Course Title / IC2: Gender: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Semester / V
Credits / 4
Unit 1: Gender construction and its manifestations
This unit will introduce the concept of gender. It will make a distinction between the concept ‘sex’ (which is understood as a biological category) and ‘gender’ which is a social construction and analyze how subordination of the female becomes the necessary condition for a patriarchal social structure. Several social institutions like the family, education system, media, religion, legal system and so on contribute to the construction of gender and reinforce patriarchal values. This unit will demonstrate how gender gets manifested through different kinds of controls on women – on their production, reproduction, sexuality and mobility.
The unit will specifically focus on the following.
•Difference between sex and gender; definition of gender (expectations of behavior, roles, responsibilities);
•Masculinities
•Patriarchy and its manifestations
•Introducing feminisms
3 weeks, 8 readings: Lecture Method 10 hours; 2 reading: Student Group Seminar
1 hour * Every student seminar will be following by faculty led discussions.
Readings
Agnihotri, I., & Mazumdar, V. (2010). Changing Terms of Political Discourse: Women's
Movement in India 1970s-1990s, pp. 126-134 in T.K. Oommen (ed) Social Movements
II: Concerns of Equity and Security. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Bhasin, K. (1994, 2 nd reprint). What is Patriarchy? New Delhi: Kali for Women.
Bhasin, K. ( 2000, 2 nd reprint). Understanding Gender. New Delhi: Kali for Women.
Bhasin, K. & Khan, N.S. (1994, 6 th reprint). Some Questions on Feminism and its
Relevance in South Asia. New Delhi: Kali for Women.
Connell, R.W. (1995). Masculinities. New York: Polity Press.
Geetha, V. (2007).Patriarchy. Kolkata: Stree.
Geetha, V. (2009, 2 nd reprint).Gender. Kolkata: Stree.
Walby, S. (1990).Theorizing Patriarchy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Unit 2: Intersectionality: Interconnections of gender with other social categories
This unit will focus on how gender is interconnected with other social categories like caste, class,religion, tribe. It will introduce the issue of social positioning and how gender is embedded within other social stratifiers that mediate different outcomes for men and women. The unit will introduce macro data on several indicators like literacy, work participation, mortality, morbidity and political participation. Micro-studies and case studies will be used to demonstrate access and outcome issues.
The unit will familiarize students with the following.
• Meaning of intersectionality
• Structural intersectionality and impact on women
• Development indicators and intersectionality
3 weeks, 7 readings: Lecture Method 10hours; 2 reading: Student Group Seminar
1 hour
Readings
Chakravarti, U. (1993). Conceptualizing Brahminical Patriarchy in Early India: Gender,
Caste, Class and State. Economic and Political Weekly, 3 April.
Chakravarti, U. (2003). Gendering caste: Through a feminist lens. Kolkata: Stree.
John, M.E. (1993). Gender and Development in India, 1970-90s, Economic and Political
Weekly, November 23.
Kapadia, K. (2002). The Violence of Development. New Delhi: Kali for Women.
Nathan, D., & Kelkar, G. (2005). Women as Witches and Keepers of Demons: Changing
Gender Relations in Adivasi Communities. In K.Kannabiran, (Ed.), The Violence of
Normal Times. New Delhi: Women Unlimited. Pp. 7-82.
Rege, S. (2006).Writing Caste, Writing Gender: Narrating Dalit Women’s Testimonies.
Delhi:Zubaan.
Tharu, S., & Niranjana, T. (1996).Problems for a Contemporary Theory of Gender. In
S.AminChakraborty (Eds.), Subaltern Studies IX. Writings on South Asian History
and Society. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp.232-260.
Unit 3: Gender formation in history
This unit will approach questions concerning women and gender from a historical perspective. Among the questions it will address are: How has the status of women changed over time and why? The unit will demonstrate how historically the position of women has undergone changes with particular reference to India.
This unit will also introduce students to an understanding of the women’s movement in India as part of the larger social movements in redefining issues of marginalization, identity and citizenship. It will familiarize students with the contributions made by the women’s movement and the interface of the movement with women’s studies in India.
4weeks, 15 readings: Lecture Method 18 hours; 3 reading: 3 Student Group Seminar
1.5 hours
Readings
Boulding, E. (1992). The Underside of History: A View of Women through Time. Boulder: Westview Press.
Engels, F. (1983). The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Moscow:Progress Publishers.
Geetha, V. (2007).Patriarchy. Kolkata: Stree.
Geetha, V. (1999). Gender and the Logic of Brahminism: Periyar and the Politics of the Female Body. In K.SangariU.Chakravarti (eds.), From Myths to Markets.Shimla: indian Institute of Advanced Study. Pp. 198-236.
Kumar, R. (1993). A History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Women’s Rights and \ Feminism. New Delhi: Kali for Women.
Lalitha, K., Kannabiran, V., Melkote, R., Maheswari, U., Tharu, S., & Shatrugna, V. (1989). We were Making History: Women in the Telengana Uprising. New Delhi: Kali for Women.
Lerner, G. (1986). The Creation of Patriarchy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Mazumdar, V. (1985).Emergence of the Women’s Question.Occasional Paper no. 2. New Delhi: Centre for Women’s Development Studies.
Mies, M. (1986).Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale. London: Zed.
Mitchell, J. (1971). Women: The Longest Revolution. In Women’s Estate. New York: Pantheon.
Raman, V. (2007).The Women’s Question in Contemporary Politics.In R.Ghadially (Ed.), Urban Women in Contemporary India. New Delhi: Sage. Pp. 340-354.
Rowbotham, S. (1992). Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action. London:
Routledge.
Sacks, K. (1974). Engels Revisited: Women, the Organization of Production and Private
Property.In M.Rosaldo & L. Lamphere, Woman, Culture and Society. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
Scott, J.W. (1988). Gender and the Politics of History. New York: Columbia Press.
Excerpts from Towards Equality (1975) and Shramshakti: Report on (1988); NCEUS
(2008): Report on Conditions of Work.
Unit 4: State, economy and gender
This unit will look at how gender relations are shaped in diverse ways by functioning of the economy and key institutions like the family and the state with particular reference to India.
Feminist theorizing of the state; questioning of the private/public dichotomy and how the state reinforces these divisions through gender-differentiated terms in inheritance rights, differential wages for equal and comparable work; examination and unraveling of how institutions are/become gendered through a study of the history and politics embedded in institutional rules and processes [e.g., rules and processes relating to recruitment, conditions governing work, etc]
• Milestones in women’s groups engagement with the state -- Debates on population policies; health and reproductive rights; responses of the state (e.g., PNDT Act)
• Macro-economic changes and their impact on Family/Household and in particular, women’s economic roles; an examination of the impact of public policy on women’s lives – reading of the five-year plans from a gender lens
• Issues of Governance: Democratization through decentralization: Implications for \ women/gender interests
3 weeks, 10 readings: Lecture Method 10 hours; 5 reading: Student Group Seminar
2.5 hours
Readings
Ahmed, I. (2003). Between the Ideal and the Real: Gender Relations within the Indian Joint family. In M.Pernau, I.Ahmad & H. Reifeld (Eds.), Family and Gender: Changing Values in Germany and India. New Delhi: Sage. Pp. 36-63.
Hartmann, B. (1997) Women, Population and the Environment: Whose Consensus? Whose Empowerment? In NaliniVisvanathan, Lynn Duggan, Laurie Nisonoff and Nan Wigersma, (Eds.), The Women, Gender and Development Reader. London: Zed Books. Pp. 293-302.
Kapadia, K. (2000). Every Blade of Green: Landless Women Labourers, Production and Reproduction in South India. In N.Kabeer, & R. Subramanian (Eds.), Institutions, Relations and Outcomes. New Delhi: Kali for Women, pp. 80-101.
Krishnaraj, M. (2000). Women’s Perspectives on Public Policy. Theme Paper, Indian Association for Women’s Studies.
Lingam, L., & Phadke, S. (Eds.) (2002). Globalisation, Women’s Identity and Violence.
Consolidated Workshop Reports. Indian Association for Women’s Studies.
Mayaram, S. (2003). Gender in Governance: Women, Family, and the Constitutional Panchayats of Contemporary India. In M.Pernau, I.Ahmad & H. Reifeld (Eds.), Family and Gender: Changing Values in Germany and India. New Delhi: Sage. Pp. 242-276.
Palriwala, R. (2000). Beyond Myths: The Social and Political Dynamics of Gender. In N.Kabeer, & R. Subramanian (Eds.), Institutions, Relations and Outcomes. New Delhi: Kali for Women, pp. 49-79.
Nair, J. (2000, 2 nd reprint).Labour Legislation and the Woman Worker. In J.Nair, Women and Law in Colonial India: A Social History. New Delhi: Kali for Women, Pp. 95-121.
Unit 5: Issues of violence, safety, and the law
This unit will analyze the context in which gender and power are constructed and violence against women is perpetuated and tolerated. It will focus on multi-disciplinary explorations of the continuum of violence which affects women' s lives, ranging from experience in personal settings (family) to cultural or state policies (prisons, wars). Analysis will include a historical, cultural, and structural approach to studying family, state, economic and ideological violence against women. Through this unit students will also become familiar with some recent laws (in India) dealing with prevention of violence.
•Women’s movement’s engagement with violence against women in India
•Definitions of violence against women and its consequences.
•Different forms of structural violence against women that occur whenever women are disadvantaged by political, legal, economic practices and institutions or cultural traditions.
•Historical evolution of laws to deal with violence – e.g., Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act (2005).
2 week, 4 readings: Lecture Method 8 ours; 4 reading: Student Group Seminar 2hours
Readings
Chowdhry, P. (1998). Enforcing cultural Codes: Gender and Violence in Northern India. In M.JohnJ.Nair (Eds.), A Question of Silence: The Sexual Economies of Modern India. New Delhi: Kali for Women. Pp. 332-367.
Kannabiran, K. (2005). Introduction. In K. Kannabiran (Ed.), The Violence of Normal Times. New Delhi: Women Unlimited. Pp. 1-45.
Kapur, R., & Cossman, B. (1996). Subversive Sites: Feminist Engagement with Law in India. New Delhi: Sage.
Omvedt, G. (1990). Violence against Women: New Movements and New Theories in India. New Delhi: Kali for Women.