Assignment Code: MWG-002/AST/TMA-2022-23

Course Code: MWG-002

Assignment Name: Gender and Power

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Answer any two questions. All questions carry equal marks.

Write each of the answer in not more than 1500 words. (50 x 2 = 100)

Q1. Watch the short film “Marriage” by clicking on the link given below: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtlspBiPBH8)

Read Unit 1 & 2 of Block 1 and Block 4 (All four units)

Write a feminist critique of the film by flagging issues raised in the film by relating to each of l the units mentioned above. Support your arguments by quoting feminist scholars.

Ans) In India, getting married at the right age and having kids at the right age are unwritten rules that people follow because of pressure from the society, their parents, or their relatives.

In India, girls who think about their careers or who don't get married for any reason are criticised by society, which then puts pressure on their parents to get their kids married. Films only deal with this issue. As a woman, I find it very disappointing that, after several years of women's movement for equality, inequality between men and women still exists in society.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the women's movement took on a new shape in many parts of the world, with calls for "women's liberation" and "equality for women." One of the places where women fought for their rights was in the creation of new knowledge. After India got its independence, the women's movement that started before independence seemed to fade away. Neera Desai, a leading feminist scholar, says that the women leaders of that time thought that the new nation-state led by Jawaharlal Nehru would live up to its promises of equality for women and men and that the new claims of national development (after colonialism) would bring progress for everyone.

But India's patriarchal society made it hard for women to get equal rights. Feminist scholars did not come up with the word "patriarchy" at all. This word comes from the study of anthropology in the 1800s. Its literal meaning is "the rule of the father." This word is easy to translate into other languages. For example, the Hindi word for this word is pitrsattha.

Private patriarchy is when women are treated unfairly and are mostly shut out of public life, whether in the economy or in politics. As a result, they mostly depend on men in the home and for the work of reproduction. Even if a woman is not financially or emotionally dependent on a man, the people around her, whether they are men or women, are forced to follow the so-called "societal marriage system."

So, in Rubin's theory, the biological differences between men and women serve as a kind of background for the gender system, whose basic structure she finds in theories of kinship, especially the exchange of women by men through the institution of marriage. This is how a social system is imposed on the natural world, since it is men who trade and "give" women, and men have rights that women do not. There are also other differences between men and women, such as the idea that men should do certain jobs and women should do others. Rubin then talks about how the social system, which is based on natural differences, can lead to exclusive gender identities that hide natural similarities. This means that "feminine" traits in men and "masculine" traits in women must be hidden.

Marriage is a social institution that helps people start families. Here, it would be enough to say that families can be made even if people don't get married, but marriage is the main way that families are made. So, these two institutions, which together make up the basic unit of society, work well together.

Feminists think that marriage is a forced state in which women are treated like property. For them, marriage and family are inextricably linked to private property, the way people are put into classes, and the way things are made, which is a part of capitalism. Fredrich Engels said that the nuclear family was the cause of how women were treated. But Engels, who was one of the first people to study gender, disagrees with the idea that the family has always put women down. Instead, he says that capitalism is to blame because it has destroyed the status of women in the family. Feminists romanticise the time before industrialization because, they say, men and women didn't have clear jobs.

Most of us know that going to school is how people (usually children) learn. This could happen in formal or mainstream institutions, like schools, or in non-formal or alternative learning spaces, like religious schools or schools that teach specific skills or jobs. Schooling becomes a structured way to learn, where some people teach others (that is, teachers to learners). In this process, there is a certain hierarchy and relationship of power and authority that is kept up. Schools and the schooling process are one place where some of the most common political, social, cultural, and economic ideas in society are taught to students. This can happen through interactions between teachers and students, between students, or through textbooks. Schooling becomes a way to figure out what the "ideal" subject looks like. Constitutional law addresses the issue of gender equality on two main levels. On the first level, fundamental rights make sure that everyone is treated equally and stop discrimination. On the second level, special provisions are made for women to make sure that economic, political, and social justice is reached.

It is very important for a woman to be able to take care of herself and meet her own needs. For a woman to be free, she needs to be able to take care of herself financially. There are a lot of rights for women in the constitution that help them get the financial freedom they need.

Marxist thought says that the way a capitalist family is set up has a direct effect on the economic status of women. Since the main focus of the Marxist framework is on class relations, the production relationships, as well as the social, economic, and historical effects of class relations, have some bearing on gender. From a Marxist point of view, problems related to gender are part of problems related to class. As the feminist movement has grown, a number of studies have been done on women's work from a Marxist feminist point of view. So, the ideas of both feminism and Marxism are put together to make a theoretical framework that ties together the theory of patriarchy and the history of capitalism.

When you look at the jobs that women in India do for money, you can see some clear trends. In the traditional village community, women had a clear and accepted job that helped the family make a living. In most parts of the country, and especially among small farmers and landless workers, poor families often work together to make a living, with or without men, women, and children doing different jobs. But women's involvement in economic activities looks different depending on where they live and what their culture is like.

The most important indicator of the job market is the Work Participation Rate. Since the 1970s, there has been a lot of concern about how to measure how much women are involved in the economy. This has led to some changes in methods and definitions. Self-employment has always been a big part of women's work in India. During the time of liberalisation, one of the most important conversations has been about women as self-employed workers. This is because people thought that liberalisation would help women "entrepreneurs" in the informal sector connect with larger markets. As a result, many of the most important policy documents on women during the time of globalisation have talked about how important the sector is and what it could be in the future.

Q2. Watch the following Tedx Talk video on The surprising neuroscience of gender inequality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCknUJJc3qU

Read all four Units in Block 1 of your study material. Relate the issues raised in the video with the concepts explained in Block 1. Discuss why it’s important to work towards gender equality in all walks of life by giving arguments based on feminist scholarship. Give ways in which gender inequality can be address at the level of individual, socio-cultural, economic and political institutions in a society and at the policy level.

Ans) One of the scariest things about India is that the gap between men and women is at its highest point. Gender equality means that men and women are treated the same way in all areas of life, such as politics, money, health, education, etc.

Even though India's laws are strong and give women a safety net, it's too bad that Gender Equality is still a problem. In 2018, India was at the top of the list of the most dangerous countries for women. This was a national shame that Indians and their leaders were happy to brush off. In everything we do, we should try to make sure that men and women have the same rights.

Gender equality means that men and women have the same chances, resources, and freedoms in many ways, no matter what religion they follow. Gender equality says that all people, no matter what gender they are, should be treated equally and should be able to make decisions and choices in their lives based on what they want. It is a goal that hasn't always been met, even though governments all over the world have passed laws and taken other steps to make sure that men and women have the same rights. But "Have we been able to reach this goal?" is an important question to ask. Even if we don't reach it, are we even close? Most likely, the answer is "No." Every day, there are a lot of situations that show how equal or unequal men and women are, not just in India but all over the world.

Gender equality gaps and their social causes affect the number of men and women in India, the health of women, the economy, and the growth of the country. Inequality between men and women in India is a complicated problem that affects a lot of people. In any case, when the population of India as a whole is looked at, women are often not treated the same as men. Also, this has been going on for a long time, and many women in the country accept it as a normal part of life. In some parts of India, women are still the first to fight back if the government tries to punish men for not treating them equally. Indian laws on assault, endowment, and adultery have given women some basic protection, but these deeply oppressive practises still happen at a disturbingly high rate and affect the lives of many women even today.

In fact, according to the 2011 Global Gender Gap Report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), India was ranked 113 out of 135 countries on the Gender Gap Index (GGI). Since then, India has moved up on the Gender Gap Index (GGI) of the World Economic Forum to place 105 out of 136 in 2013. When the GGI is broken down into its different parts, India does well in the area of political strengthening, but it does as badly as China in the area of sex-specific foetus removal.

Since independence, many things have been done by the governments to try to close this gap between men and women. For example, the Ministry of Women and Child Development runs programmes like Swadhar and Short Stay Homes to make sure that women are treated equally. These programmes help women in need and give them a chance to get back on their feet. Working Women Hostels are places where working women can stay safe away from their homes. Support the Training and Employment Program for Women (STEP) to make sure that low-income rural and urban women all over the country can start their own businesses and earn money. Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) will give small-scale fund management to help poor women improve their finances. National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) was created to strengthen the general procedures that help women develop in all areas. Sabla is a plan to help young women between the ages of 11 and 18 in every way possible.

Some of the laws that the government has passed also protect people no matter what gender they are. For example, the Equal Remuneration Act of 1973 says that workers who do similar work of a similar nature should get the same pay without being separated. The government passed the Unorganized Workers' Social Security Act 2008 to make sure that workers, including women, in the unorganised sector can save money in a standard way. Also, The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013 protects all people, no matter how old they are or what their job is, from lewd behaviour in both public and private workplaces, whether they are calm or chaotic.

The United Nations has done a lot to help the Indian government reach its goal of equal rights for men and women. In 2008, the UN Secretary-General started the UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign. The goal of the campaign was to raise public awareness and increase political will and resources to stop and end all kinds of violence against women. Through its activities to spread the word on a global, regional, and national scale, the UNiTE crusade is trying to get people and networks involved. Even though it supports the long-term efforts of women and common-interest groups, the battle is interesting to men, young people, VIPs, artists, sports stars, the private sector, and more.

Also, the creation of UN Women was a big part of the UN's plan for change. It brought together assets and orders on gender equality. In India, UN Women works closely with the government and the general public to set national goals for gender equality. UN Women tries to help women get ahead financially by helping women who work in agriculture and manual foraging. As a big part of its work on peace and security, UN Women teaches peacekeepers how to spot and stop sexual violence caused by war.

Women have been fighting for equal rights for a long time. They want the right to vote, the right to control their bodies, and the right to be treated equally at work. Even though these fights have been hard fought, we still have a long way to go before we treat women the same as men. Fairness in the workplace is still just a dream, as women in a wide range of fields, from housework to the media, can tell you. Today, more and more activists and social scientists believe that making workshops about sexual orientation mandatory for city workers, such as the police and the legal system, is one of the most important ways to change people's attitudes and behaviours. Maybe we can at least hope that in the future, people of different genders won't be treated differently.