Be(com)ing a Woman: Body, Authority and Society

Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL), 2014

Gender inequality refers to biased and unfair treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. Gender inequality is one of the major problems faced by the human society. Our society bestowed different roles on men and women respectively. It’s a hard reality that women have been ill-treated in every society for ages in India. A woman is considered as inferior to man in our society. In patriarchal society the wives are expected to be modest, meek and dutiful to their husbands and other members of families. She has to live behind the veil and has to face many restrictions by their family and society. A woman has to face this discrimination not only at her home but in schools, colleges, and at their work place also. Even the employed women are not independent in real sense, they may have the liberty of movement but they are always addressed by their kinship position by others. There are gaps between men and women in terms of literacy rate, intra house distribution of food and other means, health benefits received and so on. In the light of above arguments the present paper deliberates upon the gender inequality, the causes behind this discrimination against woman, its impact on woman and what can be done to stop this demonic practice. The paper also tries to find out the plight of women and their present status in North West states of India particularly in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, etc. Man and woman are both equal and both plays a vital role in the creation and development of their families in particular and the society in general. Keywords: patriarchal, discrimination, submissive, liberty

Haryana More than half of the population of the world is made of woman but she is not treated at par with man despite innumerable evolutions and revolutions. She has the same mental and moral power, yet she is not recognized as his equal. In such conditions the question of searching her identity is justified. Actually in this male dominated society, she is wife, mother, sister and homemaker. She is expected to serve, sacrifice, submit and tolerate each ill against her peacefully. Her individual self has very little recognition in the patriarchal society and so complete selflessness is her normal way of life. Inspite of all brouhaha and sloganeering about woman lib, the blink ring view that woman's place in India is within the four walls of a home that pervades the entire system. The crime statistics against woman and the cases reported and unreported of female feticides, rapes, sati, devdasi, prostitution, use and throw like divorce practices rampant in society even after sixty years of independence, all are indicative of the fact that what we talk about woman, we aspire not. The ideas, thoughts, traditions, and practices reflect anti woman attitude and the values fixed by patriarchal hegemony have made the life of the woman much more pitiable. Various feminist movements right from mid 19 th century till the recent decade establish the fact that women have been neglected throughout the world on one pretext or the other. They are oppressed under a system of structural hierarchies and injustices. Besides, certain relational hierarchies direct women against one another in a family setup. The patriarchal male dissuades them their rights by supporting the one who is inadvertently provided a higher position in the hierarchy. Women are hindered not by lack of ability but by bias and outmoded institutional structures. And a nation is an era of global competition cannot afford such under use of precious human capital. The intense culture bias relegated woman to playing second fiddle. Woman central issues are always tainted with male bias. Woman has always been restricted, forced, pressurized, and persuaded to be a homemaker, supportive spouse, esteemed mom, and professional success for man. And she gradually melded all these personas, letting the male all the glory, just for peace of mind.

“One is not born a woman, but becomes one” was very correctly put into words by the famous existentialist feminist Simone de Beaviour to explain the gendered patterns of women subordination in society whereby women are assigned the position of ‘subordinate others’. Although gender is the secondary construction of patriarchal society, it is intruded over the natural biological ‘sex’ due to which, men are assumed as the masculine male and women as the feminine female. In the process of gendered construction, men are socialized to dominate because their character is shaped by boldness, roughness and aggressiveness. In contrast, women are socialized to tolerate those dominations, because their character is shaped by softness, shyness and patience. Within the dominant discourses of a patriarchal society like India, gender is internalized by both the sexes through their masculine and feminine traits. This is the reason why women remain submissive throughout their life, sometimes being a traditional good wife who tolerates the tortures inflicted upon her by husband or in-laws in the form of domestic violence and sometimes being an ideal mother who silently accepts the decisions of her son and sometimes as a victim who remain silent even being raped or harassed sexually. These roles are sanctioned socially through various social institutions thereby, glorifying wifehood and motherhood. This paper is an attempt to bring forth the psychological, ideological and cultural bases of this process of naturalization of women subordination in a gendered and patriarchal society like India, where women silently accept their submissive position in state, society and culture.

The pace of socio-economic transformation in India over the past two and a half decades has been formidable. In this volume we are concerned with examining how these transformations have played out at the level of everyday life to influence the lives of Indian women, and gender relations more broadly. The 15 chapters in Women, Gender and Everyday Social Transformation in India conceive of these ongoing everyday transformatory churnings as undercurrents that play out well below the radar screen of the national and international media, and beyond the realm of the spectacular. To analyse these everyday transformatory churnings our authors look closely and ethnographically at a diversity of everyday 'sites of change in which macro-structural processes of social transformation interface with everyday life-worlds to generate new contestations and contradictions that impinge directly on the everyday lives of ordinary Indian women, and on the relations between genders. In doing so, they combine to identify the ambiguous, contradictory and contested co-existence of discrepant gendered norms, values and visions in a society caught up in wider processes of social transformation. They also provide us with some cause for cautious optimism. Thus, while much of the current debate on women and social change in India is, for very good reasons, dominated by the pessimism triggered by the apparent increase in brutal sexualised violence against women, and the very low child sex ratio that makes India 'a terrible place for girls cf. also Jha et al. 2006;, the chapters in Women, Gender and Everyday Social Transformation in India paint a more composite and contradictory picture. The past 10 to 20 years have seen an increasing number of women moving out of the domestic domain and into the 'public' domains of education, work and politics (Reddy 2012); female literacy has gone up; more women pursue higher education and are an increasingly common sight on buses, in cafes, markets and other public spaces in the big cities; new and affordable communication technologies blur the gendered boundaries between the private and the public; there is greater participation of women in economic activity in the cities; the large number of women elected to village and municipal councils across the country give women a permanent political voice; there is a strong women's movement; and in some states women now 'out-vote' the men. These changes, we argue in this book, are deeply implicated in everyday lives and have had a considerable, if contradictory, impact on how Indian women and men live, work and dream. We have organised the 15 chapters in Women, Gender and Everyday Social Transformation in India under three topical headings: (1) Work, technology, aspirations; (2) democracy and the developmental state; and (3) assertions and activism. The key questions that we address include: How does women's ability to participate in an increasingly globalised and volatile Indian labour market alter the terrain upon which gender relations are negotiated and organised? How does the entry of new technologies into everyday life domains alter the relationship between men and women, and between the private and the public? How do global cultural flows impinge on local imaginaries and desires to reconfigure subjectivities? Does the growing policy focus on maternal health change local views of women and motherhood? How is contemporary Indian feminism articulated and contested? And how does women's grassroots political activism reconfigure gender relations and practices?

Educational Administration Theory and Practice Journal, 2024

This paper delves into the intricate relationship between men and women within the Indian societal framework, focusing on historical and sociological perspectives. Despite the universally accepted principle of gender equality, Indian society reflects a complex interplay of socioeconomic conditions, policies, practices, and cultural norms that have historically positioned women in subordinate roles. The paper provides a chronological examination of the status of Hindu women from the Vedic period (1500 BCE-500 BCE) through to the end of British rule in 1947, highlighting key aspects of their lives, including childhood, education, marriage, divorce, and property rights. The paper examines practices such as child marriage, dowry, and female infanticide, emphasizing their impact on women's societal roles and opportunities for education. Furthermore, the paper sheds light on legislative efforts made during British rule to address these issues and their limited success due to persistent societal biases. In conclusion, the paper underscores the importance of recognizing the historical and cultural dimensions of gender inequality to effectively address and dismantle the structures that sustain it.

The Creative launcher, 2021

The paper aims to highlight the complexities that are dominant in Indian society. The variety of issues that makes Indian feminism different from western feminism is also explored. The present paper presents a brief overview of western feminism, however, a large portion discuss the Indian feministic concerns and issue. The paper is not limited to any particular writer or writing of an author but it is an eclectic approach to present the subtle difficulties of Indian feminism in the best possible way. The focus is largely on the third and fourth wave of feminism. Giving the increasing insecurities of women even in this digital era, the paper therefore is a humble effort in that direction to bring some of the merging issues and concerns of women in general and Indian women in particular to the forefront. An eclectic approach has been used for the evaluation of the issues and concerns therefore the paper highlights various feministic issues like cultural social, economic individual, Islamic etc. associated with different branches of feminism.

Since the dawn of civilizations in most of places, women were treated as a second sex, compelling them to accept and even conform to the norms that this inferior position had to accord them. From a time when women struggled to gain the right to vote when they agitated to

This paper attempts to analyze the changing role and status of women in India and also highlights the issues and challenges faced by women's of 21st century. Traditionally, an Indian woman had four fold status-role sequence, her role as daughter, wife, housewife and a mother.

International Journal of Home Science, 2022

In this paper the author focuses on the more insidious and routine forms of sexual harassment women have to deal with when they step into the Bihar to earn a livelihood or take part in social, political and educational activities. The segment of society chosen is university students and teachers from middle class. Real life experiences have been recounted which show how men use aggressive sexual encounters to maintain dominance and control and how and why women are forced to suffer such behavior. Steps towards protecting women from sexual harassment are suggested, to bring a meaningful change in women's currently powerless and vulnerable position. An aggregate sample of about 150 women (15-49 years) was selected for this study. In this study discussion based on primary data and purposive sampling. A schedule was administered to the selected women to obtain information about their problem. Conducted by on the interview on different opinion, who the women lived in Patna district of Bihar. The aim of this paper is to discuss the main hurdles and possible solution concerning protect the women in the underdeveloped district of Bihar. The Report point out that the problems are particularly acute in women dignity.