ideals and values, especially in family and marriage. People have high expectations from marriage as a result of which marriage comes in a state of dissolution when their expectations are not fulfilled. Second functionalists also stress on the fact that due to non-adjustment with the expectations of the economic system of the family, there is a burden on the marital relationship in a way. Mental tension in joint family is certain at times because of the size of the family, economic burden, expectations of the younger members and conservative beliefs and restrictive values and ideals set up by the elders. Finally, functionalists also talk about the changes in marriage and divorce. In the past, there was a great influence of Hindu philosophy on the people, due to which the chances of divorce were very less. But today due to secular beliefs there has been a change in the values and attitude towards divorce. Secularism has reduced the influence of religious beliefs, due to which marriage relations have also been greatly affected. The Marxist approach emphasizes that marital aspirations can be fulfilled only when both the husband and wife are earning, but the conflict arises due to the contradiction between the expectations of wage-earning working women and the idealized aspirations associated with matrimonial life 18 . it happens . Working wives are expected to commit to the role of housewife along with the role of editor. Women are expected to play a subservient role to the male head of the household, despite being equally involved in earning money.
Such idealistic expectations of women and moral expectations are totally against the role of a woman as a money earner. Such situations also create such an environment. If the wife and husband are from different social background then it is difficult to reconcile them which may lead to abandonment or separation or even divorce. All these reasons help in divorce. Marriage – Role adjustment after separation – Various consequences of divorce come before us. In Indian society, there is a need to analyze the fact that how husband and wife adjust themselves after divorce. Divorce is the end of marriage contract, but from the point of view of husband and wife, it is only a change in the situation of husband and wife. This also leads to personal disintegration and such persons start feeling guilty. In such a situation, a situation of disharmony arises in front of him. After divorce, there is a change in the roles and situation of both husband and wife, some people face the situations arising out of divorce, but the life of other people gets disintegrated in these situations. The social structure of almost all countries including India is based on the concept of marriage. Any other system is not desirable for the society.
Due to change in relationship situation, ambiguity and change in role and behaviour, the problem of adjustment arises in front of the person. Divorced persons also face the problem of restoration of marital relations. Very few divorced men and women remarry. Most of the men and women stay with their parents after divorce. Divorce leads to the problem of sexual harmony. Generally women have more problems. Divorced people often do not get proper respect in the society. Such people have to face difficulties due to change in personality. Divorce hurts a person’s ego. Many divorced women do not do any work. After this, men and women do not have any kind of attachment towards each other. Due to non-fulfillment of habits, a sense of frustration, trouble and dissatisfaction arises, due to divorce, one has to face a lot of difficulties in performing economic roles and conducting economic life. After the divorce, the children are more worried, their life also grinds between these two. Many difficulties in the environment of the group and society come in front of such persons, but gradually these conditions become natural for the persons. Divorce trends – The following trends of divorce are found in India: Actual reasons for divorce are not mentioned in the courts. Real reasons are different from statutory reasons. Therefore, instead of giving reasons like abandonment, cruelty, personal etc., the tendency to give reasons like mutual estrangement and tension is increasing. Cruelty and abandonment reasons are mentioned more under statutory reasons because both these grounds are considered less offensive than other grounds.
There is no effort to liberalize the grounds for divorce
are crying Although the divorce rate has increased significantly since the 1960s, the tendency of the courts is to try to avoid divorce by treating it as an act of haste and frivolity. Divorce is not considered as such a serious evil as husband-wife living together and living a stressful life. Negligible number of people remarry after divorce, women are also eager for divorce due to failure of marriage like men, although it is necessary that they do not want divorce to be free from the shackles of married life, but as a last resort after being fed up with the tension. Psychological conditions that initiate divorce After divorce, children usually live with the mother, but the father does not end social relations with the children. Divorce rates vary according to social class and occupational status. People in middle-status occupations have more divorces than those in high-status occupations. Similarly, the divorce rate is lower in rural people than in urban people. Divorce in India – There is not much tradition of divorce in India. After the arrival of the British, there was a trend towards divorce among the people. But at present, the interpretation of divorce in India is done on the basis of the Hindu Marriage Act made in 1955. In this act, special rules were made in relation to ancient forms of marriage, dowry system and divorce. This law has been implemented from May 18, 1955 in the whole country except Jammu and Kashmir. Before this act, there was no legal arrangement for divorce in India. In this act, emphasis was laid on increasing the freedom of women. The act hurt the religious belief of marriage. This act is very important from the point of view of divorce. Procedure for Divorce – The following procedure for divorce after being recognized by law has been mentioned in the statutes:
- The application for divorce will be given in the court only.
2 . Application for divorce can be given only after three years from the date of marriage.
- The court after examining all the matters related to divorce and marriage will grant divorce to the husband or wife.
- Once a couple gets permission for divorce or divorce from the court, then within a period of one year, the couple can apply to the court for re-marriage.
- After divorce, the court may order that the applicant should give necessary support or expenses for living to the other party for life or until the other party marries. ,
- The court can also give other necessary orders regarding expenses, on the basis of which arrangements for the expenses of the defendant or living facilities and other things are made. Grounds of Divorce in India – In India, both husband and wife can divorce each other for any or any of the many reasons defined by the constitution. Section 13, 14 of the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 describes several grounds for dissolution of marriages. This act also affects those marriages which took place before it came into force. Under the Act, an application has to be filed in the court on the constitutional grounds of the person who is interested in Salki Kali, on the basis of which the judge can grant permission for divorce. Any one of the husband or wife can apply to the court for permission for divorce on any one or more of the following grounds.
(a) if either of the spouses is convicted of rape
(b) The husband or wife has been suffering from severe disease like leprosy for three years before the date of application, for which there is no possibility of treatment.
(c) the husband or wife is, before the date of making the application, of such unsound mind as to be beyond cure.
(d) The applicant shall be entitled to obtain a divorce if the husband or the wife have changed their religion at the time of the marriage after the marriage.
(e) In situations after marriage, the wife may apply for divorce from her husband on the following grounds relating to sex. • The husband is guilty of rape. • Husband is impotent. • Husband is guilty of anal sex. • Husband is guilty of animal sex.
(f) If a husband or wife has contracted a sexually transmitted disease, he or she may apply for divorce on the basis of the Hindu Marriage Act. It is necessary for any husband to make such an application only if the other has had a sexually transmitted disease for three years.
(g) According to the Hindu Marriage Act, if the husband has entered into a second marriage, the wife can divorce him.
(h) If the husband or the wife takes Sannyas, then either party can give divorce.
(i) If either of the spouses does not protect and respect the statutory rights obtained from the marriage, the other party has the right to obtain a divorce.
(p) According to the Act, if it is not known about the husband or wife that the other person has been alive or dead for the last 7 years, then the surviving husband or wife can obtain divorce.
(q) Divorced as per Hindu Marriage Act
To do this, it is necessary that cohabitation has not started in two years before giving the application. Divorce rate in India has increased rapidly ever since divorce got legal basis. modernization in society
Due to the continuation of the process and the influence of western civilizations, divorces are now happening in India and the importance of religious sentiment behind marriage is decreasing.
But the pace of divorce is very slow in India as compared to foreign countries.
- Feminism: Similarities and Differences,
- Contemporary feminism and equality-difference,
- Construction of Sexual Identity: Similarities and Differences:
- Historicity of Sex Differences
- Psychoanalysis: Similarities and Differences,
- The aging dilemma of similarity versus difference is a complex one. When people first hear about feminism they often assume that it denies sexual differences: ‘Whatever he can do, I can do too’. Women’s role in reproduction as a source and mechanism of patriarchal power. What is the point of such arguments? Does he mean that we should aim to eliminate all differences, and if so, how far can we go? During the seventies, it became common to speak of the difference between sex and gender; Using the former referring to an essential biological difference, and using the latter for building society. For example, women give birth to children, this is a biological fact. that then they are a specific responsibility pattern of gender relations, and one that is open to change. In the eighties, this approach has also been seen as rather diluted, with feminism moving more intensively towards the assertion of sex. al difference.
- Androgyny is not fashionable in the women’s movement today. Fifteen to twenty years ago, the desire for equality might have expressed itself in a desire to escape the stereotypes and definitions of sex, in the longing to be a ‘person’ rather than a ‘woman’. Today the emphasis would be different, and partly, of course, due to the existence of a movement that has helped women assert themselves with pride. Adrienne Rich, for
- The main thrust of the debate in contemporary feminism has come from the influence of psychoanalytic theory on the one hand and the celebration of a woman-identified woman on the other. The earlier arguments were usually placed in terms of which aspects of women’s lives should feminists focus their activities on: those where women were claiming equality with men? Or those that were traditionally the concern of the woman? The argument was not so much whether men and women were different in principle, as it was discussed constantly. It wasn’t really a stake issue.
- Sally Alexander defines subjectivity and sexual identity as ‘constructed through a process of differentiation, separation and division, and a process that is always in the making, never complete’ (Alexander: 1987). The process is no less fundamentally different for a little girl/woman and a little boy/man. Her main concern … is how the unconscious enters politics, and in particular the way our understanding of self and sexual identity is altered by our understanding of class. Thought-provoking as it is, its implications for feminism still need to be clarified: what—besides a difference—does it represent a sex difference? These things can be seen in the process of various social institutions, for example family, education, economic etc.
- The traditional family – in which the father works full-time outside the home and the mother is a full-time homemaker – is no longer the most common arrangement in developed societies. These changes have created both problems and opportunities.
- Another problem is that even if both husband and wife work outside the home, the wife usually does most of the housework. Studies show that this one-sidedness is even more likely when the husband is highly paid or has a prestigious job and the wife has a low paying and low prestige job.
- When the wife is higher educated than her husband, however, there is a greater tendency to share household chores (Erickson, Yancey & Erickson: 1979). Other studies have shown that the higher the wife’s income compared to the husband, the more power she has in the family, and the more power she has in the family, the more she participates in family decision-making. .
- On the side of opportunity, paid jobs give women a sense of worth and independence that they may not find at home. Studies indicate that working wives are happier than housewives, despite the burden of managing both a home and a job. Even if their jobs are not exciting, or pay less, working women have higher self-esteem than women who stay at home (Fairy: 1976). For many it means a new sense of power and identity.
- Gender can affect academic performance. Differences are most pronounced in early adolescence, when girls excel at verbal tasks and boys at visual-spatial and mathematical tasks (McCombie & Jacqueline: 1974). But while boys who fall behind in reading are often placed in remedial classes, visual-spatial tutoring is largely unavailable to girls who may need it. The structure of the classroom can also be detrimental to both boys and girls. Studies show that being close to a teacher rewards girls in the preschool years; In elementary school, he is praised for being agreeable. Boys are reprimanded for breaking the rules, but they are more likely to be passive and agreeable than girls.
are less likely to be rewarded (Ireson: 1978). Although both boys and girls are rewarded for achievement, boys are encouraged to develop their own standards while girls are pressured.
- Women who enter male-dominated professions often find that their problems are not over. Most businesses have an internal stratification system. For example, in the field of medicine, there is an over-representation of women in pediatrics, psychiatry and public health – again purported, “feminine”, less well-paid specialties – and in other areas, especially surgical in the specifications. Pay and prestige disparities are not limited to the medical field. The income of men and women is unequal across the board.
- The commitment to gender equality itself does not tell us what form that equality should take. Equal pay for jobs women do or equal share of jobs done by men? Do women have equal opportunities to compete with men or is there numerical equality in every walk of life? Do women have equal responsibility for housework and children or better conditions in the home? Those who describe themselves as feminists have been in almost as much controversy on such issues as their detractors. We can find answers to these questions in this chapter.
- For example, gave theoretical expression to the politics of gay separatism when he argued that women have a fundamental attachment to each other, and are only engaging in relationships with men, through a complex of power relations that lead to heterosexuality. as a norm (Rich: 1980). Dale Spender rewrites the feminist project as an assertion of women’s experience and values.
- Over and against the various values of men (Spender: 1982). These and other writings combine into a popular rendering that views women as not only different from, but superior to, men, essentially bearers of ‘female’ qualities that sometimes replicate too closely for comfort, feminists Once tried to avoid: rational rather than emotional; peace-loving rather than destructive; Caring about people instead of things. The kind of ‘women-centred culture’ promised in such a philosophy leaves little room for the petty politics of equal rights and opportunities.
- Today’s arguments, in contrast, point to a more essential line on sexual difference. People affected by psychoanalysis are more likely to be clear about the inevitability of sexual difference, but the content of this difference is variable and ambiguous. Elshten (1987) states that boys and girls learn who they are by observing that their bodies are different. A ‘sexual difference’, she suggests, ‘is neither an insult, nor an indignation, nor a narcissistic injury. On the other hand, a sexual division, an activity is both a deep wound to the psycho-sexual identity of the human subject as well as a specific damage to the overly rigid system of stratification and exclusivity.
- Paralleling this claim of women’s power and women’s difference—if theoretically worlds apart—are the arguments of psychoanalytic theory, which has been introduced to the United States largely through translations of French feminist writings (eg Marx and de Courtivron: 1980). And the British have entered the debate. Less clearly here is an essential woman and an essential man: the emphasis … is often on the very delicate and uncertain nature of a woman’s sexual identity. But if sexual identity is uncertain and changeable, it is still based on difference: being a woman is not being a man. We are brought back to the perennial and difficult question: If the sexes are different, in what sense and how can they be equal?
- Rights may simply mean applying the same standards to everyone – but what if we are different and unequal? What if I have a child to support and you don’t have one? What if I am weak and you are strong? What if I want more than you? logic is important
- The tension between calling for equal treatment, or emphasizing the special needs of women, for gender equality is one that lies at the heart of feminist dilemmas. For women to have an ‘equal right’ to work they may actually need workplace nurseries, for example; they require additional security conditions if pregnant; They may need time to menstruate. Such arguments can, of course, be hostages to fate, for once you accept that women are different from men, you reduce their chances at work. The difficulty came to the fore in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the question of protective legislation: whether women should support laws that ‘protected’ them from particularly hard labor (preventing working in mines in Britain, and restrict their employment at night); Or should they often challenge the exclusion of women from certain categories of high-paying work? (Phillips: 1987). With positions changing over the years and the general tension of similarity versus difference, the dilemma proved to be an intractable one.
- When feminists talk about inequalities between women and men
If so, he seems to be implying that there is a unity of women: all women this, all men that. This is most persuasive when women are denied their rights under the law: when, for example, they are denied the right to vote on the basis of their gender; when they are denied the right to certain types of employment as women; When regardless of their age, class, caste, they are subject to their husbands in law. Whenever the law employs sex to deny women rights, then all women are equal to all men. What remains of this unity after women get rights in law?
- Thinking through some of these problems we can see that they share common ground with the socialist critique of liberalism: the notion that equality is equality only under the law; the idea that formal equality legitimizes actual inequalities; The idea that it is separate from differences of race and class. But the feminist debate on liberalism is not just divided into socialist and liberal camps. Partly of course because radical feminism… stands outside any tradition. But the different contexts in which the arguments developed have also shaped political concerns. Equal rights/liberal feminism had few followers in the emergence of the women’s liberation movement in Britain, which had little time to see the ‘women in the boardroom’ approach as such, and found itself more within a radical or socialist tradition. definitely kept.
- It is one of the contrasts in the tension between equality and difference that representatives from each end of the spectrum can make their case for B.
- Advocates of strict equality have argued—with considerable force—that once feminists accept minor degrees of sexual difference, they open a gap through which currents of reaction flow. Let it be known for once that premenstrual tension interferes with concentration, that pregnancy can be exhausting, motherhood is absorbing, and that you’re down slope in different areas. It was with good reason that prominent suffragists (such as Millicent Garrett Fawcett) argued against emphasizing women’s maternal role: the whole point of the movement was to lift women out of their stereotyped domesticity, to assert their claims in the public sphere. Was.
- But those who have argued for feminism based on gender differences have a very commendable case of their own. The politics of equality directs energy towards areas that are occupied by men, while women’s activities, primarily around domestic work or child care, remain as obscure as ever. Women are asked to fit themselves into slots prepared for men, and their own needs are ignored in the process. Equality means why should women shape themselves in a world made for men? Why shouldn’t the world be made to change its future?
- There has generally been a class dimension to equality versus difference in the history of the women’s movement. For example, in the nineteenth century, it was middle-class women who felt most victimized by the principle of separate spheres, as they were the ones whose femininity was most clearly defined as they were excluded from useful work. it was done. The feminism that arose from this was primarily about challenging exclusion, claiming access to public life, the right to vote, and to study and work. Feminists who had previously refused to engage with issues of motherhood on the grounds that it would help bring women back home were now recognized as the voices of middle-class women. The emphasis on the name of the mother of the working class was then backfired.
- typifies the example, as none of the conditions were actually satisfied. The equality end of the feminist spectrum tended to highlight women as workers, while the difference end highlighted women as mothers. Since in practice most women are both, emphasizing any aspect to the exclusion of the other is usually a dangerous choice.
- Thus if there is a need for better contraceptive advice, more midwives, better antenatal care, ‘family endowments’ and so on, an important and welcome emphasis on the problems women faced as mothers However, it also ran the risk of negating the need for women’s paid work. When the working mother came under threat in the 1940s and 1950s—when wartime nurseries closed and women were encouraged to take up their place in the home—feminists were more or less ready to defend her. Campaigns for paid employment were too closely identified with the limited needs of women of better status, and feminism temporarily lost the language that insisted on women’s equal right to work (Riley: 1983). . In this instance, similarities and differences became too stark contrasts in politics, with unfortunate results.
- There are many factors that keep men ahead in the market like women’s professional life is often interrupted by family responsibilities, there are less opportunities for promotion in some jobs
Etcetera.
- While it is not possible to resolve the cultural-biological disagreement at this point, it is safe to say that the real answer lies between the two extremes. Whichever set of factors turns out to be most influential, it is clear that culture reinforces universal discrimination and stratification by gender. Any female interest in traditionally male social positions in America must fight incredible odds to survive the cultural onslaught initiated by parents, peers, and lovers during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Starting in infancy with the tea party and mother’s purse, girls are bombarded with a substantial cultural bond to show their preference for traditional female activities as ‘natural’, whether partly rooted in nature or No.
gender and society
Women, then, are unequal to men, not because of any basic and direct conflict of interest between the sexes, but because of working class oppression, with its attendant factors of property inequality, exploited labor, and segregation. The fact that women are less privileged than men within any given class, to the contrary, seems to have no immediate structural reason in Marxist feminism. Rather like liberal feminism, this fact is the result of a historical carry-over from the fall of primitive communism that Engels described.
Consequently, the solution to gender inequality is the destruction of class oppression. This destruction will take place through revolutionary action by a united wage-earning class involving both men and women. Any direct mobilization of women against men is counter-revolutionary, as it divides the potentially revolutionary working class. A working class revolution that destroys the class system by making all economic wealth the property of the entire community would free society from class exploitation, a byproduct of gender inequality.
Early feminist writings emphasized that women had a right to work and attempted to reject prevailing attitudes that held that women’s work was marginal to both the economy and individual households. In the late 1960s and 1970s there were several strikes for equal pay and better working conditions, including a strike by sewing machines at Ford’s Dagenham factory, the London night cleaners campaign for unionisation, the occupation and strike at the Fakenham shoe factory in Norfolk Are included. by Asian women at the Imperial Typewriter in Leicester. The Working Women’s Charter campaign was established at a national level in 1974, calling for action by employers, unions and the state to ensure greater equality for women in the labor market. Campaigns by feminists have focused on wage work. In the 1980s and 1990s the issue of the value of women’s work compared to men’s was important.
Women’s Work has also produced a large body of case studies of the position of women in the labor market. These academic analyzes of women’s participation have identified three broad areas of concern.
The frown on the paid workforce notes the exclusion of women—even there, they are treated as invisible, invaders whose ‘proper’ and primary place is at home.
The question of occupational segregation and wage differential has been analysed. Women and men still work in very different types of jobs, with women being relegated to a narrow range of occupations, particularly in the service sector. And
Differences among women also on the basis of caste and class.
Feminist scholars, as well as activists, have turned their attention to the notions of equality, equal pay, equal value or comparable value, and equal opportunity in the labor market.
Alternative Explanation of Gender Division of Labour:
The main contribution of conservative economics to explain the wage gap between men and women has been human capital theory. This suggests that a person invests in himself by devoting time to study, obtaining additional qualifications, or gaining skills and work experience. The greater the initial investment in human capital, the greater the potential for future earnings. The evidence on the distribution of earnings broadly supports this. However, earnings differences, especially between women and men, are generally much larger than the theory suggests, so human capital theories provide only a partial explanation. They are also essentially sexist, because they only count as production those skills that the market rewards, and many skills that women possess go unrewarded and unrecognized. To explain these things, we will discuss the main principles of division of labor. These are as follows:
Principles of Division of Labour:
Labor economists have developed theories of differentiation that complement or replace human capital theory. Two types of theories have been developed to explain the gender divide in the workforce: the dual and segmental labor market theory, also derived from economics, and the labor process theory, based on the work of Marxist social theory.
Dual Market Theory:
The earliest and simplest dual labor market model, as its name indicates, distinguished two labor markets, a primary and a secondary sector. The former offers higher pay, good working conditions, security of employment and opportunities for promotion. In contrast, jobs in the secondary sector tend to be low-paying, heavily supervised, with poor working conditions and little potential for advancement. Most women are located in the secondary sector workforce and this is seen in large part as an explanation of their low wages. However, it
The model does not provide much accuracy, as there are clearly a large number of men on the periphery, while there are also many women—nurses, teachers, and other professionals, for example—in primary labor markets.
(ii) Segmented Labor Market Theory:
Radical economists give a more dynamic account, emphasizing the process that creates a fragmented labor market
Theorizes that diverse labor markets arise because employers seek to divide and rule workers from one another. To counter working class militancy, they suggest, employers turned to strategies designed to maintain control. They achieve this by dividing the workforce into distinct segments, so that the actual experiences of the workers are separate and the basis of their common operations.
Capitalism will be weak. Therefore, labor markets are segmented on the basis of gender, age, race and ethnic origin. This account makes room for considering gender as central to the structure of labor markets, and not simply as a reflection of men’s and women’s different relations to the family.
Work of various forms, but especially wage labor, is a large part of most people’s sense of self. Traditionally, work has been regarded as an area clearly separate from domestic or social life, as something people are paid to do, usually for a set number of hours each week. Work is often experienced as the opposite of home; It constitutes the ‘public’ side of our everyday life, as distinct from the more ‘private’; Or the intimate side shared with family and friends. Work is associated with production, with the producer of goods or services of some kind for exchange in the market, as opposed to consumption, which is defined as a ‘non-work’ or leisure-time activity. In the course of work we exchange time and labor power for monetary reward—at least, in advanced industrial societies.
In consumption activities or leisure, monetary exchange is either revered or the cash nexus is irrelevant. And, of course, work is depicted as a masculine domain, both as an area in which men are dominant, numerically and in terms of power, and as an area in which masculinity is constructed. is done. The domain of a woman is home and family. This does not mean that women are absent from men’s workplace at home; Rather, it determines that work is
Home and family are primary to the construction of masculine identity and primary to the construction of femininity. Men thus regard their families as ‘earners’, while women’s paid work is often interpreted as a secondary activity in their lives, as an extension of their roles as wives and mothers.
Feminists in the 1970s and 1980s broadened the definition of work to include domestic chores, sexual and emotional service to men, care for children, the elderly, and the sick. She emphasized that women’s activities in the home constitute work, however economically unrewarded, and criticized definitions that are based narrowly on employment or productivity. Along with the production of goods and services for exchange in the market, we must also consider the acts of reproduction as a part of work. These include the reproduction of children, the reproduction of human beings in the sense of their daily physical and emotional well-being, and the reproduction of existing social relations, including class and gender relations. This type of work is essential in the formation of social persons and current and future wage laborers are exchanged for a share in the financial remuneration received by other family members who ‘go out to work’ – usually But a male earner.
In the nineteenth century, that work has become synonymous with paid employment. Feminist sociologists and historians have also been active in questioning the meaning of the work. They have pointed to the ways in which the experiences of men seem to be prioritized over those of women; the ways in which women are denied access on equal terms to paid work, and the ways in which definitions of work exclude women’s contributions. Historically, home and work have not always been separated. They were spatially separated with the rise of industrial capitalist production and the separation is still not complete.
Women have always been part of the informal cash economy that co-existed with the growth of formal production in factories and other specialized workplaces. Women have always worked – taking up lodging, washing and ironing clothes, running small shops, preparing clothes and food for sale. Their gradual appearance in the UK, and hence their presence in official statistics of employees, has been through the movement of many productive activities, whether for financial reward or not, into the factory. The significant shift was not from relaxed working but from intra-family to employer-employee working relationships.
Related literature on work :
Feminist scholars interested in the work began in the mid-1960s, pointing out the absence of women from most studies. The first step was to fill this gap by making women workers more visible. The researchers initially focused on working-class women, particularly in manufacturing. Clerical work was viewed only in so far as it was becoming more like factory work as a result of the introduction of new technology and new work subjects. The irony is that it is the factory worker’s
The form has the effect of repeating the heroic myth of the ‘real’ labourer. In so far as it maintains existing frameworks for the study of work, fundamentally shaped by the labour/capital relationship, it can be described as a ‘add women and stir’ approach.
As feminists began to accumulate detailed case studies, they moved away from the idea that nature
The e of the labor process is determined purely by the struggle between labor and capital. There has been a concern with gender as an organizing principle of work relations, rather than simply making women “visible”. Gender should not be seen as something made at home and then taken to work. It was becoming clear that gender had been constructed in many sites and that work was important. Accounts of the construction and manipulation of masculinity and sexuality in the workplace were published in the 1980s (Cockburn: 1983, 1985; Hearn & Parkin: 1987). Cockburn: 1983, 1985) and Game and Pringle (1984) looked at the ways in which a segregated workforce was defended not only by managers but also by male workers. While new technology was continually changing the content of men’s and women’s work, and threatening to break down the existing division of labor, jobs in one way or another were continually defined to maintain the distinction. Thus, while the gendered division of labor was always changing, what did not change was the difference between men’s work and women’s work, and the difference in power between them.
Braverman (1974) argues that new technology was reducing the dignity of work, driving away old craftsmanship and drawing more and more workers into the ranks of the enlarged proletariat. He also says that the proletarianization of clerical work is dominated by women. Changes in the organization of work should not be regarded as technological innovations based on the pursuit of capital for higher profits. Rather, they are the result of a struggle for control between capitalists and workers. Feminists added a gender dimension to this, arguing that labor processes are also shaped by conflict between men and women.
It was the position of women in the family that allowed them to be treated by employers as a reserve army of labor. But they provided a springboard for feminist exploration of the labor process, and for continued work examining why women’s jobs are defined as unskilled regardless of the job’s content.
Game and Pringle (1984) argue that work is centrally organized around gender differences, and that gender is not just about differences but about power. Power relations are maintained by the distinction between male and female jobs. Male workers have a vested interest in maintaining the sexual division of labor, in maintaining a sense of superiority over women.
They have done this by traditionally defining their work as skilled and that of women as unskilled, thus establishing an association between masculinity and skill. Game and Pringle consider the relationship between gender identity and technological change and ask what happens when mechanization occurs? He argues that men’s skill is seen to be built into machines, that there is a conscious association between machines, especially large machinery, deemed appropriate for men. There are some ironies in this.
His writings on white goods manufacturing (washing machines, stoves and refrigerators) look at a whole set of polarities that define the difference between men’s work and women’s. These include: skilled/unskilled, heavy/light, dirty/clean, dangerous/boring, mobile/sedentary. While new technology is making all work look like ‘women’s work’, new distinctions (technical/non-technical) are merging to justify the ongoing sexual division of labour.
Linda McDowell (1992) returns to the impact of recent changes on two areas of ‘women’s work’ – the labor market and the home or community, and argues that women, however, are still portrayed as ‘secondary’ workers. Yes, they are an increasingly important part of the labor market. United Kingdom. This increased centrality, however, runs against greater demands on them as ‘care and service’ workers in the home as the welfare state restructures, and the effects of increasing the overall workload for many women in the United Kingdom in the 1990s treats. Whether this will lead to a wider change in the structure of gender relations is an open question.
Since the 1970s, many accounts of women’s domestic activities have been produced from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Some authors such as Selma James and Mariarosa Della Costa (1972) attack the Left for being too narrowly focused.
Some argued for wages for factory, and household work, while others argued that this would only confirm women’s employment in the domestic sphere. Socialist feminists were more interested in women and employment than radical feminists, which is perhaps not surprising given the traditional socialist emphasis on women’s liberation through the inclusion of women in social production. Supports all forms of feminist, liberal, socialist and radical, anti-discrimination legislation and equal opportunity programs
are
The separation of men’s work and women’s work between the labor market and the home, but also within wage labor, has developed historically.
Chris Middleton (1988) has demonstrated that patriarchal forms of division of labor predate industrial capitalism, findings which he suggests ‘will no doubt be received as meat and drink by those who believe in the existence of an autonomous system of patriarchy’. believe in and want to claim its independence.
of the mode of production and of the class structure. Middleton herself rejects the idea that patriarchy is an autonomous structure and emphasizes the ways in which both gender and class relations are historically constituted and intertwined in particular places at given times. It is clear that the construction of the category ‘women’s work’ in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is linked to the ambiguity of women’s classification as dependents and their contribution to family enterprises. For example, in Victorian England, behind the ideology of separate spheres for men and women, much of the work in the home continued to be done by women. And of course there were large numbers of working class women in various types of paid employment.
Production Versus Reproductive Work of Women:
An investigation into the role of the Western housewife in production and reproduction clarified the work of women elsewhere. In the Third World and parts of advanced capitalist societies, women were shown to be directly engaged in productive labor during their domestic work. This is particularly clearly shown in the case of African women, but there is also overwhelming evidence from all other parts of the world to show the contribution of women to food production, processing and distribution, animal care, craft work and community development. (Slocum: 1975); Rogers: 1980; Bujra: 1986, Roberts: 1984). Women were once identified as workers, not as a worker
Wives and mothers, it became very easy to recognize the extent and variation of male dominance around the world. Social differences between men’s work and women’s work concealed divisions in access to land, knowledge skills and other resources, control over labor, and rights to dispose of what was produced. By making women’s labor (and especially women’s unpaid labor) visible, feminists could show how this work had become devalued in relation to men, though not in any equal or harmonious way.
A distinction between arguments that apply to all capitalist societies everywhere and those that are specific to particular capitalist societies in particular historical periods, however, has not always been carefully drawn. Marxist feminists also treated women in capitalist society as if they were full-time housewives or workers. It ignored the extent to which women engage in these conflicting fields of work throughout their working lives.
The need for a more careful qualification of generalizations was brought home in the form of work on production and reproduction in the Third World (Radclift: 1985). In the 1980s, more historically specific knowledge emerged of the complex relationships experienced by women in the processes of production and reproduction and the relationship of these processes with the activities of the state (Elson and Pearson: 1981; Balbo: 1987). .
The gendered structure of capitalist labor markets ensured a sexual division of labor at work. Women were less valued as workers than men, with access to a more limited range of work. Men benefited from this status and played a role in maintaining it (Cockburn: 1983).
Some Marxist feminists argued that women were a reserve army of labor, available to work outside the home where insufficient men were available. The problem with this view is that women in advanced capitalist societies are a pool of child labor rather than a reserve army of labor in the sense defined by Marx (Bruegel: 1979). Marx (1976) argued that it was a necessary mechanism of the capitalist system that an industrial reserve army could be brought in when additional labor was needed, to prevent wage growth from eating into profits. This labor could be redeployed when the demand for labor decreased. Women remain a paradoxical form of cheap labor in advanced capitalist societies, as they have to be maintained even when they are in paid work, and have rights to housing, health care, education, pensions, etc. However, these rights are increasingly being curtailed by Thatcherism in Britain in the 1980s. Women’s cheap or part-time labor rarely directly replaces men’s
Expensive or full-time labor due to the extent of gender segregation in the labor market. The argument also requires specific qualifications in different parts of the world based on the structure of labor markets and women’s rights to maintenance from the state.
Women’s work is oppressive with respect to their pay levels and working conditions. There are limited work options available for women. They lack access to skills, and male activities in the home and workplace ensure that women do not leave work
masticatory area without conflict (B
Rman: 1979; Cockburn: 1983; Westwood: 1984). Work, status and rewards became linked to the relative power of men and women in the home and women’s responsibility for children. The impact of technology on domestic labor then occurred in ways that have reinforced rather than relieved women’s responsibility for domestic labor (Ravets: 1987).
Making women’s oppression visible through work clarified the links between production and reproduction, but left many problems in the explanation of how and why these links formed, and how and why they differ. Nicholson (1987) suggests these not as characteristics of all societies, but as a historical (987) development, which led liberals to differentiate between family and state and Marxists to differentiate between production and reproduction. The inability of the Marxist concept of production to take gender into account leaves feminism with the problem of explaining the various ways in which women’s work is oppressive.
Production and reproduction :
What mothers really do with their time has been one of feminism’s most dramatic revelations. Once feminists turned their attention to women inside and outside the domestic sphere, it became very clear that most women lived lives of more or less constant labor. Although ridiculed at first (Mainardi: 1980). Feminists set out to seriously consider housework as an area of unpaid labor in capitalist societies. Marxist feminists took up the domestic labor debate, first in empirical and historical studies (Oakley: 1974) and then in the more abstract domestic labor debate. Women’s work in the domestic sphere was shown to be much more than the work of the private household. It was revealed as a work of social and economic importance, and showed a place in the systematic oppression of women (Kaluzynska: 1980).
Feminists were then faced with another situation in which knowledge of women’s familiar, everyday world was insufficient due to a lack of concepts that could explain it. Feminists used Marxist concepts of production and reproduction in an attempt to include women’s work in the production of children, hot dinners, clean shirts, and emotional support, as well as their paid labor. While the conceptual separation of women’s work in production and reproduction encouraged knowledge of women’s work in both areas, this dualism also created problems (Adholm et al, 1977).
In the 1970s the concept of reproduction was one of the more abstract and controversial areas of Marxist feminism (influenced by the work of Althusser) because it was difficult to specify in general how the ideology of sexual subordination interacted with the organization of production and reproduction. does the action. While Marxist analysis should be applicable to any mode of production, and some feminists have raised this point, Marxist feminism has focused specifically on the general features of the oppression of women in Western capitalism. This has created a lot of problems with generalization.
Obviously there cannot be a universal answer to why women’s work is considered less than men’s that will always be valid in every historical situation, but Marxist feminists seek a general framework of explanation, And they did so sometimes at very little cost. Abstract level. Women were not only workers inside and outside the home; They also physically reproduced and nurtured the future labor force within families as mothers. Women helped reproduce and maintain the social structure of capitalism. Marxist feminists then found women’s oppression in the family, homosexuality and marriage, as did radical feminists, but also in the production system and in the context of state activities.
The concepts of production and reproduction set women as workers on very different terms to men. Work studies exposed an unequal sexual division of labor inside and outside the home, which did not have its own history and ideology. The questioning of the dichotomy of the private and public domains necessitated a more direct conceptualization of women’s work both in the home and in the public sphere. The nature of work allotted to women could not be separated from their general subordination. Feminists began to assess concepts of work, and in particular the idea that ‘real work’ took place outside the home in organized productive activity. Women’s work at home became visible in meeting the needs of the household and in reproducing the labor necessary for production.
The changing relationship between production and reproduction:
The massive and permanent entry of women into the labor market … poses a challenge to conservative arguments, whether from a feminist perspective. The circumstances of the 1980s cast doubt on the need for domestic labour, whether for capital or for individual men. The disappearance of family wages in recent years of economic change means that fewer and fewer
Men can afford the services of a full time homemaker. And capital has discovered that the exploitation of women’s cheap labor maintains the level of profit. Overall, you can calculate the amount of domestic labor in the economy.
Can be reduced without Da. The male employees still seem capable of doing their jobs without cooked breakfasts and ironed clothes. Although it is women who continue to do the majority of domestic labor … the total number of hours worked has declined in the majority. By definition, women who work for wages have less time for other pursuits. But a massive shift has also fueled the capital’s indifference to what is going on at home. The importance of labor force produced in situ has declined.
The state, unlike capital, is dependent on women’s unpaid labor in the field of reproduction. This is seen most clearly in the movement towards ‘community care’ rather than institutional provision for the elderly, disabled and seriously ill. In the debate about community care there has been a familiar juxtaposition of moral responsibility and individual achievement as well as collective provision which exhausts the initiative.
The welfare state and benefits system in Britain is dependent on an idealized gender division in the nuclear family that no longer exists. This dependence of women on men in the welfare sector has strengthened in a decade when changes in the economy have increasingly challenged it. This contradiction between reorganization in the spheres of reproduction and production has, so far, been contained by greater investment of female labor in both spheres. But the resulting ‘social momentum’ is not infinitely expandable.
The seeds of a crisis, but also of struggle and reconstruction, lie in this contradiction. In the post-Fordist era the relationship between industrial organization and the institutions of social regulation is being restructured in a paradoxical way that centers gender relations. Women’s labor force is an increasingly important element in both production and reproduction. Capital has resolved the contradiction between the short-term prerequisites of the economy for cheap female labor and the long-term requirements for social reproduction, in favor of the former. At the same time the state is withdrawing from the latter sector as well.
This contradiction has so far been resolved by an individually affluent minority purchasing goods and services for reproduction in the market and increasing dependence on the labor of individual women in almost all households.
Competing and conflicting needs and interests regarding women’s roles in the home and in the labor market create new cleavages and create scope for new alliances. Any ‘economic’ analysis that ignores the centrality of the gendered division of labour, and neglects domestic work, child care and support of a growing dependent population, is an inadequate explanation of the nature of contemporary industrial reorganisation. Nor can such an analysis lead to a political understanding of how such restructuring can be challenged.
Domestic work Women’s domestic work:
Feminists interested in work are concerned with the sexual division of labor, the allocation of tasks based on sex. It establishes the work of women and men both at home and in the paid workforce, as well as the subordination of ‘home’ to ‘work’. The gender division of labor cannot be understood in purely economic terms. It also has sexual and symbolic dimensions. It is not only imposed on people but comes as part of a social package in which it is presented as right, natural and desirable. Our identity as masculine or feminine is tied to it.
Domestic labor can have a timeless quality about it, a job that women have always done. But apparently this has changed dramatically. the concept of ‘housewife’; One who stays at home and takes care of the household, husband, and children is essentially a modern woman—before the twentieth century few women had this option, other than the affluent with domestic servants. The advent of running water, gas, electricity, refrigerators and washing machines, dishwashers and microwave ovens, and the decline of domestic service have markedly influenced the nature of domestic work, which is now lighter than it used to be like factory work. has gone. But whether it is less time-consuming, or more widely shared, is debatable.
One thing that doesn’t seem to be changing is that most women do it, even if the contribution of other household members has changed. Even the most biological functions of childbirth have been affected by technology, while changes in decisions about the number, timing and spacing of children have affected childcare responsibilities.
Women now have fewer children than in the past, but it can be argued that they are expected to devote more attention to child care.
Mental and emotional well-being compared to the past. While technology now tends to remove much domestic labor, the expectations of the home as a dimension of personal fulfillment have given it a new set of meanings. Rather than simply being ‘hard work’, it has sexual, emotional and symbolic significance. Yet, there are indications that the time spent by women in the paid workforce on housework is declining; Husbands and children do not seem to be lifting more, but women are doing less (Hartman: 1981).
Feminist strategies focused on the interrelationship of family and production in capitalist societies.
Tried to analyze. It was clear that inequalities at work were related to inequalities at home.
Women’s wage work was constructed as secondary, their wages viewed as pin money; Often their paid work was considered an extension of what they did at home—office wives, service and care work. But equally clearly, inequality at home was linked to their employment choices. Without equal provision of jobs and child care, a woman has no choice but to find herself primarily as wives and mothers. Recent changes in the economy and welfare sector also raise the question to what extent contemporary capitalist societies are based on the old model of an adjustment between capital and patriarchy. Socialist feminists see the world as a bargain between men and capital, based on support for the traditional nuclear family, in which a wage-earning man is served by the domestic labor of a home-based woman, and the welfare state. Institutions bargained. But it now seems that the ideal male workers of earlier eras, who worked solidly at a single job their whole lives, are no longer needed, and capitalists can make more profit from women’s labor, without society Collapsible if the beds are not made on time, the men do not have hot dippers everyday. Socialist feminists may have to re-evaluate theories of the relationship between capitalism and domestic labor, between the family and the welfare state.
One of the most notable features of the change in the nature of domestic labor has been the decline of productive work explicitly done in the home (for example, making cloth for bottling fruit and making jams) and replacing it with a production of goods, commodities and services. Bought the series in the market. For example, home cooking, as Ehrenreich noted,
Food is being displaced from food purchased at fast food outlets or other types of restaurants, most clothing is now purchased off-peak rather than made by women at home, and other activities, such as cleaning and child care, are also purchased. Can This ‘commodification’ of domestic labor has been intensified by the entry of women into the labor market. Paradoxically, at the same time, other types of goods are being purchased and used at home to replace previously market-based goods.
Music systems and video recorders are good examples here, as are DIY prerequisites. Rosemary Pringle suggests that these home-based activities are regarded as ‘leisure’ rather than ‘work’ and while ‘production’ is considered a qualifying activity. Consumption becomes trivial. He suggests that we should break away from this identification of work with production and consider the labor processes of consumption. Nevertheless, it is clear that the home is still the center of work for women and an increasing part of this is so-called community care.
9.8 Feminization of Work
Sociologists divide people’s lives into ‘work’ (paid employment), ‘leisure’ (time when people choose what they want to do) and ‘duty time’ (periods of sleep, eating and other necessary activities). Huh. Feminists have pointed out that this model reflects the male view of the world and is not necessarily consistent with the experiences of most women. This is partly because unpaid domestic labor is not recognized as work – it is ‘hidden’ labor – and partly because many women participate in some leisure activities outside the home. It is not only the organization of work that is based on gender but also the cultural values with which paid work and domestic labor are attached; Paid work and the workplace are largely seen as the domain of men, the home as that of women. Rosemary Pringle summarizes some of these issues when she states that:
Although the home and private life can be romanticised, they are generally considered to represent the ‘feminine’ world of the personal and emotional, the concrete and the ‘special’, of the domestic and sexual. The public world of work sets itself up as the opposite of all these things: it is rational, ‘abstract, ordered, concerned with general principles, and of course, masculine… For men, home and work are both opposites and complementary. Huh. [For ladies)
Home is not a respite from work but another workplace. For some women work is actually a respite from home!
Most classical sociological studies of paid work were for example male coal miners, affluent assembly line workers, male clerks, or salesmen – and, until
More recently, the findings of these studies formed the ’empirical data’ on which to base sociological theories about the attitudes and experiences of all workers. Even when women were included in the samples, it was (and still is) assumed that their attitudes and behavior differed little from men, or that married women were seen as working for pin money. was seen; Paid employment is being seen as ‘secondary relative to their domestic roles’.
However, a growing body of feminist and pro-feminist research has challenged these assumptions, and sociologists are increasingly considering the relationship between gender, work, and organization.
provided a more detailed understanding of, and in particular how men and women have different work experiences.
Feminists have argued that domestic labor is work and should be treated as such. She has also stated that most women do not take up paid employment for ‘pinmoney’, but rather out of necessity, and that paid work is seen by many women as meeting important emotional and identity needs. This does not mean that women’s experiences of paid employment are the same as men’s, however, and feminists have highlighted the many ways in which work is gendered.
In Britain, for example, 46 percent of people in the labor market are women. However, 44 percent of women in employment and only 10 percent of men work part-time. Average hourly earnings are 18 percent lower for women working full time, and 40 percent lower for women working part time than for women working full time. 52 percent of mothers of children under five are unemployed, compared with 91 percent of fathers of children under five. There are 4.5 children under the age of 8 for every location registered with a childminder, in full daycare or out of school clubs. Modern apprentices in hairdressing and early years care and education are predominantly female, while those in construction, engineering and plumbing are predominantly male. Women are by far the majority in administrative and secretarial (80 percent) and personal service jobs (84 percent), while men hold most skilled trades (92 percent) and process, plant. and machine operative jobs (85 percent). Feminist sociologists have tried to explain these patterns in terms of a number of concepts, especially the sexual division of labor.
care and support work
Many women are expected to care not only for their husbands and children but also for other dependents, and generally for people in the community in a voluntary capacity. Women
As Janet Finch (1983) has demonstrated, this goes beyond the wives of managers and businessmen, who are expected to entertain on behalf of their husbands. This labor benefits the employer. Finch also notes that in many professional occupations, women often “support” or substitute for their husbands in more peripheral aspects of their work (in the case of clergy, politicians, and so on). Goffey and Case (1985) ) have suggested that wives play an important role in helping self-employed husbands, who are often heavily dependent on (unpaid) clerical and administrative work performed by their wives. Wives are often seen as ‘self-made’. are forced to give up their own careers to reduce the male’s efforts. In addition, given the long hours’ self-employed men often work, many wives are left to cope with children and household responsibilities alone. is left for.
Sallie Westwood and Parminder Bhachu (1988) point to the importance of (unpaid) female relationship labor in Black and Asian business’ communities in the UK, although they also emphasize that a business is a joint venture between husband and wife. There can be strategy.
Women are also expected to care for elderly or dependent relatives. However, some feminists have criticized the concept of ‘caring’, arguing that it detracts from the reciprocal nature of many caring relationships. Other feminists have noted that the policies of ‘community care’ (as opposed to care in institutions), which have been advocated by successive governments since the 1950s, have a hidden agenda for women. Such policies, which often involve closing or not providing large-scale residential care, often assume that women are ready to take on the responsibility of care.
Furthermore, research shows that the majority of caregivers of elderly or dependent relatives committed to providing care on a long-term basis are women. While it is generally suggested that ‘where possible care should be provided by the family’, in practice this often means that care is provided by women within families. It is commonly believed that caregiving is part of a woman’s role and that women are natural caregivers.
Sally Baldwin and Julie Twigg (1991) summarize the key findings of feminist research on care work and indicate that ‘informal’ care work reflects
- that care for non-spousal dependents falls primarily to women;
- that it is not shared substantially by relatives, statutory or voluntary agencies
that it creates burdens and material costs that are the source of significant inequalities
gender gap :
- Although the focus on gender difference is a minority position in contemporary feminism, some influential contributions to modern feminist theory take this approach (Baker Miller, 1976; Burnico, 1980; Gilligan, 1982; Kessler and McKenna, 1978; Ruddick, 1980; Snitto , 1979). There are also research papers (Masters & Johnson, 1966; Height, 1976) with findings on male/female differences that have deeply influenced contemporary feminist thought. Contemporary Literature on Gender Differences
The central theme is that the inner mental life of women, in its overall configuration, is different from that of men. in their core values and interests (Rudick, 1980), the way they make
- value judgments (Gilligan, 1982), their formulation of achievement motives (Kauffman and Richardson, 1982), their literary creativity (Gilbert and Guber, 1979), their sexual fantasies (Height, 1976; Redway, 1984; Snitto, 1983), In their sense of identity (Law & Schwartz, 1977), and their general processes of consciousness and selfhood (Baker Miller, 1976; Kasper, 1986), women have a distinct vision and a distinct voice for the construction of social reality. The second theme is that the overall configuration of women’s relationships and life experiences is unique.
- women relate to their biological offspring differently from men (Rossi, 1977; 1983); boys and girls have distinct styles of play (Best, 1983; Lever, 1978); Adult women relate to each other (Bernico, 1980) and to women’s studies as scholars (Asher et al., 1984) in unique ways. In fact, the life experience of women from infancy to old age is fundamentally different from that of men (Bernard, 1981). This in conjunction with the literature on differences in consciousness and life experience offers a unique answer to the question, “What about women?” The second question, “Why?” Picking up identifies key lines of variation within this overall focus on gender differences. There are essentially three types of explanation of psychological and relational differences between women and men: biological, cultural or institutional, and largely constructed, social psychological.
- In this context, this chapter deals with theories of gender inequality in relation to biological explanation, cultural explanation and Marxist interpretation of inequality. In the following chapter, we would like to explain the feminist and postmodernist perspective of gender inequality.
- Biological explanation of sex differences :
- The biological perspective says that the sexual division of labor and inequality between the sexes are determined to some extent by some biological or genetically based differences between men and women.
- Biological explanations have been helpful for stereotypical thinking on gender differences. Freud traced the different personality structures of men and women to their different genitalia and the cognitive and emotional processes that begin when children discover their physical differences.
- Clearly women are biologically different from men. Although there is disagreement about the exact nature and consequences of this distinction, some sociologists,
- Anthropologists and psychologists argue that this is sufficient to explain the basic sexual division of labor in all societies. Contributions to the explanation of gender inequality from a biological perspective are given below.
- Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox – The Human Biographer:
- Contemporary sociologists Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox (1971) write of “biogrammers” as determining variables in early hominid development that motivated females to bond emotionally with their infants and males to bond pragmatically with other males. does. The Biogrammer is a genetically based program that primes mankind to behave in certain ways. These predispositions are not the same as instincts because they can be greatly modified by culture, but they are fundamental influences on human behavior. Partly they are inherited from the primate ancestors of man, partly they evolved during the existence of man in hunting and gathering bands.
- Tiger and Fox argue that it is reasonable to assume that, to some extent, he is genetically adapted to
- Life. Although the biogrammers of men and women are similar in many ways, there are important differences between them. Tiger and Fox argue that males are more aggressive and dominant than females. These characteristics are genetically based; Specifically they result from differences between male and female hormones. These differences are partly due to genetic inheritance from man’s primate ancestors, partly due to genetic adaptation to a hunting way of life.
- Males do the hunting which is an aggressive activity. They are responsible for the band’s security and for alliances or wars with other bands. Thus, men monopolize positions of power. By comparison, females are programmed by their biogrammers to reproduce and care for children. Tigger and Fox argue that the basic family unit consists of mother and child. In his words, “Nature intended mother and child to be together. It does not matter particularly how this basic unit is supported and protected. This may be in addition to the single male, as that in the case of the nuclear family, or by the impersonal services of a welfare state.
- George Peter Murdock – Biology and Pragmatism :
- Murdock (1949) sees biological differences between men and women as the basis for the sexual division of labor in society. However, he does not suggest that men and women are guided by genetically based predispositions or characteristics to adopt their particular roles.
goes. Instead, he merely suggests that biological differences, such as the greater physical strength of men and the fact that women bear children, drive gender.
- Roles out of sheer practicality. Given the biological differences between men and women, the sexual division of labor is the most efficient way of organizing society. In a cross-cultural survey of 224 societies ranging from hunting and gathering bands to modern nation states, Murdock examines the activities assigned to men and women. He finds tasks such as hunting, lumbering and mining to be predominantly male roles, tasks such as cooking, gathering, carrying water and making and repairing clothes to be predominantly female roles. Women are tied to the home base because of their biological function of childbearing and parenting. Murdock found that the sexual division of labor is present in all societies in his sample and concluded that the advantages inherent in the division of labor by gender probably account for its universality.
- Talcott Parsons – Biology and the ‘expressive’ woman :
- Parsons (1959) sees the isolated nuclear family in modern industrial society as specializing in two basic functions: the socialization of youth and the stabilization of adult personalities. For socialization to be effective, a close, warm and supportive group is essential. The family fulfills this need. Within the family, the female is primarily responsible for socializing the young. Parsons turns to biology to explain this fact. He states that the fundamental explanation of the allocation of roles between the biological sexes lies in the fact that the birth and rearing of children establishes a strong presumptive primacy of the mother’s relation to the younger child. Moreover, the absence of the husband and father from the premises of the house for such a long time means that they have to shoulder the primary responsibility of the children. Parsons characterizes the woman’s role in the family as ‘expressive’ meaning that she provides warmth, protection and emotional support. This is essential for effective socialization of youth. They argue that for the family as a social system to operate efficiently, there must be a clear sexual division of labor. In this sense, the supporting and expressive roles complement each other. Like a button and buttonhole, they snap close together to promote family togetherness. Although Parsons goes far beyond biology, this is his starting point. Biological differences between the sexes provide the basis on which the sexual division of labor is based.
- John Bowlby – The Mother-Child Bond:
- John Bowlby (1946) has examined the role of women, especially their role as mothers, from a psychological point of view. Like Parsons, he argues that a mother; place in it
- Home, caring for your children, especially in their early years. Bowlby conducted several studies of juvenile delinquents and found that the youngest experienced psychological distress and separation from their mothers. Many grew up in orphanages and as a result were deprived of maternal love. They appeared unable to give or receive love and were forced to embark on careers of destructive and anti-social relationships. They conclude that it is essential for mental health that ‘the infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate and continuing relationship with their mother’. Bowlby’s arguments imply that there is a psychological need for a close and close mother-child relationship genetically. Thus the role of the mother is strongly associated with the woman.
- wine.
- Biological arguments have also been used in writings more sympathetic to feminism. Masters and Johnson’s exploration of the anatomy of female sexuality has given feminist theorists the fundamentals to rethink the whole question of the social patterning of sexuality, and Lyce Rossi (1979; 1983) has focused heavily on the biological foundations of gender-specific behavior. attention from. Rossi linked the different biological functions of males and females to different patterns of hormonally determined development over the life cycle and this, in turn, accounts for sex-specific differences such as sensitivity to light and sound and differences in the left and right brain. . She feels that these differences feed into the different patterns of childhood noted by Carol Gilligan (1982), Janet Lever (1978) and Rafaela Best (1983); for the famous female “math-anxiety”, and also the obvious fact that ermines are more sensitive to caring for infants than males. Rossi’s feminism seeks to compensate for biologically “given” disadvantages, through social education, but as a biosociologist she also argues for a rational acceptance of the implications of biological research.
- Second. Gender Inequality: Cultural Theory:
- Cultural interpretations of gender differences often place too much emphasis on the specific tasks of women and the care of infants. This responsibility for motherhood is seen as a major determinant of the wider sexual division of labor that typically ties women to the functions of wife, mother, and domestic worker, to the private sphere of home and family, and thus to events. and differs greatly from men by a lifelong range of experiences. this setting
n this, women develop specific interpretations of achievement, specific interests and values, characteristics but also the skills necessary for openness in relationships.
In this, women develop specific interpretations of achievement, specific interests and values, characteristics but also the skills necessary for openness in relationships.
इसमें महिलाएं उपलब्धि की विशिष्ट व्याख्याएं, विशिष्ट रुचियां और मूल्य, विशेषताएं विकसित करती हैं बल्कि रिश्तों में खुलेपन के लिए आवश्यक कौशल भी विकसित करती हैं।
In the U.S., women develop specific interpretations of achievement, specific interests and values, characteristics but also the skills needed for openness in relationships.
“caring for others”,
- and special networks of support from other women (mothers, daughters, sisters, co-wives and friends) who live in their different regions. While some institutional theorists of difference accept the sexual division of labor as a social necessity (Berger and Berger, 1983), others recognize that separate areas for women and men lead to gender inequality (Bernard, 1981; Kelly -Godol, 1983) or even be embedded within a wider pattern of victimization (Rudick, 1980).
- Many sociologists begin with the assumption that human behavior is largely guided and determined by culture, which is the learned prescriptions for behavior shared by members of a society. Thus norms, values and roles are culturally determined and socially transmitted. From this perspective, gender roles are a product of culture rather than biology. Individuals learn their respective male and female roles. The gender division of labor that gender roles are normal, natural, right, and appropriate.
- Ann Oakley – Cultural Division of Labour:
- Ann Oakley, a British sociologist and supporter of the women’s liberation movement, came down strongly in favor of culture as a determinant of gender roles. Her position is summarized in the following quote, ‘The division of labor by sex is not only universal, but there is no reason why it should be so. Human cultures are diverse and endlessly changing. They owe their creation to human ingenuity rather than to invincible biological forces. Oakley First takes Murdock to task by arguing that the sexual division of labor is not universal, not that some tasks are always performed by men, others by women. She biases Murdock’s interpretations of her data because she tolls on other cultures through both Western and male eyes.
o Specifically, she claims that the pre-judicial role of women in the context of the Western housewife-mother role. Oakley examines a number of societies in which biology has little or no influence on women’s roles. The Mbuti Pygimes, a hunting and gathering society who live in the Congo rainforest, have no specific rules for the division of labor by sex. Men and women hunt together. There is no special difference in the role of father and mother. Both sexes share the responsibility of caring for the children.
o Among Australian Aborigines in Tasmania, women were responsible for seal hunting, fishing, and catching opossums (free-living mammals). Turning to present-day societies, Oakley notes that women are an important part of many armed forces, notably those of China, Russia, Cuba, and Israel. Thus, it shows that there are no specific female roles and that biological characteristics do not prevent women from having specific jobs. he is regarded as a myth
- ‘The biological inability of women to do heavy and demanding work’. Oakley also attacks Parsons and Bowlby’s arguments by pointing to the kibbutz to show that systems other than the family and the role of the female mother can effectively socialize the group. Using the example of Alor, an island in Indonesia, Oakley shows how in this and other small-scale horticultural societies, the world
- Males are not bonded to their offspring, and this has not been shown to have any harmful effects on children. In traditional Aloris society, women were largely responsible for the cultivation and collection of vegetables. This involved him spending a lot of time away from the village.
o Within a fortnight after the birth of their child, women returned to the fields leaving the infant in the care of a sibling, father or grandparents. Turning to Western society, Oakley rejected Bowlby’s claim that an ‘intimate and constant’ relationship between mother and child was essential to the child’s well-being. Shane notes that a large body of research suggests that the employment of another has no detrimental effect on a child’s development. Some studies indicate that children of working mothers are less likely to be delinquent than children of stay-at-home mothers. Oakley is particularly harsh in his attack on Parsons’ view of the family and the role of the ‘expressive’ woman in it. She accuses him of basing his analysis on the beliefs and values of his culture, and especially the myths of male superiority and the sanctity of marriage and family. They argue that the expressive housewife-mother role is not necessary for the functioning of the family unit. It exists only for the convenience of men. They claim that Parsons’ interpretation of gender roles is only a valid myth for ‘domestic subjugation of gender roles’, a valid myth for ‘domestic subjugation of women’. Finally, Oakley concludes that gender roles are culturally, not biologically, determined.
o Bruno Bettelheim is a psychotherapist specializing in child development. His study of group parenting in Ekibutz indicated that close, independent socialization was necessary for effective socialization.
Can be reduced without Da. The male employees still seem capable of doing their jobs without cooked breakfasts and ironed clothes. Although it is women who continue to do the majority of domestic labor … the total number of hours worked has declined in the majority. By definition, women who work for wages have less time for other pursuits. But a massive shift has also fueled the capital’s indifference to what is going on at home. The importance of labor force produced in situ has declined.
The state, unlike capital, is dependent on women’s unpaid labor in the field of reproduction. This is seen most clearly in the movement towards ‘community care’ rather than institutional provision for the elderly, disabled and seriously ill. In the debate about community care there has been a familiar juxtaposition of moral responsibility and individual achievement as well as collective provision which exhausts the initiative.
The welfare state and benefits system in Britain is dependent on an idealized gender division in the nuclear family that no longer exists. This dependence of women on men in the welfare sector has strengthened in a decade when changes in the economy have increasingly challenged it. This contradiction between reorganization in the spheres of reproduction and production has, so far, been contained by greater investment of female labor in both spheres. But the resulting ‘social momentum’ is not infinitely expandable.
The seeds of a crisis, but also of struggle and reconstruction, lie in this contradiction. In the post-Fordist era the relationship between industrial organization and the institutions of social regulation is being restructured in a paradoxical way that centers gender relations. Women’s labor force is an increasingly important element in both production and reproduction. Capital has resolved the contradiction between the short-term prerequisites of the economy for cheap female labor and the long-term requirements for social reproduction, in favor of the former. At the same time, the state is retreating from the latter sector as well.
This contradiction has so far been resolved by an individually affluent minority purchasing goods and services for reproduction in the market and increasing dependence on the labor of individual women in almost all households.
Competing and conflicting needs and interests regarding women’s roles in the home and in the labor market create new cleavages and create scope for new alliances. Any ‘economic’ analysis that ignores the centrality of the gendered division of labour, and neglects domestic work, child care and support of a growing dependent population, is an inadequate explanation of the nature of contemporary industrial reorganisation. Nor can such an analysis lead to a political understanding of how such restructuring can be challenged.
Domestic work Women’s domestic work:
Feminists interested in work are concerned with the sexual division of labor, the allocation of tasks based on sex. It establishes the work of women and men both at home and in the paid workforce, as well as the subordination of ‘home’ to ‘work’. The gender division of labor cannot be understood in purely economic terms. It also has sexual and symbolic dimensions. It is not only imposed on people but comes as part of a social package in which it is presented as right, natural and desirable. Our identity as masculine or feminine is tied to it.
Domestic labor can have a timeless quality about it, a job that women have always done. But apparently this has changed dramatically. the concept of ‘housewife’; One who stays at home and takes care of the household, husband, and children is essentially a modern woman—before the twentieth century few women had this option, other than the affluent with domestic servants. The advent of running water, gas, electricity, refrigerators and washing machines, dishwashers and microwave ovens, and the decline of domestic service have markedly influenced the nature of domestic work, which is now lighter than it used to be like factory work. has gone. But whether it is less time consuming, or more widely shared, is a matter of debate.
One thing that doesn’t seem to be changing is that most women do it, even if the contribution of other household members has changed. Even the most biological functions of childbirth have been affected by technology, while changes in decisions about the number, timing and spacing of children have affected childcare responsibilities.
Women now have fewer children than in the past, but it can be argued that they are expected to devote more attention to child care.
Mental and emotional well-being compared to the past. While technology now tends to remove much domestic labor, the expectations of the home as a dimension of personal fulfillment have given it a new set of meanings. Rather than simply being ‘hard work’, it has sexual, emotional and symbolic significance. Yet, there are indications that the time spent by women in the paid workforce on housework is declining; Husbands and children do not seem to be lifting more, but women are doing less (Hartmann: 1981).
Feminist strategies focused on the interrelationship of family and production in capitalist societies.
Tried to analyze. It was clear that inequalities at work were related to inequalities at home.
Women’s wage work was constructed as secondary, their wages viewed as pin money; Often their paid work was considered an extension of what they did at home—office wives, service and care work. But equally clearly, inequality at home was linked to their employment choices. Without equal provision of jobs and child care, a woman has no choice but to find herself primarily as wives and mothers. Recent changes in the economy and welfare sector also raise the question to what extent contemporary capitalist societies are based on the old model of an adjustment between capital and patriarchy. Socialist feminists see the world as a bargain between men and capital, based on support for the traditional nuclear family, in which a wage-earning man is served by the domestic labor of a home-based woman, and the welfare state. Institutions bargained. But it now seems that the ideal male workers of earlier eras, who worked solidly at a single job their whole lives, are no longer needed, and capitalists can make more profit from women’s labor, without society Collapsible if the beds are not made on time, the men do not have hot dippers everyday. Socialist feminists may have to re-evaluate theories of the relationship between capitalism and domestic labor, between the family and the welfare state.
One of the most notable features of the change in the nature of domestic labor has been the decline of productive work explicitly done in the home (for example, making cloth for bottling fruit and making jams) and replacing it with a production of goods, commodities and services. Bought the series in the market. For example, home cooking, as Ehrenreich noted,
Food is being displaced from food purchased at fast food outlets or other types of restaurants, most clothing is now purchased off-peak rather than made by women at home, and other activities, such as cleaning and child care, are also purchased. Can This ‘commodification’ of domestic labor has been intensified by the entry of women into the labor market. Paradoxically, at the same time, other types of goods are being purchased and used at home to replace previously market-based goods.
Music systems and video recorders are good examples here, as are DIY prerequisites. Rosemary Pringle suggests that these home-based activities are regarded as ‘leisure’ rather than ‘work’ and while ‘production’ is considered a qualifying activity. Consumption becomes trivial. He suggests that we should break away from this identification of work with production and consider the labor processes of consumption. Nevertheless, it is clear that the home is still the center of work for women and an increasing part of this is so-called community care.
9.8 Feminization of Work
Sociologists divide people’s lives into ‘work’ (paid employment), ‘leisure’ (time when people choose what they want to do) and ‘duty time’ (periods of sleep, eating and other necessary activities). Huh. Feminists have pointed out that this model reflects the male view of the world and is not necessarily consistent with the experiences of most women. This is partly because unpaid domestic labor is not recognized as work – it is ‘hidden’ labor – and partly because many women participate in some leisure activities outside the home. It is not only the organization of work that is based on gender but also the cultural values with which paid work and domestic labor are attached; Paid work and the workplace are largely seen as the domain of men, the home as that of women. Rosemary Pringle summarizes some of these issues when she states that:
Although the home and private life can be romanticised, they are generally considered to represent the ‘feminine’ world of the personal and emotional, the concrete and the ‘special’, of the domestic and sexual. The public world of work sets itself up as the opposite of all these things: it is rational, ‘abstract, ordered, concerned with general principles, and of course, masculine… For men, home and work are both opposites and complementary. Huh. [For ladies)
Home is not a respite from work but another workplace. For some women work is actually a respite from home!
Most classical sociological studies of paid work were for example male coal miners, affluent assembly line workers, male clerks, or salesmen – and, until
More recently, the findings of these studies formed the ’empirical data’ on which to base sociological theories about the attitudes and experiences of all workers. Even when women were included in the samples, it was (and still is) assumed that their attitudes and behavior differed little from men, or that married women were seen as working for pin money. was seen; Paid employment is being seen as ‘secondary relative to their domestic roles’.
However, a growing body of feminist and pro-feminist research has challenged these assumptions, and sociologists are increasingly considering the relationship between gender, work, and organization.
provided a more detailed understanding of, and in particular how men and women have different work experiences.
Feminists have argued that domestic labor is work and should be treated as such. She has also stated that most women do not take up paid employment for ‘pinmoney’, but rather out of necessity, and that paid work is seen by many women as meeting important emotional and identity needs. This does not mean that women’s experiences of paid employment are the same as men’s, however, and feminists have highlighted the many ways in which work is gendered.
In Britain, for example, 46 percent of people in the labor market are women. However, 44 percent of women in employment and only 10 percent of men work part-time. Average hourly earnings are 18 percent lower for women working full time, and 40 percent lower for women working part time than for women working full time. 52 percent of mothers of children under five are unemployed, compared with 91 percent of fathers of children under five. There are 4.5 children under the age of 8 for every location registered with a childminder, in full daycare or out of school clubs. Modern apprentices in hairdressing and early years care and education are predominantly female, while those in construction, engineering and plumbing are predominantly male. Women are by far the majority in administrative and secretarial (80 percent) and personal service jobs (84 percent), while men hold most skilled trades (92 percent) and process, plant. and machine operative jobs (85 percent). Feminist sociologists have tried to explain these patterns in terms of a number of concepts, especially the sexual division of labor.
care and support work
Many women are expected to care not only for their husbands and children but also for other dependents, and generally for people in the community in a voluntary capacity. Women
As Janet Finch (1983) has demonstrated, this goes beyond the wives of managers and businessmen, who are expected to entertain on behalf of their husbands. This labor benefits the employer. Finch also notes that in many professional occupations, women often “support” or substitute for their husbands in more peripheral aspects of their work (in the case of clergy, politicians, and so on). Goffey and Case (1985) ) have suggested that wives play an important role in helping self-employed husbands, who are often heavily dependent on (unpaid) clerical and administrative work performed by their wives. Wives are often seen as ‘self-made’. are forced to give up their own careers to reduce the male’s efforts. In addition, given the long hours’ self-employed men often work, many wives are left to cope with children and household responsibilities alone. is left for.
Sallie Westwood and Parminder Bhachu (1988) point to the importance of (unpaid) female relationship labor in Black and Asian business’ communities in the UK, although they also emphasize that a business is a joint venture between husband and wife. There can be strategy.
Women are also expected to care for elderly or dependent relatives. However, some feminists have criticized the concept of ‘caring’, arguing that it detracts from the reciprocal nature of many caring relationships. Other feminists have noted that the policies of ‘community care’ (as opposed to care in institutions), which have been advocated by successive governments since the 1950s, have a hidden agenda for women. Such policies, which often involve closing or not providing large-scale residential care, often assume that women are ready to take on the responsibility of care.
Furthermore, research shows that the majority of caregivers of elderly or dependent relatives committed to providing care on a long-term basis are women. While it is generally suggested that ‘where possible care should be provided by the family’, in practice this often means that care is provided by women within families. It is commonly believed that caregiving is part of a woman’s role and that women are natural caregivers.
Sally Baldwin and Julie Twigg (1991) summarize the key findings of feminist research on care work and indicate that ‘informal’ care work reflects
- that care for non-spousal dependents falls primarily to women;
- that it is not shared substantially by relatives, statutory or voluntary agencies
that it creates burdens and material costs that are the source of significant inequalities
gender gap :
- Although the focus on gender difference is a minority position in contemporary feminism, some influential contributions to modern feminist theory take this approach (Baker Miller, 1976; Burnico, 1980; Gilligan, 1982; Kessler and McKenna, 1978; Ruddick, 1980; Snitto , 1979). There are also research papers (Masters & Johnson, 1966; Height, 1976) with findings on male/female differences that have deeply influenced contemporary feminist thought. Contemporary Literature on Gender Differences
The central theme is that the inner mental life of women, in its overall configuration, is different from that of men. in their core values and interests (Rudick, 1980), the way they make
- value judgments (Gilligan, 1982), their formulation of achievement motives (Kauffman and Richardson, 1982), their literary creativity (Gilbert and Guber, 1979), their sexual fantasies (Height, 1976; Redway, 1984; Snitto, 1983), In their sense of identity (Law & Schwartz, 1977), and their general processes of consciousness and selfhood (Baker Miller, 1976; Kasper, 1986), women have a distinct vision and a distinct voice for the construction of social reality. The second theme is that the overall configuration of women’s relationships and life experiences is unique.
- women relate to their biological offspring differently from men (Rossi, 1977; 1983); boys and girls have distinct styles of play (Best, 1983; Lever, 1978); Adult women relate to each other (Bernico, 1980) and to women’s studies as scholars (Asher et al., 1984) in unique ways. In fact, the life experience of women from infancy to old age is fundamentally different from that of men (Bernard, 1981). This in conjunction with the literature on differences in consciousness and life experience offers a unique answer to the question, “What about women?” The second question, “Why?” Picking up identifies key lines of variation within this overall focus on gender differences. There are essentially three types of explanation of psychological and relational differences between women and men: biological, cultural or institutional, and largely constructed, social psychological.
- In this context, this chapter deals with theories of gender inequality in relation to biological explanation, cultural explanation and Marxist interpretation of inequality. In the following chapter, we would like to explain the feminist and postmodernist perspective of gender inequality.
- Biological explanation of sex differences :
- The biological perspective says that the sexual division of labor and inequality between the sexes are determined to some extent by some biological or genetically based differences between men and women.
- Biological explanations have been helpful for stereotypical thinking on gender differences. Freud traced the different personality structures of men and women to their different genitalia and the cognitive and emotional processes that begin when children discover their physical differences.
- Clearly women are biologically different from men. Although there is disagreement about the exact nature and consequences of this distinction, some sociologists,
- Anthropologists and psychologists argue that this is sufficient to explain the basic sexual division of labor in all societies. Contributions to the explanation of gender inequality from a biological perspective are given below.
- Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox – The Human Biographer:
- Contemporary sociologists Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox (1971) write of “biogrammers” as determining variables in early hominid development that motivated females to bond emotionally with their infants and males to bond pragmatically with other males. does. The Biogrammer is a genetically based program that primes mankind to behave in certain ways. These predispositions are not the same as instincts because they can be greatly modified by culture, but they are fundamental influences on human behavior. Partly they are inherited from the primate ancestors of man, partly they evolved during the existence of man in hunting and gathering bands.
- Tiger and Fox argue that it is reasonable to assume that, to some extent, he is genetically adapted to
- Life. Although the biogrammers of men and women are similar in many ways, there are important differences between them. Tiger and Fox argue that males are more aggressive and dominant than females. These characteristics are genetically based; Specifically they result from differences between male and female hormones. These differences are partly due to genetic inheritance from man’s primate ancestors, partly due to genetic adaptation to a hunting way of life.
- Males do the hunting which is an aggressive activity. They are responsible for the band’s security and for alliances or wars with other bands. Thus, men monopolize positions of power. By comparison, females are programmed by their biogrammers to reproduce and care for children. Tigger and Fox argue that the basic family unit consists of mother and child. In his words, “Nature intended mother and child to be together. It does not matter particularly how this basic unit is supported and protected. This may be in addition to the single male, as that in the case of the nuclear family, or by the impersonal services of a welfare state.
- George Peter Murdock – Biology and Pragmatism :
- Murdock (1949) sees biological differences between men and women as the basis for the sexual division of labor in society. However, he does not suggest that men and women are guided by genetically based predispositions or characteristics to adopt their particular roles.
goes. Instead, he merely suggests that biological differences, such as the greater physical strength of men and the fact that women bear children, drive gender.
- Roles out of sheer practicality. Given the biological differences between men and women, the sexual division of labor is the most efficient way of organizing society. In a cross-cultural survey of 224 societies ranging from hunting and gathering bands to modern nation states, Murdock examines the activities assigned to men and women. He finds tasks such as hunting, lumbering and mining to be predominantly male roles, tasks such as cooking, gathering, carrying water and making and repairing clothes to be predominantly female roles. Women are tied to the home base because of their biological function of childbearing and parenting. Murdock found that the sexual division of labor is present in all societies in his sample and concluded that the advantages inherent in the division of labor by gender probably account for its universality.
- Talcott Parsons – Biology and the ‘expressive’ woman :
- Parsons (1959) sees the isolated nuclear family in modern industrial society as specializing in two basic functions: the socialization of youth and the stabilization of adult personalities. For socialization to be effective, a close, warm and supportive group is essential. The family fulfills this need. Within the family, the female is primarily responsible for socializing the young. Parsons turns to biology to explain this fact. He states that the fundamental explanation of the allocation of roles between the biological sexes lies in the fact that the birth and rearing of children establishes a strong presumptive primacy of the mother’s relation to the younger child. Moreover, the absence of the husband and father from the premises of the house for such a long time means that they have to shoulder the primary responsibility of the children. Parsons characterizes the woman’s role in the family as ‘expressive’ meaning that she provides warmth, protection and emotional support. This is essential for effective socialization of youth. They argue that for the family as a social system to operate efficiently, there must be a clear sexual division of labor. In this sense, the supporting and expressive roles complement each other. Like a button and buttonhole, they snap close together to promote family togetherness. Although Parsons goes far beyond biology, this is his starting point. Biological differences between the sexes provide the basis on which the sexual division of labor is based.
- John Bowlby – The Mother-Child Bond:
- John Bowlby (1946) has examined the role of women, especially their role as mothers, from a psychological point of view. Like Parsons, he argues that a mother; place in it
- Home, caring for your children, especially in their early years. Bowlby conducted several studies of juvenile delinquents and found that the youngest experienced psychological distress and separation from their mothers. Many grew up in orphanages and as a result were deprived of maternal love. They appeared unable to give or receive love and were forced to embark on careers of destructive and anti-social relationships. They conclude that it is essential for mental health that ‘the infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate and continuing relationship with their mother’. Bowlby’s arguments imply that there is a psychological need for a close and close mother-child relationship genetically. Thus the role of the mother is strongly associated with the woman.
- wine.
- Biological arguments have also been used in writings more sympathetic to feminism. Masters and Johnson’s exploration of the anatomy of female sexuality has given feminist theorists the fundamentals to rethink the whole question of the social patterning of sexuality, and Lyce Rossi (1979; 1983) has focused heavily on the biological foundations of gender-specific behavior. attention from. Rossi linked the different biological functions of males and females to different patterns of hormonally determined development over the life cycle and this, in turn, accounts for sex-specific differences such as sensitivity to light and sound and differences in the left and right brain. . She feels that these differences feed into the different patterns of childhood noted by Carol Gilligan (1982), Janet Lever (1978) and Rafaela Best (1983); for the famous female “math-anxiety”, and also the obvious fact that ermines are more sensitive to caring for infants than males. Rossi’s feminism seeks to compensate for biologically “given” disadvantages, through social education, but as a biosociologist she also argues for a rational acceptance of the implications of biological research.
- Second. Gender Inequality: Cultural Theory:
- Cultural interpretations of gender differences often place too much emphasis on the specific tasks of women and the care of infants. This responsibility for motherhood is seen as a major determinant of the wider sexual division of labor that typically ties women to the functions of wife, mother, and domestic worker, to the private sphere of home and family, and thus to events. and differs greatly from men by a lifelong range of experiences. this setting
In this, women develop specific interpretations of achievement, specific interests and values, characteristics but also the skills necessary for openness in relationships. “caring for others”,
- and special networks of support from other women (mothers, daughters, sisters, co-wives and friends) who live in their different regions. While some institutional theorists of difference accept the sexual division of labor as a social necessity (Berger and Berger, 1983), others recognize that separate areas for women and men lead to gender inequality (Bernard, 1981; Kelly -Godol, 1983) or even be embedded within a wider pattern of victimization (Rudick, 1980).
- Many sociologists begin with the assumption that human behavior is largely guided and determined by culture, which is the learned prescriptions for behavior shared by members of a society. Thus norms, values and roles are culturally determined and socially transmitted. From this perspective, gender roles are a product of culture rather than biology. Individuals learn their respective male and female roles. The gender division of labor that gender roles are normal, natural, right, and appropriate.
- Ann Oakley – Cultural Division of Labour:
- Ann Oakley, a British sociologist and supporter of the women’s liberation movement, came down strongly in favor of culture as a determinant of gender roles. Her position is summarized in the following quote, ‘The division of labor by sex is not only universal, but there is no reason why it should be so. Human cultures are diverse and endlessly changing. They owe their creation to human ingenuity rather than to invincible biological forces. Oakley First takes Murdock to task by arguing that the sexual division of labor is not universal, not that some tasks are always performed by men, others by women. She biases Murdock’s interpretations of her data because she tolls on other cultures through both Western and male eyes.
o Specifically, she claims that the pre-judicial role of women in the context of the Western housewife-mother role. Oakley examines a number of societies in which biology has little or no influence on women’s roles. The Mbuti Pygimes, a hunting and gathering society who live in the Congo rainforest, have no specific rules for the division of labor by sex. Men and women hunt together. There is no special difference in the role of father and mother. Both sexes share the responsibility of caring for the children.
o Among Australian Aborigines in Tasmania, women were responsible for seal hunting, fishing, and catching opossums (free-living mammals). Turning to present-day societies, Oakley notes that women are an important part of many armed forces, notably those of China, Russia, Cuba, and Israel. Thus, it shows that there are no specific female roles and that biological characteristics do not prevent women from having specific jobs. he is regarded as a myth
- ‘The biological inability of women to do heavy and demanding work’. Oakley also attacks Parsons and Bowlby’s arguments by pointing to the kibbutz to show that systems other than the family and the role of the female mother can effectively socialize the group. Using the example of Alor, an island in Indonesia, Oakley shows how in this and other small-scale horticultural societies, the world
- Males are not bonded to their offspring, and this has not been shown to have any harmful effects on children. In traditional Aloris society, women were largely responsible for the cultivation and collection of vegetables. This involved him spending a lot of time away from the village.
o Within a fortnight after the birth of their child, women returned to the fields leaving the infant in the care of a sibling, father or grandparents. Turning to Western society, Oakley rejected Bowlby’s claim that an ‘intimate and constant’ relationship between mother and child was essential to the child’s well-being. Shane notes that a large body of research suggests that the employment of another has no detrimental effect on a child’s development. Some studies indicate that children of working mothers are less likely to be delinquent than children of stay-at-home mothers. Oakley is particularly harsh in his attack on Parsons’ view of the family and the role of the ‘expressive’ woman in it. She accuses him of basing his analysis on the beliefs and values of his culture, and especially the myths of male superiority and the sanctity of marriage and family. They argue that the expressive housewife-mother role is not necessary for the functioning of the family unit. It exists only for the convenience of men. They claim that Parsons’ interpretation of gender roles is only a valid myth for ‘domestic subjugation of gender roles’, a valid myth for ‘domestic subjugation of women’. Finally, Oakley concludes that gender roles are culturally, not biologically, determined.
o Bruno Bettelheim is a psychotherapist specializing in child development. His study of group parenting in Ekibutz indicated that close, independent socialization was necessary for effective socialization.
Continuous mother-child relationship is not necessary. The kibbutz children had little mental illness and little evidence of jealousy, rivalry or bullying. The children appeared hardworking and responsible, had no delinquencies and did not equate to a high school ‘dropout’. Compared to Western society, there is stronger pressure to conform to group norms and, as a result, Bettleheim found that children tend to be less individualistic. He argues that they develop a ‘collective’ rather than individual sense of self. By Western standards, the children appear ’emotionally flat, they stay away from any kind of emotion’ and seem unable to establish ‘really’.
- Deep, intimate and loving relationships’. Betelheim claims that parents raised in the kibbutz ‘expect little intimacy with their children, not hoping or desiring a one-to-one relationship with them. So their relationships with their children tend to be more casual – neither close nor intense.
- Ernestine Friedel – Male dominance and sexual division of labor :
- In men and women: an anthropological perspective, Friedl offers an explanation for the sexual division of labor and male dominance. Like Oakley, she favors a cultural explanation taking into account the vast variation in gender roles between societies. For example, she observes that in some societies, activities such as weaving, pottery-making and sewing are considered ‘inherently’ men’s work, in others, women’s. It is significant, however, that societies in which such tasks are defined as male roles generally have higher prestige than societies where they are assigned to women.
o Friedl sees this as a reflection of male dominance which exists to some degree in all societies. She defines male dominance as a situation in which men have highly preferential access, though not always exclusive rights, to the activities that society values most and which are used as a means of control over others. allows. He argues that the degree of male dominance is ‘a consequence of the frequency with which males have more authority to distribute goods outside the home group than do females’. Thus men are domains because they control the exchange of valuable goods beyond the family group. This activity brings prestige and power. The greater their control over the exchange of valuable goods outside the family, the greater their dominance. Friedl tests this hypothesis by examining hunting and gathering bands and small-scale horticultural societies.
o In hunting and gathering bands, men hunt and women gather vegetable produce, nuts and berries. Friedel turns to biological arguments to explain this gendered division of labor. Breeding, breeding and rearing are not adapted to the demands of hunting, while they do not pose a serious inconvenience to gathering. Yet this does not explain why hunting carriers have more prestige than gathering. The explanation lies in the fact that meat is a scarce resource and thus more valuable than vegetable production. The latter is usually readily available, can be easily assembled and is therefore not exchanged. The successful outcome of the hunt cannot be guaranteed. some men return empty handed
- Ed. In order for the whole band to enjoy a regular protein diet, which means it provides, it is necessary for successful hunters to distribute their kills to other members of the band. Friedel argues that ‘a resource scarcely or irregularly distributed is a source of available power’. Those who distribute such resources gain prestige, those who receive them are indebted and bound. Since hunting is largely a male monopoly, men are plugged into a dominant power structure by exchanging meat.
o Friedl’s ideas are novel and interesting and reveal a fascinating interplay between biology and culture. However she claims that her work shows that male dominance and gender roles are culturally determined. She fails to completely dismiss the biological arguments. The fact that women bear children is an important part of their explanation for the sexual division of labor and, less directly, for the explanation of male dominance. However, his arguments reveal the importance of culture and avoid simplistic claims of the mentioned biological arguments.
o A somewhat different, though equally interesting explanation for the subordinate position of women has been offered by Sherry B. Ortner. She attempts to provide a general explanation for the ‘universal devaluation of women’. Ortner claims that it is not biology that holds women responsible for their position in society but the way each culture defines and values female biology.
o In this way, if this universal evaluation changes, then the basis of female subordination will end. Ortner argues that culture is given more importance than nature in every society.
Culture is the means by which man controls and controls nature. By inventing weapons and hunting techniques man could capture and kill animals. By inventing religion and rituals, humans could invoke supernatural forces to ensure a successful hunt or a bountiful harvest. By the use of culture man does not have to be passively subject to nature, he can control and control it. Thus, man’s thought and technology, which is his culture, holds authority over nature and is therefore seen as superior to nature.
The universal assessment of culture as superior to nature is the root cause of devaluation of women. Women are seen as closer to nature than men and therefore inferior to men. Ortner argues that women are universally defined as closer to nature because their bodies and bodily functions are more related to the ‘natural processes surrounding the reproduction of the species’. These natural processes include menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and lactation, processes for which the female body is ‘naturally equipped’. The social role of women as mothers is also seen as close to nature. They are mainly responsible for the socialization of the youth. Babies and young children are seen as ‘barely human’, a step away from nature because their cultural repertoire is small
- Compared to adults. The close relationship of women with young children further connects them with nature. Since the role of the mother is linked to the family, the family itself is considered closer in nature than the activities and institutions outside the family. Thus activities such as politics, war, and religion are seen as more distant from nature, superior to household chores, and therefore the province of men. Finally, Ortner argues that the ‘woman’s psyche’, her psychological makeup, is defined as something closer to nature. Because women are concerned with child care and primary socialization, they tend to develop more personal, intimate, and special relationships with others, especially their children.
o By comparison, men engaging in politics, war, and religion have a wider touch of contact and less personal and special relationships. Thus men are seen as being more objective and less emotional. Ortner argues that culture is, in a sense, the encroachment of the natural gifts of existence, through systems of thought and technology. Thus men are seen to be closer to culture than women. Since culture is considered superior to nature, the ‘feminine psyche’ is devalued and once again men come out on top.
o Ortner concludes that in terms of her biology, physiological processes, social roles and psychology, woman ‘appears to be intermediate between culture and nature’. Ortner failed to show conclusively that culture is valued more highly than nature in all societies. Although many societies have rituals that attempt to control nature, it is not clear that nature is necessarily devalued in comparison to culture. In fact it can be argued that the very existence of such rituals points to the superior power of nature. However, Ortner’s argument is missing an important quality. It provides a universal explanation for a universal phenomenon, the second class status of women. If Ortner’s view is correct, then the subjection of women to biology is nothing but the cultural evaluation of their biological makeup. A change in this assessment would remove the basis of female subordination.
- Third. Gender Inequality and Marxist Interpretation:
- Marxism presents one of the best known and intellectually most comprehensive theories of social oppression. This theory not only explains oppression but is a more tacit statement of gender-inequality. The foundation of this theory was laid by Marx and Engels. Social class oppression was a major concern of Marx and Engels, but they often turned their attention to gender oppression. His most famous exploration of this issue is presented in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884). prominent
- The arguments of this book are:
- Women’s subjugation does not result from their biology, which is probably unchangeable, it is constructed from social systems that have a clear and traceable history, systems that can possibly be changed.
- The relational basis for women’s subordination lies in the family, an institution aptly named from the Latin word for servant, as the family existing in complex societies is a system of highly dominant and subordinate roles. The key features of the family in Western societies are that it is centered on a mated pair and their offspring are usually located in the same household; It is patrilineal, with descent and property passed through the male line, patrilineal, with authority invested in the male household head, and not least in enforcement of the rule that the wife should obey her husband.
has sex with. The double standard allows men far more sexual freedom. Within such an institution, especially when, as in a middle-class family, women have no jobs outside the home and no economic independence, women are virtually the property or possessions of their husbands.
- Society legitimizes this family system by claiming that such a structure is the basic institution in all societies. This is actually a false claim, as much anthropological and archaeological evidence shows. There was no such family structure for most of human prehistory. Instead people were linked in broad kinship networks—gon, large-scale associations between people sharing blood ties.
- Also these relationships were traced through the female line because one’s direct relationship to one’s mother could be demonstrated much more easily than one’s relationship to one’s father, in other words the gene was matrilineal. It was also matriarchal, with a significant power resting in the hands of women, who performed an independent and important economic function in those primitive hunting and gathering economies, as gatherers, craftsmen, stores, and distributors of essential materials. Huh. This power was exercised in collective and cooperative communal living arrangements. commodity use, child rearing and decision-making, and through the free and weightless choice of love and sexual partners by both women and men. This type of society, which Marx and Engels elsewhere describe as primitive communism, is associated with the free and empowered social position of women in The Origin.
- The factors that destroyed this type of social order, which Engels calls “the”
- The world historical defeat of the female sex” (Engels and Marx: 1884). There is the replacement of hunting-gathering by economic and especially animal husbandry, horticultural, and agricultural economies. This change is accompanied by the property, thought, and reality of some group members. Claiming essential resources of economic production as their own emerged. It was men who insisted on this clam, as their mobility, power, and monopoly on certain tools gave them economic dominance. With these changes, property owners Men, too, developed enforceable requirements both for an obedient labor force, whether they were slaves, captives, women-wives, or children, and for heirs who served as a means of preserving and transferring property. will work as
- Thus arose the first family, a master and his slave-servant, wife-servant, child-servant, a unit in which the master fiercely defended his claim of exclusive sexual access to his wives and thereby protected his heirs. Sons would also favor this system of sexual control, as it would rest their property claims.
- Since then the exploitation of labor has evolved into increasingly complex structures of dominance, especially class relations; The political system was created to protect all these systems of domination; And the family itself has evolved into an embedded and dependent institution with historical changes of economic and property systems, reflecting the all-pervasive injustices of political economy and consistently enforcing women’s subordination. Only with the destruction of property rights in the coming communist revolution will women gain freedom of social, political, economic and personal action.
- Genesis has been challenged by anthropologists and archaeologists on questions of evidence by feminists
- Failing in various ways to understand the full complexity of the oppression of women. But in claiming that women are oppressed, in analyzing how this oppression is perpetuated by the family, institutions held almost sacred by powerful sections of society, and in the study of women’s economic and sexual status. In ascertaining the effect of this subordination. The Origin offers a powerful sociological theory of gender inequality, which contrasts dramatically with the mainstream sociological theory of Parsons.
- Contemporary Marxist Feminism:
- Embeds contemporary Marxist feminists within the structure of the class system, and specifically the contemporary capitalist class system. From this theoretical vantage point,
- The quality of each person’s life experiences is a reflection of their class status first and their gender only second. Clearly women from class backgrounds have less life experiences with men of their class than women of a particular class. For example, in both their class-determined experiences and interests, upper-class, wealthy women are the antithesis of blue-collar or poor, welfare women, but share many experiences and interests with upper-class, wealthy-men. Given this starting point, Marxist feminists acknowledge that within any given class, women are less privileged than men in their access to material goods, powers, status and possibilities or self-actualization. The reason for this inequality lies in the organization of capitalism itself.
- the inherent nature of gender inequality within the class system of contemporary capitalism,
The most simply and clearly visible is within the dominant class of the bourgeoisie. Bourgeois men own the productive and organizational resources of industrial production, commercial agriculture, and national and international trade. Bourgeois women are not property, but they are property themselves, the wives and possessions of bourgeois women being attractive and conspicuous objects in an ongoing process of exchange between men (Rubin: 1975) and often used to seal property alliances between men. There are means of
- Bourgeois women produce and train sons who will inherit the socio-economic resources of their fathers. Bourgeois women also provide emotional, social, and sexual services to the men of their class. For all this they are rewarded with an appropriately luxurious lifestyle. Gender inequality in the wage-earning classes is also functional to capitalism, and therefore perpetuated by the capitalist. As wage-labour women, because of their lower social status, are more poorly paid and find it difficult to form unions because of their sense of wage-sector marginality. Thus they serve as an irresistible source of profit for the ruling classes.
- In addition, women’s marginalization in the wage sector makes them a significant part of the reserve labor force, which, as a pool of alternative workers, acts as a threat and brake to unionized male wage demands. as housewives, as consumers of goods and services for the home and as unpaid caregivers to make a profit that subsidizes and hides the real costs of reproducing and maintaining the workforce (Gardiner: 1975) . Finally, but not least for Marxists, the wage-earner’s wife provides her husband with a small sense of personal power, a compensation for his actual powerlessness in society. In other words, she is the “slave’s handmaid” (McKimmon: 1982).
between men and women;
- that many women still take on the role of informal caregiver and in fact • derive satisfaction from doing so;
- That the reason for this situation. are closely associated with the construction of male and female identities, and possibly also with culturally defined rules about ‘sexually appropriate behaviours’,
When women (or men) are responsible for performing domestic labor or providing care on an unpaid (and often unrecognized) basis, this has serious consequences for their role in the labor market. What is at stake is not only the loss of potential earnings or social status, or even the amount of labor required (although the hours and commitment involved in some caring roles are significantly greater than in a full-time job), but the fact that is that many women are ‘stuck’ in the domestic sphere. Janet Finch and Dulcy Groves (1980) have argued that domesticity ideologies and community policies are incompatible with equal opportunities for caring women because the domestic and caring roles are full-time commitments in themselves, a process of labor market segmentation. Means that many women cannot earn as much as their husbands, making it economically impractical for men to leave work, or for many women to earn enough for child care, and domestic or respite care: Feminists have then emphasized that women’s role in the domestic sphere has serious consequences for gender relations in the labor market.
Feminists have also drawn attention to another aspect of domestic labour; One that is regarded as work and is remunerated, though often at a relatively low rate, and that includes middle-class men and women who do other (usually) domestic work. Research suggests that cleaning and other household chores in private homes are often performed by working-class women, by older women, or by Black or Asian-born women.
Bridget Anderson (2000) in her study of migrant domestic workers in five European cities found that such work not only results in low pay and long hours, but can also amount to ‘slavery’. Women in poor countries ‘are often asked to complete an impossible list of tasks; They were expected to care for children and families where they worked, spent little time away from home, and were treated in a variety of subservient ways. often; He found it difficult to break away from the middle-class family that ‘bought’ him and enter the mainstream labor market.
propensity of women to work
While most feminists argue that the major factors explaining women’s position in the labor market and gendered patterns of work are structurally determined, Katherine Hakim (1995, 1996) has argued that paid employment and their access to work Inadequate attention has been paid to the orientation of women. commitment. In exploring gender patterns of labor market participation, she argues that there are three groups of women:
- Home-centred women (between 15 and 30 percent of women) who prefer not to work and whose main priority is children and family.
- Adaptive women (between 40 and 80 percent) who are a diverse group –
Including women who want to combine work and family, and those who want paid employment but are not committed to a career.
- Work-oriented women (between 10 and 30 percent of women) who are predominantly childless, and whose main priority is their career.
She develops what she calls ‘preference theory’, arguing that women can now choose whether or not to pursue a career. She argues that most women who combine domesticity with employment (‘uncommitted’) seek part-time work despite the knowledge that it is concentrated in lower grades and less remunerated than other work. In contrast to feminist sociologists who have argued that women’s employment patterns are the result of structural factors that limit women’s choices, exclusionary strategies used by men, organized ideologies, Hakim argues that women can positively choose low-wage, low-status part-time work that fits in with their household and family roles, which they themselves see as a priority.
However, Crompton and Le Fevre (1996) argue that there is little empirical evidence to support the view that there are clear categories of women as far as work commitment is concerned.
They draw this conclusion from their study of women in banking and pharmacy employment in Britain and France and suggest that there is no evidence, even if these professional women work part-time, to suggest that they are able to maintain their paid employment. Not committed to. Martin and Roberts (1984) reported in an earlier study that although many women found it difficult to cope with the often conflicting demands of work and home, this did not mean that they were less committed to either. Was More central, in their study, was the relationship between type of work, employment status, and orientation toward work. beyond
NT is provided by Walsh (1999) in a study of part-time female workers in Australia. Walsh argues that women who work part-time are not homogenous in terms of their characteristics or orientation to work, and that there are many reasons why women work part-time. While the majority of women in their sample were satisfied with their working conditions, a significant number wanted to return to full-time work as soon as was practical. She questions Hakim’s view that most female workers are not committed to careers and suggests that commitment to the labor market varies across groups and over the course of life. Rosemary Crompton (1986) emphasized this latter point in her earlier discussion of service work, highlighting the role of life course in shaping women’s orientation to work.
Finally, it is important to remember that when women ‘choose’ to combine their commitments to non-remunerated work with paid employment, the choices they make and their orientation to both depend on a relatively wide range of choices. The narrow range and socially constructed expectations of women’s roles and responsibilities result.
They are also shaped by material factors such as inequalities of social class, and racial and ethnic power relations, as well as issues such as disability. For example, highly qualified women in managerial and professional occupations can often earn enough to afford high-quality child care and domestic help, and often escape criticism directed at working wives and mothers, while other women cannot. ; Their orientation to work is only part of the explanation why this latter group of women may work part-time or not at all. More sociological explanations for women’s working patterns and orientation to work have emphasized the importance of exploring the ways in which ‘structure and agency are interrelated’ in order to understand the social constructions (and restrictions) of ‘choice’ .
gender and unemployment
According to the Labor Force Survey (cited in EOC 2004), 4 per cent of economically active females (women aged 16 and over and available for work), and 6 per cent of economically active males in the UK, traditionally In sociology, unemployment is not thought to be a problem for women, or at least for most married women. This is because it is argued that women’s wages are not essential to the family, that women’s core identity and status is derived from their role as wives and mothers, and that women in their primary domestic role Can ‘return’. , Women’s unemployment is also ‘hidden’
A high proportion of job-seeking women are not registered as unemployed.
However, feminist research has challenged this view, arguing that work and work identity are central to many women’s lives and that it is essential for women to earn money. Angela Coyle (1984), in a study of 76 women who had been made redundant, found that only three (of whom two were pregnant and one was nearing retirement age), took the opportunity to stop working.
All others demanded alternate employment
of – and found work that was less skilled, had worse working conditions and paid less than their previous positions. Women said they worked because a male wage was insufficient for their household’s needs, and because they valued the independence they gained from paid employment and having their own income. She concludes that paid work was seen as central to these women’s lives, and redundancy was seen as an unwanted interruption to their working lives.
The reasons for non-employment vary greatly by gender. In the UK, the main reason women were not economically active in the 2001 census was that they were engaged in non-remunerated work (caring for the family or household). The main reasons given by men were that they had been made redundant, were in full-time education or training, or that a temporary job had ended. Only 4 percent of men were taking care of the family or home. Of course, non-employment is also linked to other factors such as qualification level, disability and ethnicity.
At the same time as women’s participation rates are increasing in many societies, it is declining as men’s. This is partly a result of high male unemployment rates, particularly in Europe, and also due to an increase in the number of men, especially those in their fifties and sixties, on long periods of sick leave, being unnecessary. Reasons for taking early retirement. It is projected that the gender gap in employment activity (with women creating more jobs than men) will continue to widen.
There are also gender differences in the activities men and women do while unemployed, as well as the ways in which they look for new jobs. For example, surveys from several European countries indicate that women find it more difficult than finding a new job once they are employed, and that they are more likely to rely on government services while men prefer personal contacts and Use more efficient methods such as networks. Women are disadvantaged by the informal aspects of work, both when they are employed and when they are unemployed
Lloyd, as many feminist studies of the workplace have shown.
Feminist Studies of the Workplace
Many of the ‘classic’ feminist studies of work focused on factory workers (attempting to redress the marginalization of women in the male sphere of work), but later there was a tendency to focus more on those areas of the labor market in which women had the greatest advantage. Representation is high, mainly in ‘care work’ and service sector work. These studies have highlighted the many ways in which gender shapes men’s and women’s experiences of paid work.
Feminist Studies of Factory Work
Studies by Anna Pollert (1981) and Sally Westwood (1984) show that women and men are working in different occupations, with men employed in classified jobs and women classified semi- or unskilled. working, and earning significantly less than men. They all agree that ‘skill’ is socially constructed in such a way that it is seen as an attribute of men’s work and not women’s work. Ruth Cavendish (1982), describing a London factory, wrote that the complex skills expected of women on the assembly line actually took longer to acquire than skilled male workers.
She provides a graphic account of what it is like to do unskilled factory work. The factory where she worked employed approximately 1,800 people, of whom 800 worked on the factory floor. Virtually all women were migrant workers—70 percent Irish, 20 percent Afro-Caribbean and 10 percent Asian (mostly Gujaratis from India). She notes that men enjoyed better working conditions than women—their jobs enabled them to occasionally stop for a cigarette, turn around, and slow down without financial penalty, while women waited in line. Was tied Male-dominated trade unions and management worked together to protect the interests of male workers. Men and men’s interests effectively controlled women, who were often supervised by men.
With very few exceptions, all the women were semi-skilled assemblers. Men, on the other hand, were spread throughout the grades and divided from one another by differences in skill and pay. Even in machine shops where men and women worked together on the same job, men were paid at higher rates than women because they could lift heavy coils of metal that women could not. While young men were trained as hands in charge, young women were not; The latter lacked the promotion prospects that were open
Women were controlled by the assembly line and the bonus system did not solicit the views of women workers when new designs and new machinery were introduced. Women had no chance to move or think while they were working and no time for a quick break, and if they couldn’t keep up with the line they were dismissed. at work ladies
Women were controlled and protected by men, but other women were generally helpful and friendly. The most important things in women’s lives appear to be their family and home: single women look forward to marriage and domesticity. All the women shared a common interest in the ‘cult of domesticity’.
Anna Pollert (1981) in her study of a tobacco factory in Bristol similarly found that ‘women’s work in the factory’ was routine, repetitive, low-grade work that would not be performed by men. Women thought they should be paid less than men because they were committed to marriage and having children, while men had the family to support. Women also thought that their work was less efficient than that of men and less important to the production process.
Therefore, women accepted their relatively low pay, partly because they compared it with pay for other female jobs. While she rejected the idea that her place was in the home, she considered herself dependent on men and regarded her salary as secondary to a man’s, even though two-thirds of the workforce were young, single women. They saw marriage and family as their ‘careers’ and found themselves at the bottom of the labor market both in terms of class and gender.
9.8.6 Feminist Studies of Care Work
Personal care work, such as that of care aides and ‘domestic help’, is mainly done by women; In fact, these jobs have generally been created as women’s jobs and fields requiring women’s ‘natural’ abilities. Women working as domestic helps, nursing assistants, care aides and soon women employed in the ‘peripheral’ labor market – low-level jobs with poor and insecure conditions of employment. They are often supervised and controlled by other women workers who have more secure employment in the ‘core’ labor market.
Their customer group is mainly elderly people (whose numbers are increasing in most Western societies). Care workers often work across intimate physical boundaries, and their
The work can be repetitive and emotionally exhausting, as well as physically demanding. while
While many of the women who do this type of work are positive about it, feminists have shown a tendency to view it as exploitative and therefore the women who do it are seen as exploited victims of capitalistic, patriarchal social structures. Nevertheless, Hillary Graham (1991) has pointed out that feminists have, unwittingly, taken policy-makers’ definitions of caregiving and equated it with the work done in the domestic home, the love and kinship for kin and family. responsibilities have been included.
As she explains, this means that they have ignored the class and racial factors that influence care and care work and the way in which domestic labor is paid in private homes, resulting in domestic and public The boundaries between regions become blurred. Feminists have also tended to ignore paid care work in residential settings, and the structure of work and its assigned meanings in these settings also blur the public/private distinction that exists regarding women’s caring roles in the home. transfer the concepts to their employment. public area.
Care work primarily belongs to women, both in the private and public sectors. Not that it is primarily done by women, but that it is seen as inherently women’s work (the skills involved are those that are culturally associated with women and therefore are often not recognised). Drawing from Bourdieu’s idea that some professions require some form of ‘cultural capital’, Beverly Skaggs (1997) has argued that for women who wish to work in caring professions, femininity Can be an asset in the labor market. However, this means that care work is often not as well remunerated as skilled work. It is also seen as work that is ‘suitable’ only for women, mainly because it involves both physical and emotional labour, as well as concern for hygiene and health; In other words, it often involves intimate contact with other people’s bodies. The definition of caring work as ‘women’s work’ applies to most of the work that women do both in the home and in the labor market and, feminists have argued, to the work done by women in both spheres. central to understanding the relationship between
This especially applies to women’s work in the service sector and clerical work.
In clerical work, women are often found in relatively low paying jobs with little career prospects and benefits. Women are often recruited on the basis that they will not be promoted, while men are recruited on the assumption that they will. Once in employment, women are less likely to be provided with structured work experience and study opportunities that
Enables them to seek promotion and be seen as promoted.
Kate Boyer (2004) has found for example that the financial services sector serves to create what she describes as ‘a system in which men flow and women act at fixed points’. As the status of clerical work declined and the tasks involved became standardised, fragmented and rationalised, more and more women were recruited into office work. The desking of office work for men is mediated by the prospect of promotion. While women are recruited into the lowest grades, paid at low rates and replaced by other young women when they leave to have children, men, it is assumed, will be forced out of clerical work. .
One of the major debates on social class in male stream sociology since World War II has been whether or not clerical workers are proletarianized—that is, whether the pay, employment conditions, and nature of clerical work are comparable to manual workers. has occurred. British sociologists, following a Weberian analysis of class, have looked at the market conditions, working conditions, and status of male clerical workers, and argued that they are middle class because they enjoy better working conditions, they are considered socially inferior. formally accepted as middle class and do not identify themselves as working class. Braverman (1974), however, argued that clerical workers have been proletarianized and that the feminization of clerical work is part of this process.
Reviving the debate, Crompton and Jones (1984) argued that while female clerical work was not the work of proletariat men—primarily, they suggest, because male clerical workers had the potential for upward mobility outside of clerical work. There is a possibility. She suggests that this situation may be changing as more women are wanted and seen as potential candidates for promotion. However, the idea that female clerical workers are proletarians only holds when they are compared to male manual workers. Martin and Roberts (1984) and Heather Britton (1984) argued that women clerical workers enjoy pay and working conditions more than women employed in manual work, in professional and managerial work, where the work is defined as efficient.
One of the most important sociological studies of clerical work is Rosemary Pringle’s (1989) Secretaries Talk, based on interviews with nearly five hundred office workers from various workplaces in Australia. Heranalysis focused on Boss-Sekar
The individual relationship, and the ways in which this relationship is shaped by gendered power relations, are highlighted. Largely adopting a Foucauldian perspective, Pringle examines the ways in which secretaries negotiate these power structures shaped by gender and class, underscoring the changing roles and identities available to secretaries – the ‘office wife’ ‘ to ‘sexy secretary’ and ‘career woman’, and the way these roles reflect technological change. She concludes that although there are different types of strategies
Power and resistance are open to them, ‘gender’ and sexuality remain extremely important in the creation of secrets.
9.8.7 Feminist Study of Service Work
Gendered patterns of occupational division, at least in Western societies, mean that by far the majority of women engaged in paid work are employed in the service sector, largely regular, non-manual interactive service worker ‘women’s work’. Feminist studies of service work have identified occupations in which the skills, characteristics and aesthetics associated with women are modified – for example nursing, waitressing and bar work in the airline industry. Elaine Hall ((993) study of waitressing, for example, highlights the performance of gendered service styles and that ‘waiting tables’ has been defined as uniquely “women’s work” because women do it and Because work activities are perceived as feminine. Her study found that men are expected to adopt a ‘formal’ style when waiting tables, while women are expected to be more ‘familial’. is expected, and that these differences in expectations can be attributed to the gendered construction of the jobs themselves.
What she describes as gender stratification located within the profession was largely shaped by three factors: the gendered connotations of waiting, the gendered determination of job titles, and the gendered determination of uniforms. Combined, these factors meant that being female was equated with ‘giving good service’.
Mike Philby’s (1992) ethnographic study of three betting shops also highlighted the relationship between gender and sexuality in shaping the work experiences of women in service professions, and particularly the ways in which this relationship is shaped by the relationship between employer and customer. Shaped by expectations.
Philby argues that the notion of good service is largely shaped by how
Whether the clients were satisfied with the data, personality and temperament of the female workers. She also highlighted that both management and customers expect female employees to engage in sexual banter with customers as part of their job role so that ‘the line between selling a service and selling sexuality in such activity is very thin’. Ho’. In this regard, they conclude that: ‘This study … indicates how much the operation of workplaces and the production of goods and services depend on the tacit skills and perceived abilities of sexualised, gendered individuals’.
A more explicit focus on the relationship between masculinity and femininity led to Gareth Morgan and David Knights’ (1991) study of ‘gender selling’ in a medium-sized insurance company. Her research highlighted that women were largely excluded.
From the field sales rep job partly because of ‘protective paternalism’ (the sales rep himself has to travel around, and meet with potential customers), partly because women are not adapted to the ‘solitude of sales’ and partly because they were thought to be less resilient than men: ‘too empathetic’ and ‘not hungry enough’ as some in their research put it. In addition, managers were mindful of a ‘sense decorum’ among the sales force based on a shared gender identity and thought women could disrupt this. The role of sales representative, they found, was largely constructed according to a particular vocabulary associated with masculine characteristics; A masculine discourse that emphasizes aggressiveness and high performance as the defining characteristics of the job, qualities that (male) managers and (male) sales representatives and (they believe) potential customers, would not associate with women. Hence, for all these reasons, the act of selling oneself became tied to the masculinity of the sellers. This meant that internal sales (in banks and building societies) became feminised, while the external sales force was largely male dominated.
A similar finding emerged from research by Kate Boyer (2004) on the financial services industry in Canada.
These gender differences in the nature of service work, and the ways in which particular roles are constructed according to gender ideologies, have also been studied in police work Susan Martin: (1999), her study of police officers in the United States found that police work involves a high degree of emotional interaction, and that officers must control their own emotional displays and also the emotions of ‘members of the public’ with whom they come into contact who may be hurt, distressed, Can be angry or subject to suspicion. They argue that public work is often seen as manly work fighting crime, but it also involves a more caring aspect, which officially
People often look down on the ‘feminine side of the job’. Heranalysis emphasizes the ways in which gender is constructed through work and through the cultures of particular occupations and work organizations.
Robin Leidner (1993) reached a similar conclusion in his Neo-Weberian study of joint insurance and regularization of service work at McDonald’s, Fast Food, Fast Talk. She argues that in relation to gender and interactive service work, one of the most striking aspects of gender construction is that its achievement creates the impression that gender differences in ‘personality, interests, character, appearance, mannerisms and abilities’ Kind of natural. Hence, ‘gender segregation of work reinforces the appearance of naturalness’. Instead, she maintains, gender is partially constructed through sex, yet again.
For the public as well as workers, gender segregation in service jobs contributes to the ‘general belief’ that differences in the social statuses of men and women are a direct reflection of differences in their nature and abilities.
Many women’s jobs are considered explicitly in the service sector, as women are thought to use abilities to be deployed in the private sector: caring, preparing and serving food, nursing, attending to the needs of others. guessing and reacting, and so on. In short, this work is thought to involve what the American sociologist Early Russell Hochschild (1983) described in his book The Managed Hearts as ’emotional labour’ – work that involves the trading of emotions, and the service and is largely linked to women’s ability to provide care.
In other words, they confirm that it is possible to change the situation. These theorists contrast with gender difference theorists who present a picture of social life in which gender differences, whatever their causes, are enduring, deeply penetrating the personality, and only partially reversible. Interpretations of gender inequality vary around this general gist of interpretations. The two major versions of contemporary feminist theory that focus on and try to explain gender inequality, a Marxist theory, and a feminist theory in another are reviewed in this chapter.
Socialization and Gender Roles
- Gender Social
Karan is a process of learning gender. The earliest aspects of gender learning by infants are almost certainly unconscious. They precede the stage at which a child can refer to herself as a ‘boy’ or a ‘girl’. A variety of pre-verbal cues are involved in the early development of gender awareness. Male and female adults usually handle babies differently. The cosmetics that women use have different scents that children can learn to associate with men. Systematic differences in dress, hairstyle, etc. provide clues
- For the infant in the learning process. By the age of two, children have a partial understanding of what gender is. They know whether they are ‘boys’ or ‘girls’, and can usually classify others accurately. However, until five or six, a child does not know that a person’s gender does not change, that everyone has a gender, or that differences between girls and boys are physiologically based.
- The toys, picture books, and television programs with which young children come into contact all emphasize differences between male and female characteristics. Toy stores and mail order catalogs usually categorize their products by gender.
- Even some boys who appear to be ‘gender neutral’ are not so in practice. For example, toy kittens or rabbits are recommended for girls, while lions and tigers are considered more appropriate for boys.
- Wanda Lucia Zammuner studied children’s toy preferences in two different national contexts—Italy and Holland (Zammuner: 1987). Children’s ideas and attitudes towards different types of toys were analysed; Stereotypically ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ toys as well as toys that were not sex-typed were included. The children were mostly between the ages of seven and ten. Both the children and their parents were asked to assess which toys were ‘boys’ toys’ and which were appropriate for girls. There was close agreement between adults and children. On average, Italian children chose sex-differential toys to play with other children than Dutch children—a finding that was in line with expectations, as Italian culture takes a more ‘traditional’ view of gender division than Dutch society. Is. As in other studies, girls in both societies chose to play with ‘gender neutral’ or ‘boys’ toys far more than they did with ‘girls’ toys’.
- Gender roles are based on expectations of behavior that determine the status of men and women in society. Biology is not destiny when it comes to sex roles; Women are not relegated to home and hearth in all societies because of their fertility. The belief that men and women are “naturally” suited for certain roles was dealt a serious blow by Margaret Mead (1935) in her book Sex and Temperament, an account of her observations of three trines in New Guinea. Was. Mead begins his study by assuming that there are some ba
- Thus differences between the sexes. She accepted the idea that men and women are inherently different and that each gender is best suited for certain roles. His findings startled him. In the three trines he studied, the roles of men and women were very different and often the opposite of what is often seen as “natural” for one gender or the other. Females do not specialize in hunting (generally considered the preserve of males) but continue this activity during pregnancy and resume soon after giving birth.
- Among the Yoruba in Nigeria, women are highly involved in the economy such as trade and control about two-thirds of the economy. In the African Amazon, in the ancient kingdom of Dahomey, almost half of the fighting forces were women. In other cultures, women played important military roles—for example, in the Yugoslav Liberation Movement of the 1940s. In Israel both men and women are expected to serve in combat duty (Oakley: 1972). In short, sex is used by society as a basis for differentiating social roles, but the content of those roles is not biologically determined by such factors as the larger size of males and the ability of young females to hear. The variations seem almost infinite, suggesting that our lived sex roles are the result of cultural and social forces rather than the “natural” order of things.
- In the study of gender, the importance of femininity and masculinity lies in their relation to gender roles (sometimes referred to as sex roles). These are sets of expectations and ideas about how women and men should think, feel, appear, and behave in relation to other people. In Western societies, for example, men who look and behave in culturally masculine ways are seen as conforming to their gender roles.
- There is some disagreement about both the existence of gender roles and their importance for understanding gender inequality. For example, “feminine” women
Wives are expected to leave husbands, not for brothers or sons, regardless of their status in each case – wife, sister, or mother – naturally that of women. This suggests that there are no specific male roles or female roles (just as there are no specific race roles or class roles) but only loosely linked sets of ideas about men and women that are sought to be socially controlled and maintained. Can be applied for various purposes including. Patriarchy as a male dominated system.
- National Policy for Women Empowerment
- As a follow-up to the commitments made by India during the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing during September 1995, the Department formulated a National Policy for the Empowerment of Women after nationwide consultations to raise the status of women in the country. Drafted the policy. Realizing the constitutional guarantee of equality of men in all spheres of life and without discrimination on the basis of gender.
- The draft policy was considered by a Core Group of Experts in its meeting held on 8.11.1995. The draft policy was circulated to select women’s organizations for consultation at the field level with state governments, state women’s commissions, state social welfare advisory boards, women’s organizations, academicians, experts and activists. These women’s organizations completed the consultation process at the regional level in December, 1995.
- A meeting of the Secretaries of the States concerned with the Women’s Development/Social Welfare Departments was held on 27.12.1995 to consider the draft National Policy for the Empowerment of Women. The draft National Policy was also discussed in the meeting of the Committee of Secretaries in its meeting held on 7.3.1996. The restructured National Policy was discussed in the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Human Resource Development on 17.12.96 and 13.02.97.
- The comments/views of the concerned Central Ministries/Departments were obtained and the revised policy document prepared on the basis of the comments received from other Ministries/Departments was sent to the Cabinet Secretariat on 30th June, 1999 for obtaining Cabinet approval for the policy. was sent to The Cabinet Secretariat has suggested that the process of inter-departmental consultations in this matter may be completed after the formation of the new government. The process of consultation has already been started.
Construction of Gender Roles:
Socialization has three main bases in the formation of gender roles. These are as follows:
- Family
- Schools and Peer Groups
- Media and Communication.
Family and Socialization:
She is expected to be at home for household chores. However, such questions are less frequent in the case of boys, who are mostly late coming home etc. Part of the stereotyping process is the belief that boys have more freedom and a right to self-expression than girls. , In the case of girls, the expectations and obligations are more stringent, and they have fewer rights accordingly.
- There have been many studies on how gender differences develop in the family.
- The family plays an important role in the process of socialization. Studies of mother-infant interactions show differences in the treatment of boys and girls, even when parents believe their reactions to the two are similar.
- Adults are asked to assess a child’s personality, giving different answers as to whether they consider the child to be a girl or a boy. In one experiment, five young mothers were observed interacting with six-month-old Beth. They often smiled at him and offered their dolls to play with. She was seen as a ‘sweet’, ‘soft cry’. u
The reaction of the second group of mothers to a child aged 4. C, who was named Adam, was quite different. The child may have been offered a train or other ‘male toy’ to play with. Beth and Adam were actually identical children dressed in different clothes (Will, Self & Dathan: 1976).
- It is not only parents and grandparents whose perceptions of babies differ in this way. One study analyzed the words used by birth medical personnel about newborns. Newborn male babies were often described as ‘strong’, ‘handsome’, or ‘tough’; Girl babies were often talked about as ‘beautiful’, ‘sweet’ or ‘attractive’. There was no difference in overall size or weight between the infants in question (Hansen: 1980).
Influence of school and peer group:
- Peer-group socialization plays a major role in reinforcing and further shaping gender identity in a child’s school life. In and out of school, children’s peer groups are usually either all-boys or all-girls groups.
- By the time they start school, children have a clear awareness of gender differences. Schools are generally not considered to be differentiated on the basis of gender. In practice, of course, a range of factors affect girls and boys differently. In many countries, there are still differences in the curriculum followed by girls and boys—home economics or ‘domestic science’ being studied by the former, for example, woodworking or metalworking by the latter.
- Boys and girls are often encouraged to focus on different sports. Teachers’ attitudes may be subtle or more overtly different towards their female than their male students,
- Reinforcing the expectation that boys are expected to be ‘performers’, or tolerate more fuss
- Media and Communication:
- Studies of the most viewed cartoons show that virtually all of the prominent figures are men, and that the active activities depicted are dominated by men. Similar images are found in commercials that appear at regular intervals throughout the programs.
- In modern times, media is influencing the behavior of children especially television programmes. Although there are some notable exceptions, the analysis of television programs designed for children is consistent with the findings for children’s books.
- Books and Stories:
- Some twenty years ago, Lenore Weitzman and her colleagues analyzed gender roles in some of the most widely used pre-school children’s books (Weitzman et al.: 1972), finding several clear differences in gender roles Find out. Men played a much larger role in the stories and illustrations than women, outnumbering women by an 11 to 1 ratio. Including sex-identified animals, the ratio was 95 to 1. The activities of men and women also differed. Men engaged in adventurous pursuits and outdoor activities, seeking independence and strength. Where girls did appear, they were shown to be passive and mostly confined to indoor activities. The girls cooked and cleaned for the men, or waited for their return.
- The same was true of the adult men and women depicted in the story-books. Those who were not wives and mothers, were imaginary creatures like the witches of fairy godmothers. In all the books analysed, there was not a single woman who had an occupation outside the home. In contrast, men were portrayed in a greater range of roles as fighters, policemen, judges, kings and so forth. More recent research suggests that things have changed somewhat, but that much and much of children’s literature has remained the same (Davies: 1991).
- There are still picture-books and story-books written from a non-sexist perspective
- There was little impact on the overall market for children’s literature. Fairy tales, for example, convey very traditional attitudes towards gender and the goals and ambitions expected of girls and boys. “Someday my prince will come” – In many earlier fairy tale versions, it is usually implied that a girl from a poor family may dream of wealth and fortune. Today, the meaning is more closely related to the ideals of romantic love. is linked to.
- June Statham studies the experiences of a group of parents in the UK committed to raising non-sexist children. The research included thirty adults in eighteen families with children ranging in age from six months to twelve years. The parents were from middle-class background, mostly involved in academic background as teachers or professors. Statham found that most parents not only sought to modify traditional sex roles—making girls more like boys—but also wanted to promote a new combination of ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’. They wanted boys to be more sensitive to the feelings of others and able to express warmth, while girls were encouraged to have opportunities for an active orientation toward learning and self-advancement.
- All parents found it difficult to combat existing patterns of gender learning as their children were exposed to these with friends and at school. The parents were reasonably successful in persuading the children to play with non-gender-type toys, but this also proved more difficult than many of them expected. Practically all the children actually had genderqueer-type toys, given to them by relatives. There are storybooks now that have strong, independent girls as main characters, but very few boys in non-traditional roles. Clearly, sexual socialization is very powerful, and challenging it can be troubling.
- Ann Oakley, a British sociologist and supporter of the women’s liberation movement, came down strongly in favor of culture as a determinant of gender roles. She expressed, ‘nor is the division of labor by sex not universal, but there is no reason why it should be so’. Human cultures are diverse and endlessly variable and owe their creation to human invention rather than to invincible biological forces. Oakley reviews the arguments made by George Peter Murdock on the universality of the sexual division of labor
- And the tasks of men and women were divided according to their functional roles. She claims this aspect of Murdock being biased and westernized in his approach to typecasting women’s roles in terms of ‘expressive’ rather than a combination of expressive and instrumental functions.
- Oakley
tests that seem to have little biology
- Or no effect on women’s roles. The Mbuti Pygmies, a hunting and gathering society living in the Kondo rain forests, had no specific rules for the division of labor by gender. Men and women hunt together. There is no distinction between the roles of father and mother, with both sexes sharing the responsibility of caring for the children. Among the Australian Aborigines of Tasmania, both men and women were responsible for seal hunting, fishing, and catching opossums (tree-dwelling mammals).
- Turning to present-day societies, Oakley notes that women are an important part of many armed forces, notably those of China, Russia, Cuba, and Israel. Therefore, Oakley claims that the above example shows that there are no exclusively female roles and that biological characteristics do not prevent women from having particular jobs. She considers the supposed ‘biologically based inability’ of women to perform their heavy and demanding work a myth.
- Oakley comments on the Parsonian approach as promoting a biased system of beliefs that centers a woman’s life around the expressive domain. They argue that the role of the expressive homemaker mother is not essential to the functioning of the family unit.
- It exists only for the convenience of men. She further claims that Parson’s interpretation of gender roles is only a valid myth for domestic abuse of women. Oakley is therefore a positive prop of a sublime womanhood to an all-encompassing wide domain of expressive talents and innate strength.
- Friedel offers another explanation for the sexual division of labor and male dominance. She favors a cultural explanation taking into account the vast variation in gender roles between societies. For example, she observes that in some societies, activities such as weaving, pottery-making and sewing are ‘inherently considered to be men’s work, in others women’s. It is significant, however, that societies in which men perform such tasks are of greater prestige than those where they are performed by their female counterparts. Friedl sees this as a reflection of male dominance, which, she maintains, is present to some degree in all societies. She defines ‘male dominance’ as a condition
- Men who have highly preferential access, though not always exclusive rights, to those activities to which society attaches greatest value and the exercise of which allows a measure of control over others.’ She further comments that the degree of male dominance is a result of the frequency with which males have more authority than females to distribute goods outside the household group. This activity brings great prestige and power to the male class. He confirmed this by examining some hunting and gathering societies. Friedel’s ideas are therefore novel and interesting, and reveal a fascinating interplay between biology and culture.
Differentiation in the process of socialization:
- You might think that she would be spending that time at school. If you are an urban dweller, you will be familiar with the discussions at home, or perhaps on radio and television, about how difficult it is for parents to keep their daughters at home after school hours , Let participate in extra-curricular activities. Parents and guardians are constantly worried about their safety in public buses; And, in any case, there is always the question of relations and friends who want to know why it is important for girls to play football or study music.
- Educationist Krishna Kumar’s (1986) experience of the “growing man” is amply corroborated by anthropologist Leela Dubey’s (1988) and psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakkar’s study of male and female socialization in India. Thus, seeing girls walking straight home from school in “silent clusters” led Kumar to believe that “girls are not persons”. As boys, he and his companions were free to spend time on the road, experimenting with bicycles and watching the world go by. Such happiness was rarely available to a large section of middle class girls. For girls in villages who have to earn a living, or help at home and do odd jobs like fetching and carrying, the restrictions on movement are not so severe. If you live in a village you will see that till puberty a girl can be allowed to move freely in public places.
patriarchal ideology and practice
o Programs for women and their impact:
- The Rural Women’s Development and Empowerment Project (now also called “Swa-Shakti Project”) has been approved as a Centrally Sponsored Project on 16 October 1998 for five years at an estimated outlay of Rs.186.21 crore. In addition, an amount of Rs.5 crore has been provided to facilitate setting up in project states of revolving funds for disbursement of interest bearing loans to beneficiary groups, mainly during their initial seed stage, during the project period but outside the project outlay. Have to go
- The objectives of the project are (i) to create between 7,400 and 12,000 self-reliant women self-help
Establishment of self groups (SHGs), each consisting of 15-20 members, which will improve their quality of life through greater access and control. , means; (ii) sensitizing and strengthening the institutional capacity of support agencies to proactively address the needs of women;
- (ii) develop linkages between SHGs and key institutions to ensure continued access of women to credit facilities for income generating activities; (iv) increasing women’s access to resources for a better quality of life, including tools to reduce drudgery and save time; and (v) increased control over income and expenditure by women, especially poor women, through their participation in income generating activities.
- The implementing agencies would be the Women Development Corporations of the respective states of Bihar, Haryana and Karnataka; Gujarat Women’s Economic Development Corporation in Gujarat; MP. Women’s Economic Development Corporation in Madhya Pradesh and Women’s Welfare Corporation in Uttar Pradesh, which will actively engage NGOs in the implementation work. Government of India will provide funds in the form of grant-in-aid. At the central level, the Department of Women and Child Development, assisted by the Central Project Support Unit (CPSU), handles the project. NIPCCD has been identified as the Lead Training Agency, while Agriculture Finance Corporation has been contracted as the Lead Monitoring and Evaluation Agency. Both of them work in close coordination with the CPSU under the directions of the department.
- Patriarchy as an ideology and practical concept of patriarchy :
- The word patriarchy literally means the rule of the father or “patriarch”, and was originally used to describe a specific type of “male-dominated family” – the patriarchal large household in which women, junior men , children, slaves were included. and the household servants are all under the rule of this dominant male. It is now used generally to refer to male supremacy, the power relations by which women are dominated, and to characterize a system where women are subordinated in many ways.
- Patriarchy is a concept that is a tool to help understand social realities. It has been defined differently by different people. Juliet Mitchell, a feminist psychologist, uses the term patriarchy to refer to kinship systems in which men exchange women, and to the symbolic power that fathers exercise within these systems. She says that this power is responsible for the “inferior” psychology of women.
- Hartmann (1981) defined patriarchy as a set of social relations between men,
- Which has a material basis, and which although hierarchical, establishes or creates interdependence and solidarity among men that enables them to dominate women.
- Sylvia Walby in her book, Theorizing Patriarchy, calls it “a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women.” They argue that understanding patriarchy as a system is important because it helps us to reject the notion of biological determinism (which says that men and women are inherently different because of their biology or bodies and therefore They are assigned separate status and subordinate to each woman.
- The concept of ‘patriarchy’ has come under particular criticism from those concerned about essentialism. Yet the general relevance of patriarchy needs to be defended; There are some fairly general ways in which the experience of women in a variety of different societies differs from the typical experience of men. The concept of patriarchy is capable of general application as long as it is not treated in a monolithic manner. Walby argues that patriarchy consists of several key structural features, which are found in various combinations in all societies. The nature of patriarchal power has changed significantly with the advent of modern industrial capitalism; But we cannot even analyze such changes if we do not recognize that they involve factors of a very general nature.
- If patriarchy is indeed more or less universal, it probably has psychological and social roots as well. Freud’s writings have obvious relevance in their search. Yet as Nancy Chodorow has acknowledged, the relationship between feminism and psychoanalytic theory has turned an ambivalent one. Many feminists have found Freud’s theory to be weak. Although it is based largely on clinical case histories of women, it places a major emphasis on male psychological development. The idea of the ‘penis enve’, seen by Freud as central to women’s experience, has been regarded by many as sexist in the extreme. For Chodorow, however, Freud’s ideas provide fundamental insights into the development of both men and women—if these insights are substantially modified in some ways. Freud’s writings contain, in his view, several breakthroughs relevant to the understanding of gender differences. Freud showed that there is no biological connection between gender and sexuality; Feminism and masculinity are not innate. they demonstrated that gender
and heterosexuality have no specific relationship: all sexual acts are
- On a continuum. Furthermore, Freud clarified the extent to which gender and sexual identity developed around early relationships with parental figures. Freud’s theory was decidedly sexist. For example, he considers something completely natural, that little girls find their genitals smaller than those of little boys. Yet Freud’s own views often crosscut, and indeed largely reverse, his own misogyny. psychoanalytic theory can be used to explore how it comes about that m
- Some people believe that men are born to dominate and women to be submissive. They believe that this hierarchy has always existed and will continue, and that like other laws of nature it cannot be changed. There are others who challenge this belief and say that patriarchy is not natural, it is man-made and hence it can be changed. It has not always existed, it had a beginning and therefore it can have an end. In fact for more than a hundred years it has been natural and universal and no one has said so.
- Juliet Mitchell (1971) offered an interesting alternative framework that viewed patriarchy as essentially ideological and capitalism as primarily economic. At least on this account they were part of the same social structure, functionally interconnected, even though they remained almost entirely separate. Mitchell observes that ‘without a highly articulated, complex ideological world, a consumer society cannot exist’ and argues that ‘in a consumer society, the role of ideology is so important that it is within the realm of ideology that oppression is at the heart of many of the entire system’. The bars manifest themselves most clearly. However, she said little more about the system of consumption and abandoned housework almost entirely. This chapter explains the concept of patriarchy in its different perspectives as follows:
- Ideology of patriarchy,
- Traditionalist view of patriarchy,
- Radical Feminists and the Patriarchy
- Socialist Feminist and Patriarchy,
- Ideologies of gender—specifically the notion that women are (or should be) primarily housewives and mothers and secondary workers—in fact pervade most policies
- Sees or affects the modern state, and women’s material status in different ways—a discriminatory wage structure (including an unequal workplace and land allocation system in present-day socialist China), double workload and equal access to technology information, credit, training and productive measures (Agarwal: 1988). In fact, ideology plays an important role in the social construction of gender and the process of subordination of women. Family, community, media, educational, legal, cultural, and religious institutions all variously reflect, reinforce, shape, and create prevailing ideological norms—norms that may conflict and contradict each other, and are usually their Specifications differ and enforcement across classes and regions. Ideology of State and Gender in Asia, through all or some of these institutions to advance a particular ideology to legitimize its position and policies, or to mediate between prevailing conflicting ideologies, or to establish itself can be found.
- In opposition to a prevailing ideology. What is striking, however, is the content of two aspects of this ideology—dominance of women and control over women’s sexuality (Agarwal: 1988).
- Srinivasan (1988) exemplifies how religion, politics and state power helped to domesticate women and control their sexuality. She describes a process by which a community of women, the devadasis, as a result of organized pressure, in the name of community reform, were ousted from their only privileged social and economic status as well as religious status in late 19th century Tamil Nadu. was denied. Hindus from Upper Case mostly male professionals- doctors, administrators, journalists and social workers. Highly influenced by Christian ethics and religion, he joined the missionaries seeking a ban on the Devadasi system by starting an ‘anti-Nauch’ movement – organizing protests, boycotting dance functions and branding the system as prostitution. Promoted in
Paradoxically, along with the reform movement, a ‘revivalist’ movement was started, mainly based on the Theosophists preserving the Indian culture and tradition but with one significant modification- they preserved the dance form without the system sought to (revive) the power and status of the devadasis, and the ancient temple dancer as a chaste, chaste and sexually chaste woman. The colonial state, argues Srinivasan, had a share in encouraging regionalism and cultural division, with those pressing for a ban on temple dedications. By the time the law was actually passed in 1947, the practice had already died out, leaving room for a ‘revival’ of the dance but with its social
- Root
and the privileged position accorded to the dancer.
- Although religious ideology and state power are used to push women into domesticity and control their sexuality, this is most evident in many present-day Islamic states, however. Afshar (1988) describes how women are presented as biologically and socially inferior, not allowed equal access to law and justice as men—her evidence is illegal.
- Acceptable in court unless co-operated by a man, Diyat or blood money paid by relatives of the murdered woman to the family of a murdered woman is half that required for a man, and women studying law, Prohibited from teaching or practicing.
o The consequence of this logic is that men with greater physical strength become hunters and providers—and by extension warriors—while women, because they bear children and are engaged in nurturing and nurturing, They require protection by men. She states that this biological, deterministic explanation comes down unbroken, from the Stone Age to the present day, and holds that humans are born superior.
- Explanations that consider men to be biologically superior and the main providers of families, however, have been rejected based on research on hunting and gathering societies. In all of these societies, the Big Hunt provided food only for short periods of time; The staple and regular food supply came through the gathering activities of women and
o Traditionalists everywhere consider patriarchy to be biologically determined. According to Gerda Lerner (1986), “Traditionalists, whether working within religious or ‘scientific’ frameworks, have regarded women’s subjection as universal, God-given or natural, therefore unchangeable … What has survived, It has survived because it was the best; it follows that it should remain that way.” She summarizes the traditionalist argument thus: It can be presented in religious terms according to which women are subservient to men because they were created as such and consequently assigned different roles and tasks. All known societies subscribe to a “division of labor” that is based on a primary biological difference between the sexes: because their biological functions are different, they should “naturally” have different social roles and tasks. And because these differences are natural, no one is to be blamed for gender inequality or male dominance. According to traditionalist arguments, because women bear children, their main goal in life is to be mothers, and their main function is to bear and raise children.
- In addition, there is evidence of the existence of tremendous complementarity between males and females in hunter-gatherer societies. In South Asia today, we find that women are highly respected in tribal societies, and the difference in status between the average and the female is much less disadvantageous for women.
- On the other hand, if male superiority and the gendered division of labor were “natural”, we would not find vast differences in the way men’s and women’s roles are defined in different societies. There are many traditional or primitive societies in which biological differences do not create much of a hierarchy in status and power between men and women.
- However, such traditional ideas were not the monopoly of religious thought.
- Scientific theories have also been propagated to prove that men are superior and women are inferior. Many of them argue that because women bear children and menstruate, they are incompetent and therefore incompetent.
- Aristotle propounded similar “principles” and called men active, women passive. To him the woman was a “perverted man” who does not have a soul. In his view, the biological inferiority of women makes them inferior in their abilities, their ability to reason and therefore their ability to make decisions. Because man is superior and woman is inferior, he is born to rule and she is born to be ruled. He said, “The courage of a man is shown in giving orders, and of a woman in obeying.”
- Many feminists have pointed out that modern psychology has also upheld similar views. It asserts that women’s biology determines their psychology and therefore their abilities and roles. For example, Sigmund Freud said that “anatomy is destiny” for women. Freud’s normal human was the male, the female, by definition, a malformed human lacking sex, whose entire psychological structure centered around the struggle to compensate for this deficiency. The popular Freudian theory then became a perspective text for teachers, social workers, and the general public.
- Many people have challenged all these principles of male supremacy. He has proved that there is no historical or scientific evidence for such an interpretation. Man has gone away from nature, has changed. Biology is no longer his destiny. in fact there are biological differences between men and women that may also lead to some differences between men and women that may even
- There are some differences in their roles, but they do not have to form the basis of a sexual hierarchy in which
Men are dominant. The deconstruction of many of these theories enables us to recognize that patriarchy is man-made; Historical processes have created it.
- Engels’ explanation of the origin of patriarchy:
- A very important explanation was given for the origin of patriarchy b
- Friedrich Engels in his 1884 book, Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.
- Engels believed that the subjugation of women began with the development of private property, when, according to him, “the world historical defeat of the female sex” took place. He says that both the division of classes and the subordination of women have developed historically. There was a time when there were no class-gender distinctions. He talks about three stages of society-savage, barbarism and civilization. In savagery humans lived almost like animals, gathering food and hunting. Descent was through the mother, there was no marriage, and there was no concept of private property.
- During the period of barbarism, gathering and hunting continued and gradually agriculture and animal husbandry developed. The men went out to hunt, while the women stayed at home to look after the children and take care of the household. A gendered division of labor gradually developed, but women held power, and they also had control over gotras (clans or communities with common origins). Where there were no classes within the gotras, but there were conflicts between one generation and the next.
- When men started domesticating animals, they also understood the concept of conception. They developed weapons for large hunting. Which were then also used in inter-group fights. Slavery developed. Gon begins to acquire animals and slaves, especially female slaves. This furthered the division between the sexes. Men took over others and started accumulating wealth in the form of animals and slaves. All this led to the formation of private property. Men wanted to retain power and wealth, and pass it on to their children. Matriarchy was overthrown to ensure this inheritance. To establish the authority of the father, women had to be domesticated and confined and their sexuality regulated and controlled. According to Engels, both patriarchy and monogamy were established for women during this period and for the same reasons.
- Because the surplus was produced in areas now controlled by men, women became economically dependent. According to Engels, modern civilization was based on limiting
- Bringing women into the fold of the household to produce heirs to inherited wealth. This, he said, was the beginning of the sexual double standard in marriage. According to him, with the development of the state, the nuclear family transformed into the patriarchal family, in which the wife’s domestic labor became “private service”, the wife a head servant, excluded from all participation in social production.
- Engels and other Marxists explained the subordination of women only in economic terms. He argued that once private property was abolished and women joined the labor force, patriarchy would disappear. For him the primary contradiction was not between the sexes but between classes. The suggested strategy for the emancipation of women was for them to join the labor force and engage their men in the class struggle.
o According to radical feminists, patriarchy preceded private property. They believe that the original and fundamental contradiction is between the sexes and not between economic classes. Radical feminists consider all women as a class. Unlike traditionalists, however, they do not believe that patriarchy is natural or that it has always existed and will continue to exist.
- According to his analysis, gender differences can be explained in terms of biological or psychological differences between men and women. Shulamith Firestone says that women are oppressed because of reproduction. They believe that the basis of women’s oppression depends on women’s fertility as it is controlled by men.
o Some radical feminists say that there are two systems of social classes: (i) the economic class system based on relations of production and (ii) the gender-class system based on relations of reproduction (Jeffrey). It is the second system which is responsible for the subordination of women. The concept of patriarchy, according to him, refers to this second system of classes, the rule of women by men, based on men’s ownership and control of women’s fertility. Because of this, women have become physically and mentally dependent on men. The exact forms of control change according to cultural and historical periods and according to developments in the economic class system. However, it is men’s power and control over women’s fertility that revolutionary feminists argue constitutes the unchanging basis of patriarchy. But these feminists also say it’s not female biology.
- Themselves, but the value humans place on it and the power they derive from their control over it are oppressive.
- Others are radical feminists who link patriarchy not to women’s biology but to men’s biology. Susan Brownmiller (1976) says that because of men
women have been subordinate
- Ability to rape them. She says that men use their power to rape, intimidate and control women. She says that this has given rise to male dominance and male supremacy over women. and Gerda Lerner,” Elizabeth Fischer cleverly argued that the domestication of animals taught men their role in reproduction and that the practice of forced mating of animals led men to the idea of raping women. She claimed that the sexual dominance and institutionalized aggression of men led to the cruelty and violence associated with animal domestication.
- Then there are feminists who link patriarchy to male psychology. Mary O’Brien believes that it is the psychological need of men to compensate for their inability to father children that led them to create institutions of dominance. Radical feminists believe that men and women belong to two different classes because of their biology and/or psychology. Men are the ruling class and they rule through the direct use of violence, which becomes institutionalized over time (Jagger: 1993).
- Radical feminists have been criticized for accepting biological determinism as a given. If so how do they change the society? He has also been challenged for not exploring the relationship between the sex class system and the economic class system, treating them as autonomous. Nevertheless, she has contributed greatly to the theorizing of both violence and patriarchy and offered some deep insight into the nature of women’s subordination.
o Socialist feminists accept and use the core tenets of Marxism, but have sought to enrich and expand it by working on areas that they believe were neglected by traditional Marxist theory. They attempt to combine Marxist and radical feminist approaches because they feel that both have something to contribute but that neither is sufficient by itself.
- They do not consider patriarchy as a universal or immutable system because
- his commitment to a historical, materialistic method as well as his observations of diversity in the sexual division of labor; Socialist feminists see the conflict between women and men as historically changing with a change in mode or production (Veronica).
- They take economic class and gender class as two contradictions in the society and try to see the relationship between them. According to him, patriarchy is related to the economic system, to the relations of production, but it is not causally related. There are many other forces that influence patriarchy; For example ideology, which has played a very important role in strengthening it.
- Some believe that patriarchy preceded private property, in fact the exploitation of women made it possible. He also believes that just as patriarchy is not a result of the development of private property, it will not disappear even after the abolition of property. They look at both the relations of production and the relations of reproduction in their analysis. According to him the whole area of reproduction, family and domestic labor was neglected or insufficiently developed by Marxist scholars, and he has focused his attention on these.
- Socialist feminists not only avoid the language of “primary” or “primary” contradiction, but are generally suspicious of attempts to claim that either class or gender is fundamentally basic to the other. They see the various systems of oppression as inextricably linked with each other (Hartmann).
- Zilla Eisenstein, a socialist feminist scholar, states that one concern is “how to frame the problem of woman as both mother and worker, progenitor and producer”. They argue that male supremacy and capitalism are the main relations that determine the oppression of women. She characterizes society as “on the one hand, the capitalist labor process in which exploitation takes place, and on the other, a patriarchal sexual hierarchy in which women are mothers, domestic labor and consumers, and in which women are oppressed.” According to her, patriarchy discriminates is not a direct consequence of the biological interpretations of the social relations of reproduction or the sex-sex system.
- Gender and Caste
Programs and their Impact: Socio-Economic Programs
- Under this programme, the Central Social Welfare Board provides financial assistance to voluntary organizations for a variety of income-generating activities, including ancillary units, handlooms, handicrafts, agro-based activities such as animal husbandry, sericulture and production of central components is included. Fish farming and self-employment ventures like selling vegetables or fish etc.
- For production units, organizations and institutions working only for women’s organizations and handicapped women’s cooperatives, such as prisons, and Nariniketan, are eligible for grants to the extent of 85 percent of the project cost and the remaining 15 percent to be met by the grantee institutions. To be done by ,
- The dairy scheme is specifically focused on women organizations with at least 20 women members, including Mahila Mandals, Indira Mahila Kendras
Self Help Groups and organizations already assisted under STEP schemes. The benefit of the scheme is for those women whose families are below the poverty line.
Gender and media
Feminists who have studied women’s magazines have adopted a more qualitative approach than simply counting the types of images and, in essence, have analyzed the contents of the magazines within a wider critique of patriarchal society. Such magazines have a long history. Indeed Janice Winship (1987) has argued that women’s magazines provide a unique popular or collective documentation of women’s changing roles and lifestyles.
Historically, women’s magazines have had a domestic focus. is reflected for
For example in the UK in titles such as Woman and Home and Good Housekeeping. Whereas in the nineteenth century, such publications addressed women as an undivided mass, increasingly the category ‘woman’ has been fragmented into a more complex collection of status categories as the market has changed, especially in the latter part of the twentieth century. expanded into. That is, a more personal type of woman is created by these magazine titles. Therefore, many titles see female subject matter caught up in traditional areas such as family and marriage, as indicated by the abundance of magazines on weddings and parenting, for example. There are also a number of specialist magazines devoted to particular topics such as fashion and dieting. At the same time, however, the more general category of ‘lifestyle’ magazines has expanded considerably, for example developing into the growing teen market. Lisa Duke and Peggy Kreschel (1998) emphasize in their research on young women and magazines, they play an important role in reinforcing patriarchal standards of femininity.
More recently magazines such as New Woman and She, as pointed out by feminists such as Len Aung (1989), have tended to draw attention to feminist demonstrations to emphasize women’s independence. However, Ang argues that in doing so they fail to take feminist diversity into account and therefore exclude all but the most affluent, urban, white, middle-class women. In particular, conflicting fantasies such as being an ‘independent mother’ are presented; Yet, she points out, rarely are issues such as being ‘independent’ addressed to ‘dependent’ children.
The relationship between patriarchal ideology, social change and women’s magazines is considered by Glasser (1997) in her research on the women’s magazine narrative in China before and after the implementation of the Four Modernization Policies in China.
That was in the late 1970s. Her study focuses on the relationship between the representation of women and the changing ideological landscape, revealing an important paradox. As China moves towards relative political openness and economic modernization, traditional stereotypes of women as homemakers and caregivers are increasingly emerging. Glasser argues that such representations must be interpreted contextually. Nurturers, since the late 1970s, have been a dialectical response to the re-emphasis on individual desires.
Sociologists have emphasized that culture is a central concept of analysis; It is important to understand the relationship between the individual and society. However, one reason why the term is so difficult to define is because of its complex historical development; and the way in which it is used in many different ways by distinct and often incompatible schools of thought within sociology. In the twentieth century, culture came to refer both to high culture – to the highest expressions of human civilization in art, literature and music.
Feminist approaches have drawn attention to the ways in which cultural studies have shown a tendency to exclude, marginalize, and highlight the ways in which media culture misrepresents women, or assigns roles and constructs femininity within a relatively narrow range of identities. Feminists have highlighted the relative absence of women in cultural production as well as the importance of understanding the social context in which mass cultural forms are consumed, including advertising, film, television (especially soap operas) Happiness comes from , romantic fiction, magazines and more recent new forms of media and communication technologies.
The relationship between gender and media culture has been the subject of much debate for feminists. Feminists continue to be divided, for example, on the extent to which pornographic representations of women are linked to sexual violence. Broadly speaking, feminist perspectives on gender, mass media and popular culture can be divided into two distinct approaches. Could While most would agree that the media is a powerful source of identity, some feminists have argued that the media actually dictate gender identity for us, allowing women to perform or identify with only relatively limited roles. .
Feminists who take this approach
Sab emphasizes what has been called the ‘symbolic destruction of female marching’ (1993) who take this approach, arguing that representation is a highly political issue and the apparent ‘naturalness’ of media representations of men and women Evidence of the power of patriarchal ideology. as she holds
From elementary school reading plans to Hollywood movies, from advertising to opera, from game shows to art galleries, the way women are portrayed is what it means to be a woman in this society: how women are (naturally), what they should be like, what they are able and unable to do, what role they play in society, and how they differ from men.
In her book The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf (1990) similarly argues that capitalism, patriarchy and compulsory heterosexuality interact to reveal a crude ideology in representations such as the film Pretty Woman, that ‘be beautiful, be a man’ Yes,’ is the attribute of the message. Be fulfilled, avoid poverty and misery’. What she calls the ‘beauty myth’ is the idea that women can find self-satisfaction in housework. It is a media ideology that perpetuates the idea that if women buy enough products, they will be able to conform to patriarchal ideals of beauty and sexual attractiveness. Wolf argues that the beauty myth defines women in two ways. Firstly, it defines an ideal ‘look’ for women. Although this varies culturally and historically, it usually – at least in Western societies – involves being tall, thin, and white.
So women are defined or measured against an idealized standard of beauty. Second, the beauty myth emphasizes that femininity is an aesthetic phenomenon in itself—in other words, being feminine is defined largely in terms of looking feminine. This means that both men and women learn to think of femininity primarily as a visual identity. Wolf argues that this is evidenced in the vastness of the beauty and cosmetics industries, in women’s magazines, in film and music videos, in sports and leisure, and also in gender disparities in eating disorders. She compares the effect of the beauty myth on women’s lives to that of the Iron Maiden, a sarcophagus-like medieval instrument of torture that enclosed women in a pointed interior, while the exterior depicted women’s (often smiling) faces. are depicted. Wolf asserts that as women have made political and economic gains, images of female beauty have become more rigid and reinforced patriarchal ideologies, disguising it (like Iron Maiden) as a way for women to enjoy . She argues that magazines now focus on ‘beauty work’ rather than homework. As she puts
Strictness and heavy and brutal images of female beauty are beginning to dawn on us
As women freed themselves from the feminine mystique of domesticity, the beauty myth regained much of its lost ground as it sought to further its work of social control.
Woolf’s perspective echoes earlier work on media culture by feminists such as Laura Mulvey (1975) in her essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’. Writing of the height of the soft-focus close-up in the 1970s, Mulvey proposes that women in classic Hollywood cinema are made as passive objects, viewed by men for voyeuristic pleasure. He argues that the ‘male gaze’ operates in three ways:
- The camera’s gaze on the female (often erotic) body, often from a male point of view;
2 male characters and identities who see the female body in the narrative; And
- Male viewers who gaze at female bodies on screen.
However, Mulvey (1981) has expressed some reservations about the highly deterministic nature of this position itself, and has criticized it more generally for ignoring both how women can break the male gaze or negotiate , and how popular culture provides opportunities for women. The gaze (on both men and women) too. Furthermore, such a deterministic approach has been criticized for reducing all power relations to gender, and thus neglecting other aspects of power that influence patriarchal relations, such as class, race, disability and sexuality, and which other feminists have sought to integrate into their own. analysis framework.
Other feminists have taken a different approach, emphasizing the pleasures women derive from escapism and identity, rather than the power of media culture. Instead of agreeing with Mulvey’s ‘active/looking/masculine’ and ‘passive/seen/feminine’ formulas, such approaches have focused on the women of media culture and on the active readers and consumers. Yet, most of these works begin with the question: ‘Why do old myths of femininity still continue to exert a magnetic pull on us, and why is it easier to criticize media that perpetuate them than to explain their allure? Target us?’
Feminists have written about various media cultural forms.
Ricas and soap operas have emphasized the pleasures women derive, for example – the media has tended to focus not on how it sets gender identity for us, but instead on its role in negotiating a boundary. highlighted.
Authors such as Ros Coward, Jackie Stacey and Angela McRobie have all emphasized that media culture provides women with a variety of options from which to choose. In particular, his work has emphasized that we do not need to accept what the media offer us at face value, but can, rather, selectively, ironically and cynically consume media representations. .
For example, Jackie Stacey (1994) emphasizes in her book Star Gazing that the mass media is a site for negotiating meaning, resistance, and challenges to patriarchal ideologies. They argue that the media provide: opportunities for escapism, identification and consumption, which can be empowering as well as exploitative. In doing so, she rejects the universalism and textual determinism of much feminist work on mass culture. Her account emphasizes that images of Hollywood stars can be role models, and that the relationship between media representations and the realities of gender is more complex than passive reception of stereotypes.
At the heart of the difference between these two approaches is a debate about the extent to which gender is represented in many media forms in ways that perpetuate patriarchal ideology.
This argument tends to write off the millions of women (and men) who take pleasure in reading women’s magazines, or watching soap operas, as cultural thugs complicit in their own oppression. Both feminist and non-feminist women enjoy fashion, romance, horoscopes, soap operas, cooking shows, magazines, etc. An alternative position adopted by feminists such as Modleski (1982) has argued that we should not condemn these cultural forms themselves or the men and women who engage in them (thereby dismissing their genuine enjoyment), but Those conditions have made them possible. and essential (eg viewing soap operas or major magazines as an ‘escape’), and as the only ‘choice’ within a relatively narrow range of leisure options for women. As she states, the contradictions in women’s lives are largely responsible for the existence of cultural forms that attract women than the forms of contradictions themselves.
Black feminists such as Bell Hooks (1992) have been particularly critical of the ways in which white, ethnic media reproduce racist stereotypes that originated in slavery and colonial societies. In particular, the hook is important to white women.
media ‘stars’ such as Madonna for their ‘appropriation of black culture as another sign of their radical chic’. She continues, ‘fascinated but envious of Black style, Madonna appropriates Black culture in ways that mock and undermine it, making her performance an inversion’.
Black and Asian feminists have also drawn attention to the narrow ways in which racialized women are represented in feminist art and cultural criticism. as. Larkin (1988), for example, highlights the issue of ethnocentrism in both oral and visual forms of culture and in anthropology (the scientific study of culture):
In a feminist art project dealing with heroines at the Women’s Building in Los Angeles, a white woman chose the prehistoric ‘Lucy’ as her heroine. ‘Lucy’ is a tiny lady three feet tall, sixty pounds, and 3.5 million years old. Lucy is the oldest, most complete skeleton of any standing human ancestor ever found.
The Public Broadcasting System aired a documentary on the search for ‘Lucy’. Viewers were introduced to on-site anthropologists in Africa. The program included an animated segment that brought ancient people to life. They were not black people; The artist had whitewashed them. They did not look like the Ethiopians at the site; He looked like a white anthropologist.
Many of these debates are over the role and influence of media culture, and the contested ways in which culture is constructed and represented. It is also shaped by different definitions of culture. In fact, the meaning of culture and the way it is used in academic studies have changed significantly over time.
Feminist Studies of Media Culture
A range of feminist approaches have examined the ways in which gender is constructed or represented in diverse forms of media such as advertising, women’s magazines, films and soap operas. Early feminist work on media representation tended to adopt a content analysis approach and examined explicit gender stereotypes in mass media. These studies included, for example, looking at the different roles adopted by men and women in advertisements and counting how often these occurred in a given sample. With regard to advertising, Dyer (1982) found that women were regularly
are depicted as reeling, as sexual objects, or as housewives and mothers, while men are shown in positions of dominance and authority over women, and in a much wider range of social strata. roles.
Much of the impetus for early feminist critiques of media representations of men and women came from the feeling that the available images of women were inadequate.
Creating complaints that ‘women are not really like that’. Therefore, it was suggested that the media was guilty of gender-role stereotyping, which thus became reinforced in wider society. In other words, the media was guilty of distorting the reality of women’s lives in the way it represented women, portraying a fictional world rather than a woman in fact. However the content analyzes were useful in providing a stable picture of how. As women are represented in the media, some feminists began to argue that these studies were merely descriptive, not explanatory. Content analysis tells us nothing, for example, about where stereotypical representations come from in the first place, or who has the power to define the so-called ‘objective reality’ that is represented by the media. Some feminists actively attempted to study the role of the media in the construction of ‘reality’. This shift in feminist media analysis reflects what is often referred to as the ‘cultural turn’ in the social sciences and humanities, and is marked by a dominance of a realist perspective on the social world to a more social constructionist one. Approach. Therefore, feminist analysis moved away from the idea that the mass media either represent or distort an objective reality in which ‘real’ women live, to an emphasis on the belief that reality itself, including gender identity and relationships, is socially shaped. and that the mass media play a major role in it.
gender in advertising
Almost from the beginning of the feminist movement, feminists have been critical of the images of women depicted in advertising (much of it targeted at women as the main household consumers). Based primarily on a content analysis of advertisements, feminists such as Betty Friedan (1963) argued in her book The Feminine Mystique that women were routinely portrayed either as homemakers and mothers, or as sex objects. I went. Women are encouraged by advertisements to view their bodies as objects. and is thus different and more important than their subjective self, and in need of constant change and improvement. The implication is, as pointed out by Naomi Wolf (1990) in The Beauty Myth, that the required level of physical perfection can be achieved through the purchase and application of appropriate products. Femists have also pointed out that advertisements often ‘symbolically dismember’ women by dividing their bodies into different parts – women’s faces, legs, breasts, eyes, hair, and so on. become the center of consumption. It is suggested that reducing women to their body parts dehumanises and degrades women so that they are viewed as less than fully human rather than thought.
Speaking, acting ‘whole’ subject.
In her work on advertising (which adopted a content analysis approach), Gillian Dyer (1982) argued that men are more likely to be portrayed as independent; women as dependents. And men are typically shown as having expertise and authority (for example, being objective and knowledgeable about particular products), while women are often shown simply as consumers. She also found that of the advertisements focusing on the home, most featured images of women but with male voice-overs. This was also the case in most advertisements for household products, food products, and beauty products. Dyer concludes from this that the treatment of women in advertisements amounts to what Tuchman (1981) has described as the ‘symbolic destruction’ of women. In other words, the ads reflect the dominant notion that ‘women are not important except in the home, and even men know best’, as evidenced by the male voice-over.
These findings can be compared with a more recent study conducted by Cumberbatch (1990) for the Broadcasting Standards Council in the UK. The study found that there were twice as many men as women in the commercials, yet the majority (89 percent) used a male voice-over, even though the ad featured a predominantly female one. The women in the ads were younger and more physically attractive than the men. Men were twice as likely as women to be in paid employment, and work was shown as important to men’s lives while relationships were shown to be more important to women, even at work. Only 7 percent of women were shown doing housework in the ads studied, but more than half of men.
Women were twice as likely to be shown washing or cleaning in Lanna.
Men were more likely than women to be shown cooking for a special occasion or where special skill was required. Women were more likely than men to be shown cooking ‘everyday’ food. Women were twice as likely to be portrayed as married and to receive sexual advances (though usually not in the same advertisements) as men.
Drawing on Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, Myra MacDonald (1995) in her book Representing Women identifies three constructions of female identity which, she argues, dominated advertising discourse during the twentieth century. These are: the competent household manager, the guilty mother and, most recently, the new woman – ‘playful, indulgent, sexually aware and adventurous’. The latter, she argues, flatters rather than compels women to buy consumer goods, especially beauty.
In the advertising discourse of the ‘New Woman’, MacDonald identifies three forms of co-option of feminist ideas and ideology, which she argues emerged in consumer discourses in the 1980s and 1990s. These are the appropriation of quasi-feminist concepts: the reworking of care to make it compatible with self-fulfillment, and the acceptance of female fantasies.
Again, feminist studies have suggested that in recent years there has been a shift in the construction of gender in advertisements, a shift that requires a more thorough treatment than content analysis of stereotypical representations. Some feminists have pointed out that the most obvious change in the representation of women has been from the portrayal of a domestically oriented woman to a woman who seeks to please herself (particularly through the use of beauty and hair products). in advertisements). This has led some commentators such as Macdonald (1995) and Goldman (1992) to argue that a ‘new woman’ has emerged in advertising in recent years. She is usually presented as a ‘superwoman’ – a woman who strives to succeed in her career, to have a clean and shiny house, to be a good mother and wife, to make delicious home-cooked meals. manages to create and of course, to become. sexually attractive, and so on.
In trying to explain the emergence of the superwoman in advertising, Goldman (and others) have focused not on the content of the ads themselves, but on their wider social context. Goldman, for example, argues that advertisers forced to recognize the greater participation of women in the labor force, as well as changes in gender relations, began to exploit this new market and target a specific type of consumer, the ‘professional woman’. started targeting. Therefore, in Goldman’s view, marketing strategies sought to co-opt and commodify the notion of women’s liberation. Goldman’s account emphasizes that advertisers sought to incorporate feminist ideas and thus removed their critical power in relation to advertising.
drawing on semiotics and also a Marxist theory of
consumption, Goldman describes this co-option of feminism as ‘commodity feminism’ (playing on the Marxist concept of ‘commodity fetishism’ – the idea that commodity relations transform the relations of acting subjects into relations between objects). Huh). This means that, from the point of view of advertisers, feminism is not a social movement with a particular politics and ideology that may threaten to undermine the power of advertising, but rather a ‘style’ that can be achieved by consuming particular products. can be done. , Feminism has been redefined and repackaged so that certain items can be claimed to signify a feminist lifestyle. are feminists
So created, Goldman Argus as just another consumer category among many others. In advertising, feminism is believed to be represented by combining a variety of symbols that reflect freedom of participation in paid work, personal freedom, and self-control. Goldman suggests that in ‘commodity feminist’ advertisements, women are portrayed not as a man’s need for fulfillment, but as an exclusive product. The implication is that social change occurs not through protest, strike, or challenge to the legal system, but through the consumption of personal goods. Therefore, this particular aspect of consumer culture is often associated with post-feminism.
In sum, feminists have pointed out that analysis of the content of advertising has been useful to the extent that they can give us an account of the underlying sexism in many advertisements, and the extent to which women are given roles in advertising. Surprisingly stable. But content analysis can’t explain where these images come from in the first place. Content analysis, for example, cannot account for why traditional images of women in advertising have evolved into markedly more ‘liberated’ or ‘ironic’ depictions. Gill (1988) has argued, for example, that an advertisement used a demand raised by feminists in abortion campaigns
Had ‘A woman’s right to choose’, as a holiday slogan for young people, would have been judged to be ‘feminist’ based on a study of its content only. A content analysis approach would register words such as ‘freedom’ or ‘rights’ or ‘to express oneself in a positive form of feminist thought’. Therefore, more recent analyzes from concepts derived from Marxism and also from semiology have argued that advertisements are made to mean something as a result of the ways in which the ideologies contained within them resonate with their wider social context.
Perspectives on Gender Inequality
biological, cultural, Marxian
- The word ‘sex’ is ambiguous. As commonly used, it refers to the physical and cultural differences between men and women (as in the male sex, ‘female sex’) as well as sexual function. It is useful to distinguish between sex and gender in the physiological or biological sense, which is a cultural construct (a set of learned behavior patterns).
- Some argue that differences in behavior between the sexes are genetically determined, but there is no conclusive evidence. Gender socialization begins with the birth of a child. Even parents who believe they treat children equally react differently to boys and girls. These differences are reinforced by many other cultural influences.
- Gender identity and ways of expressing sexuality develop together. It has been argued that masculinity depends on the denial of intimate emotional attachment to the mother, thus creating ‘male ‘formlessness’. Sylvia Walby acknowledges the importance of these points but rejects the original position underlying them. She explains through the concept of patriarchy.
o The sociology of gender considers the ways in which physical differences between men and women are mediated by culture and social structure. These differences are culturally and socially wide so that
o Women are defined through socialization as distinctly feminine personalities and a ‘gender identity’; (2) women are often isolated from public activities in industrial societies by their relegation to the private domain of the home; (3) women are allocated to inferior and usually degrading productive activities;
- (4) Women are subjected to stereotypical ideologies that define women as weak and emotionally dependent on men.
- There have been two major debates within the sociology of gender. The first has addressed the issue of whether gender is a separate and independent dimension of social stratification and social division of labor. The second debate concerns the appropriateness of general theoretical approaches to the analysis of gender differences and divisions in society. Therefore, four themes characterize theories of gender inequality. Firstly, men and women are not only placed in different positions in the society but they are unequally situated.
o In particular, women have less access to material resources, social status, power and opportunities for self-actualization than men who share their social space – whether by class, caste, occupation, ethnicity, religion, education, nationality, or any other socially significant factor. Second, this inequality stems from the organization of society, not from any significant biological or personality difference between women and men. The third theme of all disequilibrium theory is that although individual humans may differ from one another to some degree in their capacities and profile of traits, no significant pattern of natural variation separates the sexes.
Instead, all human beings are characterized by a deep need for freedom to seek self-actualization and a fundamental flexibility that leads them to adapt to the constraints or opportunities of the situations in which they find themselves. To say there is gender inequality is to claim that women are less empowered in terms of status
- For men to realize the need they share with men for self-actualization. Fourth, all theories of inequality assume that women and men will respond fairly easily and naturally to more social structures and conditions.
- Explanation of gender inequality :
- Feminist and postmodernist
- Feminist Theory :
- Contemporary feminist scholars have produced a rapidly growing, extraordinarily rich and highly diverse body of theoretical writing. The framework of feminist theory is based on two fundamental questions that unite all these theories: The descriptive question is: what about women? And the explanatory question is: why is the situation the way it is? The pattern of response to the descriptive question yields four classifications of main categories. Essentially you are answering the question, “What about the women?” The first answer is that in most situations women’s place and their experience is different from that of men. The investigation then focuses on the details of that difference. The second answer is that in most situations the status of women differs from that of men not only by lesser or unequal privileges
Is. future focus
- The details are then on the nature of that disparity. The third answer is that the position of women also has to be understood in terms of the direct power relationship between men and women. Women are oppressed, that is, restrained, subjugated, molded and used and abused by men. The details then focus on the quality of the harassment. Each of the different types of feminist theories can be classified as a theory of difference, or inequality, or oppression. In the previous chapter, we have discussed the theories of gender inequality in terms of biological explanation, cultural explanation and Marxist explanation of inequality. In this chapter, we will explain the feminist and postmodernist perspective on gender inequality.
- Gender Inequality and Feminist Perspectives:
- Feminist ideas can be traced back to the eighteenth century. The first significant feminist movements developed in the mid-nineteenth century, particularly their focus on gaining the vote for women. Although in decline after the 1920s, feminism rose to prominence again in the 1960s, and has had an impact on many areas of social life and intellectual activity. Sexual practices vary widely between and within cultures. In the West, repressive attitudes towards sexuality gave way to more liberal attitudes in the 1960s, the effects of which are still evident today.
- Feminist thought has had a major impact on social theory, and the social sciences more generally, over the past quarter of a century. Feminist theory is in a significant sense a subject matter in its own right, concerned with gender theory and addressing the ‘invisibility’ of women in social theoretical thinking. Yet it also has implications for some of the most fundamental problems of social theory.
- Liberal feminism :
- Liberal feminism’s interpretation of gender inequality begins where theories of gender difference end; the existence of separate public and private spheres of social activity, with the recognition of the sexual division of labor, the primary place of men in the former and women in the latter, and the systematic socialization of children so that they move into adult roles and spheres of their gender Suitable for. Unlike theories of difference, however, liberal feminists see nothing of particular value about the private sphere, including the demanding, mindless, unpaid and low-value tasks associated with housework, child care, and emotional, practical, and sexual service. Contains an endless round of tasks.
- Of adult males. The true rewards of social life are to be found in the public sphere. A system that restricts women’s access to that sector, burdens them with private sector responsibilities, isolates them in individual households, and forces their men to share in the hard labor of the private sector. It is the system that creates gender inequality.
- When asked to identify the dominant forces in this system, liberal feminists point to sexism, an ideology similar to racism, hesitatingly consisting partly of prejudices and discriminatory practices against women, partly of women. The supposed belief about the “natural” differences between women and men that are adapted to their various social destinies. Because of sexism, women are confined and crippled from childhood, so that they can go into their adult roles and “reduce” from full humanity in those roles to mindless, dependent, subconsciously depressed beings due to the constraints and needs of their own. their gender-assigned roles.
- Bernard (1982) in The Future of Marriage presents marriage as a cultural system of beliefs and ideals, an institutionalized system of roles and norms, and a complex of interpersonal experiences for individual women and men. Institutionally, marriage empowers the role of the husband with rights and freedoms, in fact, obligations, beyond the domestic setting; It associates the idea of male authority with sexual power and male power; And it mandates that wives be complacent, dependent, self-void, and essentially isolated focused on domestic household activities and chores. Empirically, any institutionalized marriage consists of two marriages: the marriage of the man, in which he believes to be constrained and burdened, while experiencing what the norms determine—rights, freedom, and the domestic, emotional one by the wife. and the right to sexual service; and the wife’s marriage, in which she normatively confirms the cultural value of fulfillment while experiencing inevitable powerlessness and dependence, an obligation to provide domestic, emotional, and sexual services, and a gradual “decreasing” of the independent young person she is. It was before marriage.
- All of this results in data measuring human stress: married women, whatever they claim to fulfillment, and unmarried men, whatever they claim to freedom, heart palpitations, dizziness, headache, fainting ranks high on all stress indicators, including fear of nightmares, insomnia, and nervous breakdowns; Unmarried women, whatever their feelings of social stigma and married women, are all lower on stress indicators. marriage is then good for men and good for women
is bad and unequal in its effects will end only when couples feel sufficiently free from existing institutional constraints
- Best suited to their individual needs and personalities.
- Liberal feminists propose the following strategies to end gender inequality using existing political and legal channels for change, equal economic opportunity; changes in family, school, and mass media messages so that people are no longer socialized into rigidly compartmentalized sex roles; and an attempt by all individuals to challenge sexism where they encounter it in daily life. For liberal feminists, the ideal gender order is one in which each person chooses the lifestyle most appropriate for themselves and that choice is accepted and respected, whether as a housewife or husband, unmarried careerist or part of a couple. . Income family, childless or with children, heterosexual or homosexual. Liberal feminists see this ideal as an ideal that enhances the practice of freedom and equality.
- Gender and postmodernism :
- In the past forty years feminist theorists have advanced critical social theory out of the box. Challenges to liberal feminist theory have stimulated notable developments, particularly during this period. These challenges have taken shape most clearly in the form of an anti-enlightenment perspective around postmodernism, yet the most consequential resistance comes from multicultural and postcolonial theorists who focus on racial/ethnic and other hierarchies. (postmodernist or not) demand.
- Two other types of feminist theorizing have also challenged liberal feminist theory, namely the queer and psychoanalytical approaches. Adrienne Rich (1980) The Lesbian Continuum, raising issues that liberal feminist theory largely ignores or opposes, from sexual relationships between women to the emotional bonds that take priority in women’s lives. Similarly, feminist psychoanalytic approaches such as those of Nancy Chodorow (1978) or Jessica Benjamin (1988, 1995) introduce ideological and political baggage that liberal feminists often find problematic, even if not counterproductive.
- Gender inequality and postmodernist approach:
- If women have sometimes turned to modernism for critical purposes, feminist writers today have sought to use the concepts of ‘postmodernism’ in their interpretations of women’s experience more broadly.
- gender. Theories of ‘postmodernism’ or ‘postmodernity’ (sometimes these terms are considered equivalent, sometimes the author
- the difference between them) has tended to follow the ideas set out by Lyotard already mentioned. Feminists influenced by the concepts of postmodernism have argued that there can be no universal theory of male supremacy, patriarchy, or sexual difference. They have distanced themselves from what they see as a mistaken ‘essentialism’: the idea that there are some characteristics, or experiences, that separate virtually all women from almost all men. Gender categories, like other social categories, are fragmented and contextual.
- Thus, it is claimed, for example, that the life of a poor Black woman living in an inner-city ghetto may be more different from that of an affluent suburban White woman than the experience of a poor Black man. There is no intrinsic unity to being a ‘woman’ apart from the physical equality of the sexes. Such approach has a concrete as well as theoretical thrust. In postmodern conditions it is seen that social life itself has become fragmented and civilized. In this context, we will discuss the postmodernist perspective of feminism.
- Postmodernism opposes liberalism as a modernist myopia, a failed experiment, an array of false hopes and a colonialist logic. As with liberalism itself, postmodernism presents itself in many forms. Whatever the version, postmodernism holds that modernist values and dreams began to lose their hold on people’s consciousness during the twentieth century. In their wake arose an appetite for ambiguity, irony and contradiction and a realization of how local and situated our knowledge, in the end and for all practical purposes, is. As postmodernism gained ground, many feminist theorists developed a love-hate or ambivalent relationship with it. Often fearing that postmodern skepticism towards modern values such as equality may promote resistance to feminism, for example, some theorists (Hartsock: 1990; Minich: 1990) advocated. Others embrace postmodernism, while still other feminist theorists evoke more subtle responses such as their ‘political project of … discursive instability’ (Gibson-Graham: 1996: 241).
- Prominent among postmodernist feminist theorists are: Judith Butler, Donna Harvey and Laurel Richardson. Some of Butler’s (1990) most important work focuses on showing how cultures tend to ‘intelligent’ only certain identities so that other enactments of identity are unusual,
stand out from the mainstream heap as perverted, unsuccessful, or strange. identity in Butler’s hands is a demonstrative phenomenon which is
- Highly regulated. Institutional regimes render some enactments of identity ‘genuine’—that is, recognizable versions of X, Y or Z, and some enactments other than versions of X, Y or Z. For example, only culturally approved ways of enacting femininity are seen as expressions of femininity; Other ways of enacting it are seen as selfishness, man-hating, feminist dogma, or deviousness, rather than more ways of enacting femininity and expressing ‘femininity’.
- As Butler (1992) sees it, ‘part of the project of postmodernism … is to question the ways in which such ‘examples’ and ‘paradigms’ serve to subordinate and explain what they seek to explain. More generally, for Butler, ‘identity categories are never merely descriptive, but always normative, and thus, exclusionary’.
- Feminist postmodernism or postmodernist feminism for Haraway (1993) ‘revolves around the politics and epistemology of place, position and status, where there is no partiality and universalism to listen to the claims of rational knowledge’ . Her feminism supports ‘interpreting, translating, stuttering and partially understanding science and politics’. Haraway adopts irony as both a ‘rhetorical strategy’ and a ‘political method’, and she places the cyborg—a machine/creature hybrid—’at the center of (her) ironic belief’. Yet there are also modernist elements in that center. For example, Haraway insisted that ‘valid witnessing depends not only on modesty, but also on nurturing and accepting alliances with a vibrant group of others’.
- Richardson’s (1997) theoretical projects revolve around ‘redefining sociological discourse as a feminist-postmodernist practice’. When interrogating narratives, Richardson looks at ‘issues of representation’, specifically what hierarchies they reproduce. more than any other contemporary social theorist. Richardson has examined writing practices for their political baggage and transformative promise and has experimented with a variety of genres in his theoretical endeavours. In constructing her ‘feminist speaking positions’, Richardson thus creates a ‘postmodernist sensibility’ that celebrates a plurality of modes and multiple sites of contestation. Richardson’s bold interpretation of non-tradition
- All styles for writing social theory put her in the camp of feminist theorists committed to breaking representational boundaries as well as discipline-based boundaries. Some feminist theorists (Alfonso and Trigilio: 1997) have published their work in dialogue form, for example in the form of electronic-mail exchanges. Others (eg Rinehart: 1998) talk about feminist theorizing as a ‘dialogue’. At least two feminist social theorists—Katherine Gibson and Julie Graham—have done their
- Collaborative theory using a joint-name pseudonym (JK Gibson-Graham) to designate the authorship of his texts. Then they largely write in the first person singular! What Richardson and others are theorizing is, in fact, a deep connection. And what can be said, who can say it credibly and who can hear it in meaningful, practical ways?
- Feminist thinkers have drawn widely on Foucault’s writings, although usually in different or selective ways. Foucault’s work on the body, and on sexuality in particular, has been particularly important. In his work concerning the asylum and the prison, Foucault suggests that the body was the focus of new disciplinary processes integrated to the establishment of the modern state. In the ‘disciplinary society’ of modernity, the body is strictly controlled and ordered through direct supervision, or direct supervision, to coordinate the activities of individuals within the regular settings of modern organisations.
- Here the body appears to be relatively positive: indeed, in his study of the rise of the prison, Discipline and Punishment, Foucault talks of the new administrative orders being presented as ‘submissive bodies’. In his later writings, especially as he moved on to reflect on the nature of sexuality, Foucault placed a greater emphasis on the body as a medium of action and a source of pleasure. His multi-volume work The History of Sexuality attempts to demonstrate that in modern societies the body becomes a site of ‘dual power’: it is disciplined on the one hand, but becomes a center of fulfillment and self-discovery on the other. Is. Understanding.
- As Lois McNay points out, many feminists have objected to Foucault’s non-gendered treatment of the body. Her discussion of prisons, for example, focused almost entirely on an underlying model of the male experience, rather than considering the specific ways in which women’s discipline differed from those affecting men. Yet the force of this criticism, as McNay points out, may also be exaggerated. Foucault’s
Writing provides insight into how the body is ‘acted’ by gender construction, as in some key ways the ‘inscription’ of social influences on the body is actually a means of producing gender differences. The ‘visible’ rendition of women’s history should not lead us to conclude that it is an isolated and isolated experience, unrelated to other aspects of social organization and change.
- In McNay’s view, instead of criticizing Foucault for neglecting gender, we should
- For a critical appraisal of Foucault’s concept of the relationship between power and the body, see. Foucault correctly sees power not only as a negative, ‘ability to say no’, but also as a productive phenomenon. The view that Foucault’s study of ‘disciplinary society’ provides no basis for an analysis of resistance to power. McNay’s argument is wrong. Foucault’s theory, in fact, examines resistance and observes that it takes as many different forms as the contexts in which power is exercised. Yet, Foucault fails to adequately see that ‘biopower’ is a paradoxical and tense force. Biopower can provide a means of salvation in some circumstances and is not just a process involving administrative regulation.
- Nancy Fraser focuses on Habermas Like Foucault, although she often refers to the struggles of women’s movements, Habermas rarely discusses gender issues in a systematic way. In his most detailed statement of his social theory, The Theory of Communicative Action, Habermas distinguishes between the symbolic material reproduction of societies. To survive over time, a society must provide economic exchange with the physical environment, and it must also create and maintain symbolic values and norms that provide a framework for communication among its members. In Habermas’ view, paid employment in modern societies is part of the system of material reproduction, while women’s unpaid activities in the domestic sphere, including childbearing and rearing, belong to the sphere of symbolic reproduction. Fraser finds this approach insufficient. The raising and raising of children is a material as well as a symbolic phenomenon; After all, it is the means of physical survival of the species.
- Yet so is the realm of paid work: work is never just a series of economic transactions, but involves symbolic meaning and value. Fraser also questions Habermas’ thesis that the domestic sphere is related to the realm
- ‘Social integration’ – integration of large scale institutions. Habermas’ conceptual distinctions, because they are not informed by a satisfactory explanation of gender, actually subtly serve to reinforce the conceptual distinctions that he explicitly exposes and criticizes. Habermas’ theory of ‘colonization’ of the ‘living world’ is flawed for similar reasons. In concluding her discussion Fraser indicates how Habermas’ ideas can be modified if they are linked, as they should be, with an account of gender.
- Janet Wolff’s analysis considers the implications of taking gender seriously
- Modernism as a cultural phenomenon. She begins with a brief discussion of some of the ideas of her namesake. Virginia Woolf was a champion of modernism and advocated a break with the tradition established by modernism. Wolfe was sympathetic to feminism and saw the new movements in the literature of her time as a means of breaking with the ‘man-made sentence’—the heavy, long-winded writing style of Converse. Women may be able to use new models of linguistic expression to give voice to specific lived experiences in a world dominated by men. Wolfe’s ideas about the relationship between modernism and feminism have since been echoed by many other feminist writers.
- Modernism, points out Janet Wolfe (like postmodernism), is difficult to define. It is usually located in the period 1890 to 1930, but includes a variety of literary and artistic forms. Following Eugene Lunn, Wolff defined postmodernism as a rebellion against realism and romanticism, characterized by the disappearance of aesthetic self-consciousness, simultaneity, ambiguity and the ‘unified personality’. She notes, however, that these traits actually remarkably parallel those often associated with postmodernism.
- Understood in this way, modernism appears as a history of male achievement. Here the general description of the development of modernism goes far beyond the failure to recognize the role of women writers and artists. Modernism is in fact primarily a masculine phenomenon. Looking specifically at the work of women writers, it is possible to see that modernism, as suggested by Virginia Woolf, often depicted the mechanisms of a patriarchal society.
- Pierre Bourdieu accounts for the fact that women are, in most known societies, relegated to inferior social positions, in the economics of symbolic exchange
It is necessary to take into account the asymmetry of the status given to each gender. Whereas men are subjects of marital strategies through which they work to maintain or increase their symbolic capital, women have always been treated as objects of these exchanges in which they serve as symbols suitable for striking alliances. are broadcast in This object status accorded to women is best seen in the place where the tribal-mythological-ritual system attributes their contribution to reproduction. this system is conflicting
- Properly negates the female labor of the womb (as it negates the associated labor of the soil in the agricultural cycle) for the benefit of male intervention in sexual activity. Similarly, in European societies, the privileged role that women play in symbolic production inside and outside the home is always devalued if not rejected. Male supremacy is thus founded on the economic logic of symbolic exchange, that is, based on a fundamental asymmetry between men and women in the social construction of relationship and marriage: that between subject and object, agent and means. A symbolic struggle capable of challenging the practically immediate accord of tangible and objective structures, i.e. of a symbolic revolution that questions the very foundations of the production and reproduction of symbolic capital, in particular, the dialectic of pretense and distinction that pervades cultural objects. as an indication of the distinction at the root of production and consumption.
- Psychoanalytic Theory of Feminism :
- Psychoanalytic theory suggests that the human individual ore ‘subject’ is socially constructed. It is partly because of the great influence of psychoanalysis that so many writers, both within and outside the sphere of feminist thought, have spoken of the ‘end of the subject’ in modern social theory. Agnes Heller takes up this issue. She doesn’t specifically discuss it in relation to feminism, or even gender, but careful readers will easily be able to apply her arguments back to the points
- Picked up by previous selections within this section.
- The ‘death of the subject’ is particularly associated with postmodernism, but, as it shows, has an ancestor in social theory and philosophy. Yet who really is the one who is believed to have died? Critics of essentialism would say that it is a ‘unitary individual’ category that has no relevance in social analysis today. Yet such a category was from the beginning a constructed category and in part such critics are attacking a position that few, if any, have ever held.
- We can see that this is so by taking the concrete example of autobiography. A person who writes an autobiography is both the author of the text and the author as a subject as well as authorizing a ‘world’ in which that subject exists. Subject
- the (human person) and the acted upon (natural and social environment) are never really separate entities, merely ‘acting’ on each other; They are mutually constructed in the course of history. Individuals have existed in all societies; The ‘subject’ is the creation of modernity. In the conditions of modern social life, in which, as previously emphasized, tradition has largely been taken away; The individual does not inherit a pre-given map for his or her self-understanding. Women and men in modern societies have contingent identities and are aware of this contingency; It is precisely this that makes for the formation of the ‘subject’ rather than speaking of the death of the subject. Therefore, we should see that the ‘openness’ of experience associated with socially constructed identity has been associated with modernity since its inception. is tied. ,
Status of women in india
- Relationship between caste and gender. Certainly the rules and norms have been relaxed a lot
- Weakness of governing commensalism and the attendant mechanisms of exclusion and exclusion: but the relational idiom of the game of food and rituals, expressed by the mutual interweaving of caste and gender, remains critical to the functioning of families. Similarly, changes in the nature and magnitude of social interaction, especially in metropolitan and urban areas characterized by the absence of consanguineous barriers, led to the enactment of state laws that recognized inter-caste marriages, divorce and widow remarriage within the framework of Hinduism. gives.
- Greater familiarity with the legal system, and the institution of civil marriage, has opened up the possibilities of marriages outside the bounds of caste. Also, arranged and arranged marriages within the recognized limits of the matrimonial relationship are the dominant and overwhelming norm. Finally, the growing emphasis on caste identities in the wider context of institutional politics centered on state policies and practices has led to the restructuring, renewal and reinforcement of ‘caste traditions’. Caste is not dead. Gender is a live issue. The principles of caste inform the specific nature of sexual inequality in Hindu society; Caste boundaries and hierarchy are expressed by gender.
- As of March 2001, out of a total Indian population of 1,028 million, the female population is 495.4 million. Thus, of the current population of 1.03 billion, 528 million should be women. Instead, estimates show only 496 million females in the population today. the heat of
The fact is that there are about 32 million “missing” women in India. Some are never born and others die because they do not have the opportunity to survive. The sex ratio (number of females per 1,000 males) is an important indicator of the status of women in society. In 1901 there were 972 females per 1,000 males, while by 1971; The ratio has come down to 930 females per 1,000 males. There has been a slight increase in the female sex ratio within 934 females for 1,000 males in 1981. According to the 1991 census, there were only 926 females per 1000 males in India.
- The 2001 census indicates that the trend has moderated slightly with a sex ratio of 933 females per 1000 males, with 1058 females in Kerala. The sex ratio in the 0-6 age group has declined sharply from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001. According to UNFPA State of World Population 2005, Punjab (793), Haryana (820), Delhi (865), Gujarat (878) and Himachal Pradesh (897) have the worst child sex ratio. The Scheduled Tribes have a fairly respectable CSR of 973, but for the Scheduled Castes it comes down to 938. For non SC/ST population it is 917. In rural India it is 934 per 1000 and for urban India it is 908. Most states have the least literates. districts have better CSR than their most literate counterparts.
- One reason for the adverse adolescent sex ratio is the growing reluctance to have female children. The literacy rate of women is 54.16 percent. Yet, 245 million Indian women cannot read or write, comprising the largest number of illiterate women in the world. The national average hides wide disparities in literacy. For example, while 95 percent of women in Mizoram are literate, only 34 percent of women in Bihar can read and write. The average Indian woman has only 1.2 years of schooling, while Indian men spend 3.5 years in school. More than 50 percent of girls drop out in middle school.
- Similarly, life expectancy has increased for both sexes; This has risen to 64.9 years for females and 63 years for males according to the United Nations Statistics Division (2000). The working women population has increased from 13% in 1987 to 25% in 2001.
- Although the UNFPA State of World Population 2005 states that about 70% of graduate Indian women are unemployed. Women constitute 90 per cent of the total marginal workers in the country. Rural women engaged in agriculture account for 78 percent of all women engaged in regular work. They are one third of all the workers on the land. The traditional gender division of labor ensures that these women are paid, on average, 30 percent less than men. The total employment of women in the organized sector is only 4 percent.
- Although industrial production increased in the 1980s; Jobs in factories and establishments – or non-household jobs – held steady at eight per cent of the workforce. Increasingly, companies rely on outsourcing, using cheap labor. It is well known that women and children work in large numbers in beedi-rolling, incense-rolling, bangle-making, weaving, brassware, leather, crafts and other industries. Yet, only 3 percent of these women are recorded as laborers. They are forced to work for pitiful wages and are denied all social security benefits. A study by SEWA of 14 trades found that 85 percent of women earned only 50 percent of the official poverty level income.
- Sociological research on the status of women has generally suggested that Indian women enjoy low status in their households as decisions related to family finances, kinship relations, selection of life partner are made by male members and women is rarely consulted. Although health facilities have expanded, the maternal mortality rate remains high at 407 per 1, 00,000 live births (1998). The World Health Organization estimates that it accounts for 136,000 (25.7%) of the 529,000 maternal deaths that occur globally each year. India. One factor contributing to India’s high maternal mortality rate is the reluctance to seek medical care for pregnancy – it is viewed as a temporary condition that will disappear. Nationwide it is estimated that only 40-50 percent of women receive prenatal care.
- Evidence from the states of Bihar, Rajasthan, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat found registration for maternal and child health services to be 5-22 per cent in rural areas and 21-51 per cent in urban areas. Even a woman who has faced difficulties in a previous pregnancy is usually treated with home remedies only for three reasons: the decision for pregnant women to seek help rests with the mother-in-law and the husband; financial considerations; And there are fears that the treatment may be more harmful than the disease.
- This essay explores the relationship between caste and gender: examines how caste impacts women’s lives and explores the role of women in perpetuating and to some extent changing caste. For the practice we need to give women conscious acting subjects of social relations and processes.
forms that constitute, reproduce and modify the social order characterized by the institution of caste. Equally, we need to consider the specific ways in which women are objectified and become tools as well as introducing flexibility into the structures and processes underlying the reproduction of caste. The discussion centered on three interrelated, indeed overlapping, themes—occupational continuity and the reproduction of caste, food and rituals, and finally, marriage and sexuality.
- The three basic characteristics of caste are caste, distinguished as a birth status group, exclusion or segregation (rules governing marriage and liaison, which perpetuate caste distinctions), hierarchy (order and rank according to status) principle of kinship), and interdependence (division of labor that is closely linked to hierarchy and segregation). These three analytically separable principles of the caste system operate not through individuals but through units based on kinship. The maintenance of rules of behavior and actions specific to one’s caste and patterns of interaction with other birth-status groups, for example, center critically on kinship units, especially family and home. We find then that the punishment for violation of caste rules and norms leads to the exclusion of the offender from the domestic group unless he is driven out of the house. Women’s lives are largely lived within family parameters. So the centrality of family and home in their lives cannot be over-emphasized.
Similarly, when we turn to the material bases of caste, the most important form of inequality in the caste system, the unequal distribution of resources and the exploitative relations of production, through an examination of the principles of kinship governing the allocation of resources Only this can be understood. Transfer of property rights, rights and entitlements to services. A caste or caste group then functions through its constituent family units or larger scale kinship units. It is not the caste as a whole but the clan or family units that have material resources. This has important implications for gender as there are clear differences within these units with regard to the rights and entitlements of their male and female members. Thus, if endogamy has the potential to elevate one’s familial status through the formation of suitable matrimonial ties, it may also introduce a tighter squeeze by limiting marital options and exerting pressure for material resources for daughter marriage. Could
- 5.1 Business Continuity
- Women’s work contributes significantly to the occupational continuity of a caste group. Of course, it is true that the development of new occupations and open recruitment in occupations have been important aspects of social change in Indian society. The picture of an inseparable unchanging relationship between traditional occupation and caste was, in any case, over-drawn. Also, there are important continuities in the relationship between castes and occupation. Agriculture – though now open to all castes – still gives a distinct identity to the castes of a large number of ‘traditional’ cultivators. Similarly, some other businesses
- Special privileges of special castes remain. For example, the brahmin still performs the functions of purohit (priest) for the upper and middle castes. In the artisan castes of goldsmiths, blacksmiths, potters and weavers, some members of the group are provided with the very minimum required skills, and they make a living by traditional crafts. Finally, the most religiously polluting business—curing and tanning. hides, The removal of dead animals, scavenging, and the activities of barbers, washermen, and midwives retain their association with specific castes.
- In these occupations closely linked to caste, women work as members of households—the basic units of support
- Deletion – Mandatory. It is difficult for the weavers and potters to carry out the complex processes of their craft without the constant help of the women and children of the house, who have well-defined tasks to perform. Women may also take on aspects of men’s work: it is not uncommon for women in potter families to liaise with customers and go to market to help sell goods. Similarly, basket weaving is a joint activity of men and women. In gardening, women often do the bulk of the work. In rural areas and small towns it is common for women from the households of small traders and shopkeepers to grind spices and prepare fries, fritters and preserves for sale in the family shop. Despite regional variations, these illustrations underscore the fact that business continuity depends to a large extent on women. It is telling that a man who elopes with another man’s wife is condemned for both ‘cooking the other man’s food’ and ‘house breaking’. The abandoned husband, after all, is left without any help to run the business for a living.
- Jajmani relations, short-term contractual affiliations between artisans and service castes and landlords, agriculturists and merchants, and exchange relations between occupational castes, a feature of many rural and semi-urban areas, once again
Works at the level of wards. Both men and women provide services and receive remuneration in cash and kind for their work. In the service castes like barber and washerman, women’s work in relation to the jajman’s family is really well defined. North of the Vindhyas a barber woman provides personal service to the jajman’s family or women of a family who engages the barber woman for cash payment which includes nail cutting, foot dressing (with special colored solution), a special oil massage and
- Bathing for a newborn baby and its mother, supply of leaf cups and leaf plates for feasting, and the role of the bride’s companion during the wedding ceremony. In Chhattisgarh,
- During feasts and celebrations, a rawat (shepherd and water-carrier) woman has an important supporting role in fetching water, washing utensils, grinding spices and grinding soaked pulses for making dumplings. Both the barber and water-carrier castes help prepare pucca food on ceremonial occasions. In the south, the ritual function of the washer-woman is indispensable for washing dirty clothes during the ceremony that coincides with the first menstruation. In every region there are specific ‘untouchable’ castes whose women act as midwives: these women share with the men of their caste the essential task of removing the pollution of the upper and clean castes. Finally, in many parts of the country, the bond or contract that binds laborers to their employers is understood to include the services of both husband and wife.
- Cultural recognition of the importance of women’s work is evident in the continuation of caste-related occupations. Also, for women to follow these traditional occupations, they have to be trained in them since childhood and socialized to accept them as proper work, which is ‘destiny’. It has been found that parents may restrict girls’ education to avoid a potentially uncomfortable situation in which the daughter develops a distaste for the traditional occupations of her caste. Then it becomes difficult to get her married in a suitable family. It is not formal education, but the ability and willingness to perform traditional tasks that makes a girl useful in her husband’s family.
- The need to continue occupational work is an important basis for marrying within the caste. It is understandable, then, that a landowning farming family of the Kunbi caste in rural Maharashtra would be unhappy when one of its sons decides to marry an educated Brahmin girl after getting an education. Of what use would she be in a farmer’s family? Will she be able to call her husband’s house her own? Even home-based work involving farming is seen as outside her realm of experience and below her status.
- In situations of change, women often have to take responsibility for continuing caste-based occupations and maintaining the household. When men leave their traditional occupations because of their low religious status or insufficient returns, the entire burden of commercial work often falls on women. Many men leave their families and move to the cities. Women continue to contribute in the form of services or crafts, but in the absence of male help, they face the choice of losing their base or facing a double burden of work. Intermediaries intervene. Wives of migrant men often have to work under authority
- About her husband’s relatives who surround her in the neighborhood and neighborhood. Thus, women’s contribution to occupational continuity is made within the patriarchy.
- Under hereditary limitations and caste imposition and control.
- In a study of women scavengers in Delhi, Karlekar (1976) found that while men were increasingly leaving the ‘unholy’ occupation of their caste, women remained in the same traditional sphere. These women were to support the men in the household who were trying to acquire skills to enter new occupations, or seek independent sources of income.
- Men, even when unemployed, were reluctant to touch their traditional work. Boys were being sent to school while girls went to work with their mothers at an early age. Similarly, women from Padyachi and Nadar families from Tamil Nadu who migrate to Delhi in search of employment have to work as domestic help in private homes, washing clothes and utensils and cleaning the house.
- It is believed that women in difficult times, since they are used to doing domestic work for their household, can do similar work for others. On the other hand, men generally consider it beneath their dignity to do such work. In the absence of regular employment, odd jobs are also preferred over domestic work. In these migrant groups, women are often the main supporter of the family: women’s experience of multifaceted housework becomes the basis for maintaining the family. controls are maintained. Social and ritual matters are discussed and decided by the men of the caste within the neighbourhood.
- A race or caste has a distinctive culture, a certain commonality that provides its members with a sense of identity. These cultural practices in turn are learned largely within the family and kinship networks. Ways of worship, fasting and
Festivals, rules governing concerns of purity and pollution, and the organization of space, constitute interrelated and interconnected elements that provide commonality and identity to the members of a caste. While some of these characteristics are shared by other castes in the same region or caste groups of the same varna category in regions, in fact, it is the specific configuration of these elements and characteristics within a particular caste that forms its identity. Works in Difference. Within this matrix, food-related practice is an important mediating relational idiom.
- Food is an important element in the ritual idiom of purity and pollution. Its centrality extends to both the ascribed and transactional dimensions of caste. in other
- In words, both the distinctiveness of castes as bounded entities and intercaste relations are expressed through the idiom of food. Women, who are key players in the process of socialization, are key actors in this area as well. Women are responsible for the safety of food, the avoidance of danger, and the attention to the grammatical rules governing the relational idiom of food in a broader sense. There is an exemption in the public sector but the house is still the custody of the women.
- The concern for purity and pollution centered on food begins at home. The principles of caste include a clear distinction between the domestic space/home and the ‘outside’ world. Women have an important role in maintaining the sanctity and sanctity of the house. The notion of safety related to both purity/pollution and the ‘evil eye’ imposes a number of restrictions and prohibitions on women in the tasks of processing, preserving, cooking and distributing food. These injunctions relate to specific observances relating to the maintenance of the required level of purity of the body, division of space for methods of cooking and consumption of food, and preservation of traditions regarding caste-linked prescriptions and restrictions regarding various foods. .
- Foods are classified hierarchically in terms of intrinsic purity and impurity, vulnerability and resistance to pollution, and in terms of specific characteristics they symbolize passion, anger, peace, power, spirituality. Foods are then substances that have the potential to affect and change the person consuming them. The responsibility of who eats what, where and when falls on the women in the domestic sphere. The practices of women regarding food play an important role in the hierarchical order of castes.
- If food and its relation to communion is an important element in the ranking of castes, there are differences and contradictions in the behavior of men and women in this area as well. Women are more prone to consume restricted foods or accept food from other castes. For example, anthropologists have often pointed out that women are more particular about commensal restrictions. In situations away from home and in their territory, males are more relaxed about the rules of companionship; In a similar context women are monitored and closely monitored and are expected to follow these rules more strictly. Men have the excuse that they have to hang out with all kinds of people. Of course, women are not allowed such freedom. In addition, PR
- Food prescriptions and prohibitions for women are governed by principles of kinship, marriage and sexuality. upper caste women who are meant to be believed
- For example, widowhood from the indissolubility of marriage is expected to drastically change her lifestyle. They have to follow strict rules of purity and pollution while preparing food, give up consuming tamasic foods – which increase passion and desire and give up the ‘proper’ food in the evening. Women’s practices related to food consumption in terms of its intrinsic qualities as well as the rules of place and time are important determinants of the ritual status of their caste. Equally, these rules are driven by the need to regulate interactions with the outside world, particularly other castes and communities. Control over food is, at the same time, protection of women from transgression of sexual norms and protection against transgression of caste boundaries.
- Meals, household rituals as well as daily care of family deities and ancestor worship are a major responsibility of women. In many families the women do not actually worship the totem; Nevertheless, they arrange for its performance and prepare offerings. Where men are engaged in professional work and the rules are more relaxed, women can perform daily puja. Whereas, on special days of worship, either a male member of the family or a Brahmin priest performs the puja. And then special pujas and fasts are performed for the welfare of the husband and children and for the prosperity of the family. These customs, worship, fasting and feast are part of the tradition of a caste in its extension. The dominant position of women in this sphere as well as the limitations placed upon them underline their subordinate position in relation to men within the family.
- At the same time, women’s position as active agents and facilitators in the field of food and rituals also meant that women who performed its rules
control, they get special respect which gives them a certain self-identity and self-esteem. These practices are an important avenue for most women. of self-expression and social recognition. They also act as a medium that helps women exercise power over other women and men within the family. Thus, the nurturing of self-esteem and self-confidence on the part of individual women is inextricably linked with the maintenance of family prestige. The responsibility of preserving traditions, maintaining the sanctity of confined space, control over rituals, distribution of food and the act of socialization give women a sense of authority over people and situations. The processes by which women create living spaces also reinforce caste and its boundaries.
- Food is an important element in the social acceptability of interracial unions. The acceptance of food cooked by a married woman in a second-caste household involves complex decisions about differences in the ritual quality of foods in terms of their purity and vulnerability to contamination. Thus, depending on a woman’s caste status, she may be prevented from entering the innermost area of cooking and may only be allowed to prepare and serve pucca meals or snacks.
- Similarly, everyday cooking on specific occasions versus cooking on special occasions and rituals such as worship of the family deity, or ancestors, also add boundaries. Significantly, a woman who is lower than her husband’s caste can often cook simple meals for the family, but she is not allowed to cook for the ancestors. Caste endogamy, which, as we shall see, is relevant to the placement of offspring, also required that a woman coming from another caste could not be fully incorporated into the husband’s group and given the privilege of feeding the progeny. Can’t be done.
- This brings us to the key area of marriage and sexuality. The caste system is based on a cultural belief of a fundamental difference between male and female sexuality. First, pollution from time to time through menstruation and childbirth makes women less intrinsically pure than men. Within a caste, there is a hierarchy between the sexes. At the same time, the difference in the level of purity/impurity between men and women in the lower castes is much smaller than in the higher castes. In addition to self-pollution, low-caste women also deal with the pollution of others through occupational activities such as midwifery, filth disposal, washing dirty clothes and many other services. But their men also have to do polluting craft work and service for others. The sharing of impure tasks by both men and women in these castes as well as the substantial contribution of women in the process of earning a livelihood makes the gender division less unequal. Of course, it is true that menstrual pollution in these castes creates certain disabilities.
- On women with respect to food, deities and ancestor worship, as well as, Brahmin and other high caste men neither do self-pollination like their women nor do they have to perform unholy acts for other castes. In contrast, their women are involved in pollution through bodily processes, mainly menstruation and childbirth. They are also responsible for performing certain unholy functions within the family, although this, perhaps, does not make them permanently less pious than men.
- There is a widespread belief that women can never reach the level of purity of men of their caste. It is well known that traditionally women of Dwij castes, considered equal to Shudras, could not be initiated into the study of the Vedas.
- Another source of impurity for women is widowhood. Widows should not worship family deities; They do not cook pure food offered to these deities. Aman, on the other hand, is not equally affected by being a widower. This kind of hierarchy between the sexes is a characteristic of the Brahmins and other ‘clean’ castes. While some of the restrictions placed on widows are prevalent across castes, it can be argued that gender divisions as well as concerns of purity/impurity are inversely related to the ritual status of castes.
- Furthermore, the cultural schemes that underpin the caste system are based on a fundamental difference between male and female bodies with regard to their vulnerability to incurring impurity through sexual intercourse. Sex for a woman is a more serious matter because the ‘act affects her internally whereas it only affects a man externally. In case of interracial sex a man commits external pollution which can be easily washed off but a woman commits internal pollution which pollutes her permanently.
- On the contrary culturally a woman is compared to an earthen pot, which becomes easily and permanently defiled if touched by a polluted person within the caste or by a person from a lower caste or a different religion is used, and a male, on the other hand, a brass vessel that is not easily polluted and in any case, by rubbing, washing and
If necessary, it can be restored to its original state by an excellent purifier, by putting it through fire. This metaphor that differentiates between men and women in terms of their respective vulnerability to pollution through sexual intercourse is widely used in caste and village councils when matters of sexual entanglement come up for decision. Indeed, it lives on in the popular consciousness when men and women are judged. It should be clear that upper caste women are more vulnerable to permanent pollution as compared to lower caste women. In fact, sexual offenses within the caste are treated more leniently, especially among castes that allow secondary unions.
- Equally, it is entanglement with lower caste men than women, which is taken very seriously. Pollution through food affects both women and men intrinsically, but pollution through sexual intercourse is fundamentally different in character to the two sexes. This is closely related to the principle that prohibits high marriages, though within well-defined limits: ‘The best seed may fall on an inferior field. But the inferior seed may not fall on the superior field.’
- It brings out the most important feature in the cultural perception of differences between men’s and women’s sexuality.
- Other differences are, in fact, created by culturally coded master differences between male and female bodies regarding reproduction. In contrast to a man’s weak and transitory role in the process of reproduction, a woman’s role is long drawn out and involves a participation that goes beyond extinction. In the case of an unattached woman, pregnancy is a disaster, not only because parenthood is essential to collective appointment in a patriarchal society, but also because issues of caste boundaries and one’s own purity are involved. The number of orphanages and abandoned children in our country is a testimony to the effects of a combination of patrilineage and caste.
- Sexual inequality is deeply rooted in the dual principles of segregation and hierarchy that characterize the caste system.
- Marriage and sexual relations constitute a central area in which caste influences women’s lives. The theory that membership of distinct and separate groups in the caste system is defined exclusively and irreversibly by birth underlies the existence of castes as bounded groups. This characteristic emphasizes a wider concern with boundary maintenance. Although in most Hindu India, recruitment by birth follows the principle of patrilineal descent and thus identification of the father is necessary for group placement, in the attribution of caste status to the child, the caste of the mother is not at all irrelevant, and she is given attention. be kept in Lineage system, regardless of caste, in fact,
- Serves as the principle of bilateral affiliation.
- The extent to which caste serves as a principle of bilateral affiliation varies across regions and castes. Broadly speaking, we can say that small marriage circles with emphasis on caste purity and preference for inter-kin marriages give more importance to the bilateral principle of caste affiliation, this is mainly applicable to South India where inter- Relative marriages are more generations made for, traditionally, narrow matrimonial circles. Even today the importance of consanguineous marriages has not diminished, although the proportion has decreased. However, even in contexts that reduce the dichotomous principle of caste affiliation, a woman’s role in biological reproduction makes her primarily responsible for maintaining the purity and boundaries of the caste, and for proper control over her sexuality. Makes a demand
- The cultural apprehension of women’s vulnerability and the emphasis on chastity and modest behavior, which involves limited interaction with the opposite sex, are important components of the management of female sexuality in a caste society. The emphasis on arranged or arranged marriages and proper organization of place and time for young girls after puberty derives its justification from this concern with boundary maintenance, meaning the maintenance of the ritual purity of the caste. All of these are rooted in the mechanisms and processes of socialization and in the education and employment opportunities for women. Caste thus gives a special character to the process of growing up as a woman. It all doesn’t end with the wedding. Women need to be controlled, their sexuality contained at all times.
- This is sought to be achieved through mechanisms of appropriate social control, idealization of family roles and emphasis on female modesty. The importance of caste purity affects a woman at all stages of life.
- The beliefs and practices that negotiate and incorporate the danger posed by female sexuality are not uniform across caste hierarchies and are also marked by regional variations. Also, there exists a shared ideological framework that informs the field. This framework rests on a clear demarcation of life stages with respect to female sexuality, a special ritual value for virginity, puberty rituals and special care for pubertal girls, glorification of the married state and motherhood, and a clear distinction between primary and secondary between marriages which in turn woman
constitutes an institutional mechanism for the prevention of promiscuity.
- The value associated with virginity is directly related to female chastity. The pre-pubertal phase is seen as a phase of inner purity and is celebrated in a number of ways. The practice of worshiping and feeding virgins on specific days such as the eighth day of Navratri is widespread in India. Similarly, pre-pubescent girls are given special recognition in life cycle rituals. The pre-pubertal girl is seen as a manifestation of the goddess or the mother goddess and is believed to ward off the lurking presence of evil spirits and the evil eye. The pre-pubertal stage contrasts sharply with the purity and consequent privileged position of a girl, and in clear relief marks the onset of the next stage, puberty.
- In South India, this change in the status of the girl child is dramatized through rituals. Dietary rituals and special prescriptions differ from caste to caste. The core, and underlying message, does not change. Similarly, in Orissa and Maharashtra, many castes observe essential features of puberty rites, though they conduct them on a modest scale. The message of these rituals is clear. The girl has become a sensual being: this demands restrained behavior from her and emphasizes the need for protection and vigilance.
- The occasion is immediately auspicious and invokes protection from the evil eye. The rules regarding diet and movement are directed towards future fertility: they facilitate the process of childbearing and control the girl’s sexuality. Restrained and controlled sexuality is a pre-requisite for socially accepted motherhood. The puberty ceremony informs kin and caste people that the girl has come of age and her marriage is open for negotiation. Tantras that set limits and restraints also sanctify and sanctify sexuality. In the rest of India the first menstruation is not marked by any ritual. The event is taken care of more or less unobtrusively. Also, restrictions regarding pollution, food and behavior come into effect. The onset of puberty is a definite departure in a girl’s life. She becomes conscious of her fragile purity.
- In fact, it is this attachment to female chastity and her fragility that helps explain some aspects of marriage in caste societies. In traditional terms it is the marriage of a virgin wi
- Complete rites within acceptable limits of sexual relations that sanctify and sanctify the girl’s sexuality. This makes him a full member of his caste, and thus a full person.
- The matrix of early marriage of a girl in north and central India, a long waiting period while she remains in her maternal home, and the Gauna or Mukhalwa, the ritual of sending the girl to her husband’s house after puberty, is very complex. Normal. If the family is not in a position to bear the double expense, the two ceremonies may take place in one: the girl is formally sent to her husband’s house for two or three days after the wedding and then returned only after the wedding. is brought. onset of puberty. Similarly, for the purpose of early marriage, that is, to maintain the girl’s virginity and chastity until marriage, for example in some regions of Rajasthan many child brides are formally married at a specially organized marriage fair on an auspicious day. Is. ,
- There is also a custom of marrying off all the girls in a family between the ages of two to thirteen or fifteen together on a special auspicious day. The rationale for early marriage is clear: such child marriages ensure that a girl is married with full rites while she is still a virgin, and the consummation of marriage can wait until she is an adult. It is important that while castes and families are able to keep their girls isolated and protected, they marry them off after puberty, other castes that can keep their girls isolated and protected
- Require that their daughters work in the fields or away from home preferring to marry them before puberty. In a village in Rajasthan’s Sikar district, where the normal age of marriage for girls was between seven and sixteen, most post-pubertal marriages were among Charans and Brahmins, whose daughters did not work outside the home and were separated and Could have been kept in isolation. In Uttar Pradesh, once again, poorer castes whose women and children have to work away from home and without protection find protection in early marriage. It is in the context of this importance of virginity that the important cultural differences between primary marriage and secondary unions need to be explored.
- A primary marriage refers to the full rites of passage of a virgin with a man of an appropriate caste group. A woman goes through such a marriage only once in her life. Subsequent unions may gain social sanction and she may continue to use all the signs of the married state but she has permanently stepped outside the bounds of primary marriage. These unions are not considered through full blown rituals, but are socially declared through a symbolic act or a small ceremony which may include the presentation of glass bangles or a nose ring.
which signifies married status, the exchange of garlands, and the throwing of a white cloth painted at the corners over the woman’s head to symbolize that the woman is now protected by a man. It follows that the terms used for remarriage often refer to these acts: wearing churi or giving glass bangles, putting chadar or throwing a sheet on the woman’s head, wearing nath or nose ring.
- Alternatively, remarriage can be referred to as ‘coming to live in a man’s house’ or ‘sitting’ (paithu/sitting), ‘receiving a woman in a house’ (house-sitting) or ‘keeping a woman in a house’. (Kari) can be named as. or Kareva). On the other hand, for a man, there is no restriction on the number of times he can marry with full rituals, as long as the bride has not been married before. Only if he marries a woman who is already married does he have to perform the marriage with full rites.
- Only a properly married woman can enter into secondary, socially sanctioned, unions. This idea extends to inter-caste secondary unions as well. Traditionally, a woman could not enter into a socially sanctioned union without sanctifying her sexuality through a full ritual marriage conducted according to caste customs. The distinction between primary and secondary marriages, once again, focuses on concerns related to the management of female chastity and female sexuality. A special value for the primary marriage and a lower status for the secondary union is sought to be maintained. secondary union
- Considered a concession to human weakness: a woman’s need to satisfy sexual desire without seriously undermining caste boundaries. Castes that allow remarriage, unlike Brahmins and other upper castes, do not consider the first marriage to be indissoluble or indestructible. Also, it is the first marriage that has a sacred character and is a sacrament that cannot be repeated. Importantly, the traditional absence of remarriage of widows and divorcees among a caste is indicative of its high ritual status. Gender inequality is intricately linked to the maintenance of caste boundaries and hierarchy.
- The principles of sexual asymmetry outline the condition of the relationship
- Between caste endogamy and dowry, the different fates of men and women in inter-caste unions and the sexual exploitation of women. We have seen that caste purity is maintained through endogamy. Marriages are mainly effected within the caste or caste group. Srinivasa (1976: 90) has pointed out that homogeneous castes in contemporary caste societies tend to be visionary to form a single unit for the purposes of marriage, similarly, while caste associations with political ends have a jati or varna category. includes many endogamous castes.
- Demands to maintain specific marital boundaries. The matrimonial columns in newspapers and magazines clearly indicate that matrimonial boundaries have very rarely been relaxed. There are some entries in these columns that do not mention the caste (specific endogamous group, regional caste group, or in some cases varna) of the prospective bride/groom. Even those who specify ‘caste no bar’ also mention their caste, perhaps for those respondents who may be willing to ignore caste, but only to a limited extent. The question of matrimonial relationship with a very low caste does not arise. The compulsion to marry within a well-defined caste group in patriarchal and patriarchal kinship systems is closely linked to the dowry system.
- Caste both enforces constraints and forms the dominant ethos that underlies the practice of dowry within Hindu society. Growing social and economic differentiation within an endogamous unit, traditional or currently acceptable, in terms of ownership of resources, income and occupations has led to severe competition among parents of marriageable daughters. This results in high demands and expectations from the groom’s family. In a consumerist ethos, dowry becomes the easiest way to improve the family’s lifestyle and a source of ready cash. Middle class families are the worst sufferers in the marriage market. They have limited means but cannot think of breaking the rules
- Regarding marriage within the appropriate group. The pressure of endogamy compels them to stick to arranged marriages and negotiate dowry with a premium. Furthermore, in a social context defined by notions of male superiority where the right of first choice rests with the man and his family, the path to an arranged marriage is fraught with possibilities of humiliation for young women. Finally, the principle of endogamy and concern for the maintenance of caste boundaries placed restrictions on young women. A daughter’s reputation is based on the constraints that bind her movements. What is at issue is not just the fear and horror of premarital sex; Opportunities to meet and form relationships with young unmarried men, most parents worry, may lead their daughters to choose their own mates. And what if he is from a lower caste? Dowry cannot be reduced to endogamy;
But its growth within the Hindu caste society cannot be understood without its context.
- The principle of endogamy is, of course, distorted by sexual unions in castes. The norms of caste have been violated, the norms have been violated. Male protagonists and female players have different destinies.
- Secondary associations between castes are formed by individuals on their own initiative and then taken into account by the community. In castes whose women can traditionally enter into secondary unions, inter-caste unions receive a certain measure of acceptance if the man and woman belong to castes of more or less equal status or the man is of a higher status than the woman. Be of caste. The crime should be atoned for by paying a fine and offering a feast. The man is excommunicated, even if temporarily, and this becomes apparent only in formal rituals and on ceremonial occasions.
- In north and central India the offspring of such unions join the caste of the father: his ‘seed’, even in an inter-caste secondary union, turns the children into members of a well-defined caste group . The temporary stigma borne by children is not of much consequence. On the contrary, a woman involved in such unions loses her caste; He is estranged from his family and kin group. In some places this rejection is ritualised. For example, in southeastern Madhya Pradesh, the husband holds a mortuary feast (known as Marathi-jiti bhat), announcing the symbolic death of his wife who has fallen out of caste. Also, the woman is never fully incorporated into the caste of her new husband. She cannot participate as a full member on ceremonial occasions including rituals or community feasts. Similarly, a woman who has lost her caste has to depend on the man she lives with
- Live for the disposal of his dead body. If the man is dead and has no son, his corpse is carried by the members of the lowest caste and buried without any rituals. In South India, the children of inter-caste unions are given a lower status than those born of primary union.
- ns. Children bear the stigma of the mother. In fact, children born from the remarriage of widows and divorcees within the caste are also given lower status than children from inter-caste unions. The gradation between the children depends on the caste and marital status of the mother.
- A strong patriarchal ideology in which male blood is the real determining factor in the placement of offspring, unless the mother is of a very low caste, is more characteristic of North than of South India.
- In the case of the Jats of Haryana, who represent an extreme case, even the ritual distance between castes did not matter much. The relative freedom from Brahmanical injunctions and the tenuous grasp of norms of ritual purity and pollution meant that during the colonial period Jat men freely had sexual relations with women of much lower castes such as chamars and chuhras (scavengers). The children born to these women were absorbed into the Jat community. In Jats’ self-perception, their community is like the ocean: one who falls into it becomes a Jat.
- Rajputs or Kshatriyas are, once again, open to exogamous unions with women of different castes, often much below their status. The ruling classes used their privileged position to formally sanction their marriages with virgins from various clean castes. The offspring born of such unions adopted the identity of the father; They were known as Rajputs, but their status was lower than that of their father. Women from secondary consorts, of course, were and are seen as concubines.
- Dominant caste men including Rajputs also have concubines of different castes. The ritual status of these men is not questioned until they set up household and eat food cooked by their mistresses. It is only when there is an open and long-term liaison with a woman of a very low caste that these men run the risk of being ostracised. Their family power and privilege may serve to cover up their indiscretions. Furthermore, it is always possible for men to return to caste through atonement (prayashchit) for what they have done.
- Men have institutionalized mechanisms to avoid exposure to pollution through sexual intercourse with a lower caste woman. This often takes the form of a purification bath.
- and ritual atonement of guilt. For example, orthodox Brahmins in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, after sleeping with a lower caste woman, discard the old sacred thread, take a holy bath and wear a new sacred thread. On the other hand, if a woman from these communities ‘goes astray’ and the matter becomes public, she is banished, the family is declared dead and a ‘fake’ shraadh (funeral) is performed for her. Is. The fate of the lover of a high caste woman, if she belongs to a low caste, Jats, Rajputs, Brahmins, Kammas loss of sources of livelihood, a good beating and sometimes-
Sometimes death is severe punishment at the hands of the holders. ,
- Dominance, based on resource ownership, is linked to notions of the ritual status of different castes and to the related idea of the graded qualities of blood. The land is sexually exploited by lower caste women and powerful upper caste men. It is not only difficult for low caste men to protect their women against the lust and desire of the high caste lord and their superiors in the agricultural hierarchy, but also tacit acceptance of the ‘seed’ of the high caste.
- Only if an upper or middle caste man is ostracized by his own community for continuing to have a relationship with a lower caste woman if he identifies with her caste; Their children grow up in the caste of the mother. But things often don’t come that way. Far more familiar are fleeting contacts and acts of sexual aggression by upper-caste males. Lower caste opposition to these and other upper caste practices result in sexual assaults on their women which attack the dignity and respect of male relatives and the community. Rape, as elsewhere, is an act of power through sexual violence.
- The claim of dominance by the upper castes is claimed as a right. For example, in Uttar Pradesh it is said that just as a goat can be milked at its will at any time, a Chamar woman can be made to pleasure at a time at its discretion. In Vidarbha, Kunbi landowners, who are looking for Mahar women to work in their fields, say with contempt, ‘Give her some measure of grain and she will shut up.’ Control of resources and ritual status – together integrally inform and constitutively reinforce each other of power relations and underlie the sexual exploitation of lower caste women by upper caste men.
Marxist and Socialist Feminism Module
Interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity have influenced feminist theory since its inception. Feminist theory has been reshaped by many mainstream theoretical approaches in its understanding of female oppression. The failure of liberal welfarism and radical patriarchal feminist agenda of women’s liberation paved the way for Marxist and socialist feminism. Marxist and socialist feminists claim that it is impossible for women to achieve true freedom in a class-based capitalist society where the powerless many, who produce wealth, are deprived of it. Private ownership of the means of production by a relatively small number of people, essentially all men, inaugurated a class system whose contemporary manifestations are corporate capitalism and imperialism.
Reflecting on this situation reveals that not only larger social norms that privilege men over women, but capitalism itself is the cause of women’s oppression. The true emancipation of women demands that the capitalist system be replaced by a socialist system in which the means of production are owned by all. No longer dependent on men financially, women would be as independent as men.
Basic Principles of Marxism: Subordination of Gender Perspective under Class Perspective:
Marxism is based on the influential works by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1848) in The.
In ‘The Communist Manifesto’, Marx (1859) ‘A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy’ and Engels’ ‘The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State’, classism rather than sexism is regarded as the root cause of women Is. Daman. For the Marxist, material forces – the production and reproduction of social life – are the prime movers in history. In other words, Marx believed that a society has a total mode of production—that is, its forces of production (the raw materials, tools, and labor that actually produce the goods) and its relations of production (the ways in which production is organized) – generates a superstructure (a layer of legal, political and social ideas) which in turn reinforces the mode of production (Tong, 2009).
Marx and Engels focused on class struggle as the driving force of history; He paid little attention to “gender class”. Shulamith Firestone, a radical feminist, following Marxist dialectics, claimed that the material basis of the sexual/political ideology of female subordination and male supremacy lay in the reproductive roles of men and women. She proposes to compensate for this by developing a feminist version of historical materialism in which sexual class rather than economic class is the central concept. Firestone stated that a major biological and social revolution would be needed to effect such human liberation.
According to Marxist feminists, women’s liberation can only be achieved through a radical restructuring of the current capitalist economy, in which much of women’s labor is uncompensated and invisible. Two types of labor exist in the capitalist system. Following Engels, Marxist feminists such as Margaret Benston and Peggy Morton emphasized that:
Productive labour: in which labor results in goods or services that have monetary value in a capitalist system and are thus paid for by producers.
- Compensation is given in the form of salary.
Reproductive labour: which is associated with the private sector and includes anything that people have to do for themselves that is not for the purposes of receiving wages (ie cleaning, cooking, raising children).
Engels- Origin of the family, private property and the state:
Although the fathers of Marxism did not take the oppression of women as seriously as they did the oppression of workers, Engels offered an explanation for the oppression of women. Engels – The
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State’ (1845) showed how changes in people’s material conditions affected the organization of their family relations. Engels speculated that primitive hunting gathering; Libertarian societies could be not only matriarchal but also matriarchal societies in which women ruled at political, social, and economic levels (Tong, 2009). Only when the location of production changed did women lose their privileged position. Engels stated that a paradigm shift occurred with the advent of agriculture, the domestication of animals, and the breeding of herds. Somehow, the male-female power balance shifted in favor of the men, as the men learned to produce enough animals to meet the tribe’s needs for milk and meat. As the importance of men’s work and production increased, the value of women’s work, production and women’s status declined.
With the new social status, men suddenly wanted their own biological children (by establishing control over pre-existing free female sexuality) in order to inherit their wealth and exerted enormous pressure to transform society from matriarchal to patriarchal. Engels introduced
The “world-historical defeat of womanhood” as “the overthrow of the authority of the mother”
le sex” (Engels, 1845: 118-119). In this new family order, Engels said, the husband ruled by virtue of his economic power:
“She is the bourgeois and the wife represents the proletariat” (Engels, 1845: 118–119). Engels believed that men’s power over women lay in men’s control of private property. He believed that with the dissolution of the institution of private property, the oppression of women would stop.
From Marxism to Marxist Feminism:
Classical Marxist feminists work within the ideological field set by Marx, Engels, Lenin and other nineteenth-century thinkers. During the communist revolution of 1917 in Russia, women were invited to enter the productive workforce with the expectation that economic independence would increase the possibility for women to develop self-confidence and place themselves in meaningful human history (Tong, 2009). Will watch as producers. But found this troubling:
- The relegation of most women to low-grade “women’s work” (i.e., secretarial work; rote factory work; and service work, which includes cooking, cleaning, and caring for the basic needs of the young) as old, and null);
- Reaffirmation of the sexual division of labor through the creation of “female occupations” and “male occupations”;
- Paying less wages to women than those paid to men;
- Whether or not to use women as a “vast reservoir of labor force” depending on the states’ need for workers (Voronina, 1993: 107).
Like Marxists in general, Marxist feminists claim that social existence determines consciousness. Thus, Marxist feminists hold that in order to understand the unique character of women’s oppression, we need to analyze the relationship between women’s work status and women’s self-image (Holmstrom, 1984: 464).
According to Marx, capitalist ideology leads workers and employers to focus on the superficial structure of capitalism’s exchange relations (Schmidt, : 96–97) where workers gradually convince themselves that even if their money is earned through hard work, Earned from, there is nothing wrong in it. specific exchange relationship into which they have entered, but, as Marxists and socialist feminists see it, when a poor, illiterate, unskilled woman chooses to sell her sexual or reproductive services, it is likely that her choice is less than free. is more compelling in (Tong, 2009) .
Marx saw that every class-divided political economy (from the primitive communal state, slave society, pre-capitalist society to present-day capitalist society) contained the seeds of its own destruction. According to Marx, when these two groups of people, the haves and the have-nots, both become aware of them as classes, class struggle begins and eventually leads to the overthrow of the system that produced these classes. gives. As Marxist and socialist feminists seek to view women as a collectivity, Marxist teachings on class and class consciousness play a large role in Marxist and socialist feminist thought.
A Marxist answer to the question of women’s oppression would point to the sexual division of labor and the implications of this division for power differences between women and men. By Broadening the Marxist Concept of Reproduction to Include Domestic Labor and Child Care, Margaret Benston, Mariar
Feminists such as Rosa Dalla Costa, Selma James, Sylvia Walby and Clara Zetkin made major contributions.
Our understanding of the interaction of gender and the economy. He has emphasized the following ideas:
Socialization of Domestic Work:
Margaret Benston defined women as that class of people “responsible for the production of simple use-values in activities connected with the home and family” (Benston, 1969: 16). Focusing on the exclusion of women from productive labor as the most important. The source of female oppression, some Marxist feminists argued for the inclusion of domestic work within the labor capitalist economy. According to Benston, the feminist plan for women’s emancipation through bringing women into the productive workforce would be thwarted if it was not supported by simultaneous tasks of cooking, cleaning, and child care.
To be sure, she acknowledged, the socialization of domestic work allows women to do the same “female” work outside the home as they do inside the home, but with remuneration and recognition. Wage employment would increase the likelihood of men taking those jobs and thus the status of these jobs (Benston, 1969: 16).
Wages for housework:
Marxist feminist thinkers, Dalla Costa and James, claimed that women’s work inside the home produces surplus value (Dalla Costa and James, 1972). They argued that women’s domestic work was a necessary condition for all other labour, which in turn extracted surplus value. By providing not only food and clothing but also emotional comfort to current (and future) workers, women keep the cogs of the capitalist machine running. Therefore, Dalla Costa and James argued,
Employers of men must pay women wages for the housework they do (Dalla Costa and James, 1972).
Her suggestion drew much criticism from within and outside feminist discourse.
The complexities associated with the modus operandi of wage payment for domestic work make it untenable (not all or even most women in advanced capitalist economies are domestic workers; if they are to be paid wages for domestic work, employers may Will pay housewives. Husbands take less salary, if they have to go out Most small companies
business etc). Some feminists argued that if housework became remunerative, it could stifle women’s education and other productive intellectual pursuits, thereby reversing the process of female emancipation. This may push them more within the four walls of the house.
Comparative Price:
Marxist feminists have focused their attention on the unequal way in which the sexual division of labor operates within society in the capitalist world where men and women are paid differently for doing comparable work. A job that has a higher number of women is much less remunerated than a job that is dominated by men. Marxist feminists see this as having far-reaching consequences on reducing the feminization of poverty.
The Emergence of Socialist Feminism: A Synthesis of Marxist Feminism, Radical Feminism and
psychoanalytic feminism
In its search for origins, socialist feminism combines Marxist, radical and psychoanalytic feminism. Socialist feminism broadens the gender blindness of Marxist feminism in explaining the role of capitalism in the oppression of women on the one hand and the role of gender in subordinating women and the idea of patriarchy on the other hand includes the idea of radical feminism (Buchanan, 2011) ). While Marxists and radical feminists emphasized the wider social aspects of women’s oppression; Psychoanalytic feminists, in their respective interpretations of the oppression of women, have emphasized that the oppression of women is deeply rooted in the female psyche. Recognizing the Freudian Oedipus complex as the root of male rule, or patriarchy, some psychoanalytic feminists speculate that the Oedipus complex is nothing more than a product of men’s imagination – a mental trap that everyone, especially women, must avoid. Must try. Others such as Ortner, Dorothy Dinnerstein, and Nancy Chodorow accept some version of the Oedipus complex as the experience that integrates the individual into society. He postulated that dual parenting and dual participation in the workforce would alter the gender valence of the Oedipus complex (Chodoro, 1978). Authority, autonomy and sovereignty would no longer be the exclusive property of men; Love, dependence and exclusivity will no longer be the exclusive property of women (Tong, 2009). Socialist feminists thus see women’s liberation as a necessary part of a larger quest for social, economic, and political action.
From Marxist Feminism to Socialist Feminism:
Influenced by historical materialism, socialist feminists consider the sexism of each historical era and how the gendered division of labor is determined by the economic system of that time. Those conditions are largely expressed through capitalist and patriarchal relations. Socialist feminists thus reject the Marxist notion that class and class
Conflict is the defining aspect of history and economic development.
To understand socialist feminism, one has to understand practice. Praxis is a Marxist concept that refers to the ability of humans to consciously alter the environment to meet their needs. Socialist feminists, like Marxist feminists, believe that behavior is universal to all human beings. Unlike Marxist feminists, socialist feminists believe that practices have gender specific forms and extend to the private sphere of life. In contrast to Marxist feminist theory, socialist feminists believe that the home is not only a place of consumption, but also of production. Women’s work within the home, producing and raising children, as well as supporting men in cooking, cleaning, and other household chores, which allows men to work outside the home, all produce forms because they contribute to society at large. According to socialist feminists production should not be measured in dollars, but in social value.
Socialist feminists agree with both Marxist feminists that capitalism is the source of women’s oppression, and with radical feminists that patriarchy is the source of women’s oppression. Therefore, in the estimation of socialist feminists, the way to end the oppression of women is to kill capitalist patriarchy or the two-headed beast of patriarchal capitalism. Guided by this goal, socialist feminists seek to develop theories that explain the relationship between capitalism and patriarchy.
Socialist feminists have developed two different approaches to overcome the limitations of traditional Marxist feminism on the one hand and radical and psychoanalytic feminism on the other.
They are: a) Dual System Theory and b) Unified System Theory
Dual system theorists hold that patriarchy and capitalism are different forms of social relations and different sets of interests that, when they intersect, oppress women more. To fully understand the oppression of women, both patriarchy and capitalism must be analyzed first as separate phenomena and then as phenomena that are dialectically related to each other. While all dual system theorists describe capitalism as a material structure or historically rooted mode of production, only a few describe patriarchy as a material structure or historically rooted mode of reproduction or sexuality. Others describe patriarchy as a non-material structure, a broadly conceptual and/or psychoanalytical structure that transcends the contingencies of place and time (Tong, 1999).
A non-materialist account of patriarchy and a materialist account of capitalism: Juliet Mitchell is an example of dual system theorists who combined a non-materialist account of patriarchy with a materialist account of capitalism. Mitchell’s account of patriarchy was non-material because some aspects of women’s lives within the family are economic (the result of changes made to the mode of production in space and through time) while others are bio-social (women’s rights). the result of the interaction between a) biology and the social environment); And still others are ideological (the result of society’s ideas about the way women should relate to men). Despite changes in the mode of production, these bio-social and ideological aspects would essentially remain the same. Thus, even under socialism, women would remain oppressed to some degree
Unless the defeat of capitalism is accompanied by the defeat of patriarchy. She suggests that while the economic aspects of patriarchy can be changed through material means, its biosocial and ideological aspects can only be changed through non-material means—through the rewriting of the psycho-sexual drama (Tong, 1999).
A Materialist Account of Patriarchy and a Materialist Account of Capitalism: Heidi Hartman defines patriarchy as “a set of social relations between men that have a material basis”.
This material basis lies in men’s historical control over women’s labor power; This control is constituted by restricting women’s access to important economic resources and by denying women any control over female sexuality and especially female fertility. Men’s control over women’s labor force varies from society to society and over time (for example, it manifests as a woman’s need to please her husband or lover so that he can support her and her children). Do not leave; or as a woman’s need to please her boss so that he will not fire her).
Marxist analysis predicts that patriarchy will wither away in the face of capitalism’s need to make everyone a proletariat. A feminist analysis predicts that capitalism and patriarchy will reach some sort of compromise on the women’s question. Considering the current sexual division of labor, which results in women being underpaid and overworked, Hartmann concluded that men’s desire to control women is at least as strong as capital’s desire to control workers. Keeps Capitalism and patriarchy are not two heads of the same animal. They are two different beasts, each of which must be fought with different weapons (Tong, 1999).
Integrated Systems Theory:
According to R. Tong (1999), in contrast to dual system theorists, integrative system theorists attempt to analyze capitalism and patriarchy simultaneously through the use of a single concept. According to these theorists, capitalism is no more separate from patriarchy than the mind is from the body. This is a more ambitious form of socialist feminism than a dualist approach, because if there is an ideological lens through which all dimensions of women’s oppression can be filtered, then it may be possible to unite all feminists. Approach.
- a) Gender division of labor as a unifying concept: Young believed that feminists who wanted to avoid the pitfalls of the dual system approach to capitalist patriarchy needed to develop a new core concept for Marxist theory. She suggested that the gender category “division of labour” has the ideological power to transform Marxist feminist theory into socialist feminist theory, which
Powerful enough to accommodate Marxist, radical and psychoanalytic feminist insights in a unitary framework
According to Young labor analysis has the advantage of being more specific than a class analysis. A division of labor analysis requires a detailed, very concrete discussion of, for example, who gives orders and who takes them, who does motivational work and who does strenuous work, who works desirable shifts. And who works undesirable shifts and who is overpaid and who is underpaid. Division of labor analysis may better explain why women usually take orders, do harder work, work unwanted shifts, and get less pay.
gets
Whereas men usually give orders. All these analyzes actually suggest that a Marxist class analysis can be complemented by a feminist division of labor analysis. As Young observed, capitalism is very conscious of the gender, race, and ethnicity of its workers. Since a large reserve of unemployed labor is necessary to keep wages low and meet unexpected demands for an increased supply of goods and services, capitalism has both implicit and explicit criteria for determining who is its primary, employed worker. Who will constitute the workforce and who will serve its own secondary, unemployed workforce. Capitalism has its own patriarchal norms to identify men as primary work force material and women as secondary work force material. Because women were needed at home in a way that men were not or so the patriarchy concluded that men were freer to work outside the home than women (Tong, 1999).
- b) Alienation as a Integrative Concept: Alison Jagger was working towards Integrative Systems Theory and as a youth she put forward a concept other than class as the quintessential Marxist concept. In her book ‘Feminist Politics and Human Nature’, Jagger identified the concept of alienation as one that would provide us with an adequate theoretical framework to accommodate the core insights of Marxist, radical, psychoanalytic and even liberal feminist thought.
Work under capitalism becomes a dehumanizing activity. Jagger organized a discussion of women’s alienation, fragmentation and fragmentation under the auspices of sexuality, motherhood and intellectualism. Under capitalism, in the same way that a wage worker is alienated, or separated, from the product she produces, a woman is also alienated from the product she works on: her body. A woman may think that she is beautifying herself by dieting, exercising, and dressing up, but in reality she is probably shaping and decorating her body for the satisfaction of men (Tong, 1999). Many times a woman talks little or nothing about the control and use of her body (voyeuristic gaze for rape). this process of objectification
The worker (she is merely a machine from which labor power is extracted) and the woman (an instrument of male satisfaction) are objectified and the unfair competition between them intensified.
Motherhood, like sexuality, is a different experience for women. According to Jagger, just as a worker becomes alienated from the product she produces, a woman becomes alienated from the product of her reproductive labor when she is replaced by someone else (family, husband/partner, state population policy, economic situation, cheap labour, social prejudices like son preference etc.), decide the number of children she should have.
Jagger continued; Since workers have no control over or identification with the process of production in highly technical assembly such as production under capitalism; Women are also alienated from the process of their reproductive labour. Obstetricians exercise complete control over the birthing process, sometimes performing medically unnecessary caesarean sections and/or anesthetizing the woman against her will. With the advent of the most sophisticated technological tools under new reproductive techniques, women are likely to be further alienated from the product and process of childbirth (Tong, 1999).
Raising children, like having children, is a different experience when scientific experts, (most of whom are men) not women, take charge of it. As Jaggar sees it, the pressure on mothers is immense, as they have to follow every diktat of the experts, with virtually no help. One of the most troubling features of a mother’s estrangement from her children is that her inability to see her children as individuals is equated only with her inability to see them as individuals. Proper motherhood hinders the development of friendships between women, as mothers compete with each other to produce and process complete babies.
Finally, Jagger stated that not only are many women alienated from their own sexuality and the product and process of motherhood, but they are also alienated from their own intellectual potential. A woman is made to feel so low about herself that she hesitates to express her views in public; For fear that her views are not worth expressing and for fear that she will come across as a hypocrite and not of knowledge.
To the extent that Young was convinced that a gendered division of labor is necessary for capitalism, Jagger believed that the use of a theoretical framework of alienation identifies the contemporary oppression of women as a specific phenomenon of the capitalist form of male dominance. Jagger concluded that although the overthrow of capitalism might end the exploitation of women as well as men in the productive workforce, it would not end women’s alienation from everything and everyone, especially from themselves.75 Only The overthrow of patriarchy will enable women to become full individuals (Tong, 2009).
Contemporary Socialist Feminism:
Like Young and Hartmann, Sylvia Walby
saw petr
Monarchy is situated in six somewhat independent structures: unpaid domestic work, wages, culture, sexuality, male violence and the state (Walby, 2003: 45). These structures, and their relative importance, varied from one historical era to another. For example, Walby noted that patriarchy repressed women mostly in the private sector of domestic production during the nineteenth century, and in the twentieth century mostly in paid labor and the public sector of the state. According to her, “the modernization of the gender system, i.e. the entry of women into the productive labor force alongside men, is creating a new political sphere of working women who are able to assert their perceived interests in policies to aid the reconciliation of home and work.” have been” (Walby, 2003:53).
Along with the invisibility of women’s work at home, contemporary socialist feminists have focused on the gender pay gap and the often oppressive nature of women’s work in the so-called global factory. According to Nancy Holmstrom, “The brutal economic realities of globalization affect everyone around the world – but women are affected disproportionately. Displaced by economic changes, women bear a greater burden of labor around the world as social services are cut.” whether in response to structural adjustment plans in the Third World or to so-called welfare reform in the United States. Women have been forced to migrate, are subject to trafficking, and the proletariat of newly industrializing countries There are classes… socialist feminism is the approach with the greatest potential to expose the exploitation and oppression of the majority of women in the world” (Holmstrom, 2003:3).
Socialist Feminism in the Indian Context:
Socialist feminism helps us to understand more aggressively the oppression of women in the caste and class ridden Indian society. A Dalit woman worker in a garment export unit is oppressed not only because of her proletarian position in the capitalist mode of production; She is often oppressed because of her weak caste and gender identity in a patriarchal system. They often find themselves in monotonous, long term, low paying jobs in controlled women intensive organization
minority by men. The global vulnerability of capital and the withdrawal of the state from the social sector under structural adjustments often exacerbate its vulnerability.
Criticism of Marxist and Socialist Feminism:
- a) The ‘economic determinism’ of Marxism and its inability to distinguish between economic class and sex class attract much criticism. Given the apparently unrestrained position of women in the workplace, it is somewhat difficult to understand why, in the early 1970s, many feminists, including some Marxist feminists, abandoned materialistic interpretations of women’s oppression. Instead they turned to psychological explanations for women’s oppression, explanations that could answer the question of why women’s status remained low regardless of the political and economic character of the society in which they lived.
- b) Juliet Mitchell rejected the claim of Marxist feminists that an economic revolution aimed at overthrowing capitalism would make men and women full partners. Just because women enter the productive workforce to work side by side with men, does not mean that women will return home in the evening arm in arm with men.
- c) Marxist feminism considered women as a part of the working class and placed more emphasis on the economic sphere rather than on the domestic front i.e. the experience of women outside the labor market. Solving women’s exploitation seems to be a very long way towards the eradication of capitalism as a revolutionary coup of capitalism is not likely to happen very soon.
- D) As Mitchell explained, attitudes toward women will never really change as long as both female and male psychology are dominated by gender symbols. Thus, patriarchy and capitalism have to be overthrown if society is to be truly humanized (Tong, 2009). Psychoanalysis was seen as essential to the understanding of gender subjectivity.
- e) Radical feminists have criticized capitalist forms of exploitation. Radical feminists argue that patriarchal forms of exploitation exist in all known societies, not just capitalist societies. Patriarchy predates capitalism which makes it a more important explanation of female exploitation and oppression (www.sociology.org.uk).
- f) Cultural analysts and ‘postmodernists’ were explicitly critical of materialistic interpretations of women’s oppression. Discourse and language are considered essential to the interpretation of women’s identity and activity because there is no unity to “women” or “the oppression of women”, and different discourses have only produced different definitions. .
“Women.” (Jackson, “Marxism and Feminism,” p. 33) This type of reconstruction began
“Women” and the dominance of postmodern feminism.
- g) Feminism underestimates the importance of capitalist forms of exploitation in socialist forms of society
Feminism being neither revolutionary nor radical enough to provide a lasting solution to the problem of women’s economic and social exploitation
Feminism is criticized.
Women and work
- It is necessary to make human life productive, meaningful and meaningful. It enables people to earn a living, gives them the means to participate in society, provides them with security and gives them a sense of dignity. Work is thus inherently and intrinsically linked to human development. However, this understanding of work itself becomes problematic when it is understood in relation to women’s work or labour. Mainly, in most societies both men and women work, although they perform different tasks and functions that normally have different effects and results. Furthermore, cultural embeddings play a very important role in shaping the definition of work locally and globally. The social and cultural conditions given to women, superstitions and religious beliefs and most importantly the patriarchal value system ensure that women remain
- ‘Dependent’ for both livelihood and financial support.
- According to the latest, 2015 Human Development Report, Rethinking Work for Human Development, work is a means to unleash human potential, creativity, innovation and spirits.
- Men and women have historically been viewed as having separate functions within the household and in the paid labor market. Women have been assigned the responsibility of taking care of the household chores, making them work primarily within the confines of their homes. On the other hand, men are more likely to work outside the home for monetary compensation. During the 20th century, these differences began to disappear. Changes are visible in recent times, but only in those parts of the world where there have been notable changes in attitudes and views regarding women’s labor and their contribution to the development of the economy. These changes include resources such as education, employment, equal pay for equal work and most importantly ways to provide safe and secure working conditions to women.
- With this in mind, in this module we will explore the gendered nature of work done by women. It would start with understanding the ways and causes of gender stereotyping of jobs globally. Then, we try and understand how women’s work remains predominantly underpaid as well as unpaid. In addition, it will explore in detail new types of gender gaps that exist in the global labor market with special reference to India. After which, we will discuss the gendered nature of labor force participation. We will then discuss in detail the concept of feminization of labor and its impact on society at large. Following this, the module moves on to look at the status of women in both the formal and informal economy and how practices in these sectors where gender stereotyping prevail and the role of women primarily as caregivers and reproducers are reflected globally. But more exploitation is done. Lastly, we will look at the concept of glass ceiling effect that hinders the prospects of promotion and better job profile of women in the corporate sector.
- Gender stereotyping of jobs in the global economy
- In a speech, UN Women Deputy Director and Assistant Secretary-General Lakshmi Puri said:
– Stereotypes exist in all societies. How we view each other can be determined through oversimplified assumptions about people based on particular characteristics such as race, gender, age, etc. They are based on socially constructed norms, practices and beliefs. They are often cultural, and religion-based and nurtured, and reflect underlying power relations. Negative stereotypes hinder people’s ability to fulfill their potential by limiting options and opportunities. They translate into practical policies, laws and practices that harm women on the ground. Its effect on the mental and physical integrity of women is to deprive them of equal knowledge, exercise and enjoyment of rights and fundamental freedoms.
- Stereotypes justify gender discrimination more broadly and reinforce and perpetuate historical and structural patterns of discrimination. Such stereotypes widen gaps within the labor force and reduce women’s full participation in the global economy. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2014, the gender gap for economic participation and opportunity is 60% worldwide – measured by the difference between women’s labor force participation, wages and income compared to men. Globally, women make up only 14.6 percent of executive officers, 8.1 percent of top earners and 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.
- More examples along these lines include gender pay gap, occupational segregation, denial of promotion to leadership, glass ceiling in various occupations, increase in casualty of female workers and feminization of poverty, trafficking, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, Honor killings, violence included. against women in domestic spheres, work place and public places, and lower levels of equation and wo
- RK Opportunities. In fact, the paradox is that the objective of equal economic opportunities for women with better access to education is yet to be achieved.
A could not be achieved. Reconciliation of family and work is exclusively a female matter. It weakens the family and increases discrimination of women in the labor market. No country in the world has been able to bridge the gap in economic participation.
- Women are under-employed, under-paid and under-represented in top managerial and executive positions in business and politics. This leads to continuous wastage of human talent and hinders economic development. It is impossible to achieve the common goals of global sustainable development and poverty reduction without greater participation of women in economic and political life. Women are key to creating more jobs, promoting research and development, encouraging innovation, increasing competitiveness and fighting social exclusion. Gender equality is often seen as an expensive endeavor. But it is time to recognize that the cost of inequality is far higher.
- Women’s work as unpaid work
- With a strong sense of work being considered ‘productive’, work participation rates for women have always been lower than for men. Even at the ideological level, women are considered ‘non-working’. Women are the larger workforce because they are more likely than men to do ‘unpaid’ activities, whether economic or non-economic, women have more unpaid care work than men, and unpaid or low-wage economic activities More likely to join. , More generally, women are less likely than men to engage in full-time regular employment.
- ‘Workers’ in formal sector enterprises, which is the simplest form of work to capture in surveys. Often the work of women is not recognized by the society, their families and themselves. they are
- Instead they are considered as housewives, and thus not economically active, even though they are engaged in economic work.
- Following are the areas in which women’s contribution as ‘workers’ remains invisible and unpaid-
- Care work- Care work includes taking care of the family members by doing household chores like cooking, washing clothes, cleaning, collecting water and fuel and many other such domestic tasks. Along with this it also includes the subsistence labor of women performed by her for the survival of the family and not for the market. Because the care work is located within the home, it is considered
- The ‘labour of love’ is necessary and natural and remains unpaid and invisible. Feminist groups have argued that by making this care work unpaid within the home, the capitalist market maximizes profit as it enables the rejuvenation of the existing labor force and the free reproduction of future generations. Women as care workers are only nurturers, breeders, homemakers and housewives who are completely dependent on male bread-earning partners. (Tambe, 2010)
- Home Based Production- This includes participation of women in home based businesses. These usually include occupations such as farming, pottery making, cloth and wool making, pickles and other household industries. These industries are largely organized using family labor as it involves flexibility of time and low cost of production. Women’s work is productive as they constitute a major part of the labor force in these industries and their labor is unpaid as it is not recognized as work but as part of their domestic duty. This unpaid family labor is also common in modern businesses such as grocery stores, vegetable vendors, etc. It is because of this subsidy and the vital labor that women perform within the home-based productions that the domestic industry survives and sustains. (Same)
- Gender gap in labor force participation
- Economic empowerment is considered as one of the indicators of empowerment in the condition of women. In fact, ample number of researches have been done to prove that women’s economic independence not only boosts their own survival but also that of family, community and society. The World Bank Policy Paper on ‘Enhancing Women’s Participation in Economic Development’ (1994) states that women invest proportionately more than men – in education, health, family planning, access to land, inputs and extension – a important part. An act of social justice along with a developmental strategy. It directly reduces poverty through substantial social and economic payoffs. Studies show that income controlled by women is more likely to be spent on household needs than income controlled by men. (page 194)
- Despite some progress over the past few decades in increasing women’s labor force participation and narrowing the gender gap in wages, gender equality in the world of work still remains an elusive goal. In particular, in the developing world, women make up a large proportion of the world’s working poor, earn low incomes, and are often affected by it.
- Longer duration of unemployment than men. This is due to the socio-economic disadvantage of women due to gender-based discrimination and their dual role of being workers and caregivers for the society. productive resources, education, skill development and labor
women often have less access to the jar
- Opportunities compared to men in many societies. Largely, this is due to persistent social norms dictating gender roles, which are often slow to change. Furthermore, women continue to do most of the unpaid care work, which poses an increasing challenge to their efforts to engage in productive work in both subsistence agriculture and the market economy. Segmentation in the labor market leads to two major types of gender discrimination (Sen: 2012)
- Wage gap between men and women
- Discrimination in terms of women’s concentration in particular sectors, primarily primary, restricting them to certain types of work in teaching and other care-based industries such as nursing and housekeeping.
- Women make up a little over half the world’s population, but their contribution to economic activity, growth and well-being is well below its potential, as measured with serious macroeconomic consequences. Despite significant progress in recent decades, where there has been a clear but gradual change in the status of women in society and their increasing visibility in both the organized and unorganized sectors, labor markets around the world, especially in developing countries, remain divided along gender lines. But they are divided, and progress toward gender equality appears to have stalled. According to an ILO report in 2014, female labor force participation (FLFP) has been lower than male participation, women are responsible for most unpaid work, and when women are employed in paid work, they are informal. are over-represented in the region and are among the poor. , They also face a significant pay gap compared to their male colleagues. In many countries, labor market distortions and discrimination restrict women’s options for paid work, and female representation in senior positions and entrepreneurship remains low.
Some of the factors affecting the full participation of women in the labor market are-
- Lack of unionization to protect women’s rights as workers
- Lack of purposeful human resource development policy aimed at improving women’s employability and productivity through training.
- Conceptual ambiguity about the social and economic status of women in different parts of the world.
- Segmentation in the labor market that works against women.
- Adverse effect of technological development on women.
- The common argument of ‘equal pay for equal work’ appears to be majorly misleading on several levels. Naturally marginalized groups like women, children, tribal communities, scheduled castes and so on continue to be exploited at the hands of the dominant groups. Occupational segregation is one way through which gender inequalities are maintained at the workplace in both the formal and informal economies. Occupational segregation refers to the distribution of people within and between occupations and jobs based on a demographic characteristic, which is often gender. This naturalness and desire for occupational segregation at the workplace further diminishes the prospects of women.
- Accredited worker. Occupational segregation operates both horizontally and vertically. Women are crowded to the bottom and exist only as tokens at the top in the business hierarchy. This type of segregation prevents women from moving upwards which leads to pay disparities.
- feminization of labor
- Kanji and Menon-Sen (2001) explain the term ‘feminization of labour’ in two ways. First, it is used to refer to the rapid and substantial increase in the proportion of women in paid work over the past two decades. Globally, the 20-54 age groups account for nearly 70% of the paid workforce members. The figure is less than 60% in developing countries as a group. (United Nations, 1999). The problems are further compounded because these figures do not capture women’s participation in the rural and urban informal sectors in developing countries which is generally less visible and therefore undercounted.
- However, this low-wage informal sector remains an important employer of poor women in developing and transitional countries (Mehra and Gamaye, 1999). There has been a shift of employment from manufacturing to services in developed countries and from agriculture to manufacturing and services in developing countries along with the trend of feminization of labour. Second, the term ‘feminisation of labour’ is also used to describe the flexibility of labor for women and men, a result of the changing nature of employment, where unregulated conditions once characterized women’s ‘secondary’ employment. Used to go Widespread for both sexes. Informal activities, subcontracting, part-time work and home
- E-based work has proliferated while unionization rates have declined (Standing, 1999). Particularly in the southern region, the standard labor law applies to fewer workers, either because governments have not enforced it or abolished it outright, or because the existing law is weak and enterprises have been able to circumvent it. Deregulation of labor markets, fragmentation of production processes, deindustrialization, and the emergence of new areas of export specialization have led to an increasing demand for low-wage, flexible female labor.
formal
Women workers in organized sector
- The formal sector is an organized system of employment with clear written rules of recruitment, agreements and responsibilities. A standardized relationship is maintained between the employer and the employee through a formal contract. Over the past two decades, the female labor force participation rate has dropped from 57 to 55 percent globally, according to a 2014 ILO report. Women and men work in different sectors, professions and firms. Women consistently earn less than men, mainly because of their concentration in low-paying activities and less access to productive inputs.
- Globally, women are paid less than men. In most countries, women pay an average of 60 to 75 percent of men’s wages. Unfavorable norms and overlapping barriers are major hindrances in the way of expansion of women’s economic activities. As farmers and entrepreneurs, they do not enjoy equal access to credit, land or bank accounts. Prejudicial norms limit opportunities by establishing gender roles early in life that dictate time use and limit expectations of the girl child.
- It helps to explain why progress in closing the gender gap in one area, such as school enrollment, may not expand a woman’s economic opportunities if social norms or gender-biased rules limit her activity . Legal barriers to women’s work are also a remarkably common barrier. In 2013 of 143 economies, 128 had at least one legal difference in how women and men are treated; 56 countries have more than five such barriers, and 28, more than ten. These barriers include restricting women’s ability to access institutions (such as obtaining an ID card), own property, build credit, or get a job. 79 countries also placed restrictions on the types of work women could do. Husbands can prevent their wives from working in 15 economies.
- Ghosh et al (2014) have pointed out that the onset and advancement of education and the changing mindset of ‘Generation-Y’ have forced women to think differently to maintain social values and ethics. Furthermore, globalization and changes in economic and social status act as positive catalysts for changing roles and perceptions of the self (Stedum & Yamamura, 2004). Women are participating in large numbers in the public sector and moving towards managerial ranks or higher level management of their participating organization. But Career Path doesn’t welcome women to the red carpet. Despite these positive changes, women still face intangible barriers to climbing the corporate ladder.
- Historically, participation in the formal economy has been perhaps the most important route to women’s empowerment and increased gender equality. Formal employment can increase a woman’s access to skill development, market information, credit, technology and other productive assets, social security, pensions and social safety nets, and increase the means of earning personal wealth in the form of land, housing and capital. Could The resulting increase in its human and economic resource base contributes to higher productivity, economic empowerment and enhanced economic status, which may result in higher social status; More equal power relationships with men, as well as greater autonomy and negotiating power. Participation in paid work is also associated with a lower likelihood of domestic violence.
In the formal sector, the following occupations have more number of women-
- Teaching
- Human Resources
- Air-hostess/ flight attendant
- Receptionist
- Glass ceiling effect
The term glass ceiling was used in Gay Bryant’s 1984 book The Working Woman Report. It was later used in a 1986 Wall Street Journal article on barriers to women in high corporate positions. As a political term, it is described as an “overlooked, yet unbreakable barrier that prevents minorities and women from climbing the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.” Look at the informal barriers that prevent minorities and women from receiving promotions, pay raises, and further opportunities. It is glass because it is not usually a visible obstruction, and a worker may not be aware of its existence until he “hits” the obstruction. The glass ceiling is not a barrier to a person merely on the basis of the person’s inability to handle a high level job. Rather,
The glass ceiling applies to women as a group who are prevented from advancing to higher levels simply because they are women.
The invisible barriers leading to the glass ceiling are as follows (Tambe. 2010)
- Family responsibilities of women which is also considered as their primary role at workplace.
- Hostile workplace environment.
- Sexual harassment at workplace, as women are treated as sexual objects.
- Managerial and supervisory jobs are considered masculine and thus unsuitable for women as they tend to be poor managers and decision makers.
According to Community Business, a Hong Kong-based dedicated to the diversity and inclusion sector
Only 48 women have been appointed out of 1,112 director positions among 100 companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange, a non-profit organisation. he only becomes
Canada’s 5.3 percent of such positions is well below Canada’s 15 percent and the United States’ 14.5 percent. While companies in new sectors of India’s economy are attempting to reverse that trend, they are lagging behind multinationals. India’s Women in Leadership Forum said last year that women hold 5 percent to 6 percent of senior positions in top businesses such as IT company Tata Consultancy Services, IT services company Zensar Technologies and JSW Steel. Two-thirds of our Top 500 companies belong to family business groups and their succession usually proceeds with a strong male preference. Even among general officers, family responsibilities often affect the career progress of women in their early 30s and they lose out to their male rivals on their way to the top.
Indra Nooyi case
Indra Nooyi, a married mother of two from a modest middle-class background, was elected as the chairperson of PepsiCo in 2007. , said in a lecture at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, a few years before he got the job. “Immigrant, person of color and woman – that’s three strikes against you. So I have to work extra hard. More hours, yes. More sacrifices and trade-offs, yes. That’s been my journey.” Mrs. Nooyi, who left India at the age of 23 to study at Yale Management School, worked at Johnson & Johnson, Boston Consulting Group and Motorola before landing a job at PepsiCo. His pay package last year was US$ 10.66 million. Last year, she was ranked number one on Fortune magazine’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women and sixth on Forbes magazine’s list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World. But where Mrs. Nooyi gracefully breaks through the imaginary glass ceiling, she is alone at the top. Only a few Indian women have managed to climb the highly competitive corporate ladder till date. (The National: 2011)
Women workers in informal/unorganized sector
On the other hand, the informal sector exists only on oral understanding, as it has no written rules or agreements. It has no fixed salary or hours and mostly depends on daily earning. Women are more likely than men to work in informal environments. According to the ILO report (2014), in South Asia, more than 80 percent of women are in informal employment in non-agricultural jobs, 74 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, and 54 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean. In rural areas, many women derive their livelihood from small-scale farming, almost always informal and
often unpaid. Despite earning income from informal work, the majority of the poor are women. Just as they earn less than men in the formal economy, they earn less in the informal sector.
Primary source of employment for unpaid women in the form of informal sector self-employment (selling directly to consumer), contract labor (regular production for another organization), casual labor (working on and off for other organizations) Is. Contribution of family members. The most prevalent forms of work are as street vendors or home-based producers (that is, without leaving the confines of the home to produce). According to a 2011 paper by the International Labor Organization, 83.8% of South Asian women are engaged in so-called
‘Weak employment’. The work these women are doing may qualify in most cases
‘Casual labour’, piece-work such as the manufacture of clothing and other small items, produced within the confines of workers’ homes. Informal labor is usually characterized by the absence of decent labor conditions as recommended by the ILO and the lack of any form of safe and adequate wages. Women workers represent a substantial portion of this so-called informal workforce, a portion that has actually grown substantially over the past 20 years. In fact, this growth in the informal economy is significant because it mirrors growth in the formal economy. What position do women generally occupy in the informal sector?
- Agricultural labor
- Garbage Pickers
- Beedi Industry
- Domestic Helper/Maid
- Street Vendor
- construction workers
- Sweat-shirt Industry
Chen (2001) outlines the following ways in which women are exploited in the informal economy.
(i) fewer women than men engage in ‘hired’ labour, i.e. women are employees rather than employers;
(ii) wages are lower in the informal sector than in the formal sector, and within the informal sector, women earn less on average than men, the gender-wage-gap is greater than in the formal sector;
(iii) women are more visible in ‘low-value-added’ activities of the informal economy;
(iv) the most invisible informal workers, namely home-based producers, contribute the most to global trade as they form a significant portion of the workforce in major export industries that involve manual work or labor intensive operations, and;
(v) goods and services of the formal sector
Outsourcing is on the rise in the informal economy of services.
Case Study from India
Self Employed Women’s Association (Service)
Informal workers’ lack of power in the labor market stems in large part from their invisibility as a group. A pioneering Indian woman named Ela Bhatt found a solution when she formed the first women’s trade union of self-employed women in 1972, and successfully registered a group of informal women workers as a union. SEWA was able to negotiate with garment manufacturers on behalf of these self-employed women who were doing piecemeal work at home and in factories, while at the same time developing services that increased women’s economic literacy, skills and bargaining skills. Power improved.
It expanded to form other cooperatives, such as those of street vendors or vegetable vendors or craft producers. Over time, it established a micro-enterprise loan program that was adopted by Grameen Bank. Such has been the success of this grassroots organization in mobilizing and increasing the economic potential of informal women workers who subscribe to it, that in 2006 the Government of India invited SEWA to help formulate a national policy on home-based work. Now with 1.2 million members across the country, SEWA has also been successful in lobbying the government to pass a social security bill for informal sector workers. The service has been instrumental in creating global partnerships that have resulted in the founding of HomeNet, an international alliance of home-based workers, and StreetNet, an alliance of street vendors. (Result: )
Gender disparities in time use are still large and persistent across countries. It is very important to acknowledge this in order to understand how male workers are treated as the norm and women as the anomalous within the economy. It is important to understand that the gendered division of labor that is easily absorbed into the way economies operate globally. The subordination of women in the economy is out of necessity to ensure that patriarchal practices are kept intact within capitalist societies. When paid and unpaid work is combined, women in developing countries work more than men, with less time for education, leisure, political participation, and self-care. Despite some improvements over the past 50 years, in virtually every country, men spend more time each day at leisure, while women spend more time doing unpaid housework. When more women work, the economy grows. An increase in female labor force participation—or a decrease in the gap between the labor force participation of women and men—results in faster economic growth.
With the achievement of independence in 1947, women leaders were faced with the opportunity to defend the rights and status of women in the new political system. Leaders relied heavily on a strategy of achieving equality through legal reform in the areas of personal laws to address inequalities in family, marriage and property relations. Addressing the issues of inequalities in personal laws meant addressing the issue of male supremacy in their family based on two different roles for men and women. During the social reform and national movements, an upliftment of the status of women and increased participation of women in the economic, social and political life of the nation was advocated, but without altering the separate roles of men and women in the family and society. Thus demanding equal rights within these structures was a threat to the ‘stable’ family and patriarchal society, fears about which were reflected during debates on fundamental rights and reform of personal laws.
10.2 The Constituent Assembly and the Women’s Question:
The promotion of a stable family life based on two distinct roles for men and women remained the focal point around which social reform and national liberation movements revolved. It was within this ideological framework that the Constituent Assembly of India worked on the question of women. The debate in the Constituent Assembly reveals its eagerness to guarantee gender equality in the political and to some extent economic spheres, but strong opposition to gender equality in the areas of marriage and family, which were governed by religious laws.
There appears to have been a broad commitment to social reform, as evidenced by the inclusion of the Directive Principles in the Constitution, but a complete reluctance to offend religious sensitivities. It included the right to freedom of religion in the chapter on Fundamental Rights and promised to secure a Uniform Civil Code in the chapter on Directive Principles. A conflict between freedom of religion and women’s rights was anticipated by Amrit Kaur and Hansa Mehta, who objected to the guarantee of freedom of religious propaganda and practice. He believed that the words ‘propaganda’ and ‘custom’ could invalidate future laws prohibiting child-marriage, polygamy, unequal inheritance laws, etc., because these customs could be created as part of religious practice. Could they wanted religious freedom
Be limited to religious worship. It was suggested that “freedom of religious worship, freedom of conscience and the freedom to freely practice religion should in fact be given to the individual and the community all that he or she owes.
There is an indication that at one point the suggestion was accepted, but the decision was reversed when the majority in the minority committee voted to reintroduce the terms ‘publicity’ and ‘practice’. Provided that the above clause does not prevent social reform.
Constitution and issues of women’s equality:
The Constitution of India accepted the principle of equality of the sexes. Its Preamble spoke of equality of status and opportunity and social, economic and political justice. Article 14 assures equality before law and equal protection of laws as a fundamental right. Articles 15 and 16 prohibit discrimination of any kind on the basis of sex in public places and public employment. Article 15 also provides that the State may make special provisions for women and children and such provisions cannot be unconstitutional infringing of the right to equality.
Similarly, the retention of personal laws that are based on the principles of gender inequality and subordination of women to the male members of the family and the decision to postpone the enactment of the Civil Code
Equal rights for men and women also negate the principles of justice and equality enshrined in the Preamble and Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution. The right to freedom of religion embodied in Articles 25 to 28, as interpreted and legislated as personal law, deprives women of equality personally, economically and socially. sexual, social, educational and cultural levels. The Constitution has nothing to say on women’s labor in the home, AR Desai (1984) describes the economic assumptions of the Constitution, as enshrined in Articles 23, 24 and the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, which according to him, Excludes all labor which produces a use. Value (not produced for the market) as non-productive and non-remunerated.
This notion excludes women’s labor at home as having any economic value, generating use values and not commodities. Nor does it view women’s day-and-night work for the family as economic exploitation, especially in the absence of equal rights over family property and productive resources. This judgment excluded a large population of women from the purview of justice and also undermined the right to equality.
The oppression of women in a male-dominated society and the social injustice caused to the lower castes due to the perpetuation of the caste system were not seen
As to the wider issues of social exploitation inherent in the patriarchal system and the hierarchical caste system. Rather, the low status of women as well as other backward castes and classes was regarded as a result of social disabilities arising from our position of backwardness and weakness. That is why the Constitution envisages a ‘Special Provisions’ clause to help these classes and castes overcome the disadvantages, disabilities or weaknesses faced by them. Thus, the problem of deprivation and inequality faced by women is not seen in a way that sees it as being entrenched in the social, economic and political structures of society and politics. Its eradication required social efforts at both physical and ideological levels to make the principles of equality and justice a reality for women.
Women and Five Year Plans:
The focus of programs and activities designed for women was basically to provide welfare services and opportunities such as education, health, maternity and child-welfare, family planning, nutrition and training in arts and crafts. The emphasis in planning was on ensuring women’s legitimate role in the family and community and the provision of adequate services to fulfill that role. Both the nature of activities and the content of training and education were to emphasize separate areas of work for men and women. For example, women’s education focused on providing courses on home-science, child-care, nutrition, health-care, home economics, music, dance, nursing etc. for girls as a major strategy.
Welfare extension projects included provision of maternity child care services, craft classes, social education for women and child care through balwadis.
An analysis of the First Five Year Plan shows that Indian planners were primarily concerned with helping women fulfill their domestic roles more efficiently. The activities identified in this regard were recreation, education, arts and crafts and cooperative participation in social and economic activities of the whole country.
Although no special attention was paid to women’s issues in state policies and plans, the consideration for women was not completely non-existent. Concern for women was reflected in the women’s sections in the Five Year Plan, in the policies and programs of the Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) and the Community Development Program (CDP). There are three major areas of women’s development for planners: education, health and women’s welfare.
planner
prepare women for their legitimate role
This was also reflected in his educational project. Similarly, it was said that providing health education to women was important because, “Educating a woman is educating the whole family” (Government of India: 1951).
The Second Five Year Plan emphasized the need to pay special attention to the problems of women workers who were suffering from certain constraints. For example, unequal pay and lack of adequate training facilities to enable them to compete for higher jobs. It was suggested that possibilities of part-time employment for women should be explored. Both the Second and Third Plans emphasized female education as a major welfare strategy. The courses recommended for girls during both the plans were home science, music drawing, painting, nursing etc. (Government of India: 1961). Under the labor policy, relief and assistance were to be provided to the disabled, old people, women and children.
The Third Five Year Plan also advocated the recruitment of women in family planning programmes. It called upon the trained workers to take up the welfare project
To attract women in sufficient numbers to take up professions like Gram Sevikas (village level social workers). To achieve this, provision was made for residential accommodation, transport facilities and opportunities to work with voluntary organizations such as Mahila Mandals.
No new proposals were made in the Fourth Plan. It reiterated the assistance given to voluntary organizations for implementing programs of women and child welfare. In the field of education, it is observed that there is still a wide gap between the enrollment of girls and boys. The only thing mentioned to encourage girls’ education was that “emphasis will be laid on providing sanitary facilities for girls” (Government of India: 1969). The labor and employment section of the plan did not mention women even once. was done.
The Fifth Five Year Plan once again emphasized the functions of the homemaker for women in both the need for training and educational programmes. It was suggested to start a program of functional literacy giving priority to training needy women from low income families and needy women with dependent children and working women. The objective of this program was to provide women with the necessary knowledge and wisdom
Skills to perform the functions of a housewife, such as child care, nutrition, health care, home economics, etc. Substantial expansion of needy women like widow, destitute and physically challenged was to be done. According to the Fifth Plan, two things were needed for the expansion of education for women. One was the availability of more women teachers and the other was “orientation of curriculum to meet their special needs as housewives and career seekers” (Government of India: 1974).
The underlying realization of the Sixth Five Year Plan document, which included a separate chapter on ‘Women and Development’, was that non-recognition of development and economic issues as women’s issues had marginalized women in society. The plan recognized women’s lack of access to productive resources and education as important factors hindering their development and stressed the need for employment generation for women.
In addition, it identified the main issues of development of women’s health, education and employment. The decision to give joint title to husband and wife in all developmental activities involving transfer of property was a revolutionary decision. This objective was also reiterated in the Seventh Five Year Plan. One of the significant deficiencies in the development of women was identified as the pre-occupation of women with repeated pregnancies.
In this context, special emphasis was laid on providing minimum health facilities along with family welfare and nutrition to women and children. Both the Sixth and Seventh Plans looked at the health needs of women mainly in terms of maternal needs. Family welfare program was to be given top priority. The Seventh Plan brought out the importance and value of domestic non-monetized work by women as an economic variable for the first time but did not go so far as to suggest its inclusion in GDP accounting. The main thrust of both the schemes in the field of women’s welfare was their economic upliftment through more opportunities for salaried, self-employment and wage-employment. The Seventh Five Year Plan pioneered the idea of the Women’s Development Corporation to help women become financially independent and self-reliant. The plan recognized that lack of infrastructure and access to credit, poor marketing facilities and changing production relations unfavorable to women are major barriers to women’s employment, especially in the case of self-employed women.
The Eighth Five Year Plan deviated from the practice of including a separate chapter on ‘Women and Development’. Women’s issues were included under the chapter ‘Social Welfare’. There is no apparent reason behind the change, but despite loud announcements about changing the state’s approach from ‘welfare’ to ‘development’ for more than a decade, women continue to be treated as recipients of social welfare by the state can go.
Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2000)
1) The report of the Working Group on Women’s Development for 2015 also pointed out that the December 1991 Directional Paper was completely silent on the objectives, thrusts and macro-dimensions of the Eighth Plan.
1) The report of the Working Group on Women’s Development for 2015 also pointed out that the December 1991 Directional Paper was completely silent on the objectives, thrusts and macro-dimensions of the Eighth Plan.
1) The report of the Working Group on Women’s Development for 2015 also pointed out that the December 1991 Directional Paper on the objectives, thrusts and macro-dimensions of the Eighth Plan was completely silent.
Targeted approach towards the development of women. The plan made two notable and innovative observations.
First, it has led to under-reporting of women’s contribution to the economy and gender bias.
Attention was paid to the fact of perceptual, methodological and perceptual problems reflecting biases that did not attach any economic value to domestic work and various types of subsistence activities. Second, it recognized the need to change societal attitudes and perceptions regarding RO.
About women in different walks of life. The plan document acknowledged the rise in violence against women. It said women suffer due to ignorance of their legal rights, strong social resistance to giving women their due share, lack of legal aid facilities and almost absence of strong women’s groups in rural India.
According to the plan, change in this regard can be facilitated by the empowerment of women and adjustments will be made in the traditional gender specific performance of tasks. The plan also noted the existence of a large number of women-headed households and suggested increasing women’s control over economic assets and services.
Social Welfare and Women:
The Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) was established as the central official agency to implement the welfare programs of the state in accordance with the various Five Year Plans. As a result, both the CSWB’s policy direction and structure have been plagued by problems since its inception. In the beginning there was no clarity about what ‘social welfare’ was. In the absence of clarity of objectives, no direction could be laid down in which direction the programs were to proceed. This was very detrimental from the perspective of women as these programs ended up giving little financial support or training in traditional crafts. While many welfare programs
Efforts were made to improve the earning power of women, but it did not have the desired effect. This was because while women were trained in production skills, no attention was paid to organization and marketing. The result was that these schemes could not achieve the objective of providing employment and making women economically independent. At an ideological level, training in traditional and domestic crafts tended to reinforce women’s traditional areas of work.
It also emphasized societal notions about the home being the main sphere of activity for women. The assumption was that these activities could very well be done from home where women could easily combine both household work and income-generation. In short, the programs were neither equipped nor intended to introduce women to new technological developments and the process of modernization.
Women in Community Development Program:
One of the earlier efforts to improve the status of women in rural India began with community development programmes. This program was launched in 1952 with a view to bring about socio-economic transformation of the rural community by mobilizing both government and community resources. The program was aimed at all round development of the rural community with the three basic objectives of economic development, social transformation and self-reliance with the help of local people. Despite this, both the people and the bureaucrats had no clarity on its objectives and how they were to be achieved.
The program had nothing much to offer as far as women were concerned. There are two versions on this omission. According to one, the planners in their preoccupation with agricultural development forgot about this aspect. It is not possible to take root in any program until women come to the fore. Realized this too late. According to another version, the policy-makers deliberately refrained from devoting themselves to women’s work, because of the social resistance faced by the rural community as well as the prejudices of the planners and implementers. Within a few years, the government decided to integrate the Central Social Welfare Board and the Community Development Programme, which added a welfare services component to the Mahila Mandal programme. There was no plan in the programs for such schemes, which could increase the income of women. In its absence, considerable effort was required to find a group of women willing to participate in the program and then to sustain their interests. As a result, many women fell
dropped out and the officials tried to bring them back without understanding the real reasons for the drop outs.
Agricultural Policy, Land Reforms and Women:
The two major objectives that dominated agricultural policy in India immediately after independence were to reduce social inequalities in land ownership and to increase agricultural production. Land reforms and modernization of agriculture were two important policy measures adopted by the Indian planners to achieve these objectives. It was believed that increasing agricultural development would reduce poverty and that land reforms would lead to a reduction in disparities between rich and poor by eliminating intermediary interests between the state and the cultivators of the land, providing security to the tenants.
The medium will provide more social justice. Tenancy and eventually ownership rights and by imposing ceilings on land holdings and distribution of surplus land among the landless. The two goals—greater social justice and greater production—were seen as mutually helpful.
The above enumeration of the objectives of the land reform policy makes it clear that the land reforms were aimed at removing class-inequality and not gender-inequality. There is a general acceptance of the fact that the land reform policy adopted by the state was one of the biggest blows to women’s access to productive resources (Sharma: 1985).
In the context of land reforms in India, the position of women with regard to land rights was influenced by various factors. Firstly, the federal scheme of the Indian Constitution placed land as a state subject and the states were given considerable legislative powers with respect to agricultural land. Secondly, agricultural land was kept outside the purview of personal law, which governed matters of succession in other property. While the inclusion of agricultural land in personal law did not address the discriminatory aspects of these laws, women were denied whatever little inheritance rights they had under their respective personal laws. Third, since the land reform policy is guided by the twin objectives of social justice and improving agricultural production, the arguments for land to the tiller or farmer, fixation of land boundaries, prevention of land fragmentation, redistribution of surplus land, etc. Is. land reform process. But the goals of social justice and giving land to the tiller did not include giving gender justice
Women and women with equal land ownership rights are not seen as farmers or tillers by planners, law-makers and administrators while distributing land. In this context, the tenancy laws, land ceiling laws, assessment of surplus land, definition of household for the purpose of land ceiling and recognition of only male as the head of the household for the proposal to declare surplus land are all relevant. has contributed to both the perpetuation of gender inequality (such as excluding daughters and sisters from the purview of tenancy laws) and the creation of new ones (such as declaring land owned by women as surplus).
The subordinate position of women in the agricultural economy is linked to the state’s decision to transfer agricultural land according to local custom or state legislation, which protects the rights of men against women, or even the individual laws of each community. Also according to This not only led to multiple systems of tenancy laws but also state support to the dominant patriarchal culture in both tribal and non-tribal communities.
The country’s two major personal laws, the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 and the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, left agricultural land out of its purview, apparently barring female heirs from sharing the landed property to keep. The Shariat Act of 1937 was passed with a view to make Shariat the basis of Muslim personal law. But since the Shari’a recognizes women’s inheritance rights, such a law would have had a positive impact on women’s rights in agricultural land. Such a move was seen as a threat to patriarchal interests on the land. The move was strongly opposed by the male landlords, resulting in the exclusion of land from the purview of the Act.
Since the legal system recognized only male rights in agricultural land, even the customary and usufruct rights of women in the land were adversely affected. Thus, when land reforms were carried out, they often reduced women’s control over land by ignoring the rights of its traditional users and granting land rights only to male heads of households. Although it was nowhere stated that women would not be given the right to land, the fact that gender inequalities were not recognized and were not seen as a problem in the same way as class inequalities, official prejudices contributed to the lack of access to land. Headings invariably dropped away. For the men in the family. In addition to tenancy provisions, land reform acts related to boundary demarcation have also contributed to widening gender inequalities. The boundary setting is directly related to the definition of family, which varies widely among states.
Public Policy on Women in the Post-1975 Period:
There is no doubt that it is to the credit of the women’s movement and women’s studies and research since the 1970s that gender has come to be accepted as a relevant political category and an important factor in the determination of policies at various levels. It is no longer just the movement that is addressing women’s issues, but academicians, state functionaries, development agencies and activists are all engaged in intense debates on the status of women and how this is part of their work and needs and strategies. related to improvement. their position. Expressions such as gender bias, gender discrimination, gender panning, gender sensitization and gender training are dominating development thinking and policy-making. During this, many issues related to the nature and accountability of the state were raised. wife b
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Violence against women in the family and discriminatory and oppressive conditions of work in informal sectors expressed women’s anti-patriarchal sentiments during this period. But it was only in the late seventies that widespread media coverage, the Western women’s movement, the International Women’s Year and the Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India (1974) brought a kind of focus to women-centred activities. While the institution of patriarchy became increasingly important in analyzing the status of women and understanding the movement, especially among leftist and autonomous women’s groups, the state remained a major site of struggle for the women’s movement.
Another key assumption that was attacked was the gender-neutrality of development. The exclusion of a large number of women from the grounds of progress, modernization and development became a defining focus of women’s studies in India. The “Towards Equality” report busted the myth that with constitutional guarantees of equality between the sexes, the development process would equally benefit all sections of society, irrespective of gender. This showed that the process of development affected men and women unequally due to the initial disadvantage of women. It also observed that despite formal guarantees for gender equality in the constitution, women were not only far from achieving equal rights but there are still areas where women do not have equal rights. Later unconventional questions such as the nature of women’s employment, the impact of technology on women, female-headed households, work conditions and female poverty, became the basis for ongoing work.
An important issue that was mainly focused on by running various campaigns was the issue of violence against women. Other areas covered in the campaign were sexual harassment of women on the streets and in the workplace, derogatory portrayal of women in the media and later, in the mid-eighties, the issue of sex-determination tests, female feticide. murder, sati (widow sacrifice) and violence against women during communal riots.
Social change of women:
Today both sexes have the right to civil marriage. Without parental consent, the age has been raised to 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys. Thus, monogamy, judicial separation, nullity and divorce are some of the salient features of the post-independence era which put man and woman on an equal platform. Inheritance, adoption and divorce (even by consent) have raised the status of women in India. The history of these reforms goes back a long way, and they are the result of the efforts of various reformists from various movements that they started in the pre-independence period. However, India does not have a Uniform Civil Code. Muslims have their own personal marriage laws.
Contemporary Indian society has been exposed to the pervasive processes of social change, agricultural modernization and economic growth, urbanization and rapid industrialization. However, these processes have created regional imbalances, sharpened class inequalities and exacerbated gender inequalities. All these have adversely affected various aspects of the status of women in the contemporary Indian society.
Most of the families in India, irrespective of their caste and religion, are patriarchal. Exceptions are tribes such as the matrilineal Nairs of Kerala and the Khasis of Meghalaya. Simply put, patrilineality refers to descent and inheritance through the male line. It also refers to patriarchy or the husband living in the father’s household, often with the father, brother, or brothers and their wives and children. In the family the child acquires the role of the family. Men wield more influence in the decision-making process and are far more visible and audible than their wives. Most of the household work in the family is done by mother, grandmother, sister etc. At mealtime the females carry food to the fields for the males. All these tasks which consume time and energy do not count as work or employment and do not involve any payment. But non-payment should also not mean non-recognition. In fact women are expected to perform all these tasks as a part of their traditional roles and are not given any special qualification for these tedious and exhausting jobs. According to the latest data, 14 per cent of Indian women are recorded as wage workers, of whom over 87 per cent are in the unorganized informal sector of the economy.
Without the paid or unpaid labor of women, the Indian agricultural economy would not be able to function. In the informal sector, there is no legal solution to the problem, no maternity or other benefits and little security of service. Working long hours as domestic servants, sewing clothes for the apparel export industry, working in small electronics manufacturing units or on the assembly line of beedi, tobacco, cashew factories, women stay at home
Fear of retrenchment, exploitation (often of a sexual nature) and inadequate wages. At the level of belief, regardless of social class, there is widespread commitment to the notion that a woman’s job should not interfere with or compete with her primary role of wife and mother. His
There are also concerns about physical safety and the reputation of the business. Clearly, working-class families are little able to ensure these conditions, and often their women work in very difficult conditions. Higher class occupations for middle-class women include teaching at various levels, librarianship, medicine, especially gynecology and paediatrics, specialization in health.
visit and so on. However, the availability of jobs is dependent on market conditions as well as access to higher education.
As women work long and exhausting hours, often in difficult and unhygienic conditions. Several studies have also documented how in the event of a shortage, women and girls suffer as a result of food discrimination.
Men and boys eat first, and are given larger and more nutritious portions. Traditionally, women in Indian society eat after men, and when there is limited food to distribute, they automatically receive less. What is important here is that food discrimination is not only a function of poverty and scarcity, but also of perceptions and expectations. It is believed that men need better and more food as they are hard workers and earners. The fact that women work as hard and earn as much is rarely taken into account. Certainly the labor and energy they spend in household related work is rarely noticed. These notions are part of a system where women’s lives are given little importance.
Granting fundamental rights and passing progressive laws have not paved the way for an egalitarian society. Even after so many years of independence, women are still victims of inequality, domination and exploitation. Whereas the Constitution of India prescribes the norm of family as egalitarian, conjugal and nuclear families of husband and wife who have entered into a marriage of their own choice; Several Acts, especially those relating to personal laws, provide legal legitimacy to different, diverse and contradictory patterns of family types for different religious communities.
These Acts relating to individual permits patriarchal, monogamous, bigamous families which not only shape different structures of families but also provide diversity and contradiction in the rights and obligations of different members within the family. as well as discrimination in respect of succession,
Descent, Heritage and Other Aspects of the Family (Desai: 1980). Reviewing the status of women under the Indian Constitution, it is argued that women have not been considered by the founding mothers as a particularly disadvantaged and disadvantaged community like the scheduled castes and tribes and other backward classes. Even the women of these scheduled groups—who are doubly depressed, first as women and second as women within the scheduled groups—are not seen as special constituencies within the scheduled groups. The Constitution does not see patriarchy as problematic; It takes it for granted (Bax: 1984).
It is not easy to adapt the legal system to the pace of social change. The Directive Principles of State Policy remain ideals; And the archaic functions remain operative. There is an Act like the Special Marriage Act, 1954, but the progressive legislation is still inadequate. Attitudes to women’s issues have not fundamentally changed. Woman is still seen more as an embodiment of virtue and sacrifice than as a citizen, equal to man and a participant in the process of development. Evils like bigamy, dowry, sex determination tests and prostitution (including child prostitution) have not ended. The Family Courts Act, 1984 has also not provided relief to women. Crimes against women are not decreasing. In addition, the legal process is cumbersome and costly.
There are some specific legislations for women workers. Yet the fact remains that the provisions of such laws do not reach all of them.
Despite some positive court rulings, discrimination against women in the economic sector remains a concern. Bisexual formulations, varied interpretations, half-hearted implementation of laws and the delay and expense involved in the judicial process make helpless women more helpless. Dr. Ambedkar, during the debate in the Constituent Assembly, sensed a contradiction between the sacred and the ritual from tradition. Women with less control over resources and their own lives are pushed by social forces to accept their subordinate position.
Legal theorists, and feminist scholars in particular, have debated the concept of equality and difference. Women are said to be equal to men, and are consequently judged by the same standards. At the same time, they are also said to be different from men, and therefore they deserve different treatment. The issue becomes more complex in the Indian situation, where the legal system has evolved from a colonial system to an independent one.
regime, resulting in a bizarre mix of traditions, religious practices, and principles of equality and rights.
The formal model of equality holds that equality equals equality, and that those who are equal should be treated equally. its cons
Rit, the original model of equality begins with the recognition that equality sometimes requires that individuals be treated differently. The focus here is not merely on equal treatment under the law, but on the actual effect of the law. the former
The explicit aim of this model is to eliminate the real inequality of the disadvantaged groups in the society. The formal model of equality continues to hold sway over the judiciary’s approach, although some inroads have been made towards a substantive model of equality (Kapur and Cosman: 1993). Feminists need to direct their attention towards developing an original model that is more approachable to women’s struggles (Kapur and Cosman: 1966). It has to be recognized that law by itself cannot bring about social change. Reconstructing equality requires a conscious formulation of positive ideology and practices as well as a sustained challenge to the premises, ideology and strategies that reinforce women’s subordination (Desai and Thakkar: 2001).
Women’s movement
The term “women’s movement” does not refer to any single, unified movement or entity. It is made up of several movements based on a wide range of issues. This involves using different approaches at different time points. It is a term used to describe “the feeling that all these movements” are working towards the emancipation of women in some way or the other. These movements aim at reforms in public life, educational sector, workplace and home, in short, they aim at a complete transformation of the society.
Women’s movements can be termed as conscious and collective movements that try to deal with a set of problems and needs specific to women. These needs or problems are, in turn, created by a socio-cultural system that puts them at a marked disadvantage compared to men. According to Urvashi Butalia (cited in Shubha Chacko, p. I). Thousands of years ago, in 800 BCE, legend has it that Gargi, a female philosopher, led a philosophical tournament at the court of the Hindu king Janaka. He challenged a new competitor, Yajnavalkya, a man. He has said: “Just as an expert archer attacks his enemy with piercing arrows, I attack you with two examination questions. Answer them if you can”.
Defeated by the questions, Yajnavalkya resorted to the same answer that people have been using for thousands of years: He told Gargi – just keep quiet. Thousands of years later, the number of challenges posed by women to men holding power over a long period of time has multiplied. Standing alone in the men’s gathering asking two questions is no longer a gargi. Instead, Gargi’s descendants number in the thousands. He has a thousand questions, and he is no longer alone. Nor are they ready to remain silent any longer.
According to Rajendra Singh, any theoretical perspective for the study of women’s movements and their strategy should include the following propositions:
In general, resistance and protest against unjust structures of power and institutions of patriarchy and patriarchal oppression of women begins with oppression itself. These atrocities are ever-present and all-pervading.
Resistance to deliberate rejection of injustice and practices of oppression typically goes through phases of overt expression of resistance and latent phases (when overt resistance is not visible). These stages depend on the historical experiences of the societies.
These forms of resistance overtly and covertly determine the methods, strategies and techniques adopted by women to fight for their identity, dignity, self-defense and social justice. Sometimes, women’s movements involve “silent warfare” waged by women to gain control over men in everyday life.
Women have resisted in patriarchal societies, usually because of silent and unorganized disenchantment, suppressed feelings of rejection, and gender injustice. These factors have led women to resist the erosion of identity on an individual level, and may have resulted in an organized outburst.
Reveal the women’s movements. They may remain passive in the context of organized movements, but are active on an individual level, and make conscious use of a whole range of methods such as art, trickery and trickery against men. These methods are usually adopted by women over men to deal with day-to-day situations of harassment.
For any individual resistance to become an organized open movement, it has to pass through various stages of maturity. This process involves sharing personal experiences of resistance with other individuals who have been placed in similar life situations. It also includes a stage where resistance becomes apparent or becomes an external issue, and a collective group emerges. An ideology that rejects negatively defined authority, leadership, mobilization, and communication emerges. Progress from a disorganized and silent individual resistance to an open and organized women’s movement has been uneven and difficult. It is also difficult for an individual protester to be part of an organized movement.
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In the everyday life situations of women in the male dominated world of contemporary societies, the art of resistance at the individual level, as well as organized mass movements co-exist and even work together, although they are conflicting practices and processes. May be
Women’s studies of the 1970s and 1980s focused on treating them as autonomous human beings from the perspective of family, marriage, socialization, or social status.
He is emphasizing on the identity, consciousness, subjectivity, and identity of women today. Bio-psychological foundations of his personality.
challenge to the women’s movement
It is generally believed that collective action on issues relating to women must be multi-layered, directed against multiple levels of domination such as caste, culture, ideology, and mean action both within and outside institutional frameworks . Thus, attempts are made to eliminate power both at the level of society and the state.
Challenges to the women’s movement in the context of challenges posed by globalization and communalism. To do this we must begin by looking at the category of ‘women’s movements’ and understand what it means in the Indian context. Like most social movements, the women’s movement in India is made up of many strands, which differ from each other in terms of the way women’s issues are understood, priority of issues, strategies and organizational forms, as well as collective nature. the actions they take. As scholars such as Roy (2010) point out, while specific historical periods have prioritized specific issues, broad consensus exists on what constitutes ‘transformational change’ for women.
Thus, in the Indian context, as argued by scholars such as Basu (1999), Omvedt (1993), we need to move out of the equation of feminism as movements organized by women autonomously from male-dominated organisations. is accompanied, since many forms are not included in such a formulation. Activism in the context of the struggle for democracy, nationalism and human rights, in which women ultimately raise questions of gender inequality, even if this was not their initial intention. Hence the category of ‘women’s movements’ includes not only autonomous women’s groups, but also wings of political parties, trade unions, rural mass-based organizations and left-affiliated women’s groups and mass organisations.
It is in the context of this understanding of the women’s movement that we address the question of the challenges it faced, particularly in the 1990s. This decade has been characterized as the Mandal-Masjid-World Bank years (Niranjana and Tharu 1999). The turn of the 1990s saw these three major influences on India’s economic and political landscape. While they are often lumped together, we need to remember that their coming together was conjectural rather than structural and that each meant very different pulls and pushes for the women’s movement (John 2009).
The first of these forces, known as the secular rise of caste, arose out of the Indian government’s decision to implement the Mandal Commission’s recommendations to increase reservations in government employment and higher education for Other Backward Classes (OBCs). appeared in context. It was strongly opposed by the so-called ‘forward’ classes, who had till then rejected caste in their public dealings. This permanently changed the nature and language of Indian politics. There has been a consolidation of a wide range of regional, lower-caste political parties that have subsequently emerged as important players in national politics (Menon and Nigam, 2007). In this context, caste then took center stage and in the context of the modern democratic set-up, it became possible to speak of caste without being casteist.
It was also a period of complete collapse of the ‘Nehruvian consensus’, which was seen as a vision of a self-sufficient economy based on a model of import-substitution industrialisation, a secular polity and a non-aligned foreign policy. (Menon and Nigam, ibid). This period marked the beginning of the structural adjustment program under the auspices of the IMF and the World Bank. This happened in the context of the collapse of the socialist bloc, which made neoliberal reforms inevitable.
The third major force, identified as the ‘Temple’, can be seen in the rapid rise of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party as a major contender for political power at the centre, which was formed during this time period. Inspired by a successful mobilization for The construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and leading to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. This has been seen as a new wave of communal violence against Muslim minorities in the country, a pattern repeated, most notably in Gujarat in 2002.
As scholars such as Menon and Nigam (2007) point out, however these factors arrive at this particular estimate, it is important to remember that they have a long history of development, which can be traced back to the late 70s and 80s. Is. However this conjecture has come to mark a watershed in the politics and economy of India and also in the understanding of social movements. All social movements in India, including the women’s movement, have influenced and influenced these projected factors in different ways.
have impressed. For the movement, this has thrown up challenges as well as new forms of mobilisation, new issues and strategies. we will focus here on t
The two major challenges presented by the neoliberal policy regime are also often spoken of in the context of the challenges of globalization and communalism. We are arguing that although the phenomenon of globalization and
While communalism is interlinked, they are not identical in terms of the challenges they pose and hence each of them needs to be looked at separately.
This chapter consists of four sections. In the first section, we will look at the different ways in which globalization has been understood and why it is seen as a challenge to the movement. The second section looks at the movement’s responses to the challenges of globalization, particularly through international organizing. The third section outlines feminist scholarship on the challenges of communalism and in the final section we look at the responses of the movement.
Understanding Globalization and its Challenges to the Women’s Movement
As we saw earlier, the decade of 1990s is marked as watershed in terms of changes to be made with neo-liberal economic policies, opening up of market and economy, proliferation of media etc. Globalization has influenced the nature of social movements in general and women’s movement in particular. Social movements scholars have described these changes as a ‘decline’ in the women’s movement as the methods of organizing and activism changed (Krishnaraj 2003) specifically termed as ‘the NGOization of feminism’ (Chaudhury 2004) . Scholars such as Dietrich have argued that the loss of socialist vision, coming both from an international context of the collapse of ‘pre-existing socialism’ and from an ideological vacuum, has adversely affected the women’s movement in India in which it has been included. The ideology of ’empowerment’. He argues that in this climate, it is difficult to even think of alternatives and therefore proposes that a re-emergence of a ‘socialist vision’ which would mean ideological clarity, self-reliance and simple living is essential for a relevant politics. (Dietrich, 2003)
Scholars have pointed out how the proliferation of NGOs led to a wider restructuring of the political sphere. It also points out how the matrix of NGO-ization in India is largely non-feminist, as NGOs engage with state, donors, market and civil society actors through complex networks and relationships that span these boundaries. . (Sangri 2007) Scholars point out that the increasing participation of NGOs in each National Women’s Conference reflects the fact that the women’s movement today is a highly financed affair. (Biswas 2006)
Concerns around the expropriation of autonomy and agency for global funding imperatives, the privileging of expert knowledge and solutions on structural analyses.
A shift in power, decision-making patterns and methods, all seen as a shift from people-based, agitational political struggles to a professional project of governance, and a general fragmentation of the Indian women’s movement (Roy 2011, Jayawardene) 2009 and Alvarez 1999). It has been seen to promote temporary, careerist, “nine to five feminists” who are then seen as ‘the most obvious fallacy of the commercialization of feminism’ (De Alvis, 2009: 86).
social development activity (Kudva, 2005). It has been noted by scholars (Alvarez, 1999) that with the ‘boom’ in NGOs, there have been major changes in the character of autonomous women’s groups, which have changed in their organizational structure, funding patterns, strategies, programs and even their objectives. have also appeared. It has been argued that he focused on service
representatives of civil society (Alvarez 1999).
This has been particularly noted in the Indian case, as many autonomous women’s groups that were formed in the late 1970s and 80s, until the 90s, remained funded given the lack of organizational resources and readily available funds. NGO has been formed. This has led to a formulation that professionalization has enabled women with little or no political commitment to practice feminism as a profession rather than politics (Menon, 2004).
Women’s issues by the state The state has chosen the language of ‘gender’ where gender is equated with ‘women’, and through programs like Mahila Samakhya on the one hand and programmatic interventions like self-help groups on the other has been operated. ,
While it has been argued that it is the withdrawal of the state from ‘welfare’ that marks globalisation, we have to see that there is a clear difference between what was actually happening to the state in the 1980s and 90s. However in the 1980s, the international policy agenda, led by
Neo-liberal stances in the main international financial institutions minimized the state and reduced its powers; in the late 1990s, the state was brought back as an institution that
Took the main responsibility of governance (Mukhopadhyay, 2007). The first phase of the ‘good governance’ agenda sought to build a technocratic state that would be an efficient and honest manager. Although later the political state
There was a growing interest in reforming and creating liberal democracies. Despite the realization that strengthening democracy and increasing the role of the state in protecting the rights of citizens requires a reconstruction of the political relationship between the state and society, the formula for democratic reform focuses on the institutional design of the state.
This included reform of the electoral system, decentralization and devolution of government, and reform of the administrative and legal system. Development discourses supported by the power of funding, projects and knowledge production produced the idea of a state without politics and proposed a generic model of the citizenry unmarked by social ties. Without state intervention to guarantee social rights for all, many new sites for civic participation were opened. (Mukhopadhyay, 2007) The power of the state to influence social redistribution was underestimated.
Other.
However, we need to critically examine the nature of this civic participation. In this paradigm, policy making is not viewed as a political process, but as a process of negotiation between diverse and often competing and conflicting demands. It has come to be seen only in the context of mixing the obvious. As scholars have pointed out, accounting practices and narrow cost-benefit definitions of efficiency assume greater weight in the policy process than ethical objectives of governance such as human equality and democratic accountability (Brody, 2005). Questions of gender have been found in the context of this state as ‘women’s empowerment’, making this visibility of gender particularly problematic for the women’s movement.
Responses of the Women’s Movement to the Challenges of Globalization: International Events
The women’s movement in contemporary times is faced with the challenge of maintaining itself, sharpening the edge of its struggle in the face of challenges posed by globalization and communalism. The most urgent task for feminists in the 1970s and 80s was to address the question of women’s ‘invisibility’. In contemporary times the visibility of women is no longer an issue. As feminist scholars Tharu and Niranjana (1999) point out, “women are suddenly everywhere”. Today’s questions of the women’s movement are how
To contend with this ‘overvisibility’ of certain groups of women – especially urban, middle class, upper caste women and how to conceptualise ‘the gap between women’. The question has been asked, how to understand this visibility? Should this be interpreted as a success of the women’s movement or has the concerns and language of the women’s movement been co-opted by agendas and institutions that actually seek to stifle and remove this potential? The rise of right-wing and market feminism on the one hand and the critical political claims and theoretical interventions of Third World and Dalit feminists as well as feminists centering the question of sexuality have challenged the notion of the ‘universality of gender oppression’. It has taken the initiative to question the fault lines of caste and community that exist within the so-called homogenous category ‘woman’. A contemporary theory of gender has to take these defects into account. Without an alliance with democratic, change-oriented forces, the dream of complete social transformation of the women’s movement cannot come true.
We can understand the response of women’s movements to the challenges of globalization in three ways: One, look at efforts such as the World March of Women, which has been a feminist anti-globalization international network, to see how feminist organizations within India How has he reacted? By focusing on these challenges, their hybrid nature, and through strategies such as inter-sectoral organizing and, third, feminist interventions in state-led empowerment programmes.
Scholars have pointed out that women’s movements, though universal in goals and motivations, are locally situated in terms of their character (Basu 1995). This scholarship has emphasized the ‘local origins, character and concerns’ of women’s movements. Scholars have pointed out how women have challenged universal understandings of feminism and thus shifted feminism among marginalized/subordinated groups. It has been pointed out that the history, size and analytical scope of the women’s movement in India does not fit with models of localism or etymology. (Sangri 2007) The movement’s local origins, character and concerns then become very important in mapping the larger movement. At the same time movements influence and are influenced by the global. More recently the study of social movements has attempted to move beyond models that assume a nation-state as movements increasingly have a global reach and international mobility.
This has emphasized the importance of international advocacy networks as borders between states become permeable to international political activism. It is seen that the processes of globalization have led to the expansion of communication networks as well as possibilities of solidarity across borders. Such international events have blossomed within the women’s movement, with feminist activists participating increasingly and self-consciously within international forums and as both local and global organizations.
women’s movement as they are perceived (Cockburn 2000, Basu 2000, Steenstra 1999, 2000, Sperling et al 2001, Thayer 2010). This period has seen very influential international support networks around issues of sex work, trafficking, migrant labour, gender-justice laws, etc.
Scholars such as Moghadam (Moghadam 1996) have argued that international networks are organizing women around the most pressing issues of the day and that they have a wider and more far-reaching impact than local movements. We can take the example of the World March of Women, an international feminist action movement uniting grassroots groups and organizations working to eliminate the root causes of poverty and violence.
against women. The march involves a total of 6000 grassroots women’s groups and its importance lies in the diversity of its constituent groups which include unions of informal sector workers, women’s mass organizations, feminist NGOs etc.; Controversial Reliance
Politics more than lobbying and the ways it brings gender into the anti-globalization movement and the anti-globalization agenda in women’s movements. WMW is coordinating campaigns in various countries, which adopt the overarching agenda of ‘freedom from poverty and violence’, responding to the specificities of neoliberal politics in the respective nations.
Batliwala (2002) argues that the emergence of international grassroots movements with strong constituency bases and sophisticated advocacy capacity, both at the local and global levels, is a significant event in this context. These movements are formed and led by poor and marginalized groups, and defy the stereotype of grassroots movements being narrowly focused on local issues.
They symbolize both a challenge and an opportunity to democratize and strengthen the role of international civil society in global policy. This is the importance of international networks.
At another level, feminist organizations have responded to the discourse of NGOization in a number of ways. It has been shown by scholars that earlier assessments of NGOization may be overly pessimistic and that feminist politics is being pursued in many unexpected sites (Alvarez 2009). Feminist NGOs have a mixed face which seeks to combine service delivery mode with agitational mode. In a context where globalization has intensified economic inequalities, service delivery modes are seen as essential and it has been argued that even when they are service delivery, feminist NGOs are important producers of feminist knowledge and feminists. As disseminators of discourse – makers not only for policy, but also for other social movements and civil society organizations.
Thus, feminist NGOs are involved in mobilizing not only people but also ideas. It has also been argued that NGOization, as an effect of the United Nations Decade and associated development strategies, has had contradictory political effects for feminist movements. There are growing class, cultural and strategic differences between highly professionalised, international feminist policy experts on the one hand and more aggressive and militant grassroots movements on the other. This requires rethinking our imagination of movement, thinking of it as a kind of mega-network that includes more formal as well as fluid, informal networks.
through the centralization of the voices of ‘career feminists’ belonging to feminist NGOs, indicating that we need to move beyond puritanical and dichotomous understandings of feminist activism and identities, and instead, focus on points of convergence and hybridity Scholars have shown how passion/vocation, real/virtual, activist/service delivery may not be useful binaries for understanding movement (Roy 2011, Nazneen and Sultan 2013). It has also drawn attention to other spaces, such as urban cyberfeminist activism (Mitra-Kahn 2013). , It has been argued that the hybrid activist space consisting of ‘offline’ street activism and ‘online’ campaigning is a conscious counteraction to the notion that young middle-class women are disinterested in feminist politics. Thus, it emerges from these readings that globalization and the various configurations made possible through it have created space for young women to intervene politically in ways that would not have been possible for an earlier generation of feminists. . Thus, these new feminist subjectivities, however linked to the field on which they are built, cannot be easily reduced to a ‘co-opted’ neoliberal subject, as many critics have assumed.
Then we need to look at the fact that in the context of India there are a number of organisations, such as the unfunded mass organizations associated with the Left parties, which have remained unfunded. For example, All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) which is the largest women’s organization in the country today. AIDWA has responded to the challenges of globalization by organizing what it calls ‘inter-regional’ events, focusing on the possibilities of solidarity between disparate groups of women, on over-pervasive rather than discreet aspects of women’s lives. focusing. Thus, neoliberal policies and communalism campaign
The protests have been major goals, with concerted organizing around issues such as universalisation of the public distribution system, violence against women, crimes related to ‘honour’, privatization of health care, etc.
The protests have been major goals, with concerted organizing around issues such as universalisation of the public distribution system, violence against women, crimes related to ‘honour’, privatization of health care, etc.
सार्वजनिक वितरण प्रणाली के सार्वभौमीकरण, महिलाओं के खिलाफ हिंसा, ‘सम्मान‘ से संबंधित अपराध, स्वास्थ्य देखभाल के निजीकरण आदि जैसे मुद्दों के इर्द-गिर्द ठोस आयोजन के साथ विरोध प्रमुख लक्ष्य रहे हैं।
The protests have been major targets, with concerted organizing around issues such as universalisation of the public distribution system, violence against women, crimes related to ‘honour’, privatization of health care, etc.
सार्वजनिक वितरण प्रणाली के सार्वभौमीकरण, महिलाओं के खिलाफ हिंसा, ‘सम्मान‘ से संबंधित अपराध, स्वास्थ्य देखभाल के निजीकरण आदि जैसे मुद्दों के इर्द-गिर्द ठोस आयोजन के साथ विरोध प्रमुख लक्ष्य रहे हैं।
AidWA to expand in an unprecedented manner in the exact period of globalization (Armstrong 2014).
Another major organizational form that emerged as a response to the challenges of globalization was the rise of unions of informal sector workers, especially women workers. Pioneered by Seva in the 70s and 80s, informal sector workers’ unions emerged as a major site of feminist resistance, especially since structural changes in the economy meant more information.
Malfunctioning of the workforce. In this context we find important organizations of domestic workers, rag pickers, self-employed women
emerged. There is also a lot of international organizing around the issues of labor in the informal sector in networks like Homenet etc.
The movement also opened up new possibilities, sites and strategies for movement.
Constantly interfered in this. At the level of initiatives such as gender budgeting and gender planning
Interfered in government programs like Mahila Samakhya.
The main objective of the Mahila Samakhya program was to achieve women empowerment through education. It was modeled on the highly successful Women Development Program (WDP) of the Government of Rajasthan. In this program women from different villages were trained to become village-level workers. These women were then trained to organize other women in the village into groups. The nature of the activities undertaken by the program in each village varied according to the needs and aspirations of the local women but education remained at the core of the programme. Feminists have continually intervened in the MS program to ensure that the vision of empowerment remains apolitical. Narayanan’s study in rural Karnataka suggests that poor rural women, supported by the solidarity network of the Sangh, can begin to challenge discrimination based on gender, caste and class. it
Due to continuous efforts in Uttar Pradesh for poor women elected in Panchayats
The relationship between knowledge and power in important ways.
Thus, as Menon (2004) has argued, in India, the globalization debate offers only one of two positions – a non-critical celebration of a homogenous globe, or an equally united nation against global capital. Celebratory Reclaimer. challenge to feminist
Women’s movement debate and action in the post-1990 period. The resistance that the movement has presented to globalization is constantly striving to do so.
The challenge of communalism to the women’s movement
The challenge of communalism to the women’s movement emerged in a context where religion and gender have become increasingly intertwined, not only in India but across South Asia. Religious forces have not only identified women as repositories of religious beliefs and keepers of the purity and integrity of the community, but women have also been involved in activism within this “communal” politics (Basu, 1999). For the women’s movement, both understanding and analyzing women’s participation in communal politics and how to deal with it has been a challenge. As scholars have pointed out, women’s relationship to political religion is contradictory and complex, as on the one hand it undermines women’s autonomy as well as creates opportunities for women’s activism. The women’s movement had to grapple with issues of religious identity
Field of struggle for the women’s movement and right-wing political formations in India (Roy 2011).
In this context, it is necessary to look into the Shah Bano case. In 1985, the Supreme Court
Husband), also remarked that the government enforces a Uniform Civil Code. this decision
They were under it for maintenance. The Shah Bano case and subsequent legislation became the basis for major controversies between Muslim fundamentalist groups, who upheld the law, and various aspects of the women’s movement, who criticized the law for characterizing Muslim women.
Women as secondary citizens, to groups that opposed the communalization of the gender question and demanded a gender-just Uniform Civil Code, and to Hindu fundamentalists who supported the court’s call for the UCC, feeling that this would alienate the Muslim community His characterization was confirmed as backward and barbaric. In many ways the question of Shah Bano became the site of controversies around the community rather than questions of women’s rights.
Another important event to understand in this context is the debate and demonstration that followed the Roop Kanwar sati incident in Deorala, Rajasthan in 1987. Women’s groups have been criticized for not understanding what “real” Indian womanhood means and right-wing Hindu groups have argued for a woman’s “right” to be sati, again pointing to the complex ways in which Women are implicated in questions of religious identity and community autonomy. (Roy 2011).
There were broad similarities in the two cases. At the center of the debate were women’s rights, especially the property rights of widows and divorced women. However, both
In many cases, male religious leaders and fanatics were able to foment a “community siege”, thereby affirming their right to represent the community. The state took a position of favoring the male fundamentalists in both cases, sacrificing the rights of women to bargain with the larger ‘community’.
All these created many dilemmas for the women’s movement. on one
On the one hand, it had to deal with the rise of a hegemonic Hindu identity, which in many ways was reshaping the ideals of secular nationalism. On the other hand, both cases also took into account issues of difference and recognition of the fact that the identity of a ‘woman’ was multi-layered, with women often being in their own hierarchies. The third challenge that the women’s movement faced was how to understand the activism of upper caste, Hindu women who were not part of feminist activism.
This activism of upper-caste Hindu women was seen in the context of the anti-Mandal movement, where young, upper-caste Hindu women were taking to the streets to ask the state “Who will be their husbands?” If reservation is given to OBCs in government jobs. As Chakraborty points out, these women spoke the language of meritocracy and took to the streets as concerned secular “citizens”, while their questioning itself was framed through a tacit acceptance of caste endogamy. Therefore, as Tharu and Niranjana (1999) point out, there was a resurgence of these women in the public sphere, and they attempted to claim equality by eliminating competing claims by Dalit women.
Hindu upper-caste women also became active in women’s organizations affiliated with communal parties and in movements such as the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, Durga Vahini and Andolan.
When he took an active part in the communal riots in the wake of Ram Janmabhoomi
Strengthening the image of themselves in a new form, as kar sevaks who saved the birthplace of Lord Rama (Sarkar, 1996).
At another level, women’s organizations found themselves awkward allies with right-wing organizations when it came to issues such as the protest against the Miss World pageant. Although the reasons and analysis of the protest differed for the two groups: for the women’s groups it symbolized the objectification of women, for the right-wing groups it was an attack on “obscenity” and “Indian culture”. However, as scholars have pointed out, it became increasingly difficult for women’s groups to differentiate themselves from right-wing organisations.
Other groups and institutions are expected to follow suit as a basis for criticism. In fact, scholars have argued that women’s large-scale participation in communal organizations is linked to the fact that these organizations provide women with public space without criticizing institutions such as the family. In fact this participation is seen as an extension of the family/community.
Someone who needs to be ‘rescued’, the savior is being cast as the Hindu male.
Another important way in which communalism has posed a challenge to the women’s movement is through this declaration of rights, choice, freedom etc. language and recasting it in terms that create divisions among women , which is violent and deeply undemocratic.
There has been internal criticism from within the women’s movement of what it marks as the inherent ‘Hindu-ness’ of the movement. In their critique of the movement, Agnes and Patel point out that in their efforts to counter the selective ‘Western’ tag and claim indigenization, symbols (like Kali for women) and history (like the goddess as feminist) The women’s movement discovered and adopted were ‘Hindu’, collapsing Indian into Hindu. She also pointed out that while the Muslim or Christian woman was named and marked, the subject of feminism remained the unmarked ‘woman’, who was also the Hindu woman by default. He argued that to understand the rise of the Hindu right, the movement had to criticize its own practices, strategies and symbols.
Thus, we have seen how the mass mobilization of women in right-wing movements and their leadership and visibility in these movements became a challenge to the movement to understand and how feminist scholarship has described this as ‘reverse feminism’ (Basu 1999). understood.
We also saw how a challenge was presented to the movement through its internal critique, which showed how the women’s movement remained unmarked yet implicitly Hindu, upper caste (Agnes 1994, Patel). This forced the movement to reconsider the way the unmarked homogeneous category ‘woman’ was used within the movement.
Part 4: The Movement’s Responses to the Challenge of Communalism
In this section, we will look at how the women’s movement in India has responded to the challenge of communalism, particularly through the debate on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and the various ways women’s groups have responded to the call of the UCC Is. The demand for a Uniform Civil Code has a long history, but has come to the fore once again in the context of the Shah Bano case. The emphasis of the feminist demand for a Uniform Civil Code was more on gender equality than on ‘uniformity’. The argument was that all religious laws, because they have a basis in patriarchy, were against women.
are unjust and therefore an inclusive law is needed.
Comprehensive gender-just civil code. However, after the Shah Bano judgment and the observation of the Supreme Court, the question of Uniform Civil Code was put forth by the Hindu Right-
It was seen as a ‘progressive’ Hindu code as a reform of wing Muslim law. In this formulation, it was oral divorce and polygamy (essentially Muslim law) that were highlighted as practices in need of reform, not the unequal inheritance, property and other laws that existed among other communities.
For ‘Unity’ and ‘National Integration’ the emphasis was on ‘uniformity’. In a context when the demand for the UCC became communal, the women’s movement scaled back its demand for the UCC, arguing instead to focus on achieving gender equality rather than uniformity. The movement proposed several different options, including focusing on reform from within religious communities, creating and implementing an ‘alternative’ gender-judicial code that individuals could choose to enter, etc. Several attempts have also been made to reform Muslim law. From within the community, Muslim women are pushing for change. This has given rise to interventions such as the Model Nikahnama which takes advantage of the fact that Muslim marriage is perceived as a contract to create a gender-just marriage contract, the all-female Jamaat as a feminist informal justice mechanism, etc. Build.
At another level, the movement has sought to meet the challenge of communalism by being reflective of its practices and symbols. It has consistently sought to underline the inter-relationships between gender and communalism, showing how the imagination of communalism is gendered, how women’s bodies themselves become the battleground when it comes to strengthening community identity. is tried. The women’s movement has also been active in rescue and rehabilitation in cases of communal conflict, and in recording and documenting incidents of violence. Feminists have been at the forefront of efforts to bring justice to those affected by violence and highlight the gendered and sexual nature of such violence. They have challenged the impunity with which acts of gender violence are carried out in situations of communal violence.
women’s movement in india
The women’s movement in India can be seen in three “waves”. The first wave can be seen during the national movement, when there was mass mobilization of women to participate in the nationalist movement. Thereafter, for more than a decade, there was a lull in political activities by women. The late 1960s saw a resurgence in women’s political activity and can be called the second wave. In the late 1970s, a third wave of the women’s movement emerged, which focused on women’s empowerment.
Pre-independence women’s movement in India (first wave of women’s movement)
Reading of texts, religious, political, cultural, social oral stories, mythology.
Folktales, fables, songs, jokes, idioms and proverbs reveal that the subordination of women has existed in various forms since time immemorial. Of course, there have been acts of resistance at different times throughout Indian history, although these have been sporadic. There are many stories of how women questioned and went against the establishment in the works of Razia Sultana, Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, Ahilyabai Holkar, Muktabai, etc. women across
History attempted to free them from the shackles of oppression they faced on the basis of their birth. Many women from different castes joined the Bhakti movement. The saint stood for equal rights for men and women. This resulted in some degree of social freedom for women. Women participated in Katha and Kirtan organized by various saints of the Bhakti movement. This helped to free women from the drudgery and restrictions of domestic life.
The Bhakti movement was an egalitarian movement that cut across gender and caste distinctions. Some women like Meera Bai, Akkamahadevi and Janaki became prominent poetesses. The saints of the Bhakti movement produced considerable literature in the vernacular, or language of the people. Indian culture became accessible to women as well: the sages also encouraged the worship of female counterparts of male deities (Narayana-Lakshmi, Krishna-Radha, Vishnu-Lakshmi), which indirectly helped raise the status of women .
The women’s movement in India began as a social reform movement in the nineteenth century. Western ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity were being assimilated by the educated elite through the study of English. Western liberalism was to extend to the question of women and translate into an awareness on the status of women.
India has a tradition of women’s struggles and movements against patriarchy
Institutions of gender injustice have been weak compared to women’s movements in Western and European societies. In fact, women’s fight against the oppression of patriarchy has been slow to emerge. Much of the women’s writing of the eighteenth century expressed disillusionment with the prevalence of patriarchy and gender injustice, rather than any active resistance or rebellion against them.
They are Women tried to go against the male-dominated world (for example, by joining the Bhakti movement). Women of the nineteenth century found themselves completely suppressed and subjugated by the male patriarchal ideologies and attitudes of the time, although there was a feminist identity consciousness and an awareness of their plight. However, this awareness did not turn into an open and organized struggle for self-interest and existence. Although there were feelings of deprivation and anger against the injustices meted out to women, these remained mostly unspoken and overblown. Sometimes slightly open. In today’s world, feminist movements have gained expression due to similar factors.
Social Reform Movement and Women
There are two distinct groups of progressive movements aimed at the emancipation of Indian women. Both groups recognized the restrictive and coercive nature of social customs and institutions. One group opposed these customs and institutions because they contradicted the democratic principles of freedom and liberty. This group was called the Reformers. The second group sought democratization of social relations and removal of harmful practices based on the revival of Vedic society in modern India, which according to them was democratic. This group became known as the Revivalists.
The social reformers believed in the principle of individual liberty, freedom and equality of all human beings irrespective of gender, colour, race, caste or religion. She attacked many traditional, authoritarian and hierarchical social institutions and initiated social reform movements to free Indian women from their shackles. Although many of the reformers were primarily men, the aim of the reform movement was to improve the status of Indian women.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was one of the greatest social reformers of India.
He was concerned about the many evil customs that were planning the Indian society. These include “saha marana” or sati, female foeticide, polygamy, infant marriage, purdah, lack of education among women, and the devadasi system. Raja Ram Mohan Roy led a crusade against the practice of Sati, in which a widow was forced to immolate herself on the funeral pyre of her dead husband. Sati was practiced in many parts of India. This was accepted and waived on the grounds that it would secure “moksha” for the widows. It was also felt that if a woman survives the death of her husband she may go astray. This sentiment was contradicted by the king, who felt that a woman could be betrothed even during her husband’s lifetime. In fact, after the death of the husband, the woman is under the protection of her family, so she can be monitored more carefully. King strongly refuted the contention that sati was a free, voluntary act of the widow, and called it a monstrous lie. The king’s arguments and anti-sati activities inspired Lord William Bentinck to legislate for the prohibition of sati, resulting in the passing of the Sati Prohibition Act in 1829.
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was another great social reformer who sought to improve the condition of widows by legalizing widow remarriage. Since he felt that his own life should set an example for others to follow, he vowed that he would allow his daughters to study, and would marry all of his daughters after the age of 16. He also vowed that if any of his daughters were widowed and wished to remarry, he would allow them to do so. He was also against the prevailing practice of polygamy.
Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade was instrumental in laying the foundation of the Indian National Social Conference—an all-India organization to fight for social reform. This organization was the first national organization to take forward the social reform movement collectively, in an organized manner and at the national level. He took up the problems of widow remarriage and was an active member of the society working for widow remarriage. In fact, Shankaracharya excommunicated him in 1869 for participating in the first widow remarriage. Ranade worked towards educating women. He and his wife started a school for girls in 1884.
Maharishi Karve expressed great concern for the plight of widows and the problem of widow remarriage. He revived the Widow Remarriage Association and started the Hindu Widows’ Home. Karve also made efforts to improve the education level of girls as well as widows. He created Kane Women’s University. Her efforts are of great importance in the Indian women’s emancipation movement, and her extensive and successful work brought about a change in people’s attitudes towards widows. To set an example for others, he married a widow after the death of his first wife.
Many institutions and organizations were established as a result of the social reform movement. The institutions started by the reformers covered the whole country with their activities. The institutions established during this period are as follows:
Gujarat Vernacular Society: This social institution was established in 1848. The purpose of this institution was to reduce the rampant illiteracy and superstitions that were a characteristic of Gujarati society. this gujarat
I was associated with all social reform activities related to women. The society worked for women through education. It started many co-educational schools. It published literature on women’s issues in the local press. It attempted to organize elocution competitions and provide a platform for women to talk about their issues and problems.
The Deccan Education Society: This society was formed in 1884. The Society started girls’ schools and encouraged women’s education in Maharashtra.
Ramakrishna Mission: The Ramakrishna Mission was established in 1897. It established homes for widows and schools for girls. It sheltered disabled and destitute women, provided prenatal and postnatal care for women, and provided training for women to become midwives.
Arya Samaj: Although started as a revivalist organization, the Arya Samaj laid emphasis on the education of women. Girls received instruction in home science and domestic affairs. Fine arts were also included in the curriculum for girls. This also
These included instruction in religion and religious ceremonies for women. It provided shelter to distressed women in times of distress.
Hingne Women’s Education Institute: This institute was started in 1896 to meet the demand of married, unmarried or widowed women. Tried to stop child marriage by giving training to unmarried girls in various fields. It attempted to provide skills and education to married women to enable them to lead a domestic life efficiently and economically. Provided training to widows
To make them financially independent.
SNDT Women’s University: This university was established to meet the higher education needs of women in a manner that caters to the needs of women. It provided education in the mother tongue. It was specially established for the education of women.
Seva Sadan: Seva Sadan was started in 1908 with the objective of bringing together enlightened women from different communities who wished to work for the upliftment of backward women. Its main activity was to provide social and medical help to poor class women and children irrespective of their caste or creed. It also established a home for destitute and distressed women and children. It also provided training to poor women in household crafts to enable them to earn a livelihood. Seva Sadan was established in Poona to educate women in religious, literary, medical and industrial subjects. It also laid emphasis on the all round development of the personality of the woman. It emphasized the economic self-reliance of women.
Indian National Social Conference: Some of the activities undertaken by this organization were to deal with the issue of child marriage, sale of young girls, practice of polygamy and widow remarriage. It also raised the problem of women’s access to education.
All India Women’s Conference: The primary focus of this organization was women’s education as well as social reform. Its objective was to actively work for the general progress and welfare of women and children. It passed various resolutions in different sessions to uplift the status of women. also dealt with
Prohibition of the evils of early marriage, polygamy and divorce. It advocated full equality for women in matters of property. It sought to improve working conditions for women. It also agitated against the immoral trade of women and children and the inhuman practice of Devdas.
Women in the Indian National Movement
One of the pioneers of India’s struggle for independence was Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, who became a towering figure in the history of Indian nationalism. Earlier, Mahatma Gandhi became the undisputed leader of the national movement; There were two prominent women who encouraged women to participate in the movement. One of them was Annie Besant, the leader of the Theosophical Movement in India. He advocated the emancipation of Indian women. In fact, many Indian women joined her Home Rule movement. According to her, the Home Rule movement was made ten times more effective by the participation of a large number of women, who brought to it the matchless valor, endurance and self-sacrifice of the feminine nature (Neera Desai, p. 135). , She considered child marriage as a social evil and wanted to remove it from the Indian society. For this he suggested that boys should not get married at an early age. He also supported the remarriage of child and young widows. He wholeheartedly supported the campaign to educate women and believed that this would help in successfully solving important problems of national life.
Sarojini Naidu was one of the pioneers of women’s participation in the national movement. Gopal Krishna Gokhale asked him to use his poetry and his beautiful words to rekindle the spirit of freedom in the hearts of the villagers. He asked him to use his genius to free Bharat Mata. In August 1914, she met Mahatma Gandhi, and from then on devoted her energy to the independence movement, Sarojini Naidu has established herself as an active politician and freedom fighter.
Worked in In 1917, she led a delegation to meet Mr. Montagu for women’s suffrage. In 1918, she passed a resolution at the special Congress session in Bombay supporting women’s suffrage. In 1919, she went to England as a member of the Home Rule League deputation to testify before a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
There, she pioneered the case for women’s suffrage. In 1919, she became a campaigner for the Women’s Satyagraha, traveling across India to promote the cause. He especially appealed to the women to agitate against the Rowlatt Act.
In 1920, Sarojini joined the Non-Cooperation Movement. In 1921, during the riots in Bombay, following protests against the visit of the Prince of Wales to the city, Sarojini Naidu toured riot-hit areas with the aim of persuading people for Hindu-Muslim unity. Similarly, she went to Mopla during the rebellion for its handling of a volatile situation and criticized government action. During the 1920s and 1930s, he supported the Akalis and opposed the ban imposed on them. In 1924, she went to South Africa, presided over a session of the East African Congress, and criticized the historic Antisemitism Bill. She went to jail several times and worked in various committees formed for independence. In September 1931, representatives of various women’s organizations in India met in Bombay, with Sarojini Naidu as its president, and drafted
A memorandum demanding “immediate acceptance of adult suffrage without distinction of sex”: the memorandum was accepted and women were given equal rights with men. This was a time when many other western countries were still fighting for gender equality.
When Mahatma Gandhi launched the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930, Sarojini led from the front along with several other Congress leaders. However, the British responded by arresting most of them. At this point Sarojini took charge and continued the campaign. Jawaharlal Nehru writes in his book “The Discovery of India”, “It was not only a display of courage and courage, but what was even more surprising was the organizational power they showed.”
Sarojini was a great orator. Everyone who met him was impressed by his ability to speak. She had a unified personality and could enthrall the audience with pure sincerity and patriotism. Although a Congresswoman and personally close to Mahatma Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu’s nationalist outlook was far more militant than Gandhi’s. As a feminist, Sarojini Naidu would seem to speak in two voices, one through her poetry and the other as a public figure. this is duality
The feminist consciousness that is reflected in her portrayal of the Indian woman, in which Sarojini Naidu shows the world weary sensibilities, the stagnation, the intractable suffering of Indian women who have nowhere in the world to go. As Sarojini Naidu’s political exposure increased in 1925, when she became the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress, a new portrayal of Indian womanhood entered her poetry. He also portrayed India as a sleeping mother who must be woken up by her daughter. In 1908, she laid the foundation for her great contribution to the women’s movement at a conference on widow marriage in Madras.
After the Jallianwala Bagh incident, in which hundreds of men, women and children were mercilessly gunned down, political consciousness grew among women. As a result, more and more women joined the national movement. Many women like Pandita Ramabai, Anandi Gopal and Savitribai Phule stood up against the colonial patriarchy. Gandhiji also had an important contribution in connecting women with the national movement. Gandhi ji believed that marriage should happen only when there is a desire for children. Her strong presence in the freedom struggle and her views on women greatly influenced her position in Indian society. He believed that child marriage is a cruel social practice which has a very negative impact on the physical and mental health of the child. Forced widowhood, especially for child widows, was sinful and irrational, and the parents of a child widow should make efforts on their own to get their daughter remarried. Gandhi was appalled by the widespread social evil of devadasis (religious prostitution of women), and believed that the majority of devadasis turned to religious prostitution because they were economically poor. He also condemned the purdah system as it is harmful to the mental and physical health of a woman. Gandhiji believed that women have a right to education and this education should not be limited to the three R’s. Education should help a man or woman to perform their duties effectively.
One of Gandhi’s greatest contributions to the emancipation of women was his emphasis on their participation in politics.
Gandhiji believed that women should have an equal share like men in achieving Swaraj for India. In fact, a large number of women participated in India’s freedom struggle. Women could participate in the movement, and were in fact encouraged to do so, because no
Gharsh’s methods were mainly non-cooperation and non-violence. They were active in the Swadeshi movement, or boycott of foreign goods, non-payment of taxes, picketing liquor shops, etc.
There was widespread participation of women in the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921 and the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930. As a result of being associated with and participating in the freedom struggle, Indian women realized the importance of living life as conscious human beings. Several women activists such as Kamaladevi Ghattopadhyay, Kalpana Dutt and Madam Bikaji Cama also gained prominence.
Women’s Movement in India after independence I (second wave of women’s movement)
There is a difference between pre-independence and post-independence women’s movements in India. The pre-independence movements were essentially about social reforms and were initiated by men. In comparison, the post-independence movement demanded gender equality, questioned the gender-based division of labor, and highlighted the oppressive nature of the existing patriarchal structure. In the post-independence euphoria, it was believed that the status of women would improve dramatically along with other marginalized groups as they were now prominent
However to their fate, when this was not achieved various movements emerged which raised many issues around various topics such as land rights, wages, security of employment, equality, etc. Some of the issues on which women united were work, population policies, atrocities against women including rape and alcohol.
After India gained independence from British rule in 1947, it was the Congress party that came to power and formed the government. The government made some efforts to fulfill the promises made to women before and in the early post-independence period as well. While making the constitution of India, the very important aspect of equality was included in it.
of men and women in all walks of life.
Article 14 of the Constitution of India states that “the State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India”. Article 15 states that “the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, sex, place of birth or any of them.” any special provision for women and children”. Article 16 states that “there shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State.” According to Veena Majumdar, “by inheritance The Constitution’s fundamental departure from social values represented its greatest intrinsic quality to the women of that generation.
For women with definite memories of pre-independence society and the freedom struggle, the acceptance of gender equality in the Constitution was the fulfillment of the dream of women’s entitlement to an independent identity. Creation of opportunities for women Many women were included in the government.
In the two decades that followed, in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a lull in feminist activities and women’s movements in India. However, women began to realize that the constitutional promise of equality by itself does not solve questions of equality, especially in a country as diverse as India, which includes different religions and cultures. The challenge of addressing inequality within women remains today. The women’s movement has not been able to “de-communalize” the issue. “Women’s organizations and feminists did not know how to deal with the problems of women belonging to different religious groups. When the feminist movement began in the 1970s, minority identities began to harden. This divisive environment affected Muslim women Religious fundamentalists tried to put the onus on women to maintain a religio-cultural identity.
Being a secular movement, the women’s movement found itself facing a formidable challenge that it did not know how to handle. At the conceptual level,
Indian feminists were in a dilemma: how to integrate Muslim women’s issues into wider feminist issues and at the same time protect their religious and cultural identity. This has been most evident in the case of Muslim personal law.
Placing Muslim women’s issues within the confines of religion has marginalized them, and has led to a reluctance among secular feminists to address their problems for fear of hurting religious sentiments.
The 1970s also witnessed a split in the Indian Left Front. This raised many doubts about his earlier analysis of the revolution. New leftist movements and ideas emerged. Certain streams of feminist movements also developed. Such as the Shahada movement, which was a movement of Bhil tribal landless laborers against the exploitation of tribal landless laborers by non-tribal landowners. It began as a popular protest, and became militant with the involvement of the New Left Party. It has been said that women were more active in the movement, and as their militancy grew, they sought direct action on issues specific to them as women, such as physical violence and abuse as a result of alcoholism. Groups of women went from village to village, entering wine shops
and destroyed the vessels and containers of wine. If a woman reports physical abuse by her husband, all the other women surround her, beat her up and force her to publicly apologize to his wife.
The formation of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) was probably the first attempt to form a trade union affiliated to the Textile Workers Union in Ahmedabad. It was formed in 1972 on the initiative of Ela Bhatt, and was an organization of women who were involved in different occupations but shared many common characteristics and experienced work conditions such as low income, extremely poor working conditions (
some worked at home, and others worked on the streets as vendors or hawkers), harassment from authorities (contractors, police, and so on), and lack of recognition of their efforts as socially useful work . SEWA aims to improve women’s working conditions through training, technical assistance, legal literacy, the process of collective bargaining, and teaching the values of honesty, dignity and simplicity, Gandhian goals to which SEWA subscribes.
The anti-price rise agitations in Maharashtra were a direct result of the drought and famine conditions affecting rural Maharashtra in the early 1970s. This led to a sharp rise in prices in urban Maharashtra. In 1973, the United Women’s Anti-Prices Front was formed to mobilize women against inflation. Within no time, it “turned into a massive women’s movement for consumer protection and a demand that the government fix minimum prices and distribute essential commodities. Huge groups of women, between 10,000 and 20,000, thronged government offices.” , would demonstrate at homes. MPs and traders, and those who could not step out of their homes, would express their support by banging thalis (metal plates) with sticks or belans (rolling pins).
This movement spread to Gujarat, where it was called Nav Nirman Andolan. In Gujarat, the movement began as a student movement against rising costs, corruption and black marketing. Soon, it became a mass middle-class movement and thousands of women joined it. Rituals included mock courts where judgments were passed on corrupt state officials and politicians, mock funeral processions, and marches to greet the dawn of a new era.
Women began participating in increasing numbers in the Naxalbari movement in West Bengal and the Naxalite movement in Andhra Pradesh, the Navnirman youth movement in Gujarat, and the Chipko movement. Shramik Mahila Sangathan (Working Women’s Organization), Progressive Organization of Women, and Mahila Samata Sainik Dal (League of Women Soldiers for Equality) were some of the organizations that emerged during this period.
Women’s movement in india
- movement against dowry
- movement against rape
- anti toddy movement
- Ecology-Feminism-Women and the Environment
- Such movements which work towards the liberation of women in one way or the other are called women’s movements. These are conscious and collective movements that seek to address the specific needs of women, and aim to improve their public life, educational sphere, workplace and home.
- The women’s movement in India can be divided into three phases or waves – the first wave can be seen in the pre-independence reform movements, the second wave in the post-independence women’s movements and the third wave in the contemporary feminist movement. Is.
- The women’s movement in India has its roots in the social reform movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the pre-independence era, the period saw the efforts of reformers and revivalists to improve the lives of Indian women and It has been improved. their position. Reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Mahadev Govind Ranade and Maharishi Ranade and revivalists such as Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayanand Saraswati and others made efforts to improve the status of women in India.
- Women were active participants in the national movement mainly due to the efforts of Mahatma Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu.
- The Shagun Movement during the 1950s and 1960s. This can be called a period of latency or stagnation in the history of the women’s movement in India.
- In the mid-1970s, there was a renewed interest in the status of women. In December 1974, the Committee on the Status of Women in India submitted its report to the Government of India ahead of the International Women’s Year in 1975. The Status Report brings to the fore almost the full range of issues and contexts affecting women and reveals that the status of women in India has not changed much since independence.
- The post-independence women’s movement has been most visible and heard in the public sphere. Dowry, domestic violence, alcoholism, rape and custodial violence became the basis of various women’s movements.
- Women’s rights as human rights were emphasized in the 1990s. The focus of women’s movements shifted from dealing with purely “gender” issues to national integration, environmental issues, natural disaster issues, and peace issues. Various issues are being tackled by women, and they are responsible for sustainable development, regional peace and human rights on earth.
New methods of mobilization for resistance and change are being adopted with an emphasis on improving lives.
- Despite the fact that women’s participation in many social movements is not being given due recognition, women continue to be active participants in these movements.
- The women’s movement in India has an important legacy in the social reform movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. With the emphasis on education for women, many evil practices were banned and women became self-reliant and empowered. Women made significant contributions to the nationalist movement, particularly the Swadeshi and Satyagraha movements (Forbes 1996). Women participating in the nationalist struggles formed women’s organizations at the national level. For example Indian Women’s Association in 1917, All India Women’s Conference (AIWC) in 1924. Women participated in leftist groups, activist movements, Ambedkarite and self-respect movements. However, women’s participation in the freedom movement along with men was emphasized, while at the same time they lived within the family and limited social circle. Thus without fundamentally challenging the patriarchal social order, women could access the public world.
- In the post-independence era, the optimism that independence would mean the end of gender inequalities inspired women’s groups to take up more welfare work. Welfare-oriented and reformist programs were also encouraged by the state.
- One of the most important achievements for women’s rights was the guarantee provided by the constitution in the form of universal adult suffrage along with equal rights with men and in doing so raised the standards with which we can see the all-round development of Indian women. Let’s assess the situation. , However, it must be said that these changes did not lead to any substantial change in their social and material life. While the constitution assured rights, women who began to explore economic and political mobility in the post-independence period faced obstacles. The new rights clashed with the patriarchal mindset that had pervaded social life in India for generations. With the end of the national movement in the 50s and 60s, the most important reasons for involving and organizing women disappeared. The government itself supported the development of ‘mahila mandals’ and reformist programs to address women’s issues. AIWC, for example, transformed itself from a
- Mahila Sangathan is primarily a social organization running schools and hostels rather than organizing women’s struggle. The 1950s was marked by a lull in the women’s movement. The main focus at this time was on nation-building and the accompanying social inefficiencies it faced resulted in the movement becoming fragmented. Women’s issues no longer held much importance in the public sphere.
- The module follows a timeline format to chart the progress of the women’s movement.
- This period of peace did not last long. 15 years later, beset by myriad problems the new democratic government refused to deal with, people began to organize politically with women playing a central role in these struggles. The 60s and early 70s also saw radical social movements – student revolts, worker and peasant protests, and tribal and anti-caste movements.
- These movements covered a vast range – from Gandhian-Socialist non-violent protest to extreme leftist Maoist insurgency. Many of the first women’s movements in post-independence India were started by Gandhian-socialists – the anti-liquor movement in North India and the anti-corruption movement among others. The new women’s groups clearly understood and analyzed women’s issues. Different from those before them. Their emphasis was no longer on charity and social work – a common feature among women’s groups in the post-independence era.
- Indu Agnihotri and Veena Majumdar in their article titled ‘Changing Terms of Political Discourse – Women’s Movement in India, 1970 – 1990’, write that the resurgence of the women’s movement in contemporary India “(1) has been affected by the crisis of the state. and the government in the Emergency in the 70s; (2) the post-Emergency upsurge in favor of civil rights; (3) the rapid emergence of women’s organizations in the early 1980s and women’s issues coming on the agenda; (4) the mid-1980s, marked by a radical progress; and the 1990s, when the crisis in relation to the state, government and society deepened. (Agnihotri and Majumdar, (1995), p. 1869)
- The women’s movement in India gained any real traction only after the 1970s. Price hikes and anti-liquor activities, along with protests in Maharashtra at this time, contributed to its growth. Two women’s groups that emerged at this time undertook to study the causes of women’s oppression. Both come from the far left Maoist – The Progress
- Women’s Organization and League of Women Soldiers for Equality. The women’s movement began questioning the state on legal issues ranging from land rights to rape, dowry and personal law.
- The movement is also raising questions on the path of development of the government.
were accusing him of being gender-blind. Even though these protests and movements could not claim women leaders as they were mainly organized by men and political parties, women became aware of their collective power. Radha Kumar (1990) argues that the most important movements at this time were Shahda1 and the anti-price-rise movement in Maharashtra and SEWA2 and Nav Nirman in Gujarat. The anti-price hike movement was started in 1973 by two socialist and one communist party together to mobilize the women of the city. In 1974, a large number of middle-class women also joined the Nav Nirman movement launched by students to protest against the rapidly rising prices in Gujarat. The movement was not particularly anti-patriarchal, in contrast to domestic spending and by extension the family and home as a woman’s sphere. Women students in Hyderabad, who were part of an organization called Progressive Women’s Organization (POW), started a campaign against dowry and sexual harassment. However, the fact that women joined the public protest in large numbers was in itself a threat to patriarchy, and Radha Kumar believes that this laid the foundation for the anti-patriarchal sentiments that would permeate the feminist movements of the late 70s. will follow.
- In the mid-70s, the United Nations declared 1975 as the International Women’s Year and 1975–1985 as the International Decade for Women. It gave a mandate to the governments of the member countries that they need to conduct research into the condition of women so that they can critically evaluate it. A special committee called the Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI) was appointed for the purpose and consisted of activists, academics and members of parliament.
- 1 The Shahada movement was a rebellion of tribal landless laborers in Maharashtra against landlords who were extorting money from them and treating them inhumanely. Women played a major role in this movement and once they
- Developed a ‘women’s consciousness’, he was also ready to raise issues like wife beating which he himself was facing. The anti-alcohol protests stemming from the Shahada movement also expressed patriarchal sentiments.
- 2SEWA or Self-Employed Women’s Association, formerly a wing of the Textile Labor Association, was an organization made up of women working in various occupations in the informal sector, but all facing low wages, miserable working conditions, etc. Had a similar experience.
- ‘Towards Equality’, the report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India which was completed just before the National Emergency in 1974, and is considered to be the foundation of the women’s movement in India as it opened up discussion about the ‘women’s question’ Started again. And what it means for policy makers and the state as well as for activists and researchers. Issues like gender inequality were brought to the fore through imbalance in sex ratio, mortality and trials faced by women at the social and cultural level like dowry, child marriage etc. It marked legal practices that were discriminatory, economic practices that failed to disadvantage girls and women, as well as women’s contributions to the education system and political system. The report served as an eye-opener and inspired many groups to take action. It effectively explored and showcased the devastating ground realities for women in India. The reality was, in fact, far from the constitutional mandate.
- The report gave rise to parliamentary debates which recognized that women were not only beneficiaries of policy but could also make significant contributions to the policy making process as policy makers. The press, through its coverage of dowry deaths and rapes such as the Mathura rape case, created awareness among civil society about these issues. In fact, the women’s movement and the media, working together, played an important role as far as the generation and dissemination of information is concerned.
- As far as the state is concerned, the decade of 70s was a time of ‘profound crisis’ within the society and the state, more so when the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi declared Emergency in 1975. government that led civil movements across the country to restore democracy. The women’s movement was one of the many movements that allowed citizens to play a participatory role in the political and development processes in the country. So when the emergency forcefully quelled the protest and agitation, the ideological discussions continued and by the time the emergency was lifted in 1977 many women’s organizations had already started talkies.
- ng size. Most of these groups were located in the big cities of Bombay, Delhi, Aurangabad and Madras.
- After 1975, the women’s movement felt the need to organize itself effectively and also started taking cues from public interest and popular politics. In the mid-70s, many middle-class educated women attempted to analyze the oppression of women as well as resort to radical politics. Many political parties started women’s wing – Congress had Mahila Congress
- And the Janata Party started the Women’s Efficiency Committee which led protests on various issues related to women. Gail Omvedt calls these ‘pre-movements’ because
They are important because while they show the power of women in society and ultimately lead to the development of women’s movements, they raise the issues of the entire class and society rather than just women’s issues. Acting as a starting point i.e. bringing a large number of women into mass movements, the 70s was a milestone in the history of the Indian women’s movement.
- 80s
- Careful analysis of women’s issues and oppression and the steps taken to improve their condition took the form of ‘Autonomous Women’s Movement’. By the 1980s, women’s organizations were not only evolving but forming alliances and defining their identity, purpose, and strategies. However, to emphasize that all women faced a common oppression was not sufficient as in reality intersecting systems of class, ethnicity, caste and power relations created differences. This is the reason why the women’s movement came to be seen as a middle class phenomenon. To compound these issues, by the mid-1980s women’s rights were also being attacked by using tradition and culture to emphasize that women’s natural historical role lay in reproduction.
- Autonomous women’s groups differed from older women’s organizations in that they were analyzing the root of women’s oppression and fighting for women’s rights and issues they considered important, from a new perspective and By employing militant means. ‘Autonomous’, in this context does not mean that the women’s question was depoliticised, but that the groups had no affiliation to any political parties, government or any political connections. Their members were far from apolitical and their leaders were young, dedicated to the cause, educated middle-class women who grew out of mass organisations. While mass-based movements focused on the problems of the poor and highlighted issues such as caste and communalism, they failed to recognize the oppression of women and the fact that they were perpetuating patriarchal norms in both the political and personal spheres.
- One of the most important issues the women’s movement began to address in the late 70s and 80s and continues to address today is violence against women within the family, community, society and state. This was done through campaigns against rape, dowry and new social evils such as amniocentesis3 and sex selection, as well as more general issues such as population control and political violence. The women’s movement in general has used legislation to effect social change.
- In the 1980s women’s organizations not only demanded legislative changes but also took action to challenge existing archaic and inequitable laws. The Mathura rape4 and its aftermath – The acquittal of the policemen of the rapists led to a nationwide movement to review the pro-rapist rape laws that existed at the time, along with the reopening of the case in the Supreme Court. The case became the spark that inspired women’s groups to organize against sexual assault in the 80s, especially of lower-class women who were particularly vulnerable to custodial rape, sexual assault and gang rape. Was An organization named Forum Against Rape was started in Mumbai. He publicly opposed it and demanded legal action. Their work paid off – rape laws were passed thanks to anti-rape campaigns in the late 70s and early 80s. The first women-specific report the government requested from the Law Commission was on rape. The commission considered the arguments and points raised by various women’s organizations and activists and finally recommended not only to change the substantive law but also to make changes in procedure and evidence a part of the law. In 1983, the Criminal Law Amendment Act was passed which made it a crime to disclose the identity of a rape victim and ‘custodial rape’ was made a new category of crime which puts the burden of proof on the rape accused . Anti-dowry campaigns run by the media in the 80s also helped in spreading awareness about this social problem. Organizations such as the ‘Dowry Anti-Dowry Chetna Manch’ in Delhi consisting of women’s rights organizations and other civil rights groups campaign to bring attention to one of the most extreme forms of domestic violence through street plays, posters and demonstrations have been
- Violence manifested in dowry death. The violence that women experience in the private sphere of the home is often hardest
- 3 A medical procedure in which amniotic fluid is removed from the amniotic sac that surrounds the unborn fetus. This procedure is ideally used to screen for prenatal chromosomal/genetic abnormalities or fetal infection, but is also used to determine fetal sex before birth.
- 4 The Mathura rape took place in 1972 when a young tribal girl was allegedly raped by two policemen in the premises of a police station in Chandrapur, Maharashtra. The Supreme Court acquitted the policemen who caused the agitation and protests
Eventually the criminal law relating to rape was amended in 1983.
- Reach and stop. A Joint Select Committee of Parliament appointed in 1981 looked into the issue. The Law Commission was also conducting an inquiry into the issue at the same time and submitted a report in 1983 with its recommendations for making changes to both the substantive law and the Evidence Act in relation to dowry deaths. Incidents of violence against women such as the rape of Mathura or Ramizabi5 as well as sati in the case of Roop Kanwar served as a rallying point for women’s groups and as a starting point for ordinary women to join the women’s movement. Worked in
- Some women who were part of the leftist movement in the late 70s and early 80s began to feel alienated and branched out from autonomous feminist groups that at that time focused on poverty, class and caste took up the causes of other social movements regarding the issues of In Hyderabad the POWs were replaced by the Stree Shakti Sangathan, which in turn influenced the formation of the pioneer organization in Pune. Stree Sangharsh and Women’s Efficiency in Delhi and Vimochana in Bangalore are among other major organizations started at this time. Magazines and magazines were developing and spreading the message of women’s equality in English as well as regional languages. Feminist Network in English from Bombay, Ahilya and Pratiwadi Chetna in Bengali from Calcutta, Baija in Marathi from Pune are just a few. The famous feminist magazine, Manushi was started in 1977 by a group of women in Delhi. The 80s saw a rise in feminist literature as feminist literary critics realized that women needed literature to have their own say – a space in which they could do so. Fully express their experiences and consider their feminine problems. This writing expressed feelings of anger, oppression, exploitation and hatred. A feminist consciousness was emerging from the participation of women in various mass movements.
- Attempts were also made to organize trade unions for women workers in the 80s. In Bombay he was particularly against the retrenchment of women mine workers and textile workers. At a time when work was hard to come by and unemployment was high, these efforts were not
- 5 Ramizbi (26) was a woman brutally raped by several policemen in Hyderabad in 1978, while her husband, a rickshaw puller, was killed as he tried to protest. During the legal proceedings allegations were made concerning the validity of her marriage and that she was in fact a prostitute. Her rapists were eventually acquitted.
- 6 Roop Kanwar (18) was a young Rajasthani bride who had barely been married for eight months when her husband of 24 years passed away. Roopkanwar immolated herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. While some reports claim that the act was voluntary, others say that she was forced to commit sati. After her Sati she was glorified for her deed and revered as ‘Sati-Mata’. 11 people were accused of ‘glorifying Sati’ and a special court in Jaipur acquitted all 11 of them in 2004.
- Was quite successful as expected. Women stood by their men demanding at least one wage per household, even if that wage was earned by a man. Feminists who attempted to organize these workers realized that women were more likely to become extremists if the cause was one that affected their families, rather than causes that specifically affected them as women. Were. Some women’s organizations also emerged from women’s participation in the wider peasant struggles, during which they began to recognize their own oppression. However, as we have seen in the case of women workers, their development was not smooth. While women were a central part of militant struggles, they did not succeed in changing the patriarchal basis of these organizations.
- For example, the status of women in the Mahila Mukti Morcha in Madhya Pradesh has always focused more on class than sex. The issues she focused on were mostly class and status specific, except in a few cases where discussions about the lack of women trade union leaders pushed gender discussions to the forefront. However, patriarchy was never a subject of contention in the Mahila Mukti Morcha as they believed that exposing the inequality in power relations between men and women would lead to a general weakening.
- Instead of strengthening the movement. The Chhattisgarh Mines Workers Union is a good example of this as their women members were more likely to organize successfully when the union was conscious of issues such as housing and schooling and health services for labor families. City-based feminists doing organizing work in these cases were learning valuable lessons. They were venturing into unfamiliar territory and sometimes coordinating activities with groups that had never been exposed to feminist ideas or activities. The women’s movement in the 1980s can, therefore, count among its successes an evolved understanding of rural women’s issues, even as it faces persistent criticism that it
There was a more urban movement in scale.
- An important question arises here. Will issue-based movements ever help create a broad-based women’s movement? Do we rely too much on legislative measures and militant activism as mere short-term solutions rather than on dismantling the larger structure of oppression? Will eventually the enthusiasm of the people in the movement decrease? In this regard, Kishwar argues that choosing only women’s issues narrows the scope of politics. Instead she suggests organizing as women, but also joining hands with other groups because women are always at least half of all oppressed groups. We should generally be present in movements when we fight for our own rights.
- The 80s was also a time when the state began to use the language of the women’s movement – saying that women’s groups needed to organize themselves and that women needed to fight for their rights. In early 1987, the Government of India set up a commission, The National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector, with Magsaysay Award winner Ela Bhatt, who was also a member of the Rajya Sabha at that time. , on top. The ‘Shram Shakti Report’ submitted by the five-member commission describes an in-depth study of ‘self-employed’ and unorganized women workers. It details the resilience of these women amid government insensitivity and lack of infrastructure. The report was vast in its scope and proved equally useful to both bureaucrats/planners and women activists.
- Women working as fishermen, rag pickers, construction workers in tea gardens or selling small wares on the footpath have always been marginalized – sidelined by the development process. Women in the informal sector often perform ‘male’ activities such as planting, harvesting, threshing and stone breaking, yet the census identifies them as housewives and nothing more. According to the commission’s findings, 60% of women were the sole earners for the family, but survived on half the wages of men. Commission chairperson Ela Bhatt said in the report’s foreword, “I have learned that these women are better fighters against poverty than their men, they have more calculative, stable, far-reaching strategies for dealing with their own environment, Yet women are poor. ..” (Sharma, (n.d.), p. 7) Failure to enforce the already existing laws only worsens the situation. The Shram Shakti Report therefore includes the recommendations made by the committee to maintain and promote grassroots organizations, inter alia, to improve the conditions of women in informal employment in India.
- A National Perspective Plan was also prepared in 1988 for the betterment of women. State support, which created plans to improve women’s lives in the areas of education, health, and participation in politics. All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Center for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS), National Federation for Working Women (NFWW), All India Coordination Committee for Working Women (AICCWW), United Women’s Program and YWCA of India all shared a thread Prepared a document in 1988 criticizing the NPP on the grounds that it was superficial and did not go to the root of women’s oppression.
- Celebrations marking the end of the decade for women in 1985 included a convention in Pune and an ideologically focused convention in Trivandrum organized by the All India Democratic.
- The question of women.
- Another challenge faced by the movement was fragmentation within autonomous groups – urban groups with a focus on issues such as division between activists and non-activists, domestic violence and oppression among the poor in both urban and rural areas, and understanding grassroots programs Areas competing for their existence in which gender issues form a part. Landlessness, poverty, bondage etc. are not only class issues but also gender issues as women suffer twice as much oppression than men in these matters. Compounding the problem of class and culture is the problem of communication between workers and non-workers. There exists a lack of communication between English Upper and Middle C.
- Fewer English speaking women and majority who are poor and Hindi speaking. This barrier ranges from language, dress and lifestyle to perceptions, attitudes and the kind of politics they use for their struggle and what will be its focus. This makes it difficult for a camp
- and which are completely related to feminist politics. will it ever be possible to heal the divide
- Benefits everyone?
- There has been an important relationship between women’s studies and the women’s movement. Women’s studies exposed women to scholarship and widened the scope of the struggle. Its attempt to understand women’s issues using economics, politics and an understanding of knowledge and power better equips women to transform their consciousness and give them a sense of identity and purpose. Women’s studies are not ‘value neutral’ like other social sciences. It seeks to bring about social change by clarifying gender inequalities and finding the roots of oppression of women.
There is wisdom in the form of interference to not bring. The Third National Conference of Women’s Studies in 1986 addressed the burning issues of the time – religion, secularism and women’s rights. There was a need to appreciate the close relationship between religion and patriarchy
- Was. “The two important issues raised during the discussion were at what point religious identity
- Identity gets contained within it. (Sharma, (n.d.), pp. 18)
- As mentioned earlier, the 80s was a time when traditional roles of women were emphasized. Resurgent forces were gaining power and secularism was under fire. When religion, which was gaining importance at such times, started taking precedence over their rights, women were the biggest losers, resulting in further inequality. Radicalism in the 80s in some ways pushed back the fight for women’s equality. It was reported only in 1975
- Secularism is justified with emphasis on science and modernisation.
- Violates the fundamental rights and the Preamble of the Constitution which promises to secure
- Secularism.” (Sharma, (n.d.), pp. 18)
- The often cited case of a Muslim woman, Shah Bano is a perfect example to illustrate the relationship between communalism, fundamentalism and women’s rights. Before Shah Bano
- The rights as citizens of the country were violated. Within Muslim society itself, there existed many
- And his comments on Muslim personal law angered fundamentalists who used it as a law
- On the one hand and his gender identity on the other were at opposite objectives to each other. One
- Loyal to the Muslim fold. Fearing alienation of a large and loyal Muslim vote bank, the new
- The Right to Divorce) Act (1986) took away the right of Muslim women to maintenance beyond the Iddat period.
- The women’s movement, which had begun to recognize the differences between women on the basis of caste, class, region and culture, was now forced to recognize religious differences as well. The category of ‘Indian woman’ now included an important component of communal identity. Any attempt to improve the status of women within a religious community was termed as ‘interference’ and going against the principle of secularism.
- With the dawn of independence came the promise of equality of all Indian women with men supported through a progressive and constitution. By the 1970s it was becoming clear that the reality of the situation would not be so reassuring. Joining the mass movements, which emerged as a result of dissatisfaction with issues in the 70s, with gross civil rights violations during the Emergency, upper, middle and lower class women in India about their power as a demographic Made aware. The anti-liquor and anti-price rise movements may not have been inherently anti-patriarchal, but they were nevertheless
- Helping women realize that they can actually contribute to a better life for themselves. ‘Autonomous women’s groups’ emerged in the late 70s and early 80s
– who had no political connections or affiliations. The ‘women’s question’ again came into focus with serious attempts to analyze and study the oppression of women and the role played by patriarchy. Various forms of violence against women like rape, sati, dowry death, female feticide etc. were all protested in different ways and through different media. Several violent incidents against women, which led to cases reaching the highest levels of the judicial system and their decisions mobilized women and further unified their cause of fighting the unequal system. A part of these protests also included demands to reform old laws and bring new laws in the interest of women. Another notable feature of the women’s movement in the 80s is the rise of fundamentalism and communalism and the price that women were paying at the cost of religious fundamentalism.
- There are various threads of thought and activism that have come together to form the contemporary women’s movement in India. These movements were initiated by the declaration of the United Nations Women’s Year in 1975. The status report of the Women’s Committee was also released this year. The report was a huge amount of data compiled on various indices indicating the status of women in India. The report directly attacked the myth that women in post-independence India were making “progress”: it revealed that most Indian women suffered from poverty, illiteracy and poor health, as well as discrimination in both the domestic and public spheres. She was suffering. This resulted in movements and campaigns by middle class women against the worst manifestations of sexism and patriarchy.
- The Report of the Committee on the Status of Women proved to be a turning point in the course of contemporary women’s movements in India. The report made the following recommendations:
- Equality not just for justice but for development;
- Attention should be paid to the economic empowerment of women;
- Childbirth should be shared as a social responsibility;
- Recognition of domestic work as a form of national productivity;
- Marriage and Motherhood
and should not have a disability;
- Women’s emancipation must be linked to social emancipation; And
- Special temporary measure for real equality.
- The year 1975 saw the growth of several feminist movements in different parts of the country, especially in Maharashtra. This is seen as an indirect result of the United Nations declaring 1975 as the International Women’s Year. Since the early 1970s there was a growing interest in women’s issues and problems in Maharashtra. Inspired by the formation of Progressive Organization of Women (POW) in Hyderabad, Maoist women formed Purogami Stree Sangathan (Progressive Women’s Organization) in Pune and Stree Mukti Sangathan (Women’s Liberation Organization) in Bombay. On 8 March 1975, International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time by both party-based and autonomous organizations in Maharashtra. In September a convention of Devadasis was held. In October, a United Women’s Liberation War Conference was held in Pune. A link was established between the anti-caste Dalit movement and feminism. Dalits were
- They were kept as untouchables because of their activities like tannery or scavenging. Dalits were agitating against social acceptance, women’s right to education, widow remarriage and purdah system. The women of the Dalit movement formed the Mahila Saranta Sainik Dalam (League of Women Soldiers for Equality). It emphasized equality, and highlighted the oppression of women, especially the oppressive character of religion and the caste system. ,
- In 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency throughout the country. This hindered the growth of the women’s movement. Many political organizations were forced to go underground. Many activists were persecuted and arrested. During this period, the focus of activists shifted to civil rights such as freedom of speech and association, the rights of political prisoners, the right to liberty and freedom, etc. Emergency was lifted in 1977. This revived some of the women’s movements which had come to a standstill due to the declaration of emergency. Women’s groups were formed in most parts of the country.
- The 1980s saw a transformation of the women’s movement. Organizations broadened their focus from one or two issues to tackling the overall issue. There were three distinct streams of feminist leanings:
- I. The Liberal stream focuses on seeking reform in those aspects of politics that particularly affect women.
- Second. Left currents situate the oppression of women within a holistic analysis of the general structure of oppression and call for the coming together of specific movements for social change to effect a radical transformation of society.
- Third. Radical feminists focus on defining the development of femininity and masculinity as fundamental polarities in society, and experiment with reclaiming traditional sources of women’s power, creativity, etc.
- Women’s organizations have been associated with political parties since the pre-independence period, in the freedom struggle and thereafter. In the 1980s what came to be known as “autonomous” groups or organizations were not affiliated with political parties. The new women’s groups formed in the late 1970s had many members who held leftist ideologies. Despite being affiliated with different political parties, they declared themselves autonomous. They quickly networked with each other despite ideological differences. The fact that most members of these groups had leftist affiliations and belonged to the urban educated middle class influenced the feminist movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The groups of the 1970s were loosely organized and without formal structure or funding. many groups chose
- Wanted to be separate, women-only groups for autonomy and without any party affiliation or link, as these were walled off in hierarchical, competitive and self-interested. Feminists criticized party politics, but recognized their importance. She felt that parties could help implement reforms and fulfill feminist goals.
- Even though many feminist movements and campaigns of the late 1970s and early 1980s were city-based movements and dominated by urban groups, feminist consciousness was penetrating rural movements as well. In Andhra Pradesh, the sharecropper movement of the 1950s in Telangana was revived in the late 1970s. Women in Telangana’s Karimnagar district have been very active in the landless laborers’ movement since the 1960s. The abduction of a woman, Devamma, by a local landlord and the murder of her husband sparked a new wave of agitation. The Stree Shakti Sangathan was formed in Hyderabad in the late 1970s because of the demand for an independent women’s organization by the women themselves. Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini (youth student struggle organization) was formed in Bihar and the women of the organization took up feminist issues. This organization was involved in the movement of agricultural laborers for land reform from the temple priest who owned most of the land. Women were actively involved in this movement and it was decided that the reclaimed plots of land would be demanded to be registered in the names of men and women.
- Movement against dowry
- family
The deaths of young married women inside were for a long time regarded as “accidents” and were recorded as “suicides”. The women’s movement established a link between dowry demands and deaths. He demanded reclassification of such deaths as “murder” and not “suicide”.
- The first campaign of the contemporary feminist movement was against dowry. Dowry is the sum of all the money given by the bride’s family to the groom and his admirers along with other items like jewellery, car, furniture and house etc. In 1975, a progressive organization of women in Hyderabad organized a formal protest against dowry. these protests were not allowed
- The imposition of Emergency in 1975 developed into a full-fledged campaign. After the Emergency was lifted in 1977, a new movement against dowry started in Delhi. The movement focused on violence against women for dowry, including bride burning and abetment to suicide. Delhi is left
- Space for sustained agitation against dowry and related issues. This could be because Delhi has witnessed a high number of dowry deaths and dowry harassment cases. There have been protests and agitations against dowry demands and dowry deaths in several states across India.
- Mahila Sakshyat Samiti was the first women’s organization in the contemporary feminist movement of Delhi to raise the issue of dowry harassment and dowry deaths. In June 1979, Stree Sangharsh, another women’s organisation, drew public attention to the problem of dowry and dowry-related crimes by holding a demonstration against the death of Tarvinder Kaur, who had blamed her in-laws for her murder. The dying declaration was given. Her parents could not meet her ever-increasing demands for dowry. The demonstration gained wide publicity, and resulted in several demonstrations against dowry deaths, including a large one led by the Nari Raksha Samiti (Women’s Defense Committee). These demonstrations sparked a public debate on dowry and dowry-related crimes.
- Deaths of women by fire (drowsed in kerosene and set on fire) were ruled suicides, and many of these cases went unreported. Even suicides were not considered to be the result of dowry harassment. These deaths were neither investigated nor classified by the authorities. They were treated as private family matters, and officials did not interfere in such family matters. But as a result of demonstrations and agitations in Delhi and other parts of the country, the problem was brought to the notice of the authorities as well as the public. This made the public realize that many official female suicides were actually deaths due to dowry harassment. There has been an increase in the number of dowry harassment complaints with the police. Feminist organizations tried to help women by recording dying declarations, testimony from family members, and encouraging friends and neighbors to come forward with their testimony and evidence.
- Feminist groups devised strategies to raise public awareness about the problem of dowry, dowry harassment and dowry deaths. This included organizing debates, public demonstrations and staging street plays. The Delhi-based feminist magazine Manushi organized several public meetings. People, both women and men, were encouraged to take a vow that they would neither give nor take dowry.
- The government passed a law against dowry and related offenses in 1980. this law
- Abetment of suicide arising out of demand of dowry declared/considered as a special offence. It mandated a police investigation into the death of any woman within five years of marriage. However, although the law recognized that dowry harassment could be treated as abetment, it did not specify the type of evidence that could be used to prove harassment, nor did it make abetment a cognizable (judicial) liable to inquiry or trial) committed the offence. In 1982, the first positive decision of this law took place. The magistrate of the Delhi Sessions Court found two people guilty of dowry death and sentenced them to death. In 1983, the Delhi High Court overturned this decision.
- There were widespread protests and demonstrations against this decision. In 1985, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, but commuted the sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment. In the same year, the Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act was passed. It made cruelty to wife a cognizable, non-bailable offence, punishable with imprisonment of up to three years and fine. The Act redefined cruelty to include mental and physical torture. Section 113-A of the Evidence Act was also amended to enable the court to infer abetment to suicide. Technically, it shifted the burden of proof and thus reduced the burden on the complainant. The Act also amended section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which makes postmortem mandatory of the body of a woman who dies within seven years of marriage.
- Despite the passage of these laws, it has become difficult to punish for dowry deaths. This evidence is not sufficient to be accepted as evidence for conviction. Women themselves, their husbands and in-laws
Hesitates to accuse. Also, proof of murder is not necessary in the postmortem report. It is difficult to prove that kerosene burning is the result of intent to kill. Moreover, there are still many loopholes in the laws regarding dowry, and most of the offenders manage to escape undetected. Feminists found that although they could mobilize mass public support for campaigns against certain crimes against women, it was true
- It is difficult to get support from the legal system for their efforts.
- Movement against rape
- There was a movement against rape of women by police, government officials and landlords in rural and urban areas. The issue gained prominence due to the Rameeza Bi incident in Hyderabad. Rameeza Bi was raped by several policemen. His
- Rickshaw puller husband was murdered for opposing the rape of his wife. In response, thousands of people went to the police station, placed the man’s body on the police station’s porch, blocked the road, pelted stones at the building, and set some vehicles on fire. The army was called in and the demonstrations and protests were quelled only after the state government was dismissed and an inquiry commission was appointed to investigate the rape and murder.
- There were several demonstrations against police and landlord/employer rapes in different parts of the country. In 1980, a 16-year-old girl from Mathura was raped by local policemen in Maharashtra. A case was registered against the policemen, who were acquitted by the Sessions Court and the Supreme Court based on the argument that Mathura had a lover, and was a promiscuous woman, who by definition could not be raped Was.
- An open letter by four senior lawyers against the Supreme Court’s decision sparked a campaign by feminist groups. The Bombay-based feminist group Forum Against Rape (now called the Forum Against Violence against Women) decided to campaign for the case to be reopened. Feminist groups across the country were contacted and called for a re-hearing of the case during demonstrations held on 8 March, International Women’s Day. There was also a demand for enforcement of relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and changes in the rape law. Joint Action Committees were formed, consisting of Socialist and Communist Party members, to coordinate the campaign. In fact, it was the first time feminist groups coordinated a nationwide campaign.
- In another incident in 1980, policemen arrested Maya Tyagi in Baghpat, Haryana, stripped her naked, raped her and paraded her through the streets. This resulted in widespread protests by political parties and women’s organizations across the country. A judicial inquiry into the incident was ordered, and there was a parliamentary debate on the massive increase in incidents of rape and atrocities against women. The government introduced a bill defining categories of custodial rape and a mandatory punishment, often years’ imprisonment, and the onus of perjury on the accused. This clause shifting the burden of proof onto the accused raised a lot of controversy, as it stated that if the woman can prove forcible sexual intercourse with the accused at the said time and place, the accused would be deemed guilty unless He cannot prove otherwise. However, the issue was politicised, and various political parties tried to take political advantage of it.
- However, another judgment brought to light some of the factors associated with rape – the social sanction given to it, and the difficulties of obtaining medical evidence to prove that a woman had been raped. In 1988, in Suman Rani’s case, the sentence against the rapists was commuted because of the victim’s conduct—she was having sex with a man. The judgment sparked a fresh debate on the definition of rape. Feminists said that the technical definition of rape did not take into account the fact that it was an act of violence against a woman’s privacy.
- Anti-Toddy Movement
- Women have been at the forefront of movements against the social evils associated with alcohol. Women started an anti-liquor movement in Patad village of Uttar Pradesh. Liquor shops, a temple and a mosque located near the bus stop were vitiating the social atmosphere of the area. Drunken brawls were common and an atmosphere of intoxication prevailed. Women were finding it difficult to board buses, wash clothes in the pond and move freely in the village. The women of the village, with the support of Disha, an NGO, launched a three-month-long agitation, which eventually forced the administration to order the closure of the liquor shop. In 1996, the Government of Haryana banned the sale and purchase of liquor in Haryana.
- Arak is a refined spirit obtained by distillation of fermented molasses. As a result of the Green Revolution, the cultivation of sugarcane in India increased, leading to an increase in the production of sugar and its byproduct, molasses. Jaggery is used to make arak. The people of Andhra Pradesh were struggling against the sale of arrack or local liquor, which was being supported by several governments over time. income from the production and sale of arrack in the state to governments to prevent its production or sale
It was too big to take any action. Several liquor contractors were closely associated with Poe.
- There was a close relationship between the politician and crime and politics.
- The anti-toddy movement started in Nellore district in 1992, and quickly spread to other parts of the state. Poor rural women of the district started the movement. The fight against alcohol soon turned into a full-fledged women’s movement. The rural women of Andhra Pradesh were marginalized from every walk of life for centuries. They were illiterate, exploited by landlords, and targets of domestic and social violence. they
- Suddenly there was a rebellion against police officers, government officials, the Home Minister and in fact the Chief Minister himself. Their only demand was that liquor should not be sold or consumed in the village. This simple demand gave rise to a movement involving thousands of women and spread to urban areas and turned into a movement.
- The money earned from the sale of contractor liquor is used by mercenary gangs of musclemen to maintain their monopoly in the liquor trade, to bribe police and excise officials, and to invest in real estate, building construction, finance, films and politics. spend to maintain. In fact, many of the liquor contractors are today’s politicians and there is a close relationship between crime and politics.
- Arrack shops in the village were at some distance from the village. People had to go to sara or liquor compound to drink liquor. This was usually done in the evening after they had finished their daily labour. The Varun Vahini program ensured that toddy was packed in pouches and brought to the village at the village’s doorstep. A person could drink all day within the four walls of his house. As time went on, this drink increased in quantity and the men drank more and more. This affected the family as well as the economy. Women bore the brunt of alcohol-fuelled violence.
- In many districts, women decided enough was enough. The women spoke to other women who were harassed under the influence of alcohol and with the help of the District Magistrate and the Sarpanch, started an anti-toddy movement. Another factor that prompted the women to start the movement was the death of several villagers due to drinking illegal brew. The women started their cleaning campaign by destroying the items used for distilling arak in many houses. The police helped them by arresting some of the brewers and confiscating the ration cards of others. The cards were returned only when he promised to quit the profession. The women involved in the “rampage” were also supported by the officials of the village panchayat.
- The women of Medepally were able to get liquor shops closed in the village, but shops remained open in Mudigonda village, a kilometer away. The men of Medpalli used to enter the watering hole in Mudigonda and return drunk. The women would fearlessly wait at the entrance, force him to sit down and ask him to cover his ears. Soon the men stopped going to Mudigonda and gradually stopped drinking toddy. This is how women succeed
- In their efforts to force the men to drink arrack.
- The anti-tadi movement was based on several factors. The Akshar Deepam (Literary Lamp) program was a program launched by the government, aimed at eradicating illiteracy. Women participated enthusiastically in the program. One of the sources used to educate the people were neoclassical books and these included narratives of women’s achievements. This probably inspired women to fight for their rights. The government banned the sale of liquor in the state and prohibition was implemented. However, due to financial constraints, the government had to modify its policy of complete ban and allowed the sale/purchase of Indian Made Foreign Liquor, although the ban on Arak continued. In 1996, Kerala also banned liquor within the state.
- Ecology-Feminism-Women and Environment
- As a theory, eco-feminism is a fairly new theory and is still trying to find its voice. Therefore, there is no single definition of eco-feminism. French feminist Françoise d’Aubon is credited with coining the term eco-feminism in 1974. He tried to describe the epic violence inflicted on women and nature as a result of male supremacy. Eco-feminism is a theory that seeks to end all forms of oppression. It does so by highlighting the interrelationships between the domination of humans by caste, gender and class on the one hand and the domination of the earth on the other. Eco-feminism is a social movement that recognizes the oppression of women and nature as interconnected. As a result, it is now better understood as a movement working against the mutual oppression of gender, caste, and class. nature. Patsy Hollen doesn’t think that: Me. Gender is most important.
- Second. Men are responsible for everything, especially environmental destruction.
- Third. Women do more parenting than men.
- iv. Women have no power.
- V. Eco-feminism attempts to drive a wedge between the sexes.
- men are the only advantage
- Actors of environmental destruction.
- According to Indian mythology, nature consists of five basic elements,
In other words,
- Fire, air, water, earth and sky. It is our duty to maintain the ecological balance between these elements, if disturbed, nature will be destroyed. In India, from ancient times till today, women all over the country worship plants, trees, rivers, mountains and animals. It is believed that cutting trees is a sin and planting trees is considered sacred. A careful study of our traditional customs reveals that Indian women worship the elements of nature as part of their culture and rituals.
- Women today are participating equally with men in every field. They are especially ahead of men in terms of pollution prevention and protection, preservation and protection of the environment. This can be proved by the participation of women in various environmental movements from “Chipko Andolan” to “Narmada Bachao Andolan”. Amrita Bai started the Chipko movement in a small village of Khejrili, the movement was later revived by Bachni Devi and Gaura Devi of Uttar Pradesh, who took away the axes from the woodcutters, preventing them from cutting trees. Medha Patkar is a social science graduate who moved to live among the tribals of the Narmada Valley in the mid-1980s. He was instrumental in the formation of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, of which he is one of the principal spokespersons.
- In 1991, his 21-day fast brought him near death, in a major clash between Narmada Bachao Andolan supporters and pro-dam forces. These are many such examples in which women have fought for environmental protection.
- Although women are actively participating in the protection of the environment, their participation in the formulation, planning and execution of environmental policies is still low. No environmental program can be successful without the participation of women. Sustainable development cannot be achieved without their full participation.
- According to Rani Sahu, all the household work starts with women only. They play a vital role in dealing with air, water, soil, living beings and above all the environment as a whole, and are very sensitive to various forms of environmental pollution. And these pollutions invite many types of diseases like food poisoning, bacterial, fungal and viral attacks and many carcinogenic problems. ”Women involved in the movements are Amita Devi, Maneka Gandhi, Medha Patekar, Arundhati Roy, Rachel Carson and many others.
- There is growing recognition of the need to strengthen women’s abilities to participate in environmental decision-making by increasing their access to information.
- and education, especially in the areas of science, technology and economics. Women’s lack of access to development planning and policy making has also had a negative impact on the long-term management and protection of the natural environment and the promotion of sustainable development.
- Science and technology interventions for sustainable development recognize women’s environmental needs and include sustainable livelihoods, protection of the natural environment, and the promotion of women’s equal participation and conceptual authority in environmental decision-making. Any failure to meet these needs and interests has implications for women’s ability to provide food, household needs and income for themselves and their families, their ability to use and manage the natural environment in a sustainable manner, and Their potential is likely to be negatively affected. Equal participation as environmental decision makers in their communities.
Constitutional Provisions and State Initiatives
Following are some of the provisions made in favor of women in our constitution:
Article 14 in the Indian Constitution ensures equality in the political, economic and social spheres. Article 16 provides for equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters of public appointment. However, the proportion of women in politics is much lower than that of men. How many women are in positions of power in government-run institutions? Unmarried women do not get jobs easily because employers fear that they will leave the job after getting married. They also find it difficult to find a house to rent, which is not the case with single men. Cricket is a religion in India. does the government promote
Cricket for women or any other type of team sport for women?
Article 15 prohibits discrimination against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, etc. There are some places of worship in South India where women are not allowed to enter. Advertisements of ‘fairness’ creams are telecast on television without any restrictions. These ad films show the ‘brown’ Indian woman can’t get a job, can’t find a man and is generally looked down upon by everyone but when she turns fair, the story changes .
Article 15(3) of the Indian Constitution allows the state to make any special provision for women and children. Wife bashing is a favorite pastime in India. Women are subjected to physical and mental abuse by their husbands and their families. Women and children are always under the control of the ‘male’ head of the family. Achild is recognized in this country by his father’s name. while the west
In many countries, the child’s middle name becomes the mother’s name.
Article 39(a) mentions that the state shall direct its policies towards securing to all citizens, men and women, the right to the means of livelihood, while Article 39(c) ensures equal pay for equal work. When a male government employee is transferred from one place to another, is his wife given a new job at the new place’ Her career goals are of little importance to anyone. It can be displaced and uprooted anytime! The daily wages of female laborers in India are lower than that of male domestic workers. Bollywood actresses also get paid less than their male counterparts.
Article 42 directs the State to ensure just and humane conditions of work. Many times women are exploited by their boss. It is believed that women who keep their boss happy get promoted easily in the corporate world. Male coworkers never fail to make passes at women.
The Constitution through Article 15 imposes a fundamental duty on every citizen
(A) (E) To renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women. What is the government doing against eve-teasing’ Can a woman spend an entire day on the streets of the national capital without receiving a series of comments degrading her dignity? Another law that protects women from petty crimes is IPC section 509. This law punishes those persons who have insulted the modesty of a woman. Objectionable language, voice, gesture and interference with the privacy of a woman are punishable under this law. Outraging the modesty of a woman is also punishable under section 354 of the IPC. Under this law, a person who assaults, uses criminal force on a woman or in any other way outrages her modesty can be punished with imprisonment of up to 2 years. In fact the people appointed by the state to ensure that people do not violate any rules are policemen who have committed many crimes against women. Policemen are often found abusing, cursing and passing lewd comments at women not only on the streets but also inside the police station. We also have many honorable politicians
If the principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution, then why are Indian women treated as second citizens in their own country? women. However, the various forms of discrimination that women in India are subjected to are far from positive.
It is claimed that since the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974–78), there has been a marked change in the approach towards women’s issues from welfare to development. Where is the development? Yes, there has been some improvement in the status of urban women, but the change in their lifestyle was not accompanied by a change in the general mindset of people in our patriarchal society. Thus, some laws should have been enacted to protect the newly emancipated and urbanized Indian women. What is the percentage of urban women in India, anyway? What about the rest? These privileged few would have prospered with or without the laws. Has there been any significant change in the status of rural women after the fifth five year plan?
The National Commission for Women was established by an Act of Parliament in 1990 to protect the rights and legal entitlements of women. “The 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India (1993) have provided for reservation of seats for women in local bodies of Panchayats and Municipalities, laying a strong foundation for their participation in decision-making at the local level.” These reserved seats are often vacant
or elected by male candidates as women rarely contest for such seats. Why? Mere existence of laws cannot automatically bring revolutionary changes in the society. In a country where women have no control over their lives and no decision-making power in their homes, do you think they will be encouraged to join local governing bodies?
Gender inequality is found everywhere in India. The declining proportion of female population in the last few decades is a proof of this. The stereotypical image of a woman haunts her everywhere. Domestic violence is common. The underlying causes of gender inequality are related to the socio-economic structure of India. As a result, women from weaker sections of the society i.e. SC/ST/OBC and minorities do not have easy access to education, health and other productive resources. Therefore, they remain largely marginalised, poor and socially isolated.
Involved in all kinds of crimes against women.
Laws such as the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, the Sati Prevention Act, the Dowry Prohibition Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act protect women from more “traditional” crimes such as rape, kidnapping, dowry, torture, molestation, sexual harassment. and selling girls into slavery. However, trafficking in women is still very common in this poverty-stricken country. Women from economically backward families are abducted and forced into prostitution. Recently, incidents of burning women to death after the death of their husbands have come to the fore. give and take dowry
Officially it is a crime but this practice continues. In fact, it is believed that if you want to get your daughter married, you must first arrange for her dowry, even if your daughter is educated and financially independent.
Female feticide and infanticide are common practices in this country. If the girl is allowed to live, she is subjected to all kinds of tortures in her own house. She is not allowed to go to school, instead she is forced to do menial jobs and is married off as a teenager. People in rural areas fear that their daughters may be raped so it is better to get them married. Ironically, the Child Marriage Restraint Act sets the minimum age of marriage at 18 to protect women from child marriage. Women, be it urban or rural, face all kinds of sexual harassment throughout their life. So what is the use of these laws?
There are many women in India who are trapped in violent marriages. Due to the social stigma attached to divorce, many women do not have the courage to break free from it.
Housewives account for 52% of the total female suicide cases in India. Section 306 of IPC can punish husband of suicide victim up to 10 years
Years imprisonment if found guilty. How many such men have been punished so far?
Thus, there are many laws to protect women, but what is the use of having these laws when no one follows them? In fact, the people whose job it is to enforce these laws are the ones who publicly violate them. Moreover, many women are not familiar with the law and few are aware of the rights and privileges given to them by the constitution. So they passively tolerate all kinds of discrimination.
Important Constitutional and Legal Provisions for Women in India
The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles of the Indian Constitution. The Constitution not only provides equality to women but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favor of women. Within the framework of a democratic polity, our laws, development policies, plans and programs aim at the advancement of women in various fields. India has also ratified various international conventions and human rights instruments committed to secure equal rights for women. Chief among them is the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1993.
constitutional provision
The Constitution of India not only grants equality to women but also empowers the state to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favor of women so as to neutralize the cumulative socioeconomic, educational and political disadvantages faced by them. The fundamental rights, among others, ensure equality before the law and equal protection of the law, ‘prohibit discrimination against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and provide opportunities to all citizens guarantee equality. employment. Articles 14, 15, 15(3), 16, 39(A), 39(B), 39(C) and 42 of the Constitution are of special importance in this regard.
constitutional privilege
Equality before law for women (Article 14)
The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race/caste/sex, place of birth or any of them (Article 15(i)).
State should make any special provision in favor of women and children (Article 15(3))
Equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State (Article 16)
The state should direct its policy towards securing equally for men and women
- Right to adequate means of livelihood (Article 39(a)); and equal pay for equal work for both men and women (Article 39(d))
- To promote justice / to provide free legal aid on the basis of equal opportunity and by suitable law or scheme or in any other way to ensure that access to justice is not available to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities. are not denied opportunities to (Article 39A)
- State to make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief (Article 42)
- The State shall promote with special attention the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people and protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation (Article 46).
- The state will raise the nutritional level and standard of living of its people
- (Article 47)
- To promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood among all the people of India and to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women (Article 51(a)(e))
- At least one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats in each Panchayat to be filled by direct election in each Panchayat and one such Panchayat Seats to be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in (Article 243D(3))
- Not less than one-third of the total number of offices of the Speakers
- Panchayats to be reserved for women at every level (Article 243
D(4))
- At least one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats in each municipality to be filled by direct election and rotation to different constituencies in one such municipality Seats to be allotted by (Article 243T(3))
- Reservation of offices of chairpersons in municipalities for SCs/STs and women, as follows. The Legislature of the State may by law provide (Article 243T(4))
legal provision
To uphold the constitutional mandate / to ensure equal rights / the State has implemented various legislative measures / to combat social discrimination and various forms of violence and atrocities and to provide support services especially to working women.
Although women may be victims of any crime such as ‘murder’, ‘dacoity’, ‘cheating’ etc., the crime/s which
For example, women/ are portrayed as ‘crimes against women’. These are broadly classified into two categories.
o Identified offenses under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)
Rape (see 376 IPC)
Kidnapping and kidnapping for various purposes (see. 363-373)
Dowry, dowry death or murder for their attempts (Vide. 302/304-8 IPC)
Torture/both mental and physical (Vide 498-A IPC)
Tampering (see 354 IPC)
Sexual assault (see 509 IPC)
Import of girls (up to the age of 21)
Offenses Identified under Special Laws (SLL)
Although not all laws are gender specific ~ the provisions of law significantly affecting Vyom have been reviewed from time to time and amendments have been made to keep pace with emerging needs. Some . Acts which have special provisions for the protection of women and their interests:
(i) Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948
(ii) Plantation Labor Act, 1951
(iii) Family Courts Act, 1954
Women and NGOs
- women and health
- Women and NGOs
NGOs have been playing an important role in advancing the agenda of women at both the national and international levels. They have done this through working as advocates and pressure groups, as well as being involved in implementation and service delivery. However, it hasn’t been a continuous success story. The capacity of NGOs to advance a progressive agenda is shaped and structured through institutional architecture as well as larger structures of the market and the state. NGOs have had the most success in the area of violence against women.
The focus will be on understanding the functioning of NGOs as different levels within the international framework including the United Nations (UN), as partners with the state and as advocacy and pressure groups. The contemporary period is marked by change and change for the social movement field as a whole. One of the important changes has been the proliferation of NGOs in the field of social movement. NGO is an abbreviation for Non-Governmental Organization and is used to denote various types of voluntary organisations, organizations involved in service delivery, advocacy, programmatic intervention etc. Organizations as diverse as Rotary clubs, associations of professionals such as doctors, public service trusts use the moniker NGO to designate themselves. NGOs are not a new phenomenon, voluntary organizations in general have a long history, but scholars have noted a ‘boom’ in the period since the 1990s, with NGOs increasing in number and becoming more influential actors in their field. ‘ Has been observed. Policy formulation, program implementation etc. Thus, NGOs have emerged as powerful actors within civil society.
The question of women’s rights. It has been noted by scholars (Alvarez, 1999) that with
patterns, strategies, programs and as some have pointed out, even in their objectives. this is done
The local context of the movements needs to be examined to understand the apparent contradiction of the above observations. (Basu, 1995)
Scholars have pointed out how the proliferation of NGOs led to a wider restructuring of the political sphere. It also points out how the matrix of NGO-ization in India is largely non-feminist, as NGOs engage with state, donors, market and civil society actors through complex networks and relationships that span these boundaries. . (Sangri 2007) In the Indian context, during 2003–04, 14,700 groups were registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs and received foreign funds worth Rs 4,856 crore (Rs 48.56 billion), up from Rs 3,403 crore in 1998–99 and Rs 230 crore were over Rs. In 1986. It is then argued that the proliferation of NGOs should be understood as the result of simultaneous but contradictory processes of state imposition and co-operation of women’s issues.
However the debate about funding and autonomous politics is very old, rooted in the Cold War era, where funding agencies were accused of playing a ‘nefarious’ role, particularly by extreme left-wing groups. Scholars tell that every Ra
The increasing participation of NGOs in the National Women’s Conference reflects the fact that today the women’s movement is a highly funded affair. (Biswas 2006) It is therefore in this context that we are going to examine the role of NGOs in advancing the agenda of women at the national and international levels.
In the first section we will look at the United Nations system and the role of non-governmental organizations in it, particularly in relation to generating development discourse and practice. In the next section, we will examine the ways in which women’s groups and non-governmental organizations have been part of the conceptualization and implementation of government programs and how they have tried to advance women’s agenda through this. We will examine the experience of Women’s Development Program (WDP) and Mahila Samakhya for these purposes. In the third section, we will look at NGOs as advocacy and pressure groups and how they have been instrumental in the formulation of new laws through cases on laws on domestic violence and sexual harassment at workplace.
Role of the United Nations System and NGOs:
The United Nations (UN), which came into being in the context of the devastation and human loss of World War II, has been an important reference point for debates around gender and development. It therefore becomes important for us to explore the ways in which the UN system has defined women’s rights issues and how NGOs have found avenues and spaces to advance their agendas within a range. have been created.
Largely state-centric UN system. Scholars such as Jain (2005) have argued that the advancement of women’s agenda within the UN system was shaped through four levels of competition, alliance and cooperation: at the national and international levels; within the United Nations, between the ‘malestream’ and the ‘substream of women’; Within the ‘women’s stream’ – based on location and politics and between women’s movements and women within the United Nations. They argue that we need to conceptualize the journey of gender and development issues within the United Nations in the following stages:
- Setting the stage for equality (1945-1965)
The first phase of the linkage between gender and development issues was inaugurated in 1946 with the formation of the Commission on the Status of Women. CS W was authorized to report and make recommendations regarding the political, social, economic equality, civil and educational rights of women. There was much debate within the United Nations on the need for a separate commission. At this stage, the issue of women came under the ambit of human rights. The women’s sub-section argued that rights are indivisible, they did not accept or apply the division of human rights into civil and political on the one hand and economic, social and cultural on the other. She argued that women’s issues concerned everyone and there should be accountability in all parts of the system. Thus, at this early stage, we see that the concept of right to equality has evolved in a way to emphasize equality of rights of men and women in terms of equal access to resources as well as other rights like universal suffrage for women. was taken for This period was marked by two trends: agencies worked together on women’s issues, collaborating on issue-based topics as well as creating women-only systems. The voices of Third World women who were increasingly visible in this period underscored issues such as the invisibility of their work as well as combating customs. These voices also expanded the concept of equality beyond legal equality to equal participation in nation building, social and economic development, civic responsibilities and overall improvement in the status of women. Thus, the issue of equality for women rapidly turned into a debate on development.
Working strategies included coalitions of women on the “inside” and “outside”, using informal methods to complement formal methods. Jain (2005) points out that this formed a triangular coalition of women representatives in UN bodies, women working in the Secretariat (or UN bureaucracy) and women working outside the UN. With regard to non-governmental organizations, this was an important stage as they were given a consultative status within the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
Women working within non-governmental organizations and the United Nations began to point out gender issues within development. She argued that the UN’s approach to development was based on stereotypical notions of femininity and issues affecting women from the north, as well as the perception of funding agencies. For example, she pointed out how a USAID-supported community development program in India was based on a gender schema, which assumed that men were involved in agriculture, not women. Hence the program imparts agricultural knowledge for men and home science for women. Feminists pointed out how this was a problem with the American program with its implicit assumptions about race, class, gender, etc.
s the amount of exports.
- Making development a right (1966-1975)
The second phase was marked by efforts to integrate women into the overall development effort, taking Women’s Issues and Perspectives in Development (WID) to the world stage. It was also a time marked by the creation of an institutional structure to promote gender equality. In 1967, the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (DEDAW) was promulgated, the first comprehensive legal measure on women’s rights. This signaled the acceptance on the part of the United Nations to deal with the phenomenon of discrimination from the perspective of women. DEDAW looked at legal and extra-legal barriers to equality and opened the private sector to scrutiny.
It was a period of learning to integrate women into development, questioning paradigms by drawing from empirical research, especially country-based research on women as workers. This led to the integration of women into overall policy making, including programs to generate employment, provide education and provide vocational training. The CSW also included the economic contribution of women in its concept of equality, which marked a clear departure from the principles of modernization that were dominant at the time. Hence this period saw the beginning of programs for women/programming for women as well as funding for projects targeted at women. Through the efforts of women’s non-governmental organizations, this period saw the rise of the “equity” approach in which women should be given equal status, equal privileges and rights with men.
In terms of expanding women’s rights, this was an important period, with the first World Conference on Women held in Mexico City in 1975. It marked the increasing visibility of women’s issues within the United Nations and the international women’s movement, and was the first conference devoted entirely to women’s issues. Women’s issues at the level of the United Nations As is well known, this conference and its preparations had a huge impact on knowledge production
Status of women at the national level. For example, in India, in preparation for this conference the government commissioned the Status of Women in India report. this document which
The report, published as ‘Towards Equality’, highlights that the status of women in India has not only improved since independence, but it has remained so for most of the time, with the possible exception of the spread of education among urban women. Worn out on the indicators. The report implicated the Indian post-colonial state for its failure to provide basic rights to its women and was in many ways the impetus for a renewed focus on women’s issues and the opening of ‘women’ as a subject of knowledge production . This institutionalized the agenda for the formation of Women’s Studies Centers and knowledge production by and about women. The report was also important because it helped challenge assumptions about development. The politics of the formation of the ‘women’ category and how the report was ‘allowed’ by the Indian state, which in the same year was suppressing democratic rights and civil liberties, political protest and dissent of any kind through the proclamation of emergency. , points to the ways in which ‘women’ were seen as a non-political, protected category of state benevolence. However, it is important to note that women’s groups were able to successfully press for the inclusion of the women’s agenda at the UN level.
Another defining moment was the inclusion of an NGO forum at the Mexico conference. This included not only established NGOs with consultative status but also smaller, newer groups. It ushered in a new kind of networking, using the UN site for greater synergy, thereby increasing the ability to respond faster. The World Action Plan that resulted from the conference pointed to a new perspective that informed the relationship between women and development, seeing women not only as recipients of welfare but as contributors to development and peace.
The declaration coming out of Mexico is also testament to the politics around women and development, there is no consensus in the declaration, which has three themes drawn from first, second and third world women respectively – equality, development and peace. Many NGOs, informal groups, networks and national and international events arose from the International Women’s Year (declared by the United Nations in 1975) and the subsequent decade was a jumping board for a new phase of the United Nations’ partnership with the constituency called women. .
- Questioning Development Paradigms (1976-1985)
In the context of the new economic order, development came to be redefined in terms of well-being as well as equity. The focus was on meeting material and social needs of daily needs, which are seen as basic needs and an anti-poverty approach. On the other hand, this context was also marked by a resurgence of neo-liberal theories and structural
Adjustment. This period saw the continuation of the redefining of equality for women in terms of including developments in rights.
She was drawn. 1975–85, designated as the Decade of Women, also saw an explosion of knowledge that focused on inequalities between men and women. Much work has been done by activists and researchers in the field of women’s work, pointing out flaws in tools for measuring work that make women’s work invisible, measurement of unpaid work, time use surveys, labor force I focused on poor women and women. , All this highlights that women were deeply involved in the economy but were not recognised.
In the Copenhagen Conference that followed in Mexico, the harmful effects of globalization on women’s bodies and economies and issues such as Palestine and apartheid were brought to the fore and the links between peace and development were recognized. It declared on the participation of women in promoting international peace and co-operation.
Another important result of this time period was the emergence of new networks such as DAWN (Development Options with Women for a New Era), which emerged as part of the preparations for the 1985 Nairobi Conference. South She argued that planning needed to focus on the needs of the poor and that the work of poor women should be at the center of development planning. Dawn’s other focus was to create South-South reflections on development. It is a network of scholars and activists who continue to conduct research and advocacy within the United Nations system and in the various countries from which its membership is derived.
- Development as a Women’s Affair (1986-1995)
The decade between 1986 and 1995 has been a decade of contrasts: on the one hand, it saw the increasing dominance of free market policies and liberalisation, referred to as the Reagan and Thatcher eras. This meant an impetus to structural adjustment policies (SAP) meaning less government spending and developmental loans with conditions to implement SAP. The end of the Cold War also meant an increasing role for the Bretton Woods institutions and a decreasing role for the United Nations and its agencies in the negotiations.
NG Economic Justice. On the other hand, this is also the period in which alternative measures of progress such as HDR emerge and the informal sector becomes an important sector of the economy. Scholars such as Jain (2005) argue that this period also saw the mobilization of women to influence policy and the emergence of women as leaders, as well as the growing importance of women’s NGOs at UN conferences. Went. It was also a paradox, as women activists, academics and policy makers worked to increase knowledge and change policy.
The pursuit of equality in the United Nations and at home was slow progress and female poverty was on the rise.
Participation in the economic and political spheres.
The contours of the global economy were also changing rapidly during this period, with the informal economy coming to center stage. The policies of liberalisation, privatization and globalization created a scenario in which women based in the Third World were given priority as workers. NGOs responded to these changes by creating more knowledge about women workers in the informal sector. This new knowledge and continued advocacy efforts led to changes in the visibility of domestic work and the accounting system for national accounts. For the first time, unpaid household work was counted and a
Workers in informal sectors.
Another major area in which feminist concerns were successfully pushed was the issue of violence against women. From the 1993 Vienna Convention on Human Rights, which coined the slogan ‘Women’s rights are human rights’, to the appointment of two Special Rapporteurs – one on sexual violence during war and the other on violence against women, NGO recognition of violence able to emphasize. as a major international concern. Prior to the Vienna Conference, women’s groups around the world networked to advance women’s rights. She organized speak-out sessions for women survivors of violence and used advocacy strategies to advance women’s rights, becoming a platform for the conference as a whole. This has led to greater awareness of the gendered nature of the conflict, as seen at the International Criminal Tribunals on Yugoslavia and Rwanda (the ICTY and the ICTR, respectively).
Thus, as far as NGOs were concerned, this period meant an expansion in methods of engagement including conferences, networks, caucuses. many new networks emerged in
This period and networking emerged as a conscious form of organizing, with a sharp focus on differences among women based on caste, class, caste, location and preferences.
- Contemporary Period (1996 onwards)
The contemporary period has seen great debate over the role of the United Nations, the harsh effects of SAPs, the convergence of militarisation, globalization and conservatism, and the limited nature of the UN’s response to the growing crisis. Women continue to be excluded from the corridors of power within the United Nations and are struggling to move into decision-making roles. Although the rhetoric is mainstream, women and women’s issues have remained in the ghetto. The success of the policy in this phase was largely due to women.
The conflict with women’s groups manages to pressure the Security Council to adopt Resolution 1325 which recognizes sexual violence against women as a war crime.
NGOs have used strategies such as shadow and alternative reports to highlight non-compliance and non-implementation of obligations by nation-states that have been signatories to various United Nations conventions. The idea is to ‘name and shame’, so as to motivate nation-states to take necessary steps to promote and fulfill women’s rights.
Thus, we see through this overview that advocacy and mobilization by women’s NGOs and other networks has brought gender visibility but complex issues remain.
NGOs as facilitators of government programs
An important way for NGOs to advance the women’s agenda has been to implement and facilitate government programs that aim to serve either women’s practical, daily interests or their strategic, long-term interests. One of the key roles of NGOs in this regard has been to push to serve more strategic interests even in programs that have very limited goals. We will try to understand the possibilities and limitations of NGOs working in tandem with government programs in the case of the Mahila Samakhya programme.
Mahila Samakhya has prominently discussed the relationship between women and empowerment, the women’s movement and the state as well as understanding the possibilities and limitations of government-civil society partnership, of which MS is an important and prominent example. It is carried out by the state and feminist groups in partnership with each other and is structured as a hybrid “state-organized non-organized”.
government organization” aims to collectively empower and mobilize low-caste, rural Indian women.
Empowerment remains political.
How some development initiatives in India align with neoliberal principles.
The relationship between the women’s movement and the state has always been a two-way street. Formal policies and programs have attempted to project the postcolonial state as the primary agent of development and change (Gupta and Sharma 2006; Ray and Katzenstein 2005) and as the custodian and promoter of the welfare of marginalized people, including women . The women’s movement along with many other social movements and organizations have demanded affirmative action from the state and sought to protect the interests of the underprivileged.
They have done so in the hope that the state can and should have the necessary resources and opportunities to bring about change which they may not be in a position to do (Agnihotri and Parliwala 2001). This is clearly visible in the use of legal amendments as a major tactic by the women’s movement, as well as ancillary criticism of the movement’s ‘statism’ (Agnes 1994).
However, scholars point out that the decade of the 1990s represents a turning point in this expectation, mainly because of the changing character of the state in this period, moving away from its initial socialist outlook (Ramachandran and Janadhalay 2012). Is. they
argues that the Indian state increasingly recognizes that it has no choice but to liberalize finance and privatize the economy, promoting NGOs to do work that the state is unable or unwilling to do Is. They also point to the country’s changing political landscape, where institutions of local self-governance have been revived with constitutional amendments in the name of decentralization and enabling local governance and people’s ownership of the development process, and promoting women’s participation. has given.
It has been pointed out that attention to the particularities of the Indian case, allow us to question the general description of neoliberalism as “de-sulfurization” or “roll back”, as it reflects the troubling travels and contradictions of neoliberal ideologies (Sharma). points to effects. , 2010). The Mahila Samakhya program has been studied as a venue through which the expressive nature of neoliberalism and its ambiguous, unequal effects can be demonstrated. This formulation asserts that MS cannot be viewed as a specific neoliberal program, but is rather an overarching product of multiple forces and ideologies not limited to neoliberalism.
An initiative focused on collective empowerment, it borrows from diverse frameworks, yet operates in a context where empowerment of individuals and communities is widely promoted as a mainstream technique of neoliberal development and governance. Thus, the programme, with its accidental and curious ideological fusions, appropriations and inconsistencies, overturns any preconceived notions about what empowerment might mean or what its consequences might be (Sharma, 2010: 189). . Thus, in terms of engagement of women’s movements with the state, the critical question in the context of neoliberal globalization is not whether they should engage with the state, but how.
However, it is important for us to note here that
It will be noted that this entry has to be scrutinized carefully, as studies indicate that women (feminized and politically passive) tend to identify their public roles within the realm of ‘social service’ (Ghosh and Lama). -Revel 2005; Strulik 2008). As explained in the context of Kerala, there is a clear distinction between the degree of activity and autonomy, the mode of governance and the relationship of each domain to capital (devika and local administration) between the realms of ‘high politics’ and ‘local governance’. There is a difference. Thampi 2012). The sphere of ‘local governance’ where women are located is seen in this classification as governance-by-rules-and-process, with more leeway for consensus-building. Thus, scholars have argued that in many ways this meant that acute feminist challenges to the distinction between politics and development/the public and the private were ignored, even in the context of women’s access to public. The question was partially adapted, the tool was created for Community Welfare. and local development. In a sense, can it be argued that the entry of women
political for women. But it has also interrogated in important ways the nexus between knowledge and power.
Thus, we look through this discussion to what extent it is possible for NGOs to advance the agenda of women and gender equality through facilitating and implementing government programmes. This has not been an easy task given the complex nature of the state in neoliberal times. The rhetoric of empowerment has opened up space for feminist engagement, but
The agenda has often been a contradiction.
NGOs as Advocacy and Pressure Groups
NGOs have played an extremely important role in bringing about changes in legislation and policies, acting as advocacy and pressure groups. those eggs
Studying existing laws and policies, pointing out deficiencies, and engaging with the state to bring about changes in policies and laws. A good example of this would be the law related to domestic violence and the campaign run by women NGOs for this.
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (henceforth DV Act) came into force in 2005. It is an important piece of legislation as it makes domestic violence a legally recognized category while also providing a range of civil remedies for domestic violence survivors. , As pointed out by Jaisingh (2009), it is also important to apply the principles of constitutional law to the ‘private’/domestic, long-contested realm. The law came as a result of a sustained campaign for more than a decade, but it also has its roots in a long-standing movement on the question of violence against women.
women. In the 1970s, the women’s movement first brought to the fore the question of violence within the domestic/intimate sphere, initially referred to as ‘dowry deaths’. The movement underlined that violence within the private/intimate space cannot be seen as a personal tragedy and should be viewed as a political issue, part of a larger structure of unequal gender relations. Through this campaign two important amendments to the Indian Penal Code 304B (dealing with dowry deaths) and 498A (which addresses cruelty to wife by husband/relatives) were introduced. Cruelty was made a cognizable, non-bailable offense under 498A. However, once the matter came to court, it became clear that there were several problems with the clause. On the one hand, it focused on married women, leaving invisible a range of violence faced by unmarried/older women within the household; on the other hand, the definition of brutality was such that it covered a spectrum of daily, sexual, emotional violence. Spectrum left out. scope of the law. The law recognized cruelty only if the woman could prove that she was forced to commit suicide or hurt herself. This limited the law in terms of its application.
Should it be made gender-neutral and can women be made defendants? NGOs such as the Lawyers Collective continued to undertake advocacy efforts, including submissions to the Joint Parliamentary Committee and other fora, to advance the bill, and it was finally passed in 2006.
NGOs are working to monitor the implementation of the Bill even after its enactment, push for the appointment of conservation officers, and submit monitoring and evaluation reports for better and more effective implementation. Studies indicate that while the DV Act has the potential to be highly useful, its effectiveness for survivors of violence is constrained by the patriarchal framework through which courts and other law enforcement agencies operate, where families are less able to sustain Seen as an entity and protected at all costs. The ability of NGOs to advance a feminist agenda within an institutional framework faces this major obstacle.
health and education
One of the major gender issues raised for equality is women’s health. Various groups along with grassroots workers and non-governmental organizations are responsible for bringing the attention of the government and community to this important aspect of women’s lives. Several dimensions of women’s health have been highlighted through empirical research. He has been drawing attention to various issues related to health status and state policies.
In the pre-1947 period, studies on maternal and infant mortality rates and causes were the primary concern for women’s health in India. Various committees were appointed in 1946 and 1948, the most comprehensive being the Bhore Committee, which noted the high percentage of female deaths and the dire need for state intervention. After independence, health programs focused on maternal and child health. It was thought that antenatal and postnatal care, attention to hygienic conditions,
Adequate diet during pregnancy, a safe delivery system and knowledge of birth control will promote healthy motherhood. Immunization and nutrition for children were also included in the programs. The training of midwives and the provision of public health centers were included in the various five-year plans. However, the seriousness of health issues was first expressed when the findings of the Committee on the Status of Women in India (1947) revealed a falling sex ratio since 1901, marking the first decline in women’s health status for more than seven decades. indicates. Not only the decline in the sex-ratio, but also aspects such as maternal health, life expectancy, access to health services and nutritional status have drawn attention to the gender dimensions of women’s health as well as the wide north and south differences in the demographic picture. ,
Researchers as well as activists have been concerned with the various perspectives on the issue of women’s health. They ask, how can women’s health problems be separate from women’s health problems?
exists apart from the health problems of the overall population and the poorer sections of the society? How are the differences of region, class, caste, community affecting the health status of women? How do social stratification and gender affect women’s health? What is the role of medical care, health services and the overall socio-economic development of the region in building the health of the people? Another dimension of health concerns relates to health threats resulting from violence against women, invasive contraceptive techniques, selective abortion of female fetuses, and population control policies. All these concerns indicate that a healthy population does not mean only physical well-being by including mental and emotional aspects, concern for the patriarchal structure and nature of governance.
The status of women is a complex issue.
It is not subject to any simplistic interpretation of social reality. The literature on the status of women has been diverse and all of them address major issues affecting women in different areas of development. Though the areas of development are manifold, such as education, employment, political, social, legal, health etc. The Constitution of India has given equality to women. The introduction of adult suffrage, along with the removal of all discrimination on the basis of sex, provided for the complete emancipation of women. But the inequalities inherent in traditional structures have a significant impact on women in various walks of life.
Any assessment of the status of women has to start from the social framework. Social structure, cultural norms and clue systems influence social expectations regarding the behavior of both men and women and determine to a large extent a woman’s roles and her status in society. The most important of these institutions are lineage, family, kinship, marriage, and religious traditions. They provide the ideological and moral basis for men’s and women’s perceptions of their rights and duties. Normative standards do not change at the same pace as changes in other forms of social organization due to factors such as technological and educational progress, urbanization, increasing population, and changing costs and living standards.
This gap explains the persistent failure of legislation and educational policy to produce the desired impact on social trends. The social status of women in India is a typical example of this difference between the status and roles assigned to them by the constitution and laws, and those imposed on them by social traditions. What is theoretically possible for women is rarely within their reach.
The current chapter on women’s social issues deals with the status of women in terms of their health and education and the next chapter on women’s social issues will deal with issues related to land rights, personal laws and the civil code.
The International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 placed reproductive health at the center of the demographic objective rather than fertility reduction. The Cairo Conference recognized women’s rights as individual reproductive rights. gender equality and equity sustainable and sustainable
accepted as the goal of sustainable development. gender equality and equality; reduction in infant, child and maternal mortality; and the provision of universal access to reproductive health services, including family planning services, are some of the areas needed to reduce threats to women’s reproductive health in order to achieve gender equality.
Impressive achievements and intolerable shortfalls have characterized India’s health program over the past fifty years. On the one hand the death rate has come down; Life expectancy and infant survival conditions have improved over a period of time. When we compare the infant mortality rate with other countries it is very high. The World Bank report states that public health financing in India is characterized by an emphasis on hospital rather than primary care; urban rather than rural populations; medical offices instead of paramedics; services that have a greater personal rather than social return; and family planning and child health exclusion of broader aspects of women’s health. In fact, the gender gap in health and mortality has not only persisted but has also widened. Below we will analyze the health status of women in terms of: (a) demographic indicators of women’s health status; (b) nutritional patterns among women; (c) unequal access to health care, and (d) family planning programmes.
Demographic Indicators :
Although there has been an overall improvement in the health status of both men and women, women are still segregated from men when it comes to providing medical care to them, which shows the relative low status of women in our society. According to UNICEF, 12 million girls are born in India every year, of which 25 percent do not survive to the age of 15. The fact is that the mortality rate of the 0-5 year age group is almost 20 times higher than that of any other five year age group. By the age of 40 the female mortality rate is higher than the male mortality rate. Although the life expectancy of women has registered an increase in absolute numbers; Compared to the life expectancy of men; It’s still low. Notably, the maternal mortality rate is particularly high (Padmanabha: 1982).
Most populations in the world have a sex-ratio at birth favorable to females, even though males outnumber females at a younger age due to slightly more males than females (the sex-ratio at birth is less than 102). 107 boys) 100 girls) for biological reasons, but this advantage for men is neutralized by about 20 years of age due to higher mortality rates in boys than in girls (Lovers: 2001). At the national level, the ‘Child Sex Ratio’ (CSR) (of the population aged 0-6 years) declined from 962 in 1981 to 945 in 1991. 927 in 1991 to 2001 (Census of India: 2001).
Mitra (1979) was the first to warn in 1974 that a steady decline in the male to female ratio would threaten the very existence of the female sex in India. He described Indian women as the ‘fallen sex’. increased sex-
A proportion of the population was heavily concentrated among children during the 1980s. Statistics show that more than one lakh additional girls disappeared between 1981-91, a number already higher than those already missing by the skewed sex-ratio of 1981 (Gupta and Bhat: 1999). Meanwhile, the sex ratio of child mortality has remained stable, suggesting that much of this may be attributed to the practice of sex-selective abortion or unrestricted infanticide.
Excess female infant mortality after birth remains the dominant practice among the remaining girl children in India. The sex ratio is unfavorable for India. Women across all religious groups, and in both rural and urban areas. The only region where the sex ratio is favorable for females is Kerala which also has the highest female literacy in India.
The lack of widespread availability of safe abortion services also adversely affects women’s health. By some estimates, about 5 million abortions are performed annually in India, most of which (about 4.5 million) are illegal (Khan et al.
: 1993; UNICEF: 1990, cited in Jeejeebhoy: 1994). As a result, abortion-related mortality and morbidity remain high, with at least 10 percent of all maternal deaths related to abortion.
Aging is often thought of as a decline in health. Most research and services focus on women of reproductive age, neglecting women older than these years. While the process of aging may bring some improvements and benefits to a woman in the period after middle age, these may diminish as she progresses into old age or when she becomes a widow (Rao and Townsend: 1999). . Of the family Access to resources if this association faces erosion
Care and sustenance are reduced, leaving her vulnerable. The risk increases for women who do not have any assets such as education, property or social status to survive. This vulnerability can be exacerbated by failing health and disability. Thus, a poor and physically weak, elderly widow is most defenseless in the Indian context (Chen and Dreze: 1995). It is important to note that older women not only
They suffer from diseases related to age, but also from accumulated malaise in the life-cycle, which can manifest themselves in an acute form in old age.
They suffer from diseases related to age, but also from accumulated malaise in the life-cycle, which can manifest themselves in an acute form in old age.
They suffer from diseases related to age, but also from accumulated malaise in the life-cycle, which can manifest itself in a severe form in old age.
The proportion of women reporting ‘couple problems’ is higher than that of men. This is expected, as post-menopausal women are particularly prone to the development of osteoarthritis, a painful degenerative joint disease (Tinker et al. 1994). Disability also affects the health of the elderly. It is well known that the prevalence of blindness in India varies not only by geographical location and degree of urbanisation, but also by gender (World Bank: 1940).
Poor nutrition is not only a problem of food and poverty but also a socio-cultural problem of women in Indian society. It cannot be denied that poverty is a major cause of malnutrition and undernourishment of women. Furthermore, it is the more unfavorable socio-cultural values that act against women in the distribution of food.
The poor nutritional status of Indian girls and women in general is part of a vicious cycle that has particularly devastating consequences for pregnant and lactating women and their infants. Malnourished women are more likely to give birth to low birth weight babies, and if the low birth weight baby is a surviving female, she is more likely to remain malnourished throughout childhood, adolescence and adulthood. This lack of nutrition has a detrimental effect on her reproductive and lactation abilities.
All nutritional programs are directed to the needs of pregnant and lactating mothers. However, despite these programmes, women remain undernourished from infancy to pregnancy and then past childbearing age. It cannot be denied that poverty is a major cause of malnutrition and undernutrition. But its more adverse impact on nutritional standards of women reflects the nexus of active poverty and socio-cultural values among them. Poor nutrition has serious consequences, especially for girls in childhood and adolescence (Jeejeebhoy: 1994). Anemia is a major health problem among Indian women. The study, conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research, found that over 65 percent of girls aged 1-14 years were surveyed across cities in India.
Hyderabad, New Delhi and Calcutta were anemic (ICMR: 1982). Anemia is particularly widespread in women during pregnancy, when iron requirements increase approximately fivefold (Hallberg: 1988).
Poor nutrition in females becomes apparent during infancy, persists through childhood, and tends to increase with age. In many Indian households, the largest share of food is usually given to the bread earner, followed by boys, the old or sick and last, the young girls and women in the household (Nagla: 1999). Girls are often neglected in matters of food and drink.
and health care. Discrimination in feeding may begin soon after birth because girls are breastfed less frequently than boys. In recent years, more attention has been paid to variations in the allocation of food within households. However, malnutrition rates are high among children and women. Ethnographic literature suggests that women are not fed as well as men in northern India (Harris: 1966; Miller: 1981). There is a vast difference in what is fed to boys and girls. The discrepancy increases with age. Malnutrition prevalent in a significant proportion of adult Indian women can be mainly attributed to inadequate food intake.
Households that theoretically have enough food, but the way it is distributed, can leave women undernourished. Usually, adult males and male children are fed first. The women eat only after the men have finished, and a young wife must allow her mother-in-law to eat first. Whatever is left is divided between the young mother and her daughters. This disparity in the distribution of food may be as much a case of poor communication as it is a deliberate practice, as men are generally unaware of how much women eat. Whatever the cause, and given the nutritional demands of childbearing and breastfeeding, nutritional deficiencies place women at particular risk during their childbearing years. Indian women may be malnourished because the quality of nutrients available even while eating is poor.
Unequal Access to Health Care:
Medical and health services are also equally available to men and women. Only one woman does so for every three men who avail themselves of the facilities of a medical institution. This is not because of greater ‘health’ in women, but due to the lesser importance given to women’s diseases, women not only neglect others, but they also neglect themselves. Fewer women declare themselves sick than men. Access to health care is determined by “need”, “allowance”, “ability”, and “availability” (Chatterjee: 1990).
Perceived need and often “need” are limited to childbearing years. Even childbearing years are limited. For example
the NFHS reported that of births in the past four years, 62 percent of mothers received antenatal care, while 26 percent delivered in medical institutions and 34 percent were delivered by trained medical personnel (IIPS: 1995). ). to be unnecessary
Social and economic norms determine ‘permission’ and ‘ability’. Often women need permission to receive health care. When there is a physical or financial dependence on caregivers, access is determined by the caregivers’ willingness and ability to provide treatment. For example, women who needed treatment for visual impairment if they had no choice or could not find alternative escorts (World Bank: 1994). Availability depends on geographic proximity, an affordability. Also, our health system is institution based rather household. This creates a barrier of perception among the rural population about the foreign environment of the hospital. Furthermore, women have a higher disability burden than men. they are short of time; Monetary resources and child care facilities. The mobility of women is far more restricted than that of men. Thus, they are deprived of access to the facilities provided by the health system.
The government is giving low priority to the health sector, which is evident from its various plan outlays. Besides this, inadequate coverage of rural health through primary health centers and non-utilisation of existing primary health centers also contribute a lot. Only 50 percent of pregnant women receive antenatal care. Only 20 percent of pregnant women are vaccinated against tetanus and still many deliveries are performed through untrained and unskilled midwives. Health care should be a right of every individual and not a privilege. India spends relatively heavily on health in terms of percentage of GDP as well as absolute US dollars compared to some other countries in the Asian region (Jeffrey: 1989), yet women remain excluded and marginalized from its scope.
Women and Family Planning:
Growing population is the most pressing and urgent problem of the country today, and the root of all social and economic ills. Therefore, population control program is seen as a panacea for all ills, which will reduce the birth rate by adopting small family norm. However, family planning programs are highly targeted towards women. When policies are made for population control, women are mentioned.
appeared. This concern about declining birth rates flows directly from the theory that population growth is an impediment to development—a conviction that persists despite a lack of evidence that any such cause-and-effect relationship exists (Krishnaraj: 1999). It affects women. a concept related to the control of population
Will not consider the interests of women as the primary objective. The notion of development as economic growth will forget that development is for the people and women are also people. They are the means and the end at the same time. As women bear more children, a decrease in fertility means that women must give birth to fewer children. Therefore, the problem is seen as one of women’s fertility, not social organizations. How can fertility be reduced? This can be achieved by directly reducing the fertility of the female body or by taking care to prevent impregnation by males.
Birth control is an important means of liberation for women, but when birth control is implemented, or when the means to do so are unavailable, or the means created are dangerous to life and health, the consequences for women are direct. There is a difference. In all such cases women power is limited. Reproductive control can be free only when it involves not only control of it, but also when it implies self-regulation carried out independently by women.
Since 1970, use of modern contraceptive methods has increased from about 10 percent to 40 percent. Again, the figures vary widely by state, ranging from 53 percent in Maharashtra to 20 percent in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Sterilization has a huge impact on the practice of family planning, with over 75 percent of modern contraceptive users sterilized. However, vasectomy accounts for only 10 percent of all vasectomy, while only 7 percent of couples use condoms (NFHS: 1992–93). Ironically, many medical techniques for family planning have had the opposite effect. The burden and responsibility of birth control has been put on the women and especially on the poor women.
family planning technologies such as IUD, tubal ligation, implantable contraceptives; A professional is required to set up laparoscopic tubectomy and follow-up is also required. But they hardly get time to follow-up. Furthermore, these instruments must be applied by highly trained and experienced hands and in an environment where sterile conditions and adequate care are carefully maintained. Most of the time, these techniques have side effects, as do injections and intrauterine
Same is the case with appliances. Women suffer from excessive bleeding, cramping, back pain, headache, dizziness and bloating (Shramshakti: 1988). abortion
Unless women coming to family planning centers are forced to be guinea pigs to participate in trials of experimental contraceptives, they are often denied. Sterilization is being adopted en masse as a quick and easy method without acknowledging the adverse effects on women who have to resume heavy physical labor soon. Thus, inadequacies of the health care system at the operational level have rendered many existing practices unethical, which could otherwise be safely promoted.
The most important aspect of contraceptive use in India is the prevalence of vasectomy, which accounts for more than 85 percent of total modern contraceptive use. Female sterilization accounts for 90 per cent of sterilization (World Bank: 1996). The lack of knowledge about and access to other contraceptive methods reflects the family welfare program’s historical emphasis on sterilization. The increase in contraceptive options, especially temporary methods for delaying and spacing pregnancies, are now seen as a high priority. Many organizations are calling for this especially in the context of AIDS (Arrow: 1996). While the dominant ideology of gender relations that views men as economic providers and women as child-bearers and nurturers persists in society, it is also reflected among predominantly male policy-makers and health workers. The state becomes an additional agent for control over women’s bodies (Krishnaraj: 1999).
Women’s entry into the formal education system began in the mid-19th century, but gained widespread acceptance only in the mid-20th century. The government was slow in pursuing policies that promoted education, but social reformers and women’s organizations realized the importance of women’s education at all levels. The efforts of organizations such as Maharishi Karve, Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore as well as the All India Women’s Conference not only advocated providing access to education to women, but also declared that education would enable women to play their part and become useful citizens. helps.
The Constitution of the Republic of India, introduced in 1950, contained several important provisions that had a direct or indirect impact on education. Article 45 imposed the direct responsibility of education on the states. The State shall endeavor to provide, within a period of 10 years from the coming into force of this Constitution, of free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years) has not been achieved). Article 16
Enforced non-discrimination on the basis of sex in public employment, and Article 15(3) empowered the state to make special provisions for the welfare and development of women
and children, the provision that was included to justify special allocation and relaxation of procedures/conditions to enhance access to education of girls at various levels.
After independence, the first major step taken by the leaders in the Nehru era was the setting up of a University Education Commission under the chairmanship of Dr. Radhakrishnan. It is very significant that the Commission devoted an entire chapter on women’s education, discussing its various dimensions. However, the views of the all-male commissions on women’s roles seem to have moved on from those of a few decades earlier. “The commission holds that a well-ordered home helps to make well-ordered men. The mother who is inquisitive and alert, well-informed and familiar with such subjects as history and literature, and who stays at home with her children and works, will be the best teacher in the world, both in terms of character and intelligence.”
The commission mentions that without educated women there cannot be educated people, and therefore women should be given opportunities to get education. Despite the firm belief that a woman’s highest vocation is that of a skilled housewife, the commission had to mention that a woman’s world should not be limited to a single relationship. It was forced to note that women are entering the world of work. Therefore, the section on women’s education was needed, commenting, “The educational system at all levels should prepare men and women for such different occupations.”
Various commissions like Secondary Education Commission (1952-53), National Committee on Women’s Education (1958-59), Committee on Differences in Curriculum for Boys and Girls (1962), Kothari Commission (1964-66), equality of women, national development failed to clarify the relationship between their participation and the pattern and emphasis of education. on one’s own. No consideration was given to how societal values, possibly adverse aspects of the educational process, the construction of gender, and women’s equality as a value, could or needed to affect the educational process.
The Status of Women in India was constituted in 1971 and the report was prepared towards equality. The report is an eye-opener to the disparities between men and women, “summarized by the chilling statistics of imbalanced child and adult sex ratios indicating significant differences in male-female mortality rates. The report focuses on women’s welfare and sash
Significantly influenced government policy in terms of promoting decentralization. On the other hand, the findings significantly influenced a section of Indian academics in their research and teaching, pushing them away from the old
An approach to view the role of women related to family welfare to view the status of women as an input into the process of development and an important issue. A National Policy on Education was adopted in 1985. Policy 2000 for universalization of elementary education for children in the age group of 6-14 years and eradication of illiteracy in the age group of 15-35 years. Barriers to initiation of their access to retention will receive overriding priority through provision, scheduling and effective monitoring of social support services. as well as existing and emerging technologies.
Women’s education at different levels:
There has undoubtedly been an overall increase in the female literacy rate in the country after independence. The percentage of female literates was barely 9 per cent in 1951, while in 1991 it has risen to about 40 per cent, though the picture is not very bright as compared to men. 27.16 percent of males were literate in 1951, while in 1991 this percent was
64.13 percent. Another important issue is that of gender differences as well as regional diversity. While Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra show better results, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa have made little progress in education at all levels. In rural India, with a per capita income of less than Rs 120, 54 per cent of boys are in school while only 31 per cent of girls go to school. In urban areas, 64 percent of boys in the same income group are in school while 51 percent of girls attend classes. With the rise in income, the attendance of girls aged 15-19 is only 37.4 percent, which may indicate that the remaining 63 percent of girls are married or helping their mothers, so they are not required to attend classes. Difficulty participating. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable.
Women in Higher Education:
While literacy and early education meet the needs of social and human development and become a means of being
For better health and income generation, women’s higher education promotes social and occupational mobility and leads to intellectual and personal growth, often resulting in an elitist culture. Thus, higher education is viewed as an important step in individual, family and social mobility. one of the paradoxes of
It has been the case of women’s education that while literacy and primary education, which touch the masses of women, present a dismal scenario, the picture of women in higher education is not so dismal. Karuna Channa has noted that the proportion of women in total enrollment was 10.9 per cent in 1950-51, it increased to 27.2 per cent in 1980-81 and 52 per cent in 1996-97 (Chana: 2000). The decades following independence were full of developmental and technological activities, of which women’s education was a vital necessity. Thus, the national agenda helped women from the upper middle class and upper castes to enter the portals of higher education. Chanana points to the slow growth after the eighties as a result of the lack of specific policies and measures to encourage women’s education.
The higher proportion of women at the research level indicates the increasing employability of women in higher echelons of power. Career-oriented female students have turned to commerce and law from arts faculties, and especially science faculties. In commerce, there is an allure of jobs in banks and other commercial firms. Law, which was considered to be the domain of men, has opened its doors to women not only by providing opportunities to practice law or join judiciary but also due to ample desk and research work in the legal field, where Women can be accommodated. Furthermore, with the rise of litigation and claims, feminists believe that women lawyers can better represent women’s cases. Women’s entry into employment-oriented courses such as commerce, law, engineering and technical fields suggests that while a liberal stance of education may prevail for most students, there is also a trend towards employment orientation of women.
Another important is increasing number of girls in short term courses like polytechnics, computer courses and information technology. Opening up of job opportunities among women opting for non-traditional courses, self-employment possibilities as well as the need to juggle both family and professional roles are clearly visible. Karuna Chanana observed that these students (joining new subjects) belong to the urban middle and upper strata of the professional and salaried class in metropolitan cities. They are also people who belong to small families where the norm of two children means they can only be daughters. These daughters are given the best education by their parents. It is also learned that engineering students
Father has been an engineer. Thus, parental aspirations have been very important in the new orientation of female students in higher education (Chanana: 2000).
The expansion of choices and advent of careerism among urban middle class women can be linked to the forces generated during the last four decades, which
Post liberalization phase. Better skills, wider information and knowledge and vocationalisation are considered essential for administration, productivity improvement and market orientation. Today the technically trained, management-trained and computer-savvy have better market potential. These requirements, on the one hand, emphasize efficiency and a professional approach to work, and on the other hand, create tough competition among interested people. Many women in urban areas opt for some of these courses, and those who are entrepreneurs to support parents or husbands can venture into self-employment by starting small or medium businesses. The present generation may have both but will have to fight hard to maintain the balance.
Apart from the variations observed across disciplines, regional variations are also an important factor in the spread of higher education among women. The general pattern of distribution is as follows: The four southern states register better enrollment than the northern Hindi-speaking states. As recently as the mid-nineties, Goa, Kerala and Punjab recorded enrollments between 50-52 per cent, while Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh reported very low enrolments, ranging from 18 per cent to 26 per cent. Middle. There are many reasons for the variations: the relatively low status of women in these fields, the delay in opening education to women, the slow development of technical education and the economy, and the political climate.
Role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs):
Primary education (five years of schooling for children) has been accepted as a non-negotiable issue, the advance is not striking. Many programs have been started by the government of various funding agencies, but the problem of girls’ education becomes serious once they get primary education. Dropout rates after primary school are high in rural India, especially among girls, children from socially and economically disadvantaged communities, and those living in remote areas. It is now widely accepted that these sections of the Indian society are not able to access educational facilities, or if they do enroll they drop out for a reason.
wide range of demand side and supply side factors (Ramachandran: 1999). Only 30.6 percent of girls in the 15-19 age group in rural India have progressed beyond middle school, compared to 49.6 percent of boys. Similarly, 63.8 percent of girls in urban areas are in secondary school. When these figures are seen in relation to income level, it becomes clear that many families belonging to the lower income group are forced not to educate their daughters. The gender difference is quite remarkable. Where resources are limited, the first hit is on girls’ education. In the 6-14 age group, about 52 percent of girls are out of school. Thus, there is doubt about the utility of education in terms of its potential for employability. It is in the context of certain inherent problems with the delivery of the education system and its relevance that the role of NGOs becomes crucial. We will briefly assess their role in basic education.
The Indian constitution had guaranteed compulsory education to all by 2000 AD, but there is no such feeling. Thus a space was created in this program for the cooperation of NGOs. The Arak movement in Andhra Pradesh was quite successful for the literacy classes. Similarly, 1992 saw an unprecedented mobilization of women through the literacy movement in Pudukottal district of Tamil Nadu. Interestingly, the women here adopted the bicycle as a symbol of their power. Learning the alphabet and getting a means of mobility brought new hope to the program. Kishore Bharti and Eklavya in Madhya Pradesh, Propel in Maharashtra, and the Research Center at Tilonia in Rajasthan are among the early NGOs that work on the educational needs of women, both in terms of skills as well as an innovative approach to learning. She is also working as a resource base for grassroots women’s organization.
Privatization and Women’s Education:
In a general society in which the education of girls is given less priority; The cost of education acts as a deterrent. School attendance rate by age group and household monthly per capita expenditure in rural households with per capita income less than Rs 120-140, in the age group of 10-14 years, 65.4 percent of boys go to school, 31.1 percent of girls. The data is indicative of rural-urban differences in terms of the relationship between income and enrolment, as well as gender value systems. In such a situation, if the state withdraws its support from education, then the worst sufferers are the poor girls. as a welfare state with development as one of its primary
Keeping the goals in mind, the state initially took the responsibility of providing free education. Some states, for example Maharashtra and Gujarat, have provided education to girls up to the college level.
The policy of providing free education was adopted. Looking at some data on the percentage allocation of expenditure on education over a period of five decades, we see significant changes. For example, while the Center was spending about 28 per cent on technical education in the seventies, the amount came down to 19 per cent in the nineties. However, there has not been much change in expenditure on the primary cut in the share of the Center in the nineties. After the onset of a period of structural adjustment, there was a decline in public expenditure in various sectors, including education. The decline in higher education is quite marked. In short, privatization of education is likely to particularly impact girls and women from economically weaker sections.
women and land rights
Economic analysis and policies related to women have long been associated with employment to the point of neglecting an important determinant of women’s status, namely gender differences in control over assets. It is argued that gender differences in property ownership and control are the most important contributors to gender differences in economic well-being, social status and empowerment (Agarwal: 1994).
The notion that the family is a unit of congruent interests and priorities, among whose members the benefits of available resources are shared equally, regardless of gender, has long been an issue in development policy. In India, women’s land rights have recently been taken into account in the Sixth Five Year Plan (1980–85). First limited recognition by the government of women’s need for land (and only in the context of poverty): The plan states that the government will attempt to give joint title to spouses in programs related to the distribution of land and houses to the landless. The instruction on combined headings was not resumed in the Seventh Five Year Plan (1985–90), whereas
The Eighth Plan (1992-97) makes only two specific points with regard to women and agricultural land: one, it holds that “O
One of the basic requirements for improving the status of women is to change the inheritance laws so that women get an equal share in ancestral property, but it does not give any direction to ensure that it is implemented. Second, it asks state governments to allocate 40. percentage of surplus land (i.e. land acquired by the government from households exceeding a specified maximum) to be allocated to women alone, and the rest jointly in the name of both spouses (Government of India: 1992).
Gender, property and land: some conceptual links:
The relationship between gender and wealth is important in looking at the place of women in society. For this five interrelated issues are discussed below:
- Household property and women’s property:
The relationship between gender subordination and property should be explored not only in the distribution of property among households but also in the distribution of men and women; not only the owner of private property but also the one controlling it; And not only in respect of private property but also of communal property. Furthermore, gender equality in legal rights to property does not guarantee gender equality in actual ownership, nor does ownership guarantee control.
The distinctions between law and custom, and between ownership and control, are particularly important: most Indian women face significant barriers to realizing their legal claims to landed property, as well as exercising control over any land they receive. have to face.
In fact in most societies today it is men as the gender (even if not all men as individuals) who largely control wealth generating assets, whether privately owned or not, large operations as managers. Even property that is under state, community or clan ownership remains effectively under the managerial control of men selected through their dominance in both traditional and modern institutions: caste, clan council, village elected body, State bureaucracy at all levels etc. How do we define womanhood? Marxist analysis, for example, implicitly assumes that women belong to the class of their husbands or fathers. So women belong to the class of their husband or father. So women from “bourgeois” families with property are part of the bourgeois class and women from proletarian families are counted as proletariat. However, as it is now
Well recognized, there are at least two problems with this characterization: (a) a woman’s class status as defined through men is more open to change than a man’s; A well-established marriage may increase it, divorce or widowhood may decrease it. (b) to the extent of women, it is difficult to mark their class position; (Bourdieu: 1984) Some have even argued that women constitute a class in themselves (Bajra: 1970). In fact, neither deriving femininity from men’s position of property, nor deriving it from their propertyless position, appears to be sufficient, although both positions reflect a dimension of reality.
Women from wealthy homes benefit economically and socially from the class positions of their husbands. But women also share common concerns.
that cut into derived class privilege (or lack thereof), such vulnerability to domestic violence; responsibility for housework and child care (even if not all women do such labor themselves—the more affluent may hire assistants); Risk or wealth with gender inequality in legal rights and marital breakdown. This ambiguity in women’s class status has a significant impact on the possibilities for collective action among women. On the other hand, the remarkable similarities between women’s positions and the relatively monotonous character of their class privileges make class distinctions less sharp among them than among men, and in many cases may provide grounds for collective action.
The link between gender and property is also related to gender ideology and property. Gender ideology can prevent women from getting the right to property. Assumptions about women’s needs, roles, capabilities, etc. influence the formulation and implementation of public policies and property laws. Again, ideas about gender underlie practices such as female segregation, which limit women’s ability to exercise their existing property claims and to successfully challenge persistent gender inequalities in law, policy and practice with respect to such claims. Let’s ban. Ideological struggles are therefore inextricably linked with women’s struggles over property rights. Those who own and/or control wealth-generating assets may directly or indirectly control key institutions that shape ideology, such as educational and religious establishments and the media. These can shape competition in gender-progressive or gender-regressive directions. The influence of gender ideologies can vary according to the wealth status of the household (considering the family’s religion, caste, etc.). For example, both assetless and assetless households may support the ideology of female seclusion, but t
That former group would be in a better economic position to implement their practice, and by doing so strengthen their emulation.
Non-property families as a mark of social status. Also, gender ideologies and related practices do not arise from wealth differences alone, nor can they be viewed in purely economic-functional terms. Rather they will tend to adapt and change in conversation with economic changes.
Another link in the relationship between women and property is the possible link of women’s property rights with control over women’s sexuality, marriage practices, and kinship structures. For example, would women with independent property rights be subject to more or less familiar controls on their sexual freedom than women who do not have them? It would also be important to examine whether societies that have historically recognized women’s inheritance rights in real estate, in order to keep the property intact and within their purview, sought to control women’s marriage partner and post-marital residence. trend has been shown.
Importance of land as an asset:
Land has been a condition of political power and social status. For many, it provides a sense of identity and rootedness within the village; And often in the minds of the people, land had a permanence and permanence that no other asset possessed (Selvaduri: 1976). Although other forms of property such as cash, jewellery, cattle, and even household items could theoretically be converted to land, in practice rural land markets are often constrained, and land is not always readily available for sale. (Wallace et al.: 1988). In any case, ancestral land often has a symbolic meaning (Selvaduri: 1976) or ritual significance (Krause: 1982) that is not acquired land. Therefore, in land disputes people may spend more than its market value to retain the disputed ancestral plot. Thus, both the form of the property and its origin are important in defining its importance and the likelihood of conflict related to it.
land rights :
Rights are defined as claims that are legally and socially recognized and enforceable by an external legitimate authority, be it a village-level institution or some higher-level judicial or executive body of the state. Bodies (Brombley: 1991). Rights in land can be in the form of ownership or in the form of a right of use (that is, a right of use), with varying degrees of freedom to lease, mortgage, bequeath, or sell. Land rights can arise on a person by inheritance
or on a joint family basis, by community membership (for example, where a clan or village community owns or controls land and members have rights to use it), by transfer by the state, or by tenancy arrangements, purchase, and so on. Rights in land have temporal and sometimes local dimensions as well; They may be hereditary, or accumulated only for a person’s lifetime, or for a shorter period; And they may be conditional on the person where the land is located, for example, in the village.
Here we have to look at the legal validity of a claim and its
A distinction needs to be made between social recognition and between recognition and enforcement. A woman may have a legal right to inherit property but this may remain true only on paper if the law is not enforced, or if the claim is not recognized as socially valid and family members The woman is forced to give up her share in favor of her brothers. Another important thing is the ability to decide how the land is to be used, how its produce is to be disposed of, whether it can be leased, mortgaged, bequeathed and can be sold. It is sometimes mistakenly believed that legal ownership comes with the right to control in all these senses. In fact legal ownership may be accompanied by legal restrictions on disposal.
Legally, property rights of women are governed by personal laws (Agarwal: 1994). Most legal systems give women considerable inheritance rights; And in traditionally patriarchal groups, especially after 1950, legal forms resulted in much more authority than customs. For example, the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 gave the daughters, widow and mother of a Hindu man who died in the state, equal rights in property as sons. These were rights of absolute ownership and not just limited interest for life.
Why do the Hilas need independent rights in the land? ,
The importance of women’s independent rights to agricultural land rests on several interrelated arguments that can be grouped into four broad categories: welfare efficiency, equality, and empowerment.
Welfare Argument:
To begin with, especially among poor households, rights within land can reduce women’s own and, more generally, household exposure to wealth and poverty. The reasons for this stem partly from the general positive effect of providing women with access to economic resources independently of men; and partly from the specific benefits associated with inland rights
means. In other words, the threat of poverty and physical
The well-being of a woman and her children depends to a large extent on whether she has direct access to income and productive assets such as land, rather than mediated only through her husband or other family members. In India, in 1982, an estimated 89 percent of rural households owned some land, and an estimated 74 percent owned it (Government of India: 1987). When male labor migrates from rural areas to urban areas (Bardhan: 1977), the dependence of women on the rural/agricultural sector remains higher than that of men. salary. In particular, women’s non-agricultural incomes appear particularly low and uncertain.
While there is a clear need to strengthen women’s earning opportunities in the non-agricultural sector, particularly by ensuring their entry into its more productive sectors, non-agricultural livelihoods substitute for land-based livelihoods for most women. cannot, although they can complement them. Asanset Base (Chaddha: 1992). So, effectively, land will continue to occupy a place of primacy in livelihoods in general, and women’s livelihood systems in particular, for some time to come.
Efficiency Argument:
Figuring out the potential efficiency effects of women having land rights is much more difficult than figuring out the potential welfare effects. In many contexts, women are acting as household heads and sometimes with sole responsibility for organizing farming and ensuring family subsistence, but also on the land they are farming. They don’t have any rights. For example, long periods of male out-migration have resulted in many women serving as de facto household heads. or widows cultivating plots given to them from the joint family property (as an inheritance claim on their deceased husband’s land), but the plots are still in the names of their in-laws. Again tribal women cultivating communal land rarely have ownership rights. Their fields, which are usually given by the state only to male farmers. In these circumstances, giving women titles and providing them with infrastructural support can increase production by increasing their access to credit, and information on technology and productivity-enhancing agricultural practices and inputs. Land rights can both motivate and enable women to adopt improved agricultural technology and practices and hence increase production. This is not dissimilar to the argument made in favor of the land reform discourse
By increasing the incentive and ability of cultivators to invest in land. The provision of land to women may also have other indirect benefits, such as reducing migration to cities, both by women themselves and by their dependent family members; and increased farm income in the hands of women, which in turn could generate higher demand for non-agricultural goods that are locally and labor-intensively produced, thus creating more rural jobs.
Equality and Empowerment Argument:
Equality and empowerment are also a matter of concern. contrary to considerations of welfare and efficiency, less and less of the implication of complete deprivation of access to land and
more than the implications of men’s and women’s relative access to land, and they affect women’s ability in particular to challenge male dominance in the home and society. , The equality argument for land rights can be viewed in several different ways. The larger issue of gender equality as a measure of a just society, of which equality of rights over productive resources would be an important part. There is a specific aspect of equality in land rights, as an indicator of women’s economic empowerment and as a facilitator in challenging gender inequalities in other (eg, social and political) spheres. Land rights can also improve the treatment a woman receives from other family members by strengthening her bargaining power. Although employment and other means of earning can help in similar ways, land in a rural context generally provides more security than other resources of income—at least, a place to own. Even outside the household, land ownership can empower women by improving the social treatment they receive from other villagers (Mies et al: 1986), and by enabling them to bargain with employers from a stronger fall-out position. Land ownership is also closely linked to rural political power. To be sure, there may still be social barriers to individual women’s participation in public decision-making bodies, even for women endowed with land, but land rights can facilitate such participation. Group cohesion among women will also help. For example, a woman with landed property may have difficulty establishing herself politically or socially in a village, especially where social norms dictate seclusion, but a group
P Women can work in unity (Chen: 1983).
Pragmatic vs Strategic Gender Needs:
Pragmatic gender needs are basic subsistence needs (such as food, health care, water supply, etc.): satisfying them does not challenge women’s status within the gendered division of labor, or a given distribution of wealth or political power . In contrast, strategic needs are those that help overcome women’s subordination, including changing the gender division of labor, removing institutionalized forms of discrimination, such as the right to own and control property, and establishing political equality. (Moser: 1989; Molinius: 1985). In these terms, land rights would fall under strategic gender requirements.
However, the apparent analytical accuracy of this distinction is in many cases examined from the perspective of practice. The first few strategic gender needs, such as those for land rights, are also necessary, in specific contexts, to meet practical gender needs, as evidenced by welfare and efficiency perspectives.
Constraints in getting effective land rights:
Today most of the arable land is in private hands. Access to which is primarily through inheritance. Although women have considerable legal rights in land and property, gender inequalities and inconsistencies in land laws persist. Furthermore, there is a huge gender gap between the law and practice. Most females do not land, and of those that do, only a few are able to control it. A number of factors—social, administrative and ideological—severely restrict the effective implementation of heritage laws. These constraints are mentioned by (Agarwal: 1994) as follows:
In most traditional patriarchal communities, there is strong male resistance to giving land to women, especially daughters. This resistance was clearly evident when progressive legislation in the 1950s gave women in partisan communities the right to inherit land. Besides a reluctance to accept more claimants to the most valuable form of rural property, one of the key factors underlying such resistance is a structural mismatch between contemporary inheritance laws and traditional marriage practices. Among matrilineal and bilaterian communities, families sought to keep land within the purview of extended relatives, either by strict rules against transfer of land by individuals, or where such segregation was possible (as among bilaterian communities), other methods. From; These include residence after marriage
Village, and often marriage with close relatives, especially cross-cousins, is emphasized. In fact, the proximity of the post-marital residence to the maternal house appears to be virtually a necessary condition for recognition of the daughter’s share in the landed property. Although contemporary laws enacted by the modern state give inheritance rights to daughters among most communities, including traditionally patrilineal, patrilineal ones, marriage customs are still within the purview of local kinship and, in relevant cases, largely are made. Unchanged.
Second, women tend to give up their share in ancestral land for possible economic and social support from brothers. Visiting by brother is the only regular connection of a woman with her ancestral home when she is married in a distant village, and especially where the hospitality of the married daughter is accepted by the parents.
There are social taboos against owning a car. and after a parent’s death, the brother’s home often offered the possibility of temporary or long-term refuge in case of marital breakdown or widowhood. A woman’s dependence on this support is directly related to her economic and social vulnerability.
Economically, limited access to personal assets, illiteracy, limited training in income-earning skills, limited earning opportunities, and low wages for available work can all constrain women’s access to earnings and the ability to have an independent economic existence Huh. Socially, women’s vulnerability is linked partly to the strength of female segregation practices and partly with a range of social factors that vary in strength by community; Area and circumstances. But usually, in the hope of such support, women give up their claim on ancestral land.
Dependence on brothers is part of a larger social context in which many aspects of rural women’s relationships with the world outside the family are usually mediated through male relatives: fathers, brothers, husbands and extended male kin. Such mediation is necessary because of a variety of factors (the nature and strength of which vary by region, class and caste), but especially because of physical and social restrictions on women’s mobility and behaviour. In many communities these restrictions are evident in the norms and ideology of purdah or female isolation; In many others, they are implicit and subtle, but still effectively limit women. These restrictions are not only manifested in the purdah of women, but are generally based on gender.
Aggregation of space and gender specificity of behavior.
Male relatives often take pre-emptive steps to prevent women from receiving their inheritance: for example, fathers have been known to favor sons and disenfranchise daughters; And the brothers have been known to forge wills or manipulate statements in front of revenue officials to make it appear that the woman has given up her authority.
The Natal are particularly hostile to the idea of daughters and sisters inheriting land, as property can go outside the patrilineal lineage group. A widow’s claims are often met with less opposition, as a widow is more likely to have land remaining with the clans: she may be persuaded to adopt the son of a deceased husband’s brother, if she is childless. or to enter into a levirate union with the husband’s (usually younger) brother, or forfeit property if she remarries outside the family.
The logistics of dealing with legal, economic and bureaucratic institutions are often formidable and work against women’s claims; And they can decide to do so only if they have male relatives who can mediate. The low level of education of rural women, and the notable restrictions on women’s interaction with the extra-household sector and institutions constituted primarily for men, the complex procedures and red tape involved in dealing with judicial and administrative bodies, and so on. All work to the disadvantage of women, as evidenced by women’s relative lack of financial resources.
Local level (mostly male) government officials, responsible for overseeing the recording of inheritance shares, often obstruct the implementation of laws favoring women. Social and official prejudices against inheritance by daughters are particularly acute; Widow’s claims are somewhat better accepted in principle, although in practice it is often violated. There is a big difference between legal ownership and actual ownership. There is also a difference between ownership and effective control, especially due to a mix of factors such as managerial control, purdah system, gender segregation of public space, social interaction, high rates of female illiteracy.
Women and Personal Law and Civil Code