Paper-VI-Sociology-of-Gender-English-Version1-munotes

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1 MODULE I
1
BASIC CONCEPTS: SEX AND GENDER,
MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY,
PATRIARCHY
Unit Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Sex and Gender
1.2.1 Sex
1.2.2 Gender
1.2.3 Deconstructing Sex and Gender
1.3 Heteronormative Regime
1.4 Masculinity and F emininity
1.5 Patriarchy
1.6 Summary
1.7 Questions
1.8 References
1.0 OBJECTIVES  To study the concepts of sex and gender as used in feminist works.
 To understand the concepts of masculinity and femininity as
analytical categories.
 To study the concept of p atriarchy and male dominance in society.
1.1 INTRODUCTION Concepts are terms used by social scientist as analytical categories to
study society and social behaviour. Through the use of concepts social
scientists develop categories that act as aids in the scientific investigation
of behaviour in the society. In gender studies there are several such
concepts that provide the framework in the study of behaviour. For
example, the concept of gender was first developed by Iill Matthews in
1984 in her study of th e construction of femininity. According to
Mathews, the concept of gender gives recognition to the fact that every
known society distinguishes between women and men. Therefore, the term
/ concept of gender is a systematic way of understanding men and women
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2 Sociology of Gender
2  The concept of patriarchy helps in the study of the male dominance in
the society.
 The concept of gender helps to study the differences in behaviour
between men and women and to analyse the basi s of these differences
as basically biological or as social constructions by the society.
 The concepts masculinity and femininity define certain trout‟s as
typically male as so masculine in nature or as typically female and so
feminine in nature.
In this unit some basic concepts will be studied. These concepts are sex
and gender, patriarchy and masculinity and femininity.
In feminist writings and in discourses on Gender Studies, these concepts
are basic to our understanding of social differences between m en and
women in the society. A study of these concepts are useful as analytical
categories.
1.2 SEX AND GENDER The term „sex‟ and „gender‟ are concepts used by academicians,
researchers and feminist writers to make a distinction between the
biologically d ifferent „male‟ and „female‟ and between the socially
different „man‟ and „woman‟. Feminist sociologists suggest that there is a
need to understand and distinguish between the two terms „sex‟ and
„gender‟ in academic discourses and writings.
1.2.1 Sex:
In a very broad way, „sex‟ refers to the biological and physiological
differences between male and female sex. The term sex is a physical
differentiation between the biological male and the biological female.
Thus, when an infant is born, the infant comes to be labeled “boy” or
“girl” depending on their sex. The genital differences between male and
female is the basis of such characterization. There is a biological
difference between the sexes and most people are born (expect for a few
ambiguous cases) as one sex or another. However, it has been argued that
having been born into one sex or another, individuals are then socialized
according to specific gender expectations and roles. Biological males learn
to take on masculine roles. They are socialized to think and act in
masculine ways. Biological females learn to take on feminine roles. They
are socialized to think and behave in feminine ways. As the feminist writer
Simone de Behaviour puts it „one is not born a man but becomes one‟,
„one is not born a woman bu t becomes one‟.
At birth, besides the basic biological differences in the genitals and
reproductive organs, there is not much difference between the male child
and the female child. Society makes the differences between boy and girl
through gender construc tions. The biological differences between the
sexes does to some extent explain certain psychological and socially munotes.in

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3 Basic Concepts: Sex and Gender, Masculinity and Femininity, Patriarchy constructed differences. This view is criticized by some feminist writers
like Judith Butler.
Judith Butler argues that sex is natural and co mes first. Gender is
perceived as a secondary construct which is imposed over the top of this
natural distinction. Viewed thus, Butler argues „sex‟ itself becomes a
social category. This means that the distinction between „male‟ and
„female‟ is a social di stinction made by the society, that is, it is a social
construction. It is a particular way of perceiving and dividing the
differences between „male‟, „female‟. Butler explains that „sex‟ though
seen as biological, is as much a product of society as it gen der. So, the
term sex is also socially constructed.
The scientific, biological meaning and definition of sex is an important
source of explanation to point out the basic differences in sex. Butler‟s
concern is that „biology‟ itself, as a scientific discipl ine, is a social system
of representation and more important there are a number of differences
between human beings, but only some become a basis for dividing human
beings into distinct types. In other words, even if we accept that there are
basic differen ces between the „sexes‟ there is no logical or rational reason
for use. This is the basis for dividing human beings into two groups or
sexes.
Judith Butler further explains „sex‟ is not just an analytical category. It is a
normative category as well. It st ipulates what men and women are. It also
stipulates what men and women ought to be. It formulates rules to regulate
the behaviour of men and women. Butler concludes that sex is also a
social category. There are some feminist writers who do not agree with
Butler and regard „sex‟ as basically biological in nature.
Much research in sociology assumes that each person has one sex, one
sexuality and one gender. Sometimes sex and gender are used
interchangeably. Sometimes sex means sexuality, it may refer to bio logy
or physiology. A woman is assumed to be feminine female, a man a
masculine male. Research variables polarize sex as males and females;
sexuality is polarized as homosexual and heterosexuals; gender is
homosexual as and women these reflect conventional ise bodies that do not
take into account transvestites, transsexuals, bisexuals and so on. In
gender studies or women studies the four of concern is on the biological
sex – man, woman, male female and the way in which biological
differences have been socia lly gendered in different ways by the
patriarchal society. When infants are categorized as a particular sex, they
are subject to a range of gendered behaviour through gendered
socialization. This brings us to the question what is gender?
Check Your Progres s:
1. Explain the concept of Sex .


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4 1.2.2 Gender:
The concept of gender in feminist writings and other sociological
discourses became popular in the early 1970. In simple terms, gender
explain the differences between men and women in social terms as men,
and as what a man can do; as „woman‟, and as what a woman can or
cannot do. Therefore, gender is an analytical category that is socially
constructed to differentiate the biological difference between men and
women. The ter m gender is also used to describe the differences in
behaviour between men and women which are described as „masculine‟
and „feminine‟. Feminist writings focus on this aspect and claim that these
differences are not biological but are social constructions of patriarchal
society.
Some theorists suggest that the biological differences between men and
women also result in their mental and physical differences. They argue
that biologically, men are physically and mentally superior to women.
Other theorists sugg est that the biological difference between men and
women are exaggerated. The differences are socially constructed by the
patriarchal system of society by which men are described as superior to
women. Therefore, women become subordinate to men in the socie ty.
Ann Oakley in her book, Sex, Gender and Society written in 1972
explores the term gender. Oakley says that in the Western culture women
play the roles of the „housewife‟ and „mother‟. This is because women are
made to play these roles because of their biology. The western culture also
believes that any effort to change the traditional roles of men and women
in the society can cause damage to the social fabric of the society. Oakley
concludes that this view regarding the roles of men and women helps to
support and maintain the patriarchal society.
Simone de Beauvior in her book „The Second Sex‟ says that “one is not
born, but rather becomes a woman”. She explains that gender differences
in the society make the man superior through his role as the bread winner.
It gives him a position of power in the society and family. Gender
differences are set in hierarchal opposition such that men are superior and
women are subordinate. Women‟s position is that of the „other‟ and
women are the continual outsiders. Civ ilization was masculine to its very
depth.
Shulamith Firestone in her book, „The Dialectics of Sex (1970) suggests
that patriarchy exploits women‟s biological capacity to reproduce as their
essential weakness. She explains that the only way for women to break
away from this oppression is to use technological advances of free
themselves from the burden of childbirth. She advocated breaking down
the biological bond between mothers and children by establishing
communes where monogamy and nuclear family do no t exist.
Few feminists accept firestones views mainly because both technology
and its uses are still firmly in the hands of men. While cultural feminists
question whether all the key differences between men and women are
solely cultural and whether also bi ological. These feminists prefer to value munotes.in

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5 Basic Concepts: Sex and Gender, Masculinity and Femininity, Patriarchy and celebrate the mothering role as evidence of women‟s natural
disposition towards nurturance and would not like to relinquish even if
they could.
Ann Oakley says that there is a constant slippage between sex and gender;
for example, people are generally asked to declare their „gender‟ instead of
sex on an application form. In feminist writings there are references to the
close association of gender with the biological or natural as inevitable.
Recent writings on s ex and gender suggest that feminism has relied too
much on the polarization of sex and gender distinctions, showing that the
meanings attached to sex differences are themselves socially constructed
and changeable. It is dependent on the way we understand t hem and attach
different consequences to these biological „facts‟ within our own cultural
historical context. At the same time there is an argument that biology does
contribute to some behavioural characteristics.
Movia Gatens , states that evidence points “that the male body and the
female body have quite different social value and significance and cannot
but help have a marked effect on male and female consciousness”. Certain
bodily events have huge significance especially of they occur only in one
sex. Sh e cites the example of menstruation. She points that masculinity is
not valued, unless it is performed by biological male; hence the male body
itself is imbued in our culture with the mythology of supremacy of being
the human „norm‟.
Judith Butler‟s theori zation about gender introduces the notion of
performativity, an idea that gender is involuntarily „performed‟ within the
dominant discourses of hetero -reality. Butler‟s conception of is perhaps
most radical as she asserts that all identity concept „are in fact that effects
of institutions‟ practices, discourses with multiple and diffuse points of
origin‟. She further states that “sex / gender distinction suggests a radical
discontinuity between sexed bodies and culturally constructed gender”.
This approach questions the way we make constructing of gender identity.
Individual do tend to challenge the way discourses establish and reinforce
certain meanings and institutions such as that of compulsory
heterosexuality.
It is difficult to accept a rigid distinctio n between sex and gender as either
wholly biological or singularly cultural. There is a constant shift between
conceptualizations of human beings as controlled by either predominantly
biological or social forces. The debates on sex and gender will continue as
same will argue in favour of biological differences while other feminist
writers will favour the differences as socially constructed, supported by
social institutions like religion, caste, family marriage and so on. The
substantial shift in women‟s liv es and expectations since the 1960s clearly
explains that the category of feminine has been rather elastic. Women‟s
roles and performances have changed drastically over the past few decades
which has added new dimensions to the debates by feminists and oth er on
sex / gender distinctions.
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6 Check Your Progress:
2. Explain the concept of Gender .


1.2.3 Deconstructing Sex and Gender:
In rethinking gender categories, it is necessary to look at sex and gender as
conceptually distinct. Eac h is socially constructed in different ways.
Gender is an overarching category – a major social status that organizes
almost all areas of social life. Therefore, bodies are gendered and are built
into major social institutions of the society such as econom y, ideology,
polity, family and so on.
For an individual, the components of gender are the sex category assigned
at birth on the basis of the appearance of the genitalia. Each category
provides a gender identity, gendered sexual orientation, marital and
procreative status, a gendered personality structure, gender beliefs and
attitudes, gender at work and family roles. All these social components of
are supposed to be consistent and congruent with one‟s biology. The
actual combination may or may not be congr uent with each other and with
the components of gender and sex, moreover, the components may not
line up neatly on one side of the binary divide.
The need for official categorization in societies of infants into neat legal
label “boy” or “girl” soon after birth are at the sometime subject to rather
arbitrary sex assignment. Sex change surgery is not uncommon for
infants with anomalous genitalia Sociologists are aware of the varieties of
biological and physiological sexes. The rational given for categoriza tion of
the ambiguous as either female or male throws light on the practices that
maintain the illusion of clear at sex differences. Without such critical
exploration, sex differences can easily be considered as natural of what
actually is socially constru cted.
Check Your Progress:
3. How do you differentiate Gender from Sex?


1.3 HETERONORMATIVE REGIME Sociologists and other social scientists use the term heteronormativity to
describe how sex and gender are used to classify individ uals in our
society. The idea that heterosexuality, or a sexual and romantic attraction
to the opposite sex, is the only acceptable sexual orientation, is known as
heteronormativity. Binary gender identity is considered to be the norm.
Other sexual orienta tions are viewed as abnormal and occasionally even
illegal. In addition to upholding rigid sexual norms, heteronormativity also
upholds rigid gender roles in society. For instance, the notion that men and munotes.in

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7 Basic Concepts: Sex and Gender, Masculinity and Femininity, Patriarchy women in our society have distinct roles to play su pports the paradigm
that women should look after children while men are at work. This is also
connected to the gender binary, which divides people into two categories:
male or female.
The most difficult task for today‟s generation is fighting the
heteronor mative culture because it prevents us from realising that there are
different types of individuals in it since everything, we see from the
moment we are born is filtered through heteronormative lenses. We fail to
recognise the possibility of gender non -conformity, the existence of
genders other than male and female, or the existence of sexual orientations
other than heterosexuality. For example, Property owners frequently
stipulate that only married couples would be permitted to stay in India.
They effectiv ely deny the reality of married queer couples by making this
claim in favour of focusing only on the patriarchal variant of the Indian
family system. If they encounter two women or two men expressing their
desire to live together, the same property owners will not press the matter
any further. This is due to the assumption that a relationship must either be
heterosexual or have no sexual component at all!
Sexual orientation refers to whom one is attracted to, it can range from
being gay, lesbian, etc. In ou r society, we frequently identify people as
either male or female based on factors like colour and attire.
Heteronormativity is the tendency to classify everything as boys and girls
when we merely glance at it. However, not everyone expresses themselves
or identifies as one or the other. Folks may prefer to use the pronouns
"she/her" even if they "look" like a guy (also a sign of heteronormativity),
so there is a need to respect this by not misgendering people. Some people
can identify as genderfluid, which implies that their gender identity can
shift from one end of the gender spectrum to the other. Others are
genderless, meaning they don't identify with either of the socially
prescribed genders. The most crucial thing to keep in mind is that every
person's gender might be different, and it's important to respect everyone's
gender identity, gender expression, and gender orientation.
Check Your Progress:
4. Explain the concept of Heteronormative Regime.


1.4 MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY The sex / gender differences raise the issues of male – female; masculine
and feminine, male associated with masculinity and female with
femininity. With each constructions the biological differences between
men and women get translated into social terms and descriptions. Feminist
writers argue that biological differences get heightened through social
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8 Patters of differences by gender is seen when the character is either
masculine or feminine. For example, pink an d blue are gendered colours,
former regarded as „feminine‟ and the latter as masculine. Further to be
„strong‟ and „tough‟ is masculine. Being „weak‟ and „soft‟ are associated
with feminine character. There are several other traits that are categorized
as masculine and feminine. Masculinity and femininity are concepts which
signify the social outcomes of being male or female the traits and
characteristics which describe men and women give men advantage over
women.
Moira Gatens , points masculinity is not val ued unless performed by
biological male. Hence the male body is imbued in our culture with
certain traits that characterize maleness or masculinity. Hence the human
norm of male supremacy. Similarly, femininity is performed by the
biological female. The female body is in our culture is imbued with certain
traits that characterize female or femininity. According to Judith Butler
any theorization about gender introduces the notion or idea of performance
of gender in terms of masculinity and femininity. Thus , performance of
gender becomes involuntary as gender gets internalized through the
socialization process within the dominant discourses of patriarchy gender
is performed at different levels within the family and in the society. We
socially enter into our gendered categories of masculine and feminine right
from birth.
The concepts of masculinity and femininity as need in feminist discourses
and writing to explain the differences between men and women. Some
argue that these differences are based in their bio logy while others reject
this argument and emphasize that the differences are socially constructed.
Therefore, the construction of men and masculinity will accrue exclusively
to the bodies of males. The construction of women and femininity will
accrue excl usively to the bodies of females.
In contemporary writings there is a recognition that these social
categorization of masculinity and femininity are blurring. There is a
constant shift in the conceptualization of human beings as controlled by
wholly biolog ical or social forces. Women‟s expectations have changed,
women lives and roles have broadened. This explain just how malleable
the category of femininity is.
Check Your Progress:
5. Explain the concept of Masculinity and Feminity .


1.5 PATRIARCHY Patriarchy is an often -used term in everyday conversation. The question
here is “what is patriarchy?” In casual conversation, whether in English or
any other language the term implies “male domination”, “male prejudice
(against women)”, or more simply “male power”. Put simply, the term munotes.in

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9 Basic Concepts: Sex and Gender, Masculinity and Femininity, Patriarchy means “the absolute rule of the father or the eldest male member over his
family”. Patriarchy is thus the rule of the father over all women in the
family and also over younger socially and economically subord inate
males. Literally, patriarchy means rule by the male head of a social unit
(like family, tribe). The patriarch is typically a societal elder who has
legitimate power over others in the social unit.
However, since the early twentieth century, feminist writers have used the
term patriarchy as a concept to refer to the social system of masculine
domination over women. Patriarchy has been a fundamentally important
concept in gender studies. Feminist writers have developed a number of
theories that aim to u nderstand the bases of women‟s subordination to
men.
The term patriarchy is not only a descriptive term that explains how
different societies construct male authority and power, but also become an
analytical category. This changes of the use of the term pa triarchy from a
descriptive to an analytical category took place in the 1970s, in a specific
global historical context of feminist political and intellectual culture. In
the course of time this later led to the development of the discipline of
women‟s stud ies or gender studies, when women agitated for their rights.
At the Universities women demanded that their experiences and points of
view be taken seriously that patriarchy emerged as a way of both
describing and explaining the world. Since this time, patr iarchy has been
used critically to explain the main components of authority and power in
any social system. Patriarchy automatically privileges men over women
such that women have little or no claims to material, sexual and
intellectual resources of the so ciety. That is, in a patriarchal society
woman have to struggle to be educated, to have property or to make
choices regarding marriage and other aspects of life. For men, these
resources are a matter of right and can make choices that affect their lives.
Let us take some examples to clarify the way in which patriarchy is
evident in our daily life.
When a man raises his voice in the course of an argument and insects on
his point of view, without letting others especially women get to utter a
single word, his actions are likely to be described as “aggressively
patriarchal”.
If a women complains of sexual harassment at her work place, and all the
men in her office deny that this could ever happen. The reasoning of men
can be described as being “typically patria rchal”.
In public speeches that disclaim the subordination of women, this decimal
is described by the term „patriarchy‟.
In a very general way “patriarchy” is a „catch‟ word that describes the
different ways in which society discriminates against women. Th ese
examples explain the many different and subtle ways through which
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10 Anglo – European anthropologists, writing in the nineteenth century, used
the term widely. In their writings, „patriarchy‟, usually referred to a social
system where men were family heads, descent was through the father.
Men alone were priests, and all laws and norms were dictated by the male
elders in the community. When used in this sense, the term „patriarchy‟ is
often contrasted with the term „m atriarchy‟, which referred to social
system where women exercised political authority over men, or possessed
decisive power and exercised a measure of control over social
relationships and everyday life. In the evolution of society, matriarchy was
usually considered and earlier and more primitive stage of society, and
patriarchy on later and more advanced stage of society.
In contemporary discourses on gender, patriarchy is a central concept that
feminist writers have been grappling with to explain differen tial positions
of men and women in the society. These writings view patriarchy as the
subordination of women. The patriarchal system provides self –
definitions and norms for women. These social norms restrict the social
roles of women as mothers and wives . The patriarchal system also amply
rewards all those women who learn to passively their defined roles.
Both wifehood and motherhood become glorified in the patriarchal
system. These roles are granted social sanctions and at the same time are
also eulogize d in local folk lore, in literature, and religion so that women
do actively engage themselves in playing their social roles and thus
themselves contributes and perpetuate the patriarchal social order.
Patriarchy has both productive and punitive aspects. Thus, women who
wish to remain single and refuse marriage and treated with disdain by the
society. Similarly, women who are not fertile or those who cannot bear
children especially male are ridiculed and held in contempt and their
position in the family is a non-existent one. The position of widow,
especially upper caste widows under the patriarchal system was even
pitiable. Widow remarriage was prohibited. The widow was excluded
from also social and religious functions of the family, confined to the
house and household chores. Those women who did not fall into this
pattern of society, that is those women who refused to be invisible, and did
not conform to their civic identity on their fertility and domestic status
were ridiculed, and criticized for being st ubborn and even as unnatural to
their basic biology.
In some countries women who did not marry, or were not fertile, or who
became widows at a young age were look down upon in some ways. For
example, in India, upper caste widows were required to slave thei r heads,
wear no ornaments, or colour garments as they were viewed with
suspicion. They were women who had deviated from the conventional
norms of reproduction and had to be relegated to a lowly status and
position. Women who appeared as a threat to the la rger society because
they did not conform to the norms that governed feminine behaviour were
accused of practicing magic and sorcery. They were identified as witches.
Witch -hunting by men was expressed through violence against these
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11 Basic Concepts: Sex and Gender, Masculinity and Femininity, Patriarchy Patriarchy has been viewed as more than just the subordination of women.
It has been pointed out that not all men are powerful in a patriarchal
system. For example, younger men in the family have less authori ty and
power than older men. They have to defer to older men till their turn to
exercise power comes. The lower class and underprivileged men, and in
the Indian context the „dalit men‟ have lesser or no authority as compared
to the upper class, more priv ileged and upper caste men. Such men who
are oppressed and exploited by powerful men are denied access to
resources of the society as well as their own masculine identity. Inspite of
this, that certain classes and category of men are the targets of patriar chal
authority, the fact remains that all men can claim resources and power
more easily than women in their families or communities. In the lower
caste lower class family‟s male children get to eat better food and are
more likely to be sent to school and receive health care than the female
children. Another example is that of the hirjas (enuchs) in India. They
actively renounce and refuse their masculinity. They are often the object
of ridicule and derision. Moreover, many of them are from lower castes
and lower classes.
The above discussion clearly brings out the way in which patriarchy
differentiates between men and women. And through such differential
treatment women are denied access to resources of the society and to
positions of power and authority b oth in the family and in the community.
What do men control in the Patriarchal System?
Different areas of women‟s lives are said to be under patriarchal control.
1. Women’s productive or labour power:
Men control women‟s productivity both within the house hold and outside,
in paid work. Within the household women provide all kinds of services to
their husbands, children and other members of the family throughout their
lives. Feminist writer Sylvia Walby calls this as the “patriarchal mode of
production” whe re women‟s labour is expropriated by then husbands and
others who live there. She calls housewives as the „producing class‟ and
husbands are the „expropriating class‟. The work done by housewives is
not considered as work at all and housewives become depen dent on their
husbands.
Men also control women‟s labour outside the home. They make women to
sell their labour or they may prevent their women from working. They
may appropriate what women earn often women are excluded from better
paid work. They are usual ly working in jobs with low wages; or work
within the home in what is called home -based production, which is itself
an exploitative system.
This control over and exploitation of women‟s labour mean that men
benefit materially from patriarchy. They benefit economically from the
subordination of women. This is the material or economic basis of
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12 2. Women’s Reproduction:
Men also control women‟s reproductive power. In many society‟s women
have no control over then reproduction capacities. They canno t decide
how many children they want, whether to use contraceptives, or a decision
to terminate pregnancy. In addition, men control social institutions like
religion and politics which are male dominated. Control is institutionalized
by laying down rules r egarding women‟s reproduction capacity. For
example, in the Catholic Church, the male religious hierarchy decides
whether men and women can use birth control contraceptives. In modern
times, the patriarchal state tries to control women‟s reproduction thr ough
its family planning programmes. The state decides the optimum size of the
country‟s population. In India for example the birth control programme
limits the family size and discourages women from having more than two
children. On the other hand, in Eu rope, where birth rates are low, women
are lured through various incentives have more children. Women are given
long paid maternity leave, child care facilities and opportunities for part -
time jobs.
Patriarchy idealises motherhood and thereby forces women to be mothers.
It also determines the conditions of their motherhood. This ideology of
motherhood is considered one of the bases of women‟s oppression. It also
creates feminine and masculine character types and perpetuates patriarchy.
It restricts women‟s mobility and it reproduces male dominance.
3. Control over Women’s Sexuality:
Women are obliged to provide sexual services to their husbands according
to their needs and desires. Moral and legal regulations exist to restrict the
expression of women‟s sexu ality outside marriage in every society, while
male promiscuity is often condoned.
Another way of exercising control over women‟s sexuality is when men
force their wives, daughters or other women in their control into
prostitution. Rape and threat of rape is another way in which women‟s
sexuality is controlled through notions of „shame‟ and „honour‟, family
honour. Lastly, women‟s sexuality is controlled through their dress,
behaviour and mobility which are carefully monitored by the family and
through so cial, cultural and religious codes of behaviour.
4. Women’s Mobility:
Besides control of women‟s sexuality, production and reproduction, men
also control women‟s mobility. The imposition of purdah restriction on
leaving the house, limit on interaction bet ween the sexes are some of the
ways by which the patriarchal society controls women‟s mobility and
freedom of movement. Such restriction are unique to women, while men
are not subject to such restrictions.

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13 Basic Concepts: Sex and Gender, Masculinity and Femininity, Patriarchy 5. Property and other Economic Resources:
Most property and other productive resources are controlled by men and
are passed on from father to son. Even in societies where women have
legal rights to inherit property, customary practices, social sanctions and
emotional pressures that prevents them from a cquiring control over them.
According to UN statistics, “Women do more than 60% of the hours of
work done in the world, but they get 10% of the world‟s income and own
1% of the world‟s property”.
We have seen how men control different areas of women‟s live s through
the patriarchal order of the society.
1.6 SUMMARY Concepts are terms used by social scientists as analytical categories to
study society and social behaviour. Concepts such as sex and gender,
masculinity and femininity and patriarchy are importa nt terms in gender
studies.
Sex and gender are the first set of concepts being studied in this unit. The
term sex refers to the biological and physiological differences between
male and female. Feminists accept the basic biological differences but
argue th at the traits and characteristics of the biological male and
biological female are socially constructed. The term gender refers to the
social construction of the differences between men and women in a
patriarchal society. In more recent writings of feminis t there is an
emergent view that it is difficult to accept the rigid distinction between sex
and gender as wholly biological or singularly cultural.
Sex / gender differences raises the issue of male female, masculine
feminine, male associated with masculin ity and female with femininity.
Such constructions translate the biological differences between men and
women into social terms and descriptions. Feminist writers argue that
biological differences get heightened through social descriptions of
masculinity a nd femininity. Gender Binary is considered as the Norm
which refers to the Heteronormativity as the Norm.
Feminist writers use the term patriarchy as a concept to refer to the social
system of masculine domination over women. They have developed a
number of theories to understand the bases of subordination of women in
the patriarchal society.
In the patriarchal society, men control women‟s productive labour and
their reproduction. Patriarchy idealises motherhood and thereby forces
women to be mothers and a lso determines the conditions of their
motherhood. Patriarchy restricts women‟s mobility and reproduces male
dominance.
These concepts are used in studies on gender to understand the basis of
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14 Sociology of Gender
14 1.7 QUESTIONS 1. Expla in the terms sex and gender. Do you agree with the feminist
view that they are social constructions? Give reasons for your
answer.
2. To what extent do the term masculinity and femininity explain the
differences between men and women?
3. Explain the term patriarchy. Discuss the reasons for women‟s
subordinate status.
4. Explain Heteronormative Regime. Do you agree with
Heteronormativity being considered as a norm?
1.8 REFERENCES  Kamala Bhasin, Understanding Gender, New Delhi, Kali for Women,
2000.
 Kamal a Bhasin, What is Patriarchy, New Delhi, Kali for Women,
1993.
 Jane Pitcher and Whelahan, Fifty key concepts in Gender Studies,
New Delhi, Sage Publication, 2005.
 Rosemari Tong, Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction.
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15 2
GENDER BEYOND THE BINARY
Unit Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Understanding gender beyond binary
2.2.1 Problems connected with binary model
2.2.2 Existing Hierarchy and Binary
2.2.3 Gender Binary impositions
2.2.4 Gender Identity
2.2.5 Doing Gender
2.3 Non-Binary Gender Examples
2.4 Gender beyond Non -binary Indian context
2.5 Mass Media and Non -binary
2.6 Access to treatment and non -binary
2.7 Religion and non -binary
2.8 Ways to treat non -binary gender
2.9 Summary
2.10 Quest ions
2.11 References
2.0 OBJECTIVES  To learn about Gender beyond the binary model
 To understand why broadening the gender spectrum becomes
important in the present times.
2.1 INTRODUCTION In this chapter, we would focus upon understanding the comple xity and
problems associated with the binary model of gender which has been
practiced since long. As a student of sociology understanding these topics
are important so that you become sensitive, aware about the problems
faced by non -binary people. In this chapter we will try to understand the
meaning of gender beyond binary and the marginalization in different
areas like religion, healthcare etc. These topics would be very much
important if you are planning career with gender studies for Masters,
intent to work with non -governmental organization working on gender
issues.
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16 2.2 UNDERSTANDING GENDER BEYOND BINARY Gender binary refers to a binary system in which only a woman or a male
is recognized or considered. On the other hand, non -binary gender is
describe d as genders that do not fit within the woman -man binary
framework. The abbreviation LGBTIQA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, intersex, queer, asexual) stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, transgender, intersex, queer, asexual) and is deve loped from a
Western perspective. This is example of non -binary groups .
2.2.1 Problems connected with binary model :
We live in a stratified, patriarchal, and hetero -normative society, where
roles are at times clearly defined and strictly enforced. In many societies
socialisation is often linked to the sex, which is often connected to birth,
and as adult’s individuals continue to learn it as men and women.
Individuals are socialized according to their sex which is associated with
them right from their birth – male/ female and later the learning is turned
as masculinity traits, feminine traits. Generally, the binary model is
viewed as normal and natural which is technically wrong. It prevents any
interaction between the two genders. There is no space for mo vement or
alternate creation. The binary looks to be entirely natural. But it does not
provide both the genders equal rank. One takes the advantage of another.
here also exists the hierarchy within this structure where the existence of
binary has a hierarc hy where male members have privilege and female are
subordinate within in the hierarchy. For example - The female population
is viewed as secondary in several patriarchal societies. The problem is
severe irrespective of the class and caste too. A system of incentives and
penalties is also used to reinforce gender standards. Any violation is
punished with various forms like boycotting, honour killing, violence etc.
There are also practices like Dowry which again marginalizes the females
position in the socie ty.
2.2.2 Existing Hierarchy and Binary :
In a broader framework, Conformity to the binary model is rewarded with
cultural and legal rights, citizenship privileges, and familial support for
those who comply. In both public and private places, those who op pose or
transgress fear violence. These rules are enforced by all institutions,
including family, school, and religion. Let us take the example of the ideal
family drawings on the roads by the government – It would have Ham doh
hamare doh and image of a ma le, female and one girl and another boy.
The public spaces, like mall entrance, restrooms, queues, airport check
points, classroom sitting, attendance register, every place operates in
binary mode only. Any violation is faced with criticism or denied entry ,
discrimination, violence, abuse etc. In every location of social contact,
gender is experienced, played, and demonstrated in combination with
binary mode which is assigned by others. Hereby excluding the other
groups who do not fit in the umbrella of th e binary categories.
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17 Gender Beyond the Binar 2.2.3 Gender Binary impositions :
The family, in particular, emerges as a source of significant conflict and
antagonism. Gender expression monitoring, moral policing of sexuality,
and forced heterosexual marriages are all examples of how gender binary
standards are imposed. The gender binary imposition is used in the
construction and design of public places. Rest rooms, public
transportation, hospitals, airports, and other places employ this concept for
the binary genders. This type of communal and individual policing of
public areas is based on subjective assessments of how they seem and
function. In such situations, maintaining one's gender may be a difficult
balancing act. On the one hand, there is the pressure to conform, on one
side. The threat of assault, abuse, prejudice, and stigma is constantly
present. Trans people are not the only ones who encounter violence; cis -
men and cis -women also do. When a person's gender expression does not
match their perceived identity, they are scru tinised closely.
As a result, anyone who rejects gender conventions will have to fight
gender fights. The intersection of one's caste, class, and racial location
determines the level of marginalization. Imposing the gender is
suffocating, unnatural for the human being who doesn’t identify with a
specific binary form like male, female.
2.2.4 Gender Identity :
People can arrive at the gender identification that appears most appropriate
and comfortable for them via a variety of techniques. Some people figure
out who they are early in life, while others take longer time. Others may
lack the enabling factors of social status, for some favourable
circumstances, or affirmative relationships hence they hide their gender
identity.
Gender identity is often socialised . Other than asking a question "that is
how I feel," there is no evident solution to the question "why are you' x'
gender?" according to the study conducted by LABIA (2016). Gender
identity must thus be considered as a work in progress, influenced by
facto rs such as class, caste, and education, and negotiated via interactions
with strangers as well as close relationships. Due to the realities of
multiple identities and existence, we must soften gender norms and
people’s need to have freedom to choose the id entity they wish. Extremely
rigid gender norms must be relaxed. When the borders between men and
women are blurred, the gender binary becomes less rigid and more
flexible. The societal punishment for gender norm violations should be
stopped completely as i t is unethical and unjust too.
2.2.5 Doing Gender :
We are a society of labels, and I was having a hard time finding one that
fit. Was I a man? A transman? A female -to-male transsexual? All or none
of the above…It took me a while to decide, but now, severa l years later, I
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18 Gender, according to West and Zimmerman (1987), is not something we
have, but something we do, a routine achievement that we attain via
interactions in our daily lives. Gender performance and accountability are
two components of "doing gender." Furthermore, this "accountability,"
according to West and Zimmerman, is a three -part structure that includes
accountability to oneself, accountability to others, and accoun tability to
society (Hollander 2013). Individuals are constantly answerable to socially
created understandings of masculinity and femininity, even when they
differ from them, because of these continuous accountability systems.
These gender doings, practic es are inculcated right from childhood as
socialization practices, rituals, through role play, through the use of
language, fear and sanctions. In a country like India, where joint families
still exist and the head of the family has a stronger voice in man y families
following the rigid binary forms become natural out of fear. These
practices are continued in the name of status, izzat, sacrifice, honour,
being masculine etc.
Check Your Progress :
1. What is the meaning of gender non binary?
2. Discuss Doing Gender.
2.3 NON -BINARY GENDER EXAMPLES Let us now look into some non -binary categories of gender examples,
forms.
 Agender : A person who is agender doesn't always identify with a
certain gender or has no gender at all.
 Androgyne : This refers to a person wh o considers oneself as who
does have a gender which is either both masculine and feminine, or a
gender that is halfway between the two.
 Bigender : A bigender is a person who identifies as having two
genders.
 Bigender frequently exhibit cultural masculine an d feminine roles.
 Butch : This phrase is commonly used by women, particularly
lesbians, to describe how individuals display masculinity or what
society deems as masculinity. However, according to the LGBTQIA
Resource Centre, "butch" can be seen as a form ge nder identity too.
 Cisgender : A cisgender individual identifies with the sexual identity
to which they were born. A cisgender woman, for example, is
someone who nevertheless identifies with the sex — given to them by
a doctor at birth
 Gender expansive is defined as a "umbrella word used for persons
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19 Gender Beyond the Binar including aspirations for its expression, identification, roles, and/or
other recognized gender norms," according to the LGBTQIA
Resource Centre.
 People who are transgender or whose gender broadens the definition
of gender in the surrounding society are considered gender expansive.
 Genderfluid : A person who is identified as genderfluid has a gender
identification and presentation that fluctuates be tween and outside of
society's gender standards.
 Outlaw of the gender : A gender outlaw is someone who refuses to
be defined by society's definitions of "male" and "female."
 Genderqueer : Genderqueer people have a gender identity or
expression that is differ ent from what society expects, assigned sex or
assumed gender. Gender queer could also refer to someone who
considers as a person who is neither male nor female, or who
identifies as a blend of genders.
 Cantered masculine: The individual who uses this term inology is
generally a lesbian or trans woman who prefers masculine gender
experiences and performances.
 Nonbinary : When a person identifies as nonbinary, they do not feel
gender in the traditional sense. Nonbinary people might at times
experience crossove r with other gender expressions, such as gender
non-conforming.
 Omnigender : People belonging to this group - consider themselves
members of all gender.
 Pangender and polygender are two different types of gender. People
who identify as polygender or pangend er have aspects of various
genders and exhibit them.
 Transgender : It is an umbrella title for everyone who feels and
identifies with a gender other than their designated sex at birth.
Although most people associate transgender with trans men and trans
wome n, the term also refers to persons who identify as a gender other
than man or woman, such as binary gender nonconforming and
genderfluid people as seen in the West.
 Trans : Trans is a broader word that encompasses those who describe
themselves as nonbinary or genderless.
2.4 GENDER BEYOND NON -BINARY INDIAN CONTEXT Although in the Indian tradition there exists a pre -colonial past historically
acknowledged and embraced gender variety in temple sculptures,
mythology (transgender groups in India worship such as Bahuchara Mata munotes.in

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20 and Aravan), and theological treatises, still transgender persons in India
continue to experience terrible discrimination and violence. According to
the 2011 census, there are nearly 4.9 lakh third genders in the country and
these groups ar e subjected to societal prejudice and abuse very often. In
India, there have been several cases of abuse reported aimed against
transgender individuals in recent years. There is insensitivity, especially
failure to respond effectively to violence aimed aga inst transgender
persons by individuals and authorities.
The transgender or any non -binary community has faced several mentally
and emotionally demanding questions in their lives, unexpected,
disrespectful replies from their friends and relatives. While so me people
are embraced by their families, others are rejected and abused. Yet all that
the non -binary groups want is approval from their loved ones. The fear of
rejection has had a profound influence on the physical and mental well -
being. The system's fail s to provide them with safety, livelihood,
education, and support, along with the cruel mistreatment. The transgender
individuals and several non -binary groups suffer on a daily basis, which
reduces their self -esteem and contributes to their dysphoria. Gen der
dysphoria is a psychological term referring to anguish, unease, and anxiety
that people experience when their gender identity clashes with the sex they
are born with.
The Indian Supreme Court collectively agreed on September 6, 2018, that
the 150 -year-old Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code is unconstitutional,
marking a significant step forward in the recognition and appreciation of
LGBT people, respecting their fundamental rights. After overcoming its
personal prejudices towards the LGBTQ+ population Tamil Nadu became
the first state in India to ban conversion therapy. The Madras High Court
Judge urged, "Ignorance is no basis to normalize discrimination." There is
still a long way to go, but the accumulation of minor triumphs will
eventually lead to a big shift in global mindsets .
During natural disasters, pandemic like lockdown the large number of
transgender populations was affected financially. As many of them survive
by asking money from others on traffic signals, trains, performing in
events. Thes e groups being working as informally and surviving on their
own. Some even try saving money for surgery for changing the sex. Just to
live a life of dignity and respect and to be approved by family.
It was in the 2011 census for the first time the transge nder community was
acknowledged and the option of Other was being included apart from
Male, Female in the Census Survey. Even globally too there is lack of
enough data related to the transgender communities and all other non -
binary communities. This become s very difficult to build enough policies
and measures for the safety of the people. This is at times due to the biases
of the enumerator, policies or documents which do not have columns to
acknow ledge the non -binary groups etc .

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21 Gender Beyond the Binar 2.5 MASS MEDIA AND NON -BINARY In the recent times, there are several movies, series which are including
the characters who do not follow the traditional pattern of binary
characters. For example – Badhaai Do – Where the marriage between two
individuals takes place, out of peer p ressure of parents but the individuals
have their own partners and later are accepted by their own parents. The
point to draw is, when we believe that media has an influential power then
such characters bring scope for discussion, debate, opening new thoug hts,
breaking the existing patterns etc.
2.6 ACCESS TO TREATMENT AND NON -BINARY Gender and sexual identity assumptions are still enforced as binary gender
and sexual identity in health care even in the present times. Transgender
and gender non -conformin g (TGNC) people are expected to fit within
normative and heteronormative frameworks. As a result, any gender
identity, gender expression, or sexual desire that did not fit within this
framework is questioned and devalued. Many medical institutions still
regard non -binary identities as if they don't exist since they don't fit into
the gender binary of "male" and "female." This is problematic because
non-binary people are frequently required to present as identifying with a
certain binary gender in order to r eceive the treatment, they require .
Even when sex is not confused with gender, it is almost exclusively
presented as binary and at times correlated with genes, hormones,
reproductive organs, and general body. These societal standards tend to
render person s with differences invisible by defining sex as a 'natural'
binary, and they govern both our social spaces and our health care systems
and practises. Some Western nations, for example, have begun to
acknowledge gender identity as a spectrum and including g ender identity
and expression as protected classes in human rights law, as Canada did
recently. Many nations' health -care systems are now also offering gender -
affirming hormone therapy and procedures for transgender persons, and
some are/ trying to include them in their universal health -care coverage.
2.7 RELIGION AND NON -BINARY Religion plays an important role in influencing people thoughts, habits,
behaviour. It acts as a social control formally and informally too in
societies. At times, religion and po litics also gets mixed with the issues
connected to the non -binary framework. A study conducted to understand
the role of religion in the lives of non -binary individuals revealed the
complexity associated with the practice. Through interviews with 44
religious and previously religious nonbinary persons, demonstrated that
the religion influences the binary gender ideology. The findings showed
that nonbinary persons who want to keep their religious affiliations must
either change their religion to fit with th eir nonbinary gender or tolerate
misgendering to fit within their religious tradition. In addition, they must
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22 negotiating the "religious gender binary,". The study also points out that
there is need for more research in this area of religion, minorities and non -
binary individuals .
Check Your Progress :
1. Write two non -binary gender identity examples
2. Write few lines about doing gender.
2.8 WAYS TO TREAT NON -BINARY GENDER  To appr eciate someone who is non -binary, you don't need to grasp
what it means. It's understandable if some individuals haven't heard
anything about non -binary genders or have difficulty comprehending
them. However, even if some people don't comprehend the identi ty,
you should respect it.
 Just use name that a person has requested. Because your name may
not represent their gender identification, this is one of the most
important components of being courteous of a non -binary individual.
Don't inquire about a person' s previous name.
 Make no assumptions about other people's gender. You can't really
tell whether someone is non -binary by looking at them, just as you
can't tell if they are transgender by looking at them.
 Unless you're unsure about someone's pronouns, inqu ire. Non -binary
persons may use a variety of pronouns. Most non -binary persons refer
to themselves as "they," while others refer to themselves as "he" or
"she," and still others refer to themselves in different ways. It may
seem strange at first to inquire about whether someone should be
addressed as "he," "she," "them," or another pronoun, but it is one of
the easiest and most meaningful ways to demonstrate respect for
someone's identity.
 Work to support for policies that are non -binary friendly. Non -binar y
persons need to be allowed to remain, dress, and be respected for their
gender at workplace, classroom, and in public areas.
 Learn more about non -binary persons by conversing with them. There
really is no one -size-fits-all approach to being non -binary. T alking
with non -binary individuals and listening to their stories is the greatest
approach to grasp what it's like to be non -binary
2.9 SUMMARY In this chapter, we began with understanding Gender binary which refers
to a binary system in which only a wom an or a male is recognized or
considered. On the other hand, non -binary gender is described as genders
that do not fit within the woman -man binary framework. The gender
binary imposition is used in the construction and design of public places. munotes.in

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23 Gender Beyond the Binar Rest rooms, public transportation, hospitals, airports, and other places
employ this concept for the binary genders. The Indian Supreme Court
collectively agreed on September 6, 2018, that the 150 -year-old Article
377 of the Indian Penal Code is unconstitutional, mark ing a significant
step forward in the recognition and appreciation of LGBT people,
respecting their fundamental rights. The chapter points out that gender
does not operate in the binary mode but there are multiple other layers,
categories of gender, i.e ge nder beyond of binary. These non -binary
groups face several problems like stigma, marginalization, however, they
too have a life where they are to be treated with dignity, care and respect.
The chapter also points out that the non -binary groups have been
marginalized for years together. The Census took into account the
Transgender groups existence and have included them with a separate
column as others in the 2011 census survey. There is still scope for
bringing more accuracy over the data so that policies could be made for
improvement of their positions in the society.
2.10 QUESTIONS 1. Write a note on Ways to treat non binary gender .
2. Discuss the Gender beyond non binary with reference to Indian
Context .
3. Write a note on problems connected with th e binary model.
2.11 REFERENCES  Rushton, A., Gray, L., Canty, J., & Blanchard, K. (2019). Beyond
Binary: (Re)Defining "Gender" for 21st Century Disaster Risk
Reduction Research, Policy, and Practice. International journal of
environmental research and pu blic health, 16(20), 3984.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203984
 Shah, C., Merchant, R., Mahajan, S., & Nevatia, S. (2015). No
outlaws in the gender galaxy. Zubaan.
 Lenning, E. (2009). Moving beyond the binary: Exploring the
dimensions of gender presentat ion and orientation.
 Darwin, H. (2017). Doing gender beyond the binary: A virtual
ethnography. Symbolic Interaction, 40(3), 317 -334.
 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/types -of-gender -
identity#types -of-gender -identity
 https://themitpost.com/beyond -binary -gender -spectrum/
 Brindaalakshmi.K (2020) Gendering of Development Data in India:
Beyond the Binary #1 Introduction, Research Method, and
Summary of Findings (Ed.) Sumandro Chattapadhyay munotes.in

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24  Produced as part of the Big Data for Development network sup ported
by International Development Research Centre, Canada, The Centre
for Internet and Society, https://cis -india.org
 https://www.sexualhealth.umn.edu/ncgsh/beyond -binary
 Saewyc, E. M. (2017). Respecting variations in embodiment as well
as gender: Beyond the presumed ‘binary’of sex. Nursing Inquiry,
24(1), e12184.
 Helana Darwin, Navigating the Religious Gender Binary, Sociology
of Religion, Volume 81, Issue 2, Summer 2020, Pages 185 –205,
https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srz034
 https://transequality.org/issu es/resources/understanding -non-binary -
people -how-to-be-respectful -and-supportive

*****
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25 3
MANY WOMEN, MANY FEMINISMS AND
INTERSECTIONALITY
Unit Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Concept of Universal Sisterhood
3.3 Many Feminism
3.3.1 Black Women Voices
3.3.2 Women experiences from Developing, Underdeveloped
countries.
3.3.3 Indigenous Womens
3.3.4 Lesbian women
3.3.5 Standpoint feminism
3.3.6 African voices
3.4 Meaning of Intersectionality
3.5 Contextualizing Intersectionality
3.6 Covid and Intersectionality
3.7 Possible Solutions
3.8 Summary
3.9 Questions
3.10 References.
3.0 OBJECTIVES 1. To understand learn about the many feminism and the concept of
sisterhood.
2. To learn about the concept of Intersectionality and its relevance in
today’s time.
3.1 INTRODUCTION This chapter would be very useful if you are planning t o work in the
domain of gender studies, family studies in the future as your career.
Understanding these topics would help you to apply the day to day
situations of our lives and it will help you to learn how structural, location,
racial discrimination ope rates.
During the early stages of the women's movement, the term "woman" was
used to refer to a group of people who were oppressed because of their
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26 and university educated, their exp erience became universalized as
"women's experience.
The 1960s and 1970s feminisms also marked the start of the second wave
of feminism. Liberal feminism, Marxist and socialist feminisms, and
radical feminism are the popular three often types used. Their o rigins were
seen in the 18th and 19th century liberal political theory, which produced
the notion of individual rights. The socialist feminist was inspired by
Marx's 19th century criticism of capitalism and his concept of class
consciousness, and 20th cent ury anti -colonial politics and ideals of
national development, respectively. With time the concept of sisterhood
emerged.
3.2 CONCEPT OF UNIVERSAL SISTERHOOD The concept of sisterhood promotes female solidarity in the fight against
sexism. Sisterhood, al so promotes women to reach out to one another and
to stop being sexist by being friendlier to other women . Sisterhood was
also popularised by the French and American labour movements, as well
as the American Civil Rights movement. They (White Feminists) ch oose
what is required for the common benefit as a group and then give it in a
logical manner. These feminists viewed sisterhood as a meeti ng of equals
with a common goal . Sisterhood was a significant component of second
wave feminism, and it offered a sens e of communal togetherness and
purpose while also displaying the feminist movement's solidarity (Morgan,
1970). Sisterhood emphasises horizontal rather than vertical interactions
between women, avoiding the hierarchy inherent in the mother/daughter
stereot ype, which is sometimes imposed onto the second/third wave divide
(Henry, 2004). However, this concept was criticized by the several
feminists and even questioned.
3.3 MANY FEMINISM Feminism, too, is a multi -voiced system of theories, ideologies, and act ion
that advocates for an equal society for all genders. Feminist concerns and
manifestations are diverse because they impact all elements of our social
and personal life. Since the 1980s, it has been customary to refer to
feminism in the plural form to emphasis the range of perspectives within
feminism, such as liberal, radical, socialist, postmodernism, and so on.
Although many choose to perceive it otherwise, variability in feminist
positions is recognised as a sign of healthy discussion. Despite the fac t
that feminism may be used to express a particular political perspective,
there are several major strands in contemporary feminist philosophy.
3.3.1 Black Women’s voices:
Black women opposed the propensity to universalize the experiences of
white, middle -class women by bringing the concept of 'diversity' to the
forefront of feminist study. Women are neither a homogeneous group nor
a monolithic entity. Black women are dually oppressed as females and
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27 Many Women, Many Feminisms and Intersectionality According to Bell hooks, ‘Racial an tagonism between white women and
women of colour is still a source of contention within the feminist
movement. These tensions are frequently so overpowering that we lose
hope that we will ever be able to live and work together in social areas
free of domin ance politics. With time when hope is fading, feminist
activists must reinvigorate their commitment to political fight and build
their unity. This involves confronting racism and the conflicts it causes
with greater diligence, with the faith that persisten t dedicated struggle will
lead to a liberator feminist political programme’ .
Women's oppressions are not all the same. The urge to deconstruct the
category woman arises from the desire to recognise disparities among
women. Gender is a social construct, and defining one's gender
necessitates inquiries into race, class, caste, and political power relations.
Long ago, the myth of mutual oppression and sisterhood was questioned.
Women are therefore numerous, not one.
We can't consider a woman's gender identity in isolation from her other
identities, such as caste, class, ethnicity, and so on. All women have
different experiences, even if she is a middle -class Black woman in 20th -
century or North America or a poor white woman in 17th -century France.
3.3.2 Women e xperiences from Developing, Underdeveloped
countries:
The women in developing and underdeveloped countries are affected by a
range of factors which the white women di d not experience. Like they did
not face the impact of colonization. They we re not in the receiving end. In
developing nations, the gendered division of work is the result of a lengthy
history of colonisation. Women's traditional contributions to food
production were marginalised by colonisation in favour of exportable
commodities like coffee and the mining of raw resources like minerals.
Men were preferred for employment, although they were only paid enough
to cover their basic needs. Women in the household had to provide food
for themselves and their children, but with excellent land stolen f or
plantations, they barely got by. Communal companies, traditional
reciprocal food production, and shared child care were all undercut by
Western concepts.
Industrialization and development, further created an economic
exploitation of women in post -coloni al countries. Labourer in factories
were forced to work in both unhygienic and unsafe situations or do piece
work at home. Women in developing nations in Central and Latin
America, the Caribbean, and Africa are paid less even today than males.
Women in rur al areas live on what their migrant husbands send them by
growing food, and these women also earn money in whatever way they
can to supplement to the household expenses.

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28 3.3.3 Indigenous women's :
Indigenous women's own response to feminism is to organise their
communities around their productive and reproductive duties as mothers,
so that whatever helps them monetarily and physically is in the service of
their families, not just themselves. However, the same community
organisation and family service that Western development feminists wish
to see destroyed may encourage the continuation of indigenous traditions
like female genital mutilation. As whenever there is an identity imposition
or view imposition taking place the existing norms becomes more firm
and there is now a question of right to identity and roots, culture which
emerges. The choice to respect traditional cultural behaviours that are
physically damaging to females while also working to improve their
education and health is needed. Indigenous wom en needed, caring,
localizing which is a particularly difficult challenge.
3.3.4 Lesbian feminism:
Lesbian feminism has also been existing since long. They view Women
as more nurturing, sharing, and understanding than males. The lesbian
continuum is a the oretical lesbian feminist notion in which a lesbian can
be any independent woman. This lesbian elevates female love to a level of
identity, community, and culture. Lesbian iconography is a new
vocabulary, a new voice, not a mirror copy of men's sexuality a nd
relationships. Women's sexuality and bodies, mother -daughter love, and
the cultural community of women, not merely sexual and emotional ties
between women, are celebrated in lesbian feminism. Thus, again here the
universal concept of sisterhood is quest ioned as lesbians experience, the
problem they face are multiple in several ways. As their identity itself is
not accepted.
3.3.5 Standpoint Feminism:
Standpoint feminism, which shifts from resistance to confrontation with
dominant sources of information and values, combines radical, lesbian,
and psychoanalytic feminist conceptions of women's oppression. Women
and women's viewpoints should be fundamental to knowledge, culture,
and politics, not invisible or peripheral, according to all gender resistive
feminisms. whomever establishes scientific research goals, whoever
shapes educational curriculum, whoever Hegemonic authority belongs to
the person who picks the symbols that pervade cultural works. Hegemony
is the ideology that legitimises unchallenged belie fs in a society. Science
provides reasons for many of our notions about women and men in
Western civilization. We take scientific "facts" for granted and seldom
challenge their objectivity.
Thus, there have been voices about multiple identities over a per iod of
time.

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29 Many Women, Many Feminisms and Intersectionality 3.3.6 African voices:
African women have faced Slavery, colonialism, and subsequent
exploitation and marginalisation in the global arena, as well as hegemonic
power influence, have all shaped African societies. There have been
conferences held in the discussion was on t he need to develop writings on
female experiences of Africa was highlighted. It is necessary to produce,
more narratives, based on locations and even revise the feminist theories
was decided. The conference also highlighted the need for multiple voices
in the society. Even Cultural imperatives in several economic domains,
such as marriage, family, and religion, are a reality in communities.
Hence, there exist the dangers of generalisations and cultural universals.
3.4 MEANI NG OF INTERSECTIONALITY Intersectionality, as a term, refers to how our many locations/positions
across caste/class/race/ethnicity/sexuality intersect in various ways to
provide various oppressions and possibilities for various groups of people.
The conce pt of intersectionality is very important in gender studies, and
it's a useful tool for exposing flaws in the feminist movement.
Although second -wave feminists criticised conventional academia for
universalizing men's experiences, black feminists and lesbi ans criticised
these feminists for omitting race and sexuality from feminist analysis, and
universalizing the experiences of middle -class heterosexual white women.
Only a few authors, especially women of colour, were writing about
gender, race, and class a s interwoven oppressive systems in the late 1970s.
The Combahee River Collective, a Boston -based group of black feminists,
is often regarded as being the first to theorise the linkages between gender,
race, class, and sexuality. They were actively committe d to struggling
against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression. They believed in
development of integrated analysis and practise based on the fact that the
major systems of oppression are interlocked. "A Black Feminist
Statement," published in 1983 writes ‘The conditions of our life are
created by the synthesis of various oppressions’ (p. 210). An intersectional
approach to power relations challenges assessments of power relations that
focus on one aspect of identity.
Intersectionality theory ga ined popularity in the 1970s, though its origins
may be traced back to a speech given by Sojourner Truth (c. 1797 –1883),
a black woman who had been a slave, at the 1851 Women's Rights
Conference in Akron, Ohio. "That man over there argues that ladies ought
to be carried into carriages, hoisted over ditches, and given the nicest spot
everywhere," she writes in one passage. Nobody ever assists me in getting
into carriages, getting over mud puddles, or giving me the finest seat. Isn't
it true that I'm a woman? " (p. 165 in Painter 1996).
"Sojourner Truth's identity claims are thus relational, produced in
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30 term 'identities' are not objects but processes constituted in and through
power relat ions," write Avtar Brah and Ann Phoenix (2004). (p. 77) .
Later, Kimberle Crenshaw, a American law Professor, used the word
intersectionality in 1989 as a critique of US anti -discrimination legislation
that failed to recognise that Black women's distinct e xperiences of racism
and sexism as interrelated. It is critical to understand how racism and
sexism are together rather than individually. According to Crenshaw, all
inequality is not equal in nature and form. An intersectional approach
demonstrates how p eople's social identities may interact, merge, collide
and even have increasing discriminatory experiences. Recognizing the
historical settings around an issue is also a important part of using an
intersectional lens.
Intersectionality emphasises a fundam ental and important premise: that
power hierarchies exist not just between men and women, but also inside
women. Power dynamics play a role in choosing who gets to speak for
women and whose stories count. Much of the feminist rhetoric has been
influenced b y the experiences of wealthy women. The term
intersectionality has today being used in academics and even in areas
beyond black identities like queer theories, queer identities.
Check Your Progress:
1. What is discrimination faced by African women.
2. Discuss the meaning of Intersectionality .

In the above diagram we can see the different identities a individual
carriers in one’s own life span. All these identities also intersect in a given
time or even changes. This shows how intersectionality is a pa rt which we
cannot ignore. The source of the i mage is in the given below link .
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31 Many Women, Many Feminisms and Intersectionality 3.5 CONTEXTUALIZING INTERSECTIONALITY Long histories of violence and systemic discrimination have established
fundamental imbalances that put certain people at a disadvantage from the
start. Poverty, caste systems, racism, and sexism are examples of
inequities that interact and deny individuals their rights and equitable
chances. The consequences span generations. In such places the
intersectionality as tool to study helps imme nsely.
Those most affected by gender -based violence and inequalities are also the
most impoverished and marginalized —black and brown women,
indigenous women, women in rural areas, young girls, girls living with
disabilities, trans youth, and gender non -conforming youth," says
Majandra Rodriguez Acha, a youth leader and climate justice advocate
from Lima, Peru. She emphasises that the fact that underprivileged
populations are disproportionately affected by natural catastrophes and the
destructive impacts of climate change is not a coincidence.
Countries and communities all across the world are confronting several
dangers that are accumulating. While the concerns differ by location, they
always have the same impact of amplifying pre -existing demands such
as shelter, food, education, care, work, and protection.
However, many times, crisis solutions fail to safeguard the most
vulnerable. "If you are invisible in regular life, your needs will not be
considered, much less addressed, in a crisis," says Matcha Ph orn-In, a
lesbian feminist human -rights defender from Thailand who works to meet
the special needs of LGBTIQ+ individuals in crisis circumstances, many
of whom are indigenous. The problems posed by the coronavirus epidemic
have compounded long -standing imb alances and decades of
discriminatory policies, resulting in uneven outcomes.
Hence, we must consider these difficulties. Failure to do so might result in
multidimensional marginalisation being conveniently neglected, as
happened during the 1970s women's m ovement. Liberal feminists during
the time contended that women's absence from the public sphere of labour
had contributed to their subjugation, and that feminisms should support
women's admission into the public sphere of work and education to
address gen der inequality. Earlier the writings tended to generalise the
experiences of a select group of women, the most of whom were white,
middle - or upper -class heterosexual wives. This did not represent all
women's experiences. For example, Black women in the Un ited States
have historically worked as bonded labourers or paid employees in public
spaces. But rather than being a path to empowerment, it led to a lot of hard
labour for little money, frequently in the low -status service industry.
Indian experience:
In India, something similar happened during the early debate on women's
rights, which began as part of a social reform movement headed by upper
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32 differently depending on their caste, class, se xual orientation, and
ethnicity, marginalized women, for example, have quite different gendered
experiences than upper -caste, upper -class heterosexual women. Similarly,
tribal and rural women have different experiences than women who live in
cities. It is critical to recognise these distinctions in the category of
"women" so that we do not risk universalizing or generalising women's
experiences. Migrant women during Covid especially poor women had
different experience than the rich. Women's experiences and obstacles in
Dominant caste families (sati, child marriage, purdah, and the prohibition
on widow remarriage) were universalized as those of all Indian women. It
was readily disregarded later that these traditions were not practised by
women in marginal ca ste households.
Emerging Questions:
Intersectionality delivers a powerful critique of how feminism had
operated earlier. However, it also presented some worrying issues. Does
feminist politics lose its meaning if we can't conceptualise or designate all
women as a group? Is there a way to keep women united despite their
differences?
In today’s time intersectionality has also been used as a important tool
while building theories, in research both qualitative and quantitative
research. However, qualitative r esearch methodology has been using it
very often as it helps to document the marginalized voices more clearly.
3.6 COVID AND INTERSECTIONALITY Covid -19 has caused a stir in modern social life, but it is far from being a
great equaliser. Preliminary resea rch has shown that different social
groups experienced varied levels of contagion risk and dealt differently
with the emergency's diverse implications. Evidence reveals that
minorities and migrants were at a greater risk of infection than white upper
and m iddle -class whites, and that vulnerable populations are more prone
to fatalities and viral transmission. Simultaneously, civilizations are
dealing with social distancing tactics and their disruptive social and
economic effects, which disproportionately aff ect society's most
vulnerable members: women, children, low -income groups, and ethnic
minorities. Comprehending what is happening in the present epidemic,
both in terms of social factors and social repercussions, requires an
intersectional framework Inters ectional researchers study the intersections
of numerous systems of inequity (such as gender, age, class, and ethnicity)
that have a multiplying impact when disadvantaged positions meet in the
same individual to understand the inequality. Individual and co mmunity
exposure to Covid -19 is the outcome of many and interconnected inequity
patterns. Until date, social science research has undervalued the
importance of intersectionality in evaluating the pandemic's s ocial and
economic implications .
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33 Many Women, Many Feminisms and Intersectionality 3.7 POSSIBLE S OLUTION One of the possible solutions for the problems faced for women is
intersectionality. We can understand how diverse groups are confronting
numerous, interrelated concerns at the same time when we look through an
intersectional feminist lens. Standi ng in solidarity with one another,
challenging power systems, and speaking out against the core causes of
injustices are all necessary steps toward a future, so that leaves no one
behind. "Seeing inequality as a "they" or "unfortunate other" problem is
problematic," Crenshaw adds. "We have to be willing to look at all of the
ways our systems replicate these inequities, including both the benefits
and the costs ."
Check Your Progress :
1. Discuss some solutions to the improve status of Women (you can add
your own points).
2. Discuss the Indigenous women and feminism
3.8 SUMMARY Many women many feminisms basically point out that the experiences of
females are different. The second important topic in the chapter is that of
intersectionality. It questions the fo cus on an overarching singular identity
and questions the exclusion of others by pointing to the presence of
numerous identities such as gender, caste, class, race, religion, and so on.
It challenges the notions of sisterhood and a unified, monolithic wome n's
movement. It claims that oppression cannot be defined universally, and
that patriarchy cannot be the sole source of oppression.
3.10 QUESTIONS 1. Explain the meaning of Intersectionality and give some examples of
how it can be applied to Indian contex t.
2. Discuss the black feminism and African marginalization through
universal sisterhood.
3. Discuss the concept of universal sisterhood.
3.11 REFERENCES  https://www.sas.rochester.edu/gsw/assets/pdf/sisterhood/SuggestedTo
pics_Agenda.pdf
 Kelli Zaytoun, & Judith Ezekiel. (2016). Sisterhood in Movement:
Feminist Solidarity in France and the United States. Frontiers: A
Journal of Women Studies, 37(1), 195 –214.
https://doi.org/10.5250/fronjwomestud.37.1.0195 munotes.in

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34  Evans, E. (2015). The sisterhood: inclusivity and spaces. In The
Politics of Third Wave Feminisms (pp. 111 -133). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
 Hooks, Bell. “Sisterhood: Political Solidarity between Women.”
Feminist Review, no. 23 (1986): 125 –38.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1394725.
 Lorber, J. (1997). ^ The^ var iety of feminisms and their contributions
to gender equality. BIS Verlag.
 https://diglib.bis.uni -oldenburg.de/pub/unireden/ur97/kap1.pdf
 Colleen Dryden, Natasha Erlank, Youmna Haffejee, Kathy Hardy,
Siza Nhlapo, Shelley Tonkin, and Humbulani Tshamano. “The Many
Voices of Feminism.” Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender
Equity, no. 54 (2002): 113 –21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4548079.
 Mbabuike, M. C. (2002). African Feminists and Feminisms [Review
of African Feminist Fiction and Indigenous Values, by D. R. W ehrs].
African Studies Review, 45(3), 63 –66.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1515100
 "Intersectionality ." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.
. Retrieved April 25, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social -sciences/applied -and-social -
sciences -magazines/intersectionality
 Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (Invalid Date). What Is
Intersectionality?. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/story/what -is-intersectionality
 https://icma.org/articles/pm -magazine/inter sectionality -lgbtqia -
community
 Maestripieri, L. (2021). The Covid -19 pandemics: why
intersectionality matters. Frontiers in Sociology, 6, 52.
AUTHOR=Maestripieri Lara
 https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/6/explainer -
intersectional -feminism -what -it-means -and-why-it-matters
 https://artsandculture.google.com/story/3AVhUCGMLJ8FIQ you can
check this link for different posters and little notes about female
movements, slogans, thought processes of a given period of history.
*****
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35 MODULE II
4
CLASSICAL: LIBERAL – MARY
WOLLSTONECRAFT, RADICAL - KATE
MILLET, SOCIALIST - JULIET
MITCHELL
Unit Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Liberal Feminism – Mary Wollstonecraft
4.3 Radical Feminism - Kate Millet
4.4 Socialist Feminis m – Juliet Mitchell
4.5 Summary
4.6 Questions
4.7 References
4.0 OBJECTIVES  To understand the various strands of feminism
 To familiarize students with liberal, radical socialist feminist schools
of thought
4.1 INTRODUCTION Feminism is one of the oldest movements in global history. There’s no
single definition, but feminism boils down to ending gender discrimination
and bringing about gender equality. The term feminism can be used to
describe a political, cultural or economic movement aimed at establishi ng
equal rights and legal protection for women. Feminism involves political
and sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of
gender difference, as well as a movement that advocates gender equality
for women and campaigns for women's righ ts and interests.
Feminism has altered predominant perspectives in a wide range of areas
within Western society, ranging from culture to law. Feminist activists
have campaigned for women's legal rights (rights of contract, property
rights, voting rights); for women's right to bodily integrity and autonomy,
for abortion rights, and for reproductive rights (including access to
contraception and quality prenatal care); for protection of women and girls
from domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape; for wo rkplace rights,
including maternity leave and equal pay; against misogyny; and against
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36 During much of its history, most feminist movements and theories had
leaders who were predominantly middle -class white women from Western
Europe and North America. However, at least since Sojourner Truth's
1851 speech to American feminists, women of other races have proposed
alternative feminisms. This trend accelerated in the 1960s with the Civil
Rights movemen t in the United States and the collapse of European
colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, parts of Latin America and Southeast
Asia. Since that time, women in former European colonies and the Third
World have proposed "Post -colonial" and "Third World" femi nisms. Some
Postcolonial Feminists, such as Chandra Talpade Mohanty, are critical of
Western feminism for being ethnocentric. Black feminists, such as Angela
Davis and Alice Walker, share this view.
Simone de Beauvoir wrote that "the first time we see a wo man take up her
pen in defense of her sex" was Christine de Pizan who wrote Epitre au
Dieu d'Amour (Epistle to the God of Love) in the 15th century. Heinrich
Cornelius Agrippa and Modesta di Pozzo di Forzi worked in the 16th
century. Marie Le Jars de Gourn ay, Anne Bradstreet and Francois Poullain
de la Barre wrote during the 17th.
Feminists and scholars have divided the movement's history into three
"waves". The first wave refers mainly to women's suffrage movements of
the nineteenth and early twentieth cen turies (mainly concerned with
women's right to vote). The second wave refers to the ideas and actions
associated with the women's liberation movement beginning in the 1960s
(which campaigned for legal and social rights for women). The third wave
refers to a continuation of, and a reaction to the perceived failures of,
second -wave feminism, beginning in the 1990s.
The history of feminist politics and theory is often talked of as consisting
of three “waves.” First -wave feminism is generally associated with th e
women’s suffrage movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. First -wave feminism was characterized by a focus on officially
mandated inequalities between men and women, such as the legal barring
of women from voting, property rights, employment, equal rights in
marriage, and positions of political power and authority. Second -wave
feminism is associated with the women’s liberation movements of the
1960s and 1970s. While seeing themselves as inheritors of the politics of
the first wave w hich focused primarily on legal obstacles to women’s
rights, second -wave feminists began concentrating on less “official”
barriers to gender equality, addressing issues like sexuality, reproductive
rights, women’s roles and labor in the home, and patriarch al culture.
Finally, what is called third -wave feminism is generally associated with
feminist politics and movements that began in the 1980s and continue on
to today. Third -wave feminism emerged out of a critique of the politics of
the second wave, as man y feminists felt that earlier generations had over -
generalized the experiences of white, middle -class, heterosexual women
and ignored (and even suppressed) the viewpoints of women of color, the
poor, gay, lesbian, and transgender people, and women from the non-
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37 Classical: Liberal – Mary Wollstonecraft, Radical - Kate Millet, Socialist - Juliet Mitchell notions of womanhood, and focus on issues of racism, homophobia, and
Eurocentrism as part of their feminist agenda.
Hence, feminism does not refer to one coherent theory, doctri ne, or
political movement. The range of movements and ideologies that thrive
under the term feminism, however, are all committed to political and
social change. Feminism recognizes that we live in a patriarchal world,
that is to say a world in which women are, and have historically been,
oppressed by and unequal to men. It opposes this, and strives to change
existing power structures so that people of all genders and races have
control over their own bodies, have equal opportunities and value, can
participa te fully in community life, and are allowed to live with dignity
and freedom.
The First wave of feminism proved both a boon and a bane for the
women’s movement. On the positive side, it united activists for a common
goal and provided the movement its metho dical structure. However,
certain activists became complacent after achieving suffrage rights for
women, seeing it as a complete liberation for women. It was only with the
emergence of the second wave of feminism in the 1960s that the
movement got rejuvena ted, especially with the publication of Betty
Friedan’s The Feminist Mystique in 1963. In this book, Friedan has
pointed out that women still felt frustrated, owing to their confinement to
the domestic chores in roles of a mother and a housewife.
Consequen tly, the second wave feminism posited that the women question
had remained unresolved despite accomplishment of legal and political
rights. With the works of Germane Greer and Kate Millet, what was
earlier concerned with political rights of women, was now radicalized to
include sexual, psychological and personal aspects of women’s
oppression. It was during the second wave that the slogan ‘the personal is
political’ was coined by Carol Hanisch. Based on this, feminist activists
saw political and cultural ine qualities as closely interlinked.
It was a period when personal lives of women were seen as a reflection of
deeply political power structures of patriarchal society. Thus, unlike the
conventional feminists, radical feminists of this period kept politics of the
personal at the centre of their movement. Consequently, this wave saw
protests against the Miss America beauty pageant in New Jersey in the late
1960s, as it was seen akin to a ‘cattle parade’ by the feminists, who saw
such events as objectification o f women’s beauty.
While the first wave of feminism was identified with heterosexual white
women, mostly belonging to the Western middle -class, the second wave
toiled to bring together women of developing nations, and of colour based
on the ideology of soli darity and sisterhood. Simone De Beauvoir in her
1949 work The Second Sex argued that the problem with feminist politics
was that women do not say “we”, unlike labourers or blacks,
foregrounding this argument in the observation that the women’s
movement la cked solidarity. To tackle this problem, it was prophesied that
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38 in whose case race, gender and class come together to lead to their
oppression at the hands of the patriarchal class.
The emergent feminist political theory was a manifestation of intersection
of three sets of ideologies – Liberal Feminism, Marxist Feminism (and its
extension known as Socialist Feminism) and Radical Feminism. Besides
this, during this wave, the feminists saw women having a better approach
towards achieving solutions to social problems owing either to their long
history of oppression or to their biological construction as more sensitive
than men. In this context, the term Ecological feminism was coined to
indicate that women are natural environmentalists, by virtue of being born
as women.
4.2 LIBERAL FEMINISM –MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT Emphasizing equal individual rights and liberties for women and men and
downplaying sexual differences, liberal feminism is the mos t widely
accepted social and political philosophy among feminists. Liberal
feminists defend the equal rationality of the sexes and emphasize the
importance of structuring social, familial, and sexual roles in ways that
promote women's autonomous self -fulfillment. They emphasize the
similarities between men and women rather than the average differences
between them, attribute most of the personality and character differences
between the sexes to the social construction of gender, and tend to
promote a single set of androgynous virtues for both women and men.
While rejecting strong claims of sexual difference that might underwrite
different and potentially hierarchical rights and social roles, liberal
feminists otherwise avoid the promotion of particular conc eptions of the
good life for either men or women, instead defending a broad sphere of
neutrality and privacy within which individuals may pursue forms of life
most congenial to them. While liberal feminists acknowledge that some
choices made by women are q uestionable because conditioned by sexist
social practices, they also tend to avoid maternalism and any second -
guessing of those choices made without coercion, or threats. Fully
informed and mentally competent adult women are assumed to be the final
judges , of their own best interests. Thus, liberal feminists tend to resist
legislative intervention that would gainsay the judgment of women.
The preeminence of this perspective owes much to the fact that it
encompasses a wide range of related but distinct view s that fit comfortably
within the framework of political liberalism. It does not fundamentally
challenge capitalism or heterosexuality; nor does it recommend
separatism, as do more radical feminists. Instead, it aims to extend the full
range of freedoms in a liberal democratic society to women, criticizing
practices that deny women equal protection under the law as well as laws
that de facto discriminate against women. Liberal feminists reject utopian
visions of an ideal society in favor of one that elimina tes coercion and
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39 Classical: Liberal – Mary Wollstonecraft, Radical - Kate Millet, Socialist - Juliet Mitchell Liberal feminism has its roots in the writings of, among others, Mary
Wollstonecraft (1759 -1797), John Stuart Mill (1806 -1873), and Harriet
Taylor Mill (1807 -1858). Many writers prior to Wollstonecraft, such as
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 -1778), had explicitly argued that men and
women were by nature not merely different in kind but different in
"natural rank,'' with women being weaker physically, intellectually, and
emotionally (358 -61). Men were said to be more rational, women more
emotional; their respective educations should reflect these differences.
A few philosophers, such as John Locke (1632 -1704), had argued that the
sexes should receive the same education and that they shared equ al rights
and responsibilities with respect to their children. Nonetheless, these
writers stopped short of defending complete sexual equality (either for
social roles or legal rights), and putative sex differences have been, and in
some parts of the world continue to be, the basis of laws denying women
the right to retain property in marriage and the right to vote.
Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer and passionate advocate of
educational and social equality for women. She outlined her beliefs in A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), considered a classic of
feminism. The daughter of a farmer, Wollstonecraft taught school and
worked as a governess, experiences that inspired her views in Thoughts on
the Education of Daughters (1787). In 1788 she b egan working as a
translator for the London publisher Joseph Johnson, who published several
of her works, including the novel Mary: A Fiction (1788). Her mature
work on woman’s place in society is A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman (1792), which calls fo r women and men to be educated equally.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is one of the trailblazing works of
feminism. Published in 1792, Wollstonecraft’s work argued that the
educational system of her time deliberately trained women to be frivolous
and incapable. She posited that an educational system that allowed girls
the same advantages as boys would result in women who would be not
only exceptional wives and mothers but also capable workers in many
professions. Other early feminists had made simila r pleas for improved
education for women, but Wollstonecraft’s work was unique in suggesting
that the betterment of women’s status be affected through such political
change as the radical reform of national educational systems. Such change,
she concluded, would benefit all society.
Check Your Progress:
1. Write about liberal feminism.
4.3 RADICAL FEMINISM - KATE MILLET: Radical feminism is a philosophy emphasizing the patriarchal roots of
inequality between men and women, or, more specifically, the social
domination of women by men. Radical feminism views patriarchy as
dividing societal rights, privileges, and power primarily along the lines of
sex, and as a result, oppressing women and privileging men. Radical munotes.in

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40 feminism opposes existing political and social organization in general
because it is inherently tied to patriarchy. Thus, radical feminists tend to
be skeptical of political action within the current system and instead tend
to focus on culture change that undermines patriarchy and associated
hierarchic al structures.
Radical feminism was rooted in the wider radical contemporary
movement. Women who participated in the anti -war and New Left
political movements of the 1960s found themselves excluded from equal
power by the men within the movement, despite t he movements' supposed
underlying values of empowerment. Many of these women split off into
specifically feminist groups, while still retaining much of their original
political radical ideals and methods. "Radical feminism" became the term
used for the mor e radical edge of feminism.
Kate Millett, author of the groundbreaking bestseller Sexual Politics, was
the feminist who launched the second wave of the women’s liberation
movement. Millett, who has died aged 82 in 2017, developed the theory
that for women, the personal is political. The basis of Sexual Politics
(1970) was an analysis of patriarchal power. Millett developed the notion
that men have institutionalized power over women, and that this power is
socially constructed as opposed to biological or inn ate. This theory was
the foundation for a new approach to feminist thinking that became known
as radical feminism.
Sexual Politics was published at the time of an emerging women’s
liberation movement, and an emerging politics that began to define male
domi nance as a political and institutional form of oppression. Millett’s
work articulated this theory to the wider world, and in particular to the
intellectual liberal establishment, thereby launching radical feminism as a
significant new political theory and movement. In her book, Millett
explained women’s complicity in male domination by analyzing the way
in which females are socialized into accepting patriarchal values and
norms, which challenged the notion that female subservience is somehow
natural.
Sexual Politics includes sex scenes by three leading male writers: Henry
Miller, Norman Mailer and DH Lawrence. Millett analysed the
subjugation of women in each. These writers were key figures in the
progressive literary scene. Each had a huge influence on the
counterculture politics of the time, and embedded the notion that female
sexual subordination and male dominance was somehow “sexy”.
Millett invented feminist literary criticism. Before her, it did not exist. Her
urgent, elegant 1970 masterwork, Sexual Po litics, with its wry takedowns
of the casual misogyny and rape scenes that had made the reputations of
the sexual revolutionaries du jour —Norman Mailer, Henry Miller, D.H.
Lawrence —introduced a new and remarkably durable idea: you could
interpret literatur e in light of its gender dynamics. You could go to novels
and poems for an education in sex as power. You may not agree that munotes.in

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41 Classical: Liberal – Mary Wollstonecraft, Radical - Kate Millet, Socialist - Juliet Mitchell literature is the proper medium for consciousness -raising, but you can’t
deny that Millett made reading a life -changing, even world -changing, act.
She wrote Sexual Politics as a dissertation in the English department at
Columbia, but, graduate student or not, she was going to get to the bottom
of how her sex came to be so degraded —if she had to take on all of human
history to do it. I f some of Sexual Politics, such as her long disquisition on
Freud, feels dated, that’s partly because Millett changed the way we think
about figures like him. Hardly anyone reads Freud literally anymore.
“Penis envy” now sounds like a phrase you’d splash o nto some ironic retro
poster, not a real diagnosis. The idea that a political order based on
domination has its origin in the subordination of women —well, it no
longer seems novel, and she bears some responsibility for that, too.
Check Your Progress:
1. W hat is radical feminism?
4.4 SOCIA LIST FEMINISM – JULIET MITCHELL Adding to the contentions of the Marxist feminists that capitalism acts as
the primary reason of oppression against women, socialist feminists
acknowledge patriarchal arrangement of power di stribution as the
secondary reason for the same. At the heart of the socialist feminist
movement lies an understanding that women’s oppression is not a product
of any one system of repression, rather it is a common outcome of
multiple forces of discriminat ion like sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, and
of course gender. Thus, in order to achieve liberation of women, the
movement aimed at dealing with these issues collectively.
However, since for socialist feminists, economic oppression and
patriarchy const itute the basis of all other forms of subjugation, they argue
that even though women are oppressed in almost all societies, the degree
and character of oppression depends upon the economic realities of a
given society. Socialist feminists like Barbara Ehre nreich, Sylvia Walby,
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Donna Haraway, Emma Goldman and Selma
James, etc. stress the significance of women’s role as birth giver , child -
rearer and socialiser, care -taker of the sick, and one who transforms the
household in a place w orth living for men who invest their labor outside.
They argue that this emotional labor of women is often ignored owing to
the patriarchal character of society. And even when women engage in
what Marxists would call as productive labor in the job -market, they are
subjected to biases like lower wages compared to their male counterparts
and sexual harassment. Thus, socialist feminists organized themselves into
women’s unions like the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union to demand
justified rights for a dignified living.
In 1974, at the height of the women’s movement, Juliet Mitchell shocked
her fellow feminists by challenging the entrenched belief that Freud was
the enemy. She argued that a rejection of psychoanalysis as bourgeois and
patriarchal was fatal for fe minism. However, it may have been used, she munotes.in

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Sociology of Gender
42 pointed out, psychoanalysis is not a recommendation for a patriarchal
society, but rather an analysis of one. “If we are interested in
understanding and challenging the oppression of women,” she says, “we
cannot afford to neglect psychoanalysis.” Mitchell reflects on the changing
relationship between these two major influences on twentieth -century
thought. Original and provocative, Psychoanalysis and Feminism remains
an essential component of the feminist canon.
If women's existence is defined by capitalism and patriarchy through their
ruling ideologies and institutions, then an understanding of capitalism
alone (or patriarchy in isolation) will not deal with the problem of
women's oppression. As Juliet Mitchell ha s written, “the overthrow of the
capitalist economy and the political challenge that effects this do not in
themselves mean a transformation of patriarchal ideology.”
Check Your Progress:
1. Explain socialist feminism.
4.5 SUMMARY In this chapter, we saw t hree main perspectives – liberal, radical and
socialist. Liberal is the variety of feminism that works within the structure
of mainstream society to integrate women into that structure. Its roots
stretch back to the social contract theory of government in stituted by the
American Revolution. Mary Wollstonecraft proposed equality for women.
As is often the case with liberals, they slog along inside the system,
getting little done amongst the compromises until some radical movement
shows up and pulls those c ompromises left of center.
Radical feminism provides an important foundation for the rest of
"feminist flavors". Seen by many as the "undesirable" element of
feminism, Radical feminism is actually the breeding ground for many of
the ideas arising from f eminism; ideas which get shaped and pounded out
in various ways by other (but not all) branches of feminism.
Socialist feminism is the result of Marxism meeting radical feminism.
Echols offers a description of socialist feminism as a marriage between
Marxism and radical feminism, with Marxism the dominant partner.
Marxists and socialists often call themselves "radical," but they use the
term to refer to a completely different "root" of society: the economic
system.
4.6 QUESTIONS  Elaborate on the contrib ution of Mary Wollstonecraft.
 How relevant was Kate Millet’s contribution to feminism?
 Write a note on Psychoanalysis and Feminism.
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43 Classical: Liberal – Mary Wollstonecraft, Radical - Kate Millet, Socialist - Juliet Mitchell 4.7 REFERENCES  Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2022, April 23). Mary
Wollstonecraft. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary -Wollstonecraft
 http://routledgesoc.com/profile/feminist -social -theory
 Juliet Mitchell. Women’s Estate. Penguin 1971. 182pp. pp 75 -122
 Kate Millett. "Sexual Politics." 1970
 Mary Daly, "The Church and the Second Sex: T owards a Philosophy
of Women's Liberation." 1968
 McAfee, Noëlle and Katie B. Howard, "Feminist Political
Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2022
Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
 Millett, K., MacKinnon, C., & Mead, R. (2016). Sexua l Politics:
Columbia University Press.
 Mills, A. J., Durepos, G., & Wiebe, E. (2010). Encyclopedia of case
study research (Vols. 1 -0). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications,
Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412957397
 Morales, H. feminism and ancient literature. Oxfor d Classical
Dictionary. Retrieved 7 May. 2022, from
https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.
001.0001/acrefore -9780199381135 -e-8235.
 Friedan, B. (2010). The Feminine Mystique: Penguin Books.
*****
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44 5
CONTEMPORARY - BLACK FEMINISM -
BELL HOOKS, POSTMODERN
FEMINISM: JULIA KRISTEVA
Unit Structure
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Black Feminism - Bell Hooks
5.3 Postmodern Feminism – Julia Kristeva
5.4 Summary
5.5 Questions
5.6 References
5.0 OBJECTIVES  To understand contemporary feminist movement
 To familiarize students with Black feminism
 To know what is Post -modern feminism
5.1 INTRODUCTION Feminism emerged as a protest against the domination of women by men
in all walks of life. It seeks to promote the role of women and empower
them to seek their rightful place in society. Feminism views the existing
social order essentially as male -dominated where women are positioned at
a disadvantaged level. They reject the idea that the sexual differences are
the cause of miseries of women. They instead argue that it is ‘gender’, a
social construct, rather than a biological fact of sex, which stereotyped
womanhood, designated her for less significant social roles. Feminism
seeks to identify the institution s and methods of oppression, on the one
hand, and, seek to identify the possible ways to challenge this oppression,
on the other.
Contemporary feminist thought has transcended ideological boundaries
and easily crisscrosses and benefitting from other discip lines. Over the
years, newer dimensions have emerged in the feminist theory which looks
beyond the classic issues of justice, equality, thus broadening the horizon
of feminism. New insights from cultural studies, literary theory,
postmodern theories, psych oanalysis and postcolonial studies have opened
up new areas of feminist contention in the recent times.
Feminist theory in the late twentieth and early twenty -first centuries is not
limited to thinking about the lives of men and women and all those in munotes.in

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45 Contemporary - Black Feminism - Bell Hooks, Postmodern Feminism: Julia Kristeva betw een, but rather, offers explanations of how gender shapes the entire
social world. Contemporary feminist theory moves beyond the general
categories in ways that reformulate the key concerns of both feminist
intellectual inquiry and politically engaged acti visms. This chapter focuses
on the contemporary feminist theories that expand, critique, and otherwise
engage with second -wave feminist theories.
Wollstonecraft vehemently pointed out that women in her times were
oppressed, marginalized, uneducated, and i solated from the real world.
Along with the education of girls, she advocated for universal education
also. She writes, “Men and women must be educated in a great degree, by
the opinions and manners of the society they live in”, and without any
crucial cha nge in society, there can be no real “revolution in female
manners”.
Towards the end of nineteenth century, some male thinkers began to argue
for rights of women and marked a shift in the history of feminism.
William Thompson and John Stuart Mill acknowled ged the inspirational
influence of their wives. William Thompson published his Appeal of One
Half of the Human Race, Women, against the Pretensions of the Other
Half, Men, to Restrain them in Political and thence in Civil and Domestic
Slavery and describes this book as “the protest of at least one man and one
woman” against the “degradation of one half of the adult portion of the
human race”.
Eventually, a host of thinkers and writers reacted to Western feminism as
it focused on gender discrimination only a nd neglected differences of race
and class which are very much interrelated with gender. It lacked the
comprehensiveness to encompass the existence of black women and other
women of color. Brazilian women have asserted the Eurocentric view of
feminism as i t avoids the discussion of problems like racism, health issues,
and other problems related to work. Western feminists are confronted with
the problems of sexism and political and social inequalities while the
‘Third World’ women confront and face even more complicated and
intricate problems.
Bell Hooks in her Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre (1984)
critically argued about and analyzes, that the women “who are most
victimized by sexist oppression . . . who are powerless to change their
condition in li fe have never been permitted to speak”. She holds the view
that Western feminism is basically racist and has disappointed and
dissatisfied many women. Sojourner Truth was one of the first feminists
who drew white women’s attention to black slave women and made them
realize that women could work like men.
With this as a context, lets now look at Black feminism as well the Post -
modern feminism, with special emphasis on its intellectuals.

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46 Sociology of Gender
46 5.2 BLACK FEMINISM - BELL HOOKS Black women writers analyze the compl ex and complicated social issues
because of being black and women. They clearly express the
immeasurable and fathomless pain, injustice, and horror of slavery. Black
women have faced many kinds of oppression both from the white people
and black men. This e xperience has provided them enough material
whereby they can vent their feelings of oppression. These writers have
been deliberately made inconspicuous by both the traditions —the
women’s literary tradition and by the African -American literary tradition.
The black women’s writings have been “patronized, slighted and
misunderstood by a cultural establishment operating according to male
norms out of male perceptions”.
The white female scholars and writers deliberately excluded the works of
black women writers from literary anthologies and critical studies. The
best illustration of this can be found in Patricia Meyer Spacks’s book The
Female Imagination: Literary and Psychological Investigation of
Women’s Writing where one finds definite apathy and complacence f or
black female writers. The black female writers were pityingly
disenfranchised from both the critical works on the tradition of white
women writers as well as black men writers of their own native literary
tradition.
White women very hypocritically thoug ht the movement to be theirs and
ignored the fact that women are divided by various differences —sexism,
racism, and class privilege. Hooks writes her own experience in feminist
groups and declares that white women applied a very condescending
attitude towa rds non -white women. By doing so, they reminded them that
it was them who allowed these women to participate in the feminist
movement. They never saw them as equals.
bell hooks, pseudonym of Gloria Jean Watkins, (born September 25, 1952,
Hopkinsville, Ken tucky, U.S. —died December 15, 2021, Berea,
Kentucky), American scholar and activist whose work examined the
connections between race, gender, and class. She often explored the varied
perceptions of Black women and Black women writers and the
development of feminist identities.
hooks, in her early years of education, was subjected to racial
discrimination in schools. Growing up with trauma, she moved to an
integrated school in the late 1960s. She eventually received her in English
Literature from Stanford Un iversity and the University of Wisconsin -
Madison. She completed her PhD at the University of California. Since
2004, hooks taught at Berea College in Kentucky, the liberal arts college
that offers free tuition, reports The Guardian.
Hooks’s first book, “A nd There We Wept”, a collection of poems was
published in 1978. Her first major work, ‘Ain’t I a woman?’, published in
1981 was widely recognised as a landmark feminist text. The book was munotes.in

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47 Contemporary - Black Feminism - Bell Hooks, Postmodern Feminism: Julia Kristeva written by a 24 -year-old hooks and in 1992 it was declared one of th e 20
most influential books in the past 20 years by Publishers Weekly.
In the 1980s hooks established a support group for Black women called
the Sisters of the Yam, which she later used as the title of a book,
published in 1993, celebrating Black sisterhoo d. Her other writings
included Feminist Theory from Margin to Center (1984), Talking Back:
Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (1989), Black Looks: Race and
Representation (1992), Killing Rage: Ending Racism (1995), Reel to Real:
Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies (1996), Remembered Rapture: The
Writer at Work (1999), Where We Stand: Class Matters (2000),
Communion: The Female Search for Love (2002), and the companion
books We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity (2003) and The Will to
Change: Men, Masculinit y, and Love (2004). Writing Beyond Race:
Living Theory and Practice was published in 2012. She also wrote a
number of autobiographical works, such as Bone Black: Memories of
Girlhood (1996) and Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life (1997).
hooks work has alway s been centred around how the feminist movement
is confined to the upper -class, white women with lesser regard to the
needs and struggle of the poor and non -white women. In her book, ‘Ain’t I
a Woman’, hooks wrote, “It is obvious that many women have
appro priated feminism to serve their own ends, especially those white
women who have been at the forefront of the movement; but rather than
resigning myself to this appropriation I choose to re -appropriate the term
‘feminism’, to focus on the fact that to be ‘f eminist’ in any authentic sense
of the term is to want for all people, female and male, liberation from
sexist role patterns, domination, and oppression.”
hooks was always vocal about the representation of the Black culture in
music, films and the field of art. She also held strong views on rap music
and its roots, which majorly stems from the control exerted on Black
people inside their homes and on the streets.
hooks views on patriarchy and masculinity were also deemed
controversial. However, with her fer ocious commitments and beliefs, she
had once said, “I want my work to be about healing”. In her book, ‘The
Will To Change: Men, masculinity and love’, a rather controversial book
during its time of publication, hooks argued that masculinity is a hole and
a regime that presses everyone including men.
Black feminism stresses upon the fact that sexism, racism, and class
oppression are very much interlinked and intersectional. Black feminists
had to face different challenges: to show other black females that
feminism was not a white women movement, to persuade and command
white women to share power with them and to fight to end the misogynist
tendencies of Black Nationalism.
The 1980s and 1990s witnessed a great growth in black feminist writers.
They openly crit icized gender, white male patriarchy and other types of
hegemony and dominance. 1980s was a significant time in which some munotes.in

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48 Sociology of Gender
48 black women writers and literary critics strictly speculated about gender
and black women as subjects in historical contexts.
Check Y our Progress:
1. Who was bell hooks?
5.3 POSTM ODERN FEMINISM – JULIA KRISTEVA Postmodern feminism explores the idea of gendered writing and rejects
those concepts. Postmodern feminism can be broken down into
postmodernity and feminist theory. Postmodernity traditionally refers to
the social, political, technological, and economic changes that have led to
a globalization and mass culture (Laughey, 2007). Feminism studies refers
to the diverse ideologies and understanding of gender and womanhood
that broadly look to understand and address the inequality between the
sexes (Laughey, 2007).
Postmodern feminists aim to establish how language can be a divisive and
an overarchingly sexist factor, since it was never created for women
(Tong, 1998). They also reject c lassically traditional feminist thought and
values, with some key members going as far as to reject the term
“feminist” (Tong, 1998). Postmodern feminists contentiously reject the
idea of essentialism or the belief that there is an inherent difference
betw een men and women (Tong, 1998). Postmodern feminism plays into
deconstructing the patriarchy and the systematic values it furthers (Tong,
1998).
When dealing with gendered language, postmodern feminist scholars
interreact with the texts of Jacques Lacan an d his theory of the Symbolic
Order. The Symbolic Order is the theory that when young children learn
language, they will have to submit to the Order so they can follow
linguistic patterns of society (Tong, 1998). By doing this, the child will
eventually spe ak the language of the Symbolic Order. Since the Symbolic
Order regulates society through the regulation of individuals, individuals
constantly use the language and perpetuate the standards that define
gender roles and other social roles (Tong, 1998).
Postmodern feminists like, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva use the ideas
of the Symbolic Order and relate theme to the gendered language
postmodern feminism deals with. For example, Luce Irigaray looks into
the Symbolic order and Freud by distancing their mas culine philosophical
thoughts in order to liberate the feminine (Tong, 1998). Irigaray examines
how everything that is known to women is from a masculine linguistic
point of view. This understanding of the feminine reasserts the masculine
system and its si ngularity (Tong, 1998).
Expanding off that Irigaray touches base on the idea speculum to clarify
the sameness that is used with Freud and Lacan. Irigaray argues that the
speculum is based around how men are unable to discuss and define
women because the “ masculine discourse has never been able to
understand woman, or the feminine, as anything other than a reflection of munotes.in

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49 Contemporary - Black Feminism - Bell Hooks, Postmodern Feminism: Julia Kristeva man, or the masculine” (Tong, 1998, p. 202). Men cannot do these
processes because women are reflections of the men rather than a separate
entity of a women (Tong, 1998). Julia Kristeva, like Irigaray, argues with
Lacan’s theory of the Symbolic Order; however, her critique focuses on
rejecting feminism. Kristeva, importantly rejects the idea of masculine or
feminine identification of the Symb olic Order, understanding that different
genders can exist and operate under masculine and feminine norms (Tong,
1998).
Born in 1941, Kristeva is a Bulgarian -born French feminist and form the
part of what is called French Feminism, along with other feminis ts like
Helene Cixous, Luce Irigaray. French feminism is considered quite
different than the Anglo -American feminism for the reason that French
feminism, which heavily uses ideas from philosophy, psychoanalysis,
linguistics, post -modernism and post -structu ralism, is, and as rightly
pointed out by various feminist critic, theoretical in nature.
Kristeva argues that western philosophy and the entire patriarchal system
is founded on the idea of repressing any difference, and has thrived by
suppressing this dif ference. Anything that deviates this system, defies its
logic and structure is labelled as “abnormal,” “perversion,” “unnatural,”
criminality and many other such things which this system tries to suppress
with complete force and authority, lest it will dis rupt and break the very
foundation of it.
Kristeva, like other French feminists, uses Freud and Lacan’s
psychoanalysis to prove one point, that gender difference is a social
construction that a child tries to enact in his sexual stages as discussed by
Freud, and his behaviour towards his and other’s sexuality is heavily
influenced by our circumstances one is brought up in.
So, like Lacan, Kristeva points out that it’s the language that creates the
awareness of the sexual difference in a child when the child starts
categorising and understanding the patriarchal world, including the
authority of father and patriarchy which makes the child suppress lots of
desires and ideas.
Although many feminist theorists and literary critics have found Kristeva's
ideas usefu l and provocative, Kristeva's relation to feminism has been
ambivalent. Her views of feminism are best represented in her essay
"Women's Time" in New Maladies of the Soul. In this essay originally
published in 1979, Kristeva argues that there are three pha ses of feminism.
She rejects the first phase because it seeks universal equality and
overlooks sexual differences. She implicitly criticizes Simone de Beauvoir
and the rejection of motherhood; rather than reject motherhood Kristeva
insists that we need a n ew discourse of maternity. In fact, in "A New Type
of Intellectual: The Dissident," Kristeva suggests that "real female
innovation (in whatever field) will only come about when maternity,
female creation and the link between them are better understood".
Kristeva also rejects what she sees as the second phase of feminism
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50 Sociology of Gender
50 impossible. Kristeva does not agree with feminists who maintain that
language and culture are essentially patriarchal and m ust somehow be
abandoned. On the contrary, Kristeva insists that culture and language are
the domain of speaking beings and women are primarily speaking beings.
Kristeva endorses what she identifies as the third phase of feminism which
seeks to reconceive of identity and difference and their relationship. This
current phase of feminism refuses to choose identity over difference or
vice versa; rather, it explores multiple identities, including multiple sexual
identities. In an interview with Rosalind Coward, Kristeva proposes that
there are as many sexualities as there are individuals.
Postmodern feminism still carries an important role in society for breaking
down the boundaries of sexism and patriarchal values. That being said,
critics of postmodern feminis m believe that the writings and the theorists
focus too much on the academia of postmodern feminism rather than
being applicable to society.
Check Your Progress:
1. What is Postmodern feminism?
5.4 SUMMARY The white feminist theorists did not take cogniza nce of issues related to
racism, gender discrimination, and class conflict and such urgencies of
black female experience. The exclusion of black women from the feminist
theory and antiracist discourses became clear for the first time in the social
movement s of the 1960s and 70s which fought for racial and gender
equality. The task was accomplished by the black theorists like Bell
Hooks, Angela Davis, and Patricia Hill Collins who stressed on the
marginalization of black women due to race, sex, class, and ge nder.
Black women joined the feminist movement to put an end to sexist
oppression but soon they were to realize the harsh reality that white
women were hardly concerned with the various problems faced by the
non-white women. The participants came to reali ze that the feminist
movement was concerned with the small minority who had organized the
movement. Their role in the movement was never given due credit and
their efforts went unnoticed.
The racial segregation against the black women was so brazen that t he
term “women” meant “white women” and the term “blacks” signified
“black men.” Black women were always destined to suffer from
stereotyping and were portrayed negatively and suffered many atrocities
like persecution, beating, torture, etc. This cruel, pa thetic, and piteous
racial attitude of white female folk towards black women resulted in the
unavoidable emergence of women’s organizations whose sole aim was to
end racism.
Bell Hooks is another important feminist theorist who contributed to the
intersect ionality theory. In the preface to her Feminist Theory: From
Margin to Centre (1984), Hooks discussed the black Americans in her munotes.in

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51 Contemporary - Black Feminism - Bell Hooks, Postmodern Feminism: Julia Kristeva hometown and explained the meaning of her title, “From Margin to
Centre.”
Postmodern feminism’s rejection of gendered language is becoming more
and more applicable to society. Gendered language is common and can
often go unnoticed when it is not searched for. It can also be associated
with the pronouns that individuals are labeled by in society. As pronouns
fall into the masculine (he) or feminine (she) of society they tend to also
be defined by the masculine binary established in the Symbolic Order.
Furthermore, as more individuals are identifying as nonbinary, they are
therefore rejecting the masculine or feminine binary that is established by
the Symbolic Order by not relating to a specific gendered identifier. Many
languages already use this practice with pronouns. Though gendered
pronouns do not directly tie into the ideas of postmodern feminism, they
both to an extent question the idea of gendered language and how it effects
a society’s language.
Kristeva’s theories synthesized elements from such dissimilar thinkers as
the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, the French philosopher Michel
Foucault, and the Russian literary theor ist Mikhail Bakhtin. Two distinct
trends characterize her writings: an early structuralist -semiotic phase and a
later psychoanalytic -feminist phase. During the latter period Kristeva
created a new study she called “semanalysis,” a combination of the
psycho analysis of Sigmund Freud and the semiology, or semiotics (the
study of signs), of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the
American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. Her most important
contribution to the philosophy of language was her distincti on between the
semiotic and the symbolic aspects of language. The semiotic, which is
manifested in rhythm and tone, is associated with the maternal body. The
symbolic, on the other hand, corresponds to grammar and syntax and is
associated with referential meaning. With this distinction, Kristeva
attempted to bring the “speaking body” back into linguistics and
philosophy. She proposed that bodily drives are discharged in language
and that the structure of language is already operating in the body.
5.5 QUESTI ONS 1. Who was Julia Kristeva?
2. What is Black feminism?
3. Compare Black feminism and Liberal feminism?
5.6 REFERENCES  Bakytzhanova, A. (2020). The development of contemporary
feminism.
 Beasley, C. (2000). What is Feminism?: An Introduction to Femini st
Theory. London: Sage. munotes.in

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52 Sociology of Gender
52  Beauvoir, S., & Parshley, H. M. (1972). The second sex.
Harmondsworth: Penguin.
 Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2022, February 11). bell
hooks. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/bell -hooks
 Meag her, M. (2019). Contemporary Feminist Theory. In The Wiley
Blackwell Companion to Sociology (eds G. Ritzer and W.W.
Murphy).
 Brenden. (2017, November 11). Every Single Time James Charles has
said “Hi sisters” for One Minute Straight [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmyn_q2YjoA
 Kweeny Kween. (2018, April 15). The Evolution of Shanes’ “Hey
What’s Up You Guys, Yes” [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjdLz0ISvSs
 Laughey, D. (2007). Key Themes in Media Theory . London: McGraw
Hill.
 Tong, R.P. (1998). Feminist Though (2nd ed.) Colorado: Westview
Press.
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53 MODULE III
6
KUMUD PAWADE’S THOUGHTFUL
OUTBURST AND DALIT FEMINISM
Unit Structure
6.0 Objective
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Personal Narrative o f Caste Consciousness
6.3 The Autobiography Talks a bout Gender Awareness
6.4 Conclusion o f Antasphot
6.5 Dalit Women's Aut obiography a nd Dalit Feminism: Important
Themes
6.6 Summary
6.7 Questions
6.8 Reference
6.0 OBJECTIVE  To introduce students to the writing of Kumud Pawde
 To raise awareness of Dalit Feminism among students
6.1 INTRODUCTION Kumud Pawade is a writ er, feminist, and social thinker from Maharashtra.
She was born in Nagpur in 1938 and is a Dalit. Her autobiography,
Antasphot, was first written in Marathi in 1981. It is made up of stories
from her life that tell a story about herself and the people arou nd her. Also,
the autobiography tells us how different social and political institutions
made Kumud's life hard and how she overcame them. Antasphot also talks
about the different ways that the Hindu social order is unfair to Dalit men
and women, which mak es their lives hard. The word "antasphot" means
"outburst" in English, but as she said in the beginning of the story, it is a
thoughtful response to one's own and other people's experiences. So, it is a
Thoughtful Outburst in a real sense.
In her story, th e narrator shows that she has a critical awareness of herself,
her social position in her community, and the system that put her and her
community on the outside. She says that the institution of caste shapes the
lives of both individuals and groups. At th e same time, women are used
because of their caste and because they are women. She agrees that Dalit
women are exploited twice as much as other women and are also left out
twice as much. She says bad things about the way Hindu society and the
lives of wome n are run by caste, class, and patriarchy. In many places in munotes.in

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54 the text, the author says what she thinks about the oppressive environment.
She talks about caste and her family's patriarchy, and she speaks out
against both caste and gender inequality.
Thought ful Outburst is an English translation of Antasphot. It is made up
of nine short special testimonies that allow the author to call on women to
break the rules that have been passed down from the past. Some of the
most important ideas in the text are ritual s, the power of men in the family
and society, Dalit propaganda, and what's really going on behind the
curtain. Kumud Pawade is so upset by how oppressive Indian society is
that she has no choice but to strongly criticize it. She says, "How can I see
my li fe and the lives of my wounded community as human beings when a
culture based on hierarchy, like Indian society, literally rips the flesh off
the minds of individuals and communities and hurts them?" This question
won't leave me alone. Because of this, I s tart to feel like my brain is going
to explode, and when this feeling comes out in words, it's called a
"thoughtful outburst." This is how I feel about Antasphot.
6.2 PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF CASTE CONSCIOUSNESS Dalit autobiographies are important because the y show how unfair the
"high caste" has been to them and make them feel bad about it.
Kumud Pawade is a voice of the oppressed who attacks the stratified
Hindu religion for its unfortunate ideas and values. Kumud did not have to
deal with extreme poverty or grow up in a bad place. She didn't miss out
on the most important things in life, like getting an education and being
safe. She was learning in the city of Nagpur with other children from the
upper caste. She was still very hurt by the way the mothers of her upper -
caste Brahmin friends treated her differently. Quite a few times, insulting
words were said to her. "Don't go near her! Don't get too close to her!
Don't mess around with her. If you don't change, don't come home
anymore !" "I take a bath every da y with soap, just like they do," she
thinks. All of my clothes are clean. I think my house is even cleaner than
theirs. So why do they look down on me?" She gets angry. One day, the
young girl goes to the home of a Brahmin school friend for a religious
ceremony. She stays there, mesmerized, as Vedic Sanskrit Mantras are
chanted. All of a sudden, she is severely reprimanded and sent out of the
house. As she cleans up, she hears, "These Mahars are so full of
themselves these days!"
Kumud talks about how peopl e treated her differently because of her
marriage to someone from a different caste. Since she got married to a
Maratha boy, she is no longer a Dalit girl. Still, her original identity kept
her from joining the social life of the upper class. Dr. Ambedkar worked
to get rid of caste, and he thought that marriages between people from
different castes were one way to do this. But the author says that caste is a
social idea that can never be taken away from a person. In this place,
people are known not by their names but by their caste. She has seen for
herself how rigid caste can be. She talks about how strange her father -in-munotes.in

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55 Kumud Pawade’s Thoughtful Outburst and Dalit Feminism law was. He was so stubborn and old -fashioned that he wouldn't let go of
his son for marrying a Mahar girl. Even after he had a grandchild , his
anger did not go away. She says with great excitement, "I was very
angry." My son was not held by the old man. Even though this man was
related to us by blood, he didn't touch his grandson because he was born to
a Mahar woman." She says how angry she is that he is being treated
wrongly. During their hard times, instead of helping their son, he cut off
all ties with him because he was getting married to Kumud. During an
argument with his wife, he told her, "It's your son who has hurt my
reputation in t he community." I own 450 acres of land and a metric tonne
of gold. People are scared of me just because of my name, Gulabrao Patil,
which is now mud. How can a son be my son if he causes his father to lose
his caste? "70). People care so much about their c aste that they are willing
to cut ties with their family and friends in order to keep their "status" in
society.
In Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature: History, Controversies, and
Considerations, Sharankumar Limbale said that caste awareness is the
most important thing about Dalit writing. Dalit literature is written by
Dalits who know what it's like to be Dalit and are aware of being Dalit.
Dalit autobiographies show the real lives of Dalits, which can only be
understood if you know about caste. Kumu d is a symbol of how her Mahar
caste thinks. She says that people with high castes will never give up on
their empty religious values. She talks about the differences between
castes that she has seen in her family and in the outside world. After he got
married, Kumud moved to the neighborhood of wealthy Marwaris and
Brahmins. When her mother -in-law invited her neighbors to her house,
they always came up with a reason not to go. When Kumud found out
why, she politely turned down their invitations on the grou nds that it
wasn't clean. Her education and the Phule -Ambedkarite spirit helped her
come up with a sharp answer.
The Dalit women's organisation is supposed to help the lowest caste
women get ahead, but she is shocked to see that the members care less
about the organization's original goal and more about copying the morals
and manners of the upper caste elite. She is a member of the group, so she
has seen how their platform hides their real goal. She thinks, "If this
tendency to act like the upper class take s root among us, we will also
become prisoners of class consciousness." She says that she doesn't like
how her people are getting into high culture. She says, "This is a day that
the people in charge of this culture wouldn't have let us see." We can only
see this day because of Babasaheb, who had a great soul. How much do
we owe him? But when I see how proud they are and how bad their
position smells, I want to grind up the high values of Buddhism and pour
them down their throats." True Buddhists are sad th at most educated and
well-off Dalits have chosen not to follow Buddhism's simple path. Baby
Kamble wrote about the same pain in her work. Kumud said something
mean about what hurt her heart. The situation was serious because of her
bold claims. She told me , "When the man from the huts walks into this
hall, he doesn't think about his simple home. When he becomes a man of
the classes, the man of the masses turns his back on the masses. He munotes.in

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56 completely forgets that he has something to give back to the place wher e
he was born. For comfort and ease, we sell ourselves. Our tragedy is that."
Kumud makes a difference between Dalit women from the upper class and
Dalit women from the countryside who don't belong to any class. Caste
fights still happen in rural villages, where Dalit women don't have access
to basic things like toilets, bathrooms, drinking water, and so on. At the
convention, one of her friends asked about the safety of Dalit women, who
are always afraid of being used. The caste system is a big reason why
Dalit women who live in rural areas, are poor, and don't know how to read
or write are mistreated, exploited, robbed, and hurt. She thinks that the
Dalits' fate is because of their caste. She says, "The left needs to remember
that this society is not just based on class, but also on varna and caste."
"Religion is a strong tool in this place. In fact, religion should bring people
together and make them feel like brothers and sisters, but Hinduism
encourages people to be separate and keep the lower caste from the higher
caste. The ideas of caste and religion are criticized in her writing.
Kumud talks about what happened to Sanat Kumar, a very close friend of
hers. Even though he was from the Jain community (an upper caste), he
went to Kumud's house often. His dynamic ideas went beyond the limits
of caste. He was afraid to tell his parents about her caste. He told his
mother that Kumud was Kunbi when he met Kumud for the first time
(maratha). Kumud felt bad about having to hide her own caste, which she
was very proud of. Even though she has been married to someone from a
different caste for sixteen years, others still care about caste. She wasn't
welcome at parties or with her family. Only because she was brave was,
she able to face people. She would say, "Will t he party get dirty if I sit
down to eat?" if something poked her. She talks about one of her brothers -
in-law who helped her and her husband when they got married and
pretended to be a Phule follower but acted in a different way when he was
alone. Kumud sai d that people like this were "hidden enemies of Phule’s
ideas."
Kumud remembers that after the reservation policy and scholarship
programmes for SCs started, there were a lot of negative comments made
about Dalits. They were punished for going to school an d making
progress. Many people would try to make it harder for Dalit students to go
to school. On a legal level, untouchability was done away with, but who
will get Manu out of the minds of millions of people? Her pain is mostly
for their own people, who a re being led away from the Phule -Ambedkar
vision because they are being misled. Many female professors were rude
to Dalit students and got involved in small -scale caste problems. She said,
"Savitribai did some radical things that made it possible for women in
Maharashtra to get the same education as men. But it wouldn't be wrong to
say that these women are moving away from what Phule wanted. Isn't this
dishonest?" This is the tragedy of our time: educated young people don't
know what it's like to grow up in India and how hard it is. Because of this,
men and women are getting caught up in the showy life and don't care
about those who also help society. This is Kumud's pain, which makes her
sad and restless. munotes.in

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57 Kumud Pawade’s Thoughtful Outburst and Dalit Feminism She wrote down another memory from 1978. In a local marriage hall, her
brother got married. Even lower -class people like cooks and workers had
to follow the rules of caste hegemony. When they saw the pictures of
Buddha and Ambedkar on the stage, they began to talk about it in low
voices. It was clear that t he people who cleaned didn't want to do the
dishes after the meal. When Kumud's family told the hall manager about
it, he said he couldn't do anything because he couldn't make the workers
do anything against their will. In her life, she met a lot of people who still
believe in the horrible old ideas about purity and pollution. They are
biased in how they think about and treat Dalits. Dalits are untouchable,
dirty, unhygienic, uneducated, and unworthy, according to them. So, when
she talked about a personal experience, she told herself, "One can live in
India or outside of India, but caste remains." Not only did she think about
food, pollution, and purity taboos, but she also thought about other things,
like how she learned to speak Sanskrit, which was though t to be a godly
language that a Dalit or even a woman could never learn. She wrote about
how she felt: "For a few hundred years, things that we couldn't even touch
have become clear, and things that were kept in a hard shell have become
easy to get to." Th e knowledge wrapped in a shroud of mystery has been
taken up by someone who religion says is no better than a lowly bug."
When she learned the language, many conservative people from outside
and inside her community would turn their heads the opposite way to
show they didn't like it.
Kumud wanted to show the world that no matter what caste a person is in,
they can still be the best. But they can't because the world won't let them.
For her, caste is always there, even when people try to put it aside and
forget about it. Even though she tried very hard to get a job, she was still
unemployed two years after she finished her master's degree. She didn't
get a job as an assistant professor at a government college until she got
married to a Maratha. This fact stil l makes her feel bad. She says that
Kumud Pawade got the job, not Kumud Somkuvar. So, "All the credit for
Sou (Mrs.) Kumud Pawade being a professor of Sanskrit goes to the so -
called Savarna identity." Her old caste is still at a disadvantage."
As a social thinker who is against caste and religion, Kumud hopes that
the country's mind will change. These changes must be in line with what
Phule and Ambedkar believed in terms of ideas. Neo -Buddhists should go
ahead and break the chains of caste from their minds and form a new
"Biradari" (community) based on humanitarian values because, according
to her, religion breaks people by dividing society into caste pieces. So,
broken people turn to humanism, which is a religion started by Buddha
and accepted and praised b y Ambedkar for a good cause. Dalits and
people who are not Dalits should not only think about their own interests.
She says in the end, "We want to find out what people have done for other
people out of a sense of humanism." In this kind of humanism, the p erson
should be the most important thing. Birds, cows, and even ants can live on
after people do. But here, birds are important. Crows are given the food of
the last rite, and ants get sugar, cow's grass, monkey's nuts, and fish balls
made from flour. But a person's child has to pick up pieces of food from
garbage dumps while getting kicked and hit by the elite." munotes.in

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58 6.3 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY TALKS ABOUT GENDER AWARENESS A woman with a sensitive heart is likely to be a rebel at heart. Patriarchal
norms put a lot o f restrictions on women, so Kumud Pawade's education
went against them. In fact, patriarchy is what Indian society is most known
for. Women are always treated worse than men. Only during religious
ceremonies do they get to be the most important thing. If n ot, their lives
would be like a garbage dump. As an educated woman, Kumud spoke out
against the way women were treated. She has written a lot about the
Savitri Vrat, which is a fast that married women do to make sure they have
the same husband in their nex t seven lives. The first part of her story is
called "How I Stopped Savitri (pooja) Fasting", and it's about a ritual that
a relative of the author took part in. The Hindu religion has created rituals
that are meant to be done only by women. Often, these r ituals are done
because the women don't understand, because they feel like they have to,
or because they don't know any better.
A family member of Kumud's was beaten up by her husband at her home.
Under the excuse that she can't have children, he gets a s econd wife and
moves her into the house. Since then, not only her husband but also his
second wife have been cruel to her all the time. She was tortured over and
over again in that house, and when it got too bad, she decided to move in
with the author. A w oman who has been taken advantage of for no reason
is still willing to do the Savitri Vrat and fast in honor of her husband.
Once, the author asked again, "Why do you keep fasting for a husband like
that?" Her relative says, "Well, at least God will hear m e." At least he'll be
smarter in the next life." The writer tells her to think about things in a
reasonable and logical way so that if she gets the same husband in her next
life because of the vrat, his second wife will also ask for the same
husband, and s he will suffer again. So, since the writer doesn't see any
reason to fast, her relative Mayabai stops doing the Savitri pooja for good.
The story was about how women have blind beliefs and follow others
without looking at their scientific side. She says th at this religious practice
is unfair because it is only for women. She says that she doesn't like that
people have such wrong ideas. "Are all the Bible stories meant to make a
woman obey?" she asks. Even if such cruel religious practices are covered
in gol d, they can't be admired. Even though I was happy being with my
husband, there were many other women who were going through hell
being with theirs. Even though these women kept wishing for the same
hell, I had my own job to do. Why should I keep doing such bad things
when I know how bad they are? And shouldn't I tell these women that
these traditions are cruel and have no point? She is strongly against the
pull of patriarchy and doesn't want men to be in charge. In Hindu society,
there are many rituals and rites that make women feel less important, and
Kumud, as a modern, educated woman, will never accept this.
But it's shocking to see how most Indian women have accepted patriarchy
as something they can't change. So, the customs are so deeply ingrained in munotes.in

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59 Kumud Pawade’s Thoughtful Outburst and Dalit Feminism their minds that even a reformer would have a hard time getting rid of
them. She says, "I was very upset to see how blindly those women
followed the false ideas without giving them a second thought." In this
society, did women and Shudras have any role othe r than that of slaves?
By making their deaths more important than their husbands', they were
taught to sacrifice, even for bad reasons. Because of these beliefs, women
used to pray, "O God, let me die before my husband. Let me leave this
world wearing gree n bangles, a yellow sari, and kumkum on my
forehead."
Rege says, "When Kumud publicly disagreed with the idea that a wife
should die before her husband, she got a lot of flak from her group
because they were so stuck in their customs and traditions." She thought
that if death was one of the things that couldn't be denied, then it was true
for both men and women. The idea that women are slaves and men are
masters, followed by the idea that a woman is a bhogdasi, is what makes
these customs and values relate d to marriage status. Men who are sad
about their wives' deaths are made fun of and become jokes. Kumud says
what she thinks about the relationship between a husband and his wife.
She thinks that a husband should be more than just his wife's partner; he
should also be her friend. A wife should stand next to or in front of her
husband, not behind him.
Under the title "After All, We Are Women", Kumud has written a whole
chapter about women. She talks about how Dalit women are standing up
for their rights and how their views of their own community have
changed. She talks about how patriarchy is popular in the Dalit group.
Because they are "women," men treat women badly and look down on
them. She talks about the incident with the railway officials to show how
patriarchy can show up in the Dalit community. The author and some of
her friends were going to Delhi to go to a conference for women. At the
train station, the man at the ticket counter didn't give them the tickets for
no reason. He wanted to make them feel bad about themselves, so he
started a fight with them.
Kumud says that the people who live there are to blame for this. She was
sure that Ambedkar had become a Buddhist because Buddhism is based on
rationality, tolerance, patience, and caring for others. Even though the
Dalit community puts a lot of emphasis on Buddha's teachings, the author
isn't sure if they really follow them. She says, "Each person makes up the
community." It will only move forward if the person does. But if one
person is corrupt, rud e, violent, and has a degrading and repressive
attitude, the whole community will become the same way. If Buddhists
follow the same path of karma phala and don't follow Dnyanamargaa, then
Babasaheb's followers will be the reason why both Babasaheb and Budd ha
lose. Kumud thought that Babasaheb's way of teaching and the path he
showed to the low -class Dalits did not change the minds and hearts of the
upper -class Dalits.
In her story, Kumud brings up the problem of women being used because
of their gender, whi ch has been a problem in our society for a long time. munotes.in

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60 In fact, her story goes beyond the limits of autobiography, as it is clear
from the story that she wants to spread the idea that the Dalit is a
respectable person. In the same way, she wants to open the eyes of the
well-off Dalit class so that they can see their brothers and sisters who are
still being crushed by caste, class, and patriarchy. So, at the beginning of
the story, she says that her outburst shouldn't be taken as an emotional
one. Instead, it 's meant to make people think because it's supposed to
make sense.
She also thinks of Dalit women as forward -thinking people who are
interested in many different modern jobs. Her life is like a graph of the
lives of Dalit women going up. Her humble opinion is that Dalit women
should improve their intellectual skills and write about how patriarchy is
wrong. Her programme for Dalits and Dalit women is groundbreaking and
shows how far she wants to move forward. Dalit women have to deal with
both oppressions based on their caste and oppression based on the power
of men. And because of this, she is more oppressed than other women,
both in material and non -material ways. But many of the time, the rich,
well-educated women who work directly with Dalit women to give them
more power are not aware of the problems ordinary women face.
She had a similar experience at the Dalit movement convention, where the
girls who are exploited and raped because of their caste and servitude were
not taken as seriously as they should have been. They said it was a "dirty
subject" to talk about. Kumud says, "The shame and pain that our poor,
helpless women have had to go through for centuries are just a dirty thing
for these powerful women." These women are bored by the talk. How can
they honestly think about it? What are you thinking? We forget everything
when we eat something good. So... is there anyone who can wake up the
conscience? Are there any honest people? Why then blame us? Besides,
we're just women anyway!" "Just women" is a wa y for men to admit that
women aren't important to them, or it's a way to irritate women by making
them wonder if they are as smart or able to work as well as men. It could
also be her anger and disgust at the ways that society's social and cultural
norms m ake women feel small.
She tried hard to learn the Sanskrit language, but people told her not to
bother. India's social history shows that only Brahmins were allowed to
learn Sanskrit. No one else was allowed to learn it. It was out of the
question for wome n and Shudras. In a society with this kind of mentality,
Kumud was able to reach the top by getting past all the problems and
criticism he faced. She writes, "Just like the last time, our smart neighbors
laughed at me. Some of them taught college or were l awyers. How can
that be? Even though you did well in high school, is it easy to get an M.A.
in Sanskrit? One shouldn't brag about what they can do. People were
talking. And what was most funny was that most of them were from our
own caste. It was strange t o hear the smart people in her community say
things that made her feel bad about herself. It was just a male ego with a
patriarchal view of the world talking badly. They say that a woman should
never be better at being a man than a man. She strongly critic ized and
rejected this patriarchal hegemony, which means that men are in charge. munotes.in

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61 Kumud Pawade’s Thoughtful Outburst and Dalit Feminism In fact, the educated part of the community expected mutual trust, unity,
and cooperation from women so that they could fight against oppressive
social norms and values and ma ke their own space. But she is worried
about how people in her community treat each other because they think
some are better than others.
6.4 CONCLUSION OF ANTASPHOT In her writing, Kumud Pawade shows how caste and gender are not as
simple as they seem. I n her autobiography, she shows that Dalit women
have more problems than high -caste women, both because they are Dalit
and because they are women. Her research into caste and gender issues
made her a pioneer in the 1980s and 1990s, when Dalit feminism began to
take shape. The women's movement has done a lot of work on issues such
as low wages, economic exploitation, unemployment, women's legal
rights, and so on. But these studies are done without understanding how
caste works and what life is like for Dalit women. So, the women's
movement hasn't done enough to solve the problems that Dalit women
face because of their caste. Kumud Pawade asks all Dalit women to spread
Dr. Ambedkar's ideas. So, the poor village women and Dalit women go on
to live lives of respe ct.
Kumud Pawade talks about caste, class, and patriarchy in the lives of
Dalits who live in cities. Kumud Pawade teaches the Sanskrit language. In
her story, she talks about the lives of Dalits, the Dalit movement, the Dalit
elite, and, most importantly, how the political and social worlds don't care
about the Dalit community. In the same way, she has shown that sub -caste
is a source of tension among Dalits. She says that Hindu holy books, like
the Ramayana, are to blame for this kind of division. She says that it
makes her sad that people praise God even though they have done bad
things. Her autobiography is a search for the many ways to understand
what it means to be Dalit.
Women's stories help us learn about a hidden world of disapproval,
disagreement, a nd protest among women. In ways that have never been
said before, their works also show how and why women are sensitive and
creative in ways that are shared. They show up as a way to fight against
the fact that the political, economic, and power structures are dominated
by men. They show how controlling and repressive male hegemony is in
the family and in the community. In their honest and brilliant
autobiographies, intellectual Dalit women talk about things like women's
relationships with each other, coope ration and relationships within and
outside the community, religious rituals, and daily work relationships.
The writings are a challenge to writers and historians who only care about
the lives of famous people. In this way, Dalit stories break with literar y
traditions because the main characters aren't great leaders or social
workers. Instead, they are very ordinary, invisible men and women who
are fighting against the odds in their personal and social lives. Their focus
is on people who don't seem to be im portant in history, but their writings munotes.in

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62 can still be seen as historical records that shed a lot of light on the state of
humanity under the influence of what is now called "Ambedkarism."
6.5 DALIT WOMEN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND DALIT FEMINISM : IMPORTANT THEMES To find out what Dalit women's autobiographies are like as a whole, it is
important to look at what makes them different.
The Real and Honest Portrayal of Dalit Society :
The stories told by Dalit women show what Dalit society is like. They
describe in deta il how people live, what their customs are, and what they
believe. The stories written by Dalit men are about how the upper caste
stratum kept them down in social and political ways.
Caste Concerns :
Dalit women have hard lives because of their caste and ge nder. This is
why they are called "the voiceless among the voiceless." Urmila Pawar
could not get a place to live because of her caste. Kumud Pawade talks
about violence based on caste in a way that is both moving and shocking.
Awareness of gender :
A lot o f Dalit women writers are writing about gender issues that haven't
been talked about much in the past. They focus on oppression based on
things other than gender, such as class, caste, language, religion, etc.
Being a Dalit woman means that they have to be aware of their gender.
A Sneak Peek at Patriarchy :
The patriarchal structure of Dalit society is openly criticised in the
autobiographies of Dalit women. Their work shows how hard it was for
them to live in a patriarchal society. Most likely, the Dalit wo man's
writings are all about showing this truth. They also explain clearly what
they did to help the bigger cause.
Concerns of women :
In their autobiographies, Dalit women talk about problems that all women
face. They talk about both caste oppression and w omen's problems in
general. The people at the top of society always see them as things they
can use. The fact that they are women means that they have to deal with
these problems.
Realistic expression that is honest and true :
Dalit women's stories are more realistic because they question the bad
things the Dalit community does, showing the apathy of women on the
inside. They tell the truth about what happens in Dalit society because
patriarchy is so strict. In the men's autobiographies, Dalit women are
portrayed as patient mothers, obedient wives, and helpless daughters. munotes.in

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63 Kumud Pawade’s Thoughtful Outburst and Dalit Feminism Pay attention to everyday things :
Dalit women's autobiographies are mostly about their everyday lives.
People can read about the horrible things that Dalit women do in the
villages. By showi ng how people live their private lives, the
autobiographies show the bad side of the patriarchal system.
Domestic Violence :
Dalit women's autobiographies show what domestic violence is really like.
Dalit men's writing shows that they only care about themse lves and don't
care about women. Manu tells men how to act, and he celebrates the fact
that men keep women as slaves.
The focus is on the group rather than on each person :
Dalit women's stories do not separate them from their own surroundings,
their famili es, or society as a whole. Their focus is not on the flaws of
each person, but on the pain, grief, and misery of the whole community.
The focus is on the group rather than on each person.
Poverty :
Almost all Dalit autobiographies talk a lot about poverty, which is a major
theme of their writing. Baby Kamble's story shows that Dalits live in
terrible poverty. They are poor not because they are left out, but because
they are sent away, don't know what's going on, and don't fight back.
Education :
Dalits see ed ucation as a tool that can help them fight against all odds. It is
seen as a way out of the social oppression they have had to deal with for a
long time. Almost all of the written testimonies by Dalit women talk about
this issue as a way to help their fami lies. Also, their writings talk about
what education is and what it takes to get an education. In Kumud
Pawade's autobiography, you can see this at work. When she finishes
college, she has to change her last name in order to get a job. Dalit
women's writin gs show that the Indian social order is based on caste and
that it is a harsh reality. Baby Kamble's story shows how Ambedkar's
teachings have helped people. Urmila Pawar's book "The Weave of My
Life" shows how education has changed and helped her family i n many
ways.
Ambedkarite Ideology :
The Dalit women's autobiography is likely a result of how Ambedkar's
ideas have affected them. The autobiographies talk about how to get rid of
superstitions and tell their readers to follow the path of reason with their
great leader as their guide.
Dalit Feminism Put Into Words :
Dalit literature is mostly about Dalit men, but sometimes it talks about
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64 challenge to the way Dalit men tend to treat their wom en as second -class
citizens. Urmila Pawar and Kumud Pawade also write their stories from
the point of view of strong women.
6.6 SUMMARY Kumud Pawade's autobiography, Antasphot, was first written in Marathi
in 1981. It is made up of stories that tell a stor y about herself and the
people around her. She talks about caste and her family's patriarchy, and
she speaks out against both caste and gender inequality. Thoughtful
Outburst is an English translation of Antasphot. Kumud Pawade is upset
by how oppressive I ndian society is that she has no choice but to criticize
it.
Some of the most important ideas are rituals, the power of men in the
family and society, and Dalit propaganda. Kumud grew up with other
children from the upper -caste Brahmin community in Nagpur, India. She
was hurt by the way her Brahmin friends treated her differently. In India,
caste is a social idea that can never be taken away from a person. Dr.
Ambedkar worked to get rid of caste, and he thought that marriages
between people from different c astes were one way to do this.
But author Gulabrao Patil has seen for herself how rigid caste can be. Dalit
autobiographies show the real lives of Dalits, which can only be
understood if you know about caste. Kumud is a symbol of how her Mahar
caste thinks . She talks about the differences between castes that she has
seen in her family and in the outside world. Kumud says she wants to
"grind up the high values of Buddhism and pour them down their throats".
True Buddhists are sad that most educated and well -off Dalits have chosen
not to follow Buddhism's simple path. Baby Kamble wrote about the same
pain in her work. Kumud: Caste fights still happen in rural villages where
Dalit women don't have access to basic things like toilets, bathrooms,
drinking water, a nd so on. She says the left needs to remember that society
is based on class, but also on varna and caste. After reservation, Dalits
were punished for going to school and making progress.
Kumud says educated young people don't know what it's like to grow u p
in India. She says they are being led away from the Phule -Ambedkar
vision by those who care about society. Kumud: "One can live in India or
outside of India, but caste remains". She wrote about how she learned to
speak Sanskrit, which was thought to be a godly language that a Dalit or
even a woman could never learn. The knowledge wrapped in a shroud of
mystery has been taken by someone who religion says is no better than a
lowly bug.
Kumud wanted to show that no matter what caste a person is in, they can
still be the best. For her, caste is always there, even when people try to put
it aside. Neo -Buddhists should go ahead and break the chains of caste
from their minds. Kumud Pawade is a writer who has written about the
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65 Kumud Pawade’s Thoughtful Outburst and Dalit Feminism the same husband in their next seven lives. Her family member was beaten
up by her husband and moved into a second wife's house.
Kumud says that this religious practice is unfair because it is only for
women. She is str ongly against the pull of patriarchy and doesn't want
men to be in charge. In Hindu society, there are many rituals and rites that
make women feel less important. Author Kumud Rege has written a book
called 'After All, We Are Women'. She talks about how Da lit women are
standing up for their rights.
She says patriarchy is popular in the Dalit community where men look
down on women because they are "women". Kumud's story is meant to
make people think because it's supposed to make sense. She was sure
Ambedkar had become a Buddhist because Buddhism is based on
rationality, tolerance and patience. Kumud wants to spread the idea that
the Dalit is a respectable person. Kumud: Dalit women should improve
their intellectual skills and write about how patriarchy is wro ng.
She had a similar experience at the Dalit movement convention, where
girls who are exploited and raped were not taken seriously. Kumud's
programme for Dalit and non -Dalit women is groundbreaking. Kumud
was able to reach the top by getting past all the problems and criticism he
faced. She tried hard to learn the Sanskrit language, but people told her not
to bother. India's social history shows that only Brahmins were allowed to
learn Sanskrit.
Kumud Pawade was a pioneer in the 1980s and 1990s when Dalit
feminism began to take shape. She shows that Dalit women have more
problems than high -caste women because they are Dalit. Her
autobiography is a search for ways to understand what it means to be a
Dalit woman. The autobiographies of Dalit women show a very different
side to the Dalit narrative. They are writing about gender and class issues
that haven't been talked about much before.
Their writings shed light on humanity under the influence of what is now
called "Ambedkarism". Dalit women's autobiographies are more realistic
because they question the bad things the Dalit community does. They tell
the truth about what happens in Dalit society because patriarchy is so
strict. Almost all Dalit autobiographies talk a lot about poverty, which is a
major theme of their writing. Dalit women's writings show that the Indian
social order is based on caste and that it is a harsh reality.
Almost all of the written testimonies by Dalit women talk about education
as a way to help their families. The autobiographies tell th eir readers to
follow the path of reason with Ambedkar as their guide.
6.7 QUESTIONS 1. Discuss Kumud Pawade's main points as they appeared in her
Antasphot write -up.
2. Discuss the central themes of Dalit autobiography and Dalit feminism. munotes.in

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66 3. Write an essay about the caste and gender equation using Antasphot
as an example.
6.8 REFERENCE  Pascal, Roy.1960. Design and Truth in Autobiography. London:
Routledge and K. Poul
 Devy G.N. 2006. The G.N. Devy Reader. Hyderabad: Orient
Longman
 Valmiki, Omprakash. 2003. Jooth an: A Dalit Life. Kolkota: Aamya
Publications.
 Rege, Sharmila. 2006. Writing Caste, Writing Gender: Reading Dalit
Women‟s Testimonies. New Delhi: Zubaan Publications
 Kumar, Raj. 2010. “Dalit Literature: A Perspective from Belowi”.
Dalit Assertion in Society: Literature and History. (eds.) Ahmed,
Imtiaz and Upadhyay S.B. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan
 Guru, Gopal. “Afterward”. Kamble, Baby. Prisons We Broke, (trans.)
Maya Pandit, 2009, New Delhi: Orient Blackswan
 Poitevin, Guy. “Dalit Autobiographical Narratives: Figures of
Subaltern Consciousness, Assertio n and Identity”
 Pawar, Urmila. Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman‟s Memoir
 Guru, Gopal. 2003. „Dalit Women Talk Differently‟. Gender and
Caste. (ed.), A. Rao. New Delhi: Women Unlimited
 Pawade, Kumud. 1981. Antasphot. Aurangabad: Anand Publication
 Dangle, Arjun. 1992 (ed.). Poisoned Bread: Translations from Modern
Marathi Dalit Literature. Hyderabad: Orient Longman
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67 7
QUEER PERSPECTIVES: JUDITH
BUTLER
Unit Structure
7.0 Objectives
7.1 Introduction
7.2 What Queer identity means?
7.3 Queer Theory
7.4 Judith Butler
7.5 Summary
7.6 Questions
7.7 References
7.0. OBJECTIVES  To understand queer perspectives within t he feminist discourse
 To familiarize students with the works of Judith Butler
7.1 INTRODUCTION Feminism is a very broad set of ideologies and movements that focuses on
defining and achieving social, economic, and political equality for women.
The term was coined in 1837 by a French philosopher named Charles
Fourier and has undergone a great deal of change since then. Many of us
are familiar with the term Queer feminism and for many of us it might be
a very new terminology/ideology that needs to be explored. As a beginner,
let us start with an understanding that feminism is varied and there are
different forms of feminism that men, women and others follow and these
varied forms of feminism may or may not have commonalities between
them.
Feminism as a movemen t emerged to challenge the invisibility of women
and other marginalized communities in the making of the global world but
in doing so the movement made the similar mistakes of being racist,
homophobic, transphobic and being imperialist. Queer feminism in t his
regard was at the far end of the margins and in a way excluded from the
mainstream feminist movement. In order to understand Queer feminism,
first we must understand what Queer is? The earliest recorded use of the
word ‘Queer’ as a form of homophobic a buse is said to be an 1894 letter
by John Sholto Douglas, the Marques of Queensberry. He was the father
of Alfred Douglas and famously accused Oscar Wilde of having an affair
with his son. Queer in to time became a derogatory term for same -sex sex
or for p eople with same sex attractions, particularly ‘effeminate’ or ‘camp’
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68 Queer is an identity which stands on the other side of the hetero identity.
Initially being queer meant being “strange" or "peculiar" states Wikipedia.
Queer was negatively used against those with same -sex desires or
relationships in the late 19th century. Around late 1980s, queer scholars
and activists started reclaiming their identity as separate from the gay
political identity to establish their own distinct community.
Simultan eously, Queer identities became essential for those who shunned
the traditional gender identities and were looking for a broader, less
conformist, and deliberately ambiguous alternative to the label LGBT that
is lesbian, Gay, Bi -sexual and Transgender popu lation.
Queer includes those who openly wear sexual identities like lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender and those who use indigenous terms like hijras,
kothis, panthis to describe themselves. In addition to this, there are
regional identities of sexual non-conformity, such as jogappa and jogtas
(Karnataka) and ganacharis (South India). Queer feminism is feminism
with a difference - a feminism that directly challenges the issues
mentioned above and does not rest on its laurels. They further believe that
the definition of feminism is very restrictive in nature as it focuses only on
the equality between men and women by excluding nonbinary genders and
ignores the serious problems created by patriarchy that harm people of any
gender and can be aggravated by p eople of any gender. Queer feminists’
stands in radical opposition to patriarchy, a system that encourages:
 Racism, imperialism, genocide and violence
 Strict rules about gender and sexuality that hurt male, female, both or
neither
 Blaming and shaming tran s people, queer people, sluts and anyone
who does not fit into a narrow and arbitrary body standard
 Rape culture
 A tendency to claim that democracy and liberal politics fixes all ills,
rather than addressing society’s problems.
Now queer feminism or Quee r feminists are mainly those who identify
themselves as a radical group in opposition to patriarchy. Not only this
they define feminism as an inclusion of queer people and goes beyond
LGBT and other gender/sexuality minorities. The term ‘queer’ is an
umbre lla term to include both who are closeted and who are public about
their non -heterosexual inclinations to those who prefer to label themselves
and the ones who choose to reject labeling or unable to choose a label and
name themselves’. Queer includes activ ism and protest through art,
literature, academic criticism and included too forge alliance with any
counter hegemonic project.

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69 Queer Perspectives: Judith Butler 7.2 WHAT QUEER IDENTITY MEANS? Queer identity invariably means:
 Acknowledging infinite identities outside dualistic categories
 Believing that everyone has the right to me themselves and express
without being judged or hated
 Being aware of the fact that our own identities and sexualities are
never static
 Recognizing alternate gender identities
 Being attracted to anyone, with no re gard to a person’s gender or sex,
could be attracted to more than one person at a time
 thinking about sex in different ways other than the heterosexual,
male -pleasure -oriented, meant -for-reproduction kind
 constantly questioning what’s considered “normal” a nd why that
norm gets privileged over other ways of being
 addressing and understanding the intersectionality between race,
gender, sexuality and class and how it affects each person’s
experience and identity differently
 searching for alternate ways of bein g and living
 looking for ways to be as inclusive as possible in order to create a
world where everyone feels safe and accepted
 Embracing a free and open -ended identity and defining ourselves
simply as human beings.
7.3 QUEER THEORY The purpose of Queer the ory, by its most common definition, is to
challenge heteronormativity and existing, already defined categories of
sexuality constantly. It speaks about the specificities and limits of
struggles, which are produced by these categories. Queer theory formed
the basis for Queer activism. The latter aimed, in parallel with the fight
against the firmly entrenched normativity, to identify power relations and
privileges in the lesbian and gay movement itself; Queer theoreticians
discussed the potential or apparent benefits of their demands and raised
issues that have historically been overlooked in the conduct of these
struggles.
The Queer theory posed the question; did lesbian and gay movement join
the ranks of the oppressive system, willingly or unwillingly? Shou ldn't the
primary demand still be undermining the existing patriarchal and
normative order? The Queer theory, like the feminist theory, speaks of
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70 gross directness for the observer. Quee r theory, over time, saw the need
for talking about failure and feelings.
Queer theorists spoke about depression and emotions, the essence of
happiness, hope. They emphasized on the cruel optimism, which
sometimes becomes a barrier for having imagined li fe. It became clear that
the feeling of constant danger that accompanied the Queer people defined
them and closed possibilities for them. There emerged the problem of
realization and reproduction based on the chasing success in Queer
movements as well, whi ch is an echo of the system and power relations in
which we all live.
Women, including queer women remain invisible in our history as if they
never existed. Similarly, feminism too kept away queer feminism for the
longest period of time as if they didn’t e xist. Like feminism, queer
feminism too has feminisms within and it is not necessary that they match
with each other. Likewise, queer theory too has multiple theories, several
of which contradict with each other. In fact, many queer theorists refused
to ta lk about any theory as they believed that it’s difficult to theorize
‘being queer’. Queer theory has been criticized for being inaccessible and
for containing difficult words.
Queer theory is a theoretical approach that goes beyond queer studies to
questio n the categories and assumptions on which current academic and
popular understandings are based. One of the main tenets of queer theory
is that their understanding of sex and sexuality, sexual identity and pretty
much everything about life is contextual - that is all their understanding is a
lived experience in different ways over time and across cultures. Queering
is the process of reversing and destabilizing heterosexuality as a norm.
Queer theory finds its roots in post structuralism and in deconstruction ism.
Queer theory is also closely tied to the multicultural theory in sociology
and is integral to the rise of postmodern social theory. Hence in order to
understand the rise and development of the queer theory, one need to refer
to the work of Foucault, D errida, Lacan and Butler who engaged in the
deep understanding and theorizing of queer theory. Michel Foucault is one
of the most important founders of queer theory and his main idea which he
discussed at length in ‘archaeology of knowledge (1966)’ and ‘ge nealogy
of power (1969)’ brings out the queer ethos in a major way as in line to the
queer theory, he is interested in understanding, exploring and analyzing
the action and not interested in defining the origin.
Foucault is important as his work in many w ays attended to the discussion
of sexuality and homosexuality in academia which remained absent in the
mainstream sociological discussion for a very long period of time. Queer
theory gained momentum due to the fact that it promised to be more
inclusive and vaster as against the ‘lesbian and the gay studies’ which in
many ways remained limited and confined to a few identities and not
include other.
You could consider queer theory a theory that takes into account all of the
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71 Queer Perspectives: Judith Butler be acknowledged as a legitimate alternative to traditional sexual identities.
Queer theory rejects the idea of sexuality as a stable concept and of
heterosexuality as a norm. This destabilization of sexual identity places
queer theory in the tradition of postmodern theories and
deconstructionism.
Judith Butler, one of the leading theorists in the fields of feminism and
queer theory, offers the idea that gender is constructed by society. In other
words, she believes t hat gender —the concept of a female identity or a
male identity —is formed by society rather than inherent to an individual.
What it means to be a woman or a man, in Butler’s view, depends on a
number of systemic and systematic features of larger society. Wh at we
get, then, are gender “norms” —the behaviors, practices, and other signals
that constitute what is normal for a given gender category.
According to Butler, even sexual practices are among these norms. Since
Butler does not see anything inherent in ge nder, she suggests that gender
is a kind of performance. “People perform their “womanness” or
“manness” through behavior, modes of dress, activities, and so forth.
Essentially, we act out our gender identity in the way that we might
perform a role in a pla y,” she says.
Let us explore further to understand the contribution by Judith Butler
within the overall discourse on Queer feminism in particular and feminism
in general.
Check Your Progress:
1. What is Queer theory?
7.4 JUDITH BUTLER Judith Pamela Butler, (born February 24, 1956, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.),
American academic whose theories of the performative nature of gender
and sex were influential within Francocentric philosophy, cultural theory,
queer theory, and some schools of philosophical feminism from the late
20th century.
Butler’s first book, Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth -
Century France (1987), a revised version of her doctoral dissertation, was
a discussion of the concept of desire as it figures in G.W.F. Hegel’s
Phenomenolog y of Spirit and its subsequent interpretations by various
20th-century French philosophers.
In her best -known work, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of
Identity (1990), and its sequel, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive
Limits of ‘Sex’ (1993) , Butler built upon the familiar cultural -theoretic
assumption that gender is socially constructed (the result of socialization,
broadly conceived) rather than innate and that conventional notions of
gender and sexuality serve to perpetuate the traditional domination of
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72 In Gender Trouble, Butler questioned the validity of much feminist
political theorizing by suggesting that the subject whose oppression those
theories attempt ed to explain —“women” —is an exclusionary construct
that “achieves stability and coherence only in the context of the
heterosexual matrix.” Her suspicion of the category led her to doubt the
wisdom of conventional political activism aimed at protecting wome n’s
rights and interests. She emphasized instead the subversive destabilization
of “women” and other categories through consciously deviant gendered
behaviour that would expose the artificiality of conventional gender roles
and the arbitrariness of traditi onal correspondences between gender, sex,
and sexuality.
Butler’s Gender Trouble was one of the founding texts of queer theory,
and her work continued to inform much debate within cultural theory,
especially in the United States, in the early 21st century. It also attracted
significant criticism, however, for both its substance and its style. Even
sympathetic readers of Butler’s work, for example, worried that her view
of the subject as performatively constituted left her without a coherent
account of indiv idual agency. Others complained that her conception of
politics as parody was impoverished and self -indulgent, amounting to a
kind of moral quietism. Perhaps the most widely voiced criticism
concerned her dense, jargon -laden prose and her nonlinear style o f
argument, both of which were viewed by some readers as rhetorical
devices serving to conceal a paucity of original ideas. Butler argued in her
defense that radical ideas are often best expressed in writing that
challenges conventional standards of lucidi ty, grammar, and “common
sense.”
Judith Butler, as part of third -wave feminism, applies Foucault’s ideas to
the categories of gender and sexual orientation, and asks: Are there really
masculine and feminine traits that come exclusively with the genes that
make us male and female? Is anything really “abnormal”? Isn’t every
behavior just a performance, meant to please someone or something?
When examined within this framework, gender seems to be about living
up to (or not living up to) a society’s expectations of what men and
women should do and should be. It was this realization, accompanied by
the fact that the broad swathes of the feminist movement have been
plagued by racism, homophobia, transphobia, imperialism, sex -negativity,
and similar ills that led to a whole new field of study called queer
feminism.
Check Your Progress:
1. What was Butler’s main contribution to feminist movement?



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73 Queer Perspectives: Judith Butler 7.5 SUMMARY Queer theory’s origin is hard to clearly define, since it came from multiple
critica l and cultural contexts, including feminism, post -structuralist theory,
radical movements of people of color, the gay and lesbian movements,
AIDS activism, many sexual subcultural practices such as sadomasochism,
and postcolonialism.
Although queer theory had its beginnings in the educational sphere, the
cultural events surrounding its origin also had a huge impact. Activist
groups pushed back in the 1980's against the lack of government
intervention after the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. Queer theory as an
academic tool came about in part from gender and sexuality studies that in
turn had their origins from lesbians and gay studies and feminist theory. It
is a much newer theory, in that it was established in the 1990s, and
contests many of the set ideas of the more established fields it comes from
by challenging the notion of defined and finite identity categories, as well
as the norms that create a binary of good versus bad sexualities.
Queer theorist’s contention is that there is no set normal, only ch anging
norms that people may or may not fit into, making queer theorists’ main
challenge to disrupt binaries in hopes that this will destroy difference as
well as inequality. One of the key concepts in queer theory is the idea of
“heteronormativity,” which pertains to “the institutions, structures of
understanding, and practical orientations that make heterosexuality seem
not only coherent —that is, organized as a sexuality —but also privileged.
Heteronormativity is a worldview that promotes heterosexuality as the
normal and/or preferred sexual orientation, and is reinforced in society
through the institutions of marriage, taxes, employment, and adoption
rights, among many others. Heteronormativity is a form of power and
control that applies pressure to both straight and gay individuals, through
institutional arrangements and accepted social norms.
Some of the core theorists in the development of queer theory include
Michael Foucault, Gayle Rubin, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Judith
Butler. Michael Foucault’s wo rk on sexuality said that it was a discursive
production rather than an essential part of a human, which came from his
larger idea of power not being repressive and negative as productive and
generative. In other words, power acts to make sexuality seem li ke a
hidden truth that must be dug out and be made specific. Foucault refuses
to accept that sexuality can be clearly defined, and instead focuses on the
expansive production of sexuality within governments of power and
knowledge.
The theorist most common ly identified with studying the prevailing
understandings of gender and sex is Judith Butler, who draws much from
Foucault’s ideas but with a focus on gender. She argues in her book,
Gender Trouble, that gender, like sexuality, is not an essential truth
obtained from one’s body but something that is acted out and portrayed as
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74 makes heterosexuality as the only proper outcome because of the coherent
binary created of “feminine” an d “masculine” and thus creating the only
logical outcome of either being a “male” or “female.”
In her later book, Undoing Gender, Butler makes it clear that
performativity is not the same as performance. She explains that gender
performativity is a repea ted process that ultimately creates the subject as a
subject. Butler’s work brings to light the creation of gender contesting the
rigidity of the hierarchical binaries that exist and is what makes her work
invaluable in queer theory.
7.6 QUESTIONS 1. What Queer identity means?
2. Elaborate on Queer theory.
3. Elaborate: ‘Gender Trouble’
4. Describe the relationship between Judith Butler and Queer theory.
7.7 REFERENCES  Berker, M. J (2016): Queer: a Graphic History Could Totally Change
the way you think ; Icon Books.
 Butler, J. (1999). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of
Identity. New York: Routledge.
 Butler, J. (1993). Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of
"Sex". New York: Routledge.
 Nair, R., & Butler, C. (Eds.). (2012). Intersectio nality, Sexuality and
Psychological Therapies: Working with Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual
Diversity. UK: Wiley.
 Walters, Suzanna Danuta. "Queer Theory." World History
Encyclopedia, Alfred J. Andrea, ABC -CLIO, 2011. Credo Reference.

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75 8
MASCULINITY STUDIES
Unit Structure
8.0 Objectives
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Meaning of Masculinity
8.3 Meaning of Masculinity Studies
8.4 Feminism and Masculinity Studies
8.5 Different Types of Masculinity
8.6 Masculinity as Social Construction
8.7 India n context and Masculinity Studies
8.7.1 Course regarding Masculinity
8.7.2 Case study of MAVA NGO
8.8 Global Masculinity
8.9 Conclusion
8.10 Questions
8.11 References
8.0 OBJECTIVES 1. To understand the meaning of Masculinity
2. To learn about the various dimensions of Masculinity studies.
8.1 INTRODUCTION In this chapter, we will learn about masculinity studies. In several
countries, male studies and masculinities studies are emerging as academic
disciplines. Some institutes have separate departm ents, such as
masculinity studies with a chairperson, funded by publicly funded donors
or institutions. In our country, it is still an emerging field; however, there
are several Non – Government organizations like MAVA – Men against
Violence and Abuse who are working in their own way to create
awareness and actions among people. This discipline is also an important
domain area to understand the population, composition of population
growth, discrimination towards women, psychology, men’s problems, etc.
In th e field of literature, too, there are authors like Murakami, a Japanese
writer who has published a book titled Men without Women, where he
writes aboutmen’s lives and how they face problems being a man too, like
loneliness, etc. Hence, this subject has muc h scope from a career
viewpoint and as a social issue too. Before understanding Masculinity
studies, let us look into the meaning of Masculinity.
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76 8.2 MEANING OF MASCULINITY Masculinity refers to a set of social behaviors and cultural representations
that describe individuals being with certain characteristics of a man. The
word ‘masculinities’ is also used to acknowledge the forms of being a man
and cultural representations. These forms are related to men which is also
varied throughout societies, and be tween various groups of men within the
same civilization, and both historically and culturally (MacInnes 1998: 1) .
Men’s actions, social roles, relationships, and the meanings ascribed to
them are also linked to “masculinity.” Unlike the meaning of male, which
emphasizes biological sex, masculinity emphasizes on gender. As a result,
research of masculinities is generally not always restricted to biological
men .
There are different explanations existing through which we can look into
understanding masculi nity, such as natural scientist’s view, masculinity in
relation to male, and view it even closely related to physiological
characteristics in men, such as hormones and chromosomes. Robert Bly
(1991) believes that modern society’s circumstances have harmed
masculinity. Masculinities may also be viewed as a sort of power
dynamic, both inside males and between men and women. Masculinities,
according to essentialism, emerge from the social circumstances in which
men live, such as their roles in various institut ions and organizations in
their society and even in the framework of socially available gender
discourses.
Most masculinities literature has unclear, ambiguous, and inconsistent
definitions of the concept.According to MacInnes (1998), the point that
differ entiates masculinities from one another is that they are diverse,
flexible, and hybrid. Many writers on masculinities, according to
MacInnes, also view masculinity as biological males than otherwise social
constructionist accounts. ‘Masculine’ bodies, beha vior, or attitudes, in
other words, can be seen as social practices of persons who are otherwise
classified as ‘women’ (see, for example, Francis 2010; Halberstam 1998;
Paechter 2006). Masculinity/ies continues to be a topic of heated
discussion even today . Connell reviewed and reconstructed the idea of
hegemonic masculinity in light of criticism (Connell and Messerschmidt
2005) and rebuilt it to account for the complexity of the gender hierarchy,
women’s agency, the interaction of local, regional, and glob al geography,
embodiment, privilege, and power, as well as an understanding of
hegemonic masculinity’s internal contradictions.Connell (2000a) also
emphasizes that masculinities is a concept that “identifies patterns of
gender practice, not merely grouping s of individuals”: Masculinities is a
term that “identifies gender practice patterns, not merely groupings.”
8.3 MEANING OF MASCULINITY STUDIES Masculinities Studies is an interdisciplinary field that studies males and
masculinity from a gender perspectiv e. It is an academic branch within
Women’s and Gender Studies, which was developed in the 1970s. munotes.in

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77 Masculinity Studies Masculinity Studies looks at what it means to be a man and how
masculinity shapes boys and men. When, for example, is masculinity
harmful because it restricts one’s ability to express a complete spectrum of
feelings and emotions? Why, for example, do many males live shorter
lives than women? What are the repercussions of male identity and
expression on a social, political, and historical level? Brod is largely
regarded as a pioneer in the field of masculinity research. Dr. Brod, an
author or editor of eight books, taught St. Norbert College’s first -ever
“Introduction to Masculinities” undergraduate course .
Any sensitive areas require a different set of methods t o study. Generally,
Social surveys, statistical analyses, ethnographies, interviews, memory
work, qualitative, discursive, deconstructive, textual, and visual analyses,
as well as mixed methodologies, have all been utilized often to study
masculinities. Re flixivity is also used often to document life stories of
individuals.
Masculinity Studies is also a critical and scholarly examination of
contemporary masculinities, theory and research. It also focuses on
conceptualizing and comprehending the area of mas culinities which could
impact upon future gender and men’s research. Intersectional theorizing in
partnership with feminist, queer, and sexuality studies is investigated
along with masculinities studies. Masculinities studies in addition also
examines iden tity, sex, sexuality, culture, aesthetics, technology, and other
crucial social issues. It is also a trans -disciplinary topic .
According to Kimmel, et al. 2005, masculinity studies as a field is
valuable for professionals in different fields of research like family,
education, for building theories, etc. Masculinities studies is a lively,
multidisciplinary area of research that is broadly concerned with the social
creation of “manhood.” Masculinities researchers also investigate the
social roles attached to masculinities and its different meanings.
Masculinities academics look at the different ways in which males are
privileged as a group, as well focusing on the drawbacks of those benefits.
They also look how not all men have equal access in the society.
Masculinity studies also consider the wide range of identities, behaviors,
and meanings associated with the term masculine rather than just
assuming that they are universal. Scholars of masculinity frequently use
the plural form to emphasize the wide rang e of meanings, roles, and
behaviours associated with the term. Despite the fact that gender is
typically perceived as a deeply personal aspect of our identity,
masculinities are formed and reproduced in the course of our everyday
interactions as well as wi thin broader societal structures.
Masculinity studies also include materials including an overview of
historical studies of masculinity, theories of masculinity, and gender
inequality. It also looks into the link between masculinity and sexuality,
and lite rature on various men’s movements and over views the function of
various social institutions (education, the family, the workplace, sport, and
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78 Check Your Progress :
1. Explain masculinity studies meaning in few lines.


2. Is masculinity a social construct – comment on this.


8.4 FEMINISM MASCULINITIES STUDIES Masculinity studies can be also viewed as a field of study which is
feminist -inspired, multidisciplinary discipline that arose as a topic of study
in the final few decades of the twentieth century. There are researchers
who point out that a great bulk of research on gender inequality focuses on
women and the ways in which they are structurally and systematically
disadvantaged by men. However, scholars of masculinity point out that
inequality has two sides: disadvantage and privilege. (oxford)
Studies of men and masculinities follow in the footsteps of feminist
studies of women and gender, aiming to uncover the social construction of
gender as well as the ways in which men contribute to gender and sexual
inequity. Men’s studies aim to emphasis both the collective benefits that
men as a group enjoy as well as the disadvantages that different groups of
men experience. However, there are different viewpoints too. McMahon
(1993) points out that a number of Men, Masculinities, feminism works
“selectively appropriates variants of feminism whose explanations of
gender relations de -emphasize fundamental themes of sexual politics” or
“fails to acknowledge feminist theory and practice.
8.5 DIFFERENT TYPES OF MASCULINITY Connell (1995, 2000a) saw social scientific study of masculinities as part
of a larger, relational view of gender. According to Connell, gender is the
outcome of ongoing interpretations and definitions of the reproductive and
sexual capacities of the human body. Masculinities (and femininities) are
thus the result of numerous interpretations and definitions: on bodies,
personalities, as well as a society’s culture and institutions.
According to Connell, masculinities rank higher than femininities in the
‘gender hierarchy’ typical of modern Western societies. He goes on to say
that hegemonic masculinity is at the summit of the gender hierarchy, the
culturally dominant ideal of masculinity gear ed on authority, physical
toughness and strength, heterosexuality, and paid work. The next level of
masculinity, according to Connell, is referred to as ‘complicit masculinity’
since it is an ideal of masculinity that few actual men live up to but from
which most men profit. This is followed by ‘subordinated masculinities,’
the most notable of which is gay masculinity. Subordinated masculinity munotes.in

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79 Masculinity Studies refers to a range of masculine behaviors that do not strictly adhere to the
macho ideals of hegemonic masculinity. The gender hierarchy places
femininities at the bottom. (Emphasised or ‘compliant’ femininity and
‘resistant’ femininity are all subjected to masculinity.) According to
Connell’s argument, socioeconomic events in the twentieth century (in the
industrialize d West) have destroyed gender hierarchy and the dominance
of hegemonic masculinity in society.
In this setting, masculinity politics have emerged: “those mobilizations
and conflicts where the definition of masculine gender, and with it, men’s
position in g ender relations, is contested” (1995: 205). Connell goes on to
outline the many types of masculinity politics that exist in Western
industrialized countries, like masculinity therapy (as promoted by Bly
(1991), homosexual liberation, and ‘exit politics,’ i n which heterosexual
males publicly reject hegemonic masculinity. Others have questioned the
term’s relevance due to writers like Connell theorizing several
masculinities.
In the context of modern masculinity shifts, one major topic of writing
about mascu linities is the concept of ‘hybrid’ masculinities. Hybrid
masculinity is defined by men’s selective assimilation of identification and
performance components associated with marginalized and oppressed
masculinities (including homosexual masculinities) and femininities,
according to Bridges and Pascoe (2014). In the view of Bridges and
Pascoe, hybrid masculinities are also narratives and performances that
symbolically separate males (particularly young, white, heterosexual men)
from hegemonic masculinity. Th ey also portray masculinities offered to
young, white, heterosexual men as less relevant than masculinities linked
with other marginalized and dispossessed ‘others.’ Hybrid masculinities,
according to Bridges and Pascoe (2014), strengthen existing social a nd
symbolic boundaries in ways that frequently aim to hide gendered power
and inequality structures in historical ways.
8.6 MASCULINITY AS SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION Masculinity scholars look at men and masculinity as social constructs.
Instead of concentrating on biological universals, social and behavioral
scientists study the many meanings of masculinity and femininity in
various circumstances. While biological “maleness” changes little, what is
considered “masculine” in terms of roles, actions, bodies, and id entities
do. Scholars can use this diversity to their advantage.
Making and creating are important concepts in studying male identities
because they hint at their historical and social character. If it were a
naturally endowed feature, the different discou rses of ‘correct’ masculine
behavior —in books, films, and ads, for example —would be unneeded.
The fact that masculinity has to be reinforced on a regular basis — “If you
purchase this motorbike, you’ll be a true man” —suggests the flimsy and
difficult charac ter of gender identities. It also highlights the opportunity of
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80
Masculinity and Honour :
The concept that ‘real men’ are directly accountable for maintaining a
moral order is another crucial trait displayed throu gh representations of
societal violence and integral to a culture of masculinity. When the order
is upset, the guardians must restore it. The girl deserved the terrible
punishment meted out openly and immediately by an older, wiser man in
the community bec ause she had broken the group’s honour. Some other
way is there to keep men as protectors of the social order cultural invaders
must understand their social roles.
8.7 INDIAN CONTEXT AND MASCULINITY STUDIES In the Indian context, the construction of mascul inity begins with the
family and even before the child is born. It is more of socialization that
operates within closed walls of family, media, which promotes Machoism
again as greatness. The model of manhood is also taught by parents, peers,
public and mu ltiple other ways. When a man stops behaving in the
expected way, he is seen as feminine and again discriminated.
The problems faced by men are also not restricted to behavioral but also
financial in nature. For example – A man is expected to have a stabl e
career, look after his parents, have a home, etc. Men who are under
financial hardship are more likely to have committed violence in the last
year or ever. This might be due to masculine norms that encourage the
idea that males are the major economic pro viders for their families. As a
result, economic hardship might jeopardize men’s faith in themselves.
They may become more dominating and aggressive towards their spouses
as a result of their own powers. Let us look both from academic view
point Masculinit y studies and also from that of field viewpoint –
8.7.1 Course regarding Masculinity :
School of Human Studies Ambedkar University Delhi offers a course on
Masculinity for Masters's Students specializing in Gender Studies.
• Masculinity and History: Pre-Colonial, Colonial, and Post -Colonial
Settings.
- Indian Masculinities Prior to Colonialism
- Masculinities in the Colonial Era: Indian Men’s Formation
- The Nation and Its Men: Post -Colonial Masculinities
• Learning to be a Man :
- Members of the family
- Education munotes.in

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81 Masculinity Studies - Spirituality
- Employment
- Social class
• Masculinity and Sexuality :
- Sexuality, Men, and Women
- Masculinity, Homosexuality, and Heterosexuality
• Masculinities, ‘Honour,’ and violence :
- Maintaining Masculinity vs. Losing Masculinity
- Masculinity and War
• Masculinities, Beauty, Physicality, and Fitness :
- Sculpting the Male Body
- Masculinity in the Arts
8.7.2 Case Study of MAVA :
MAVA has been engaging and mentoring thousands of young men in
schools, colleges, and communities in healt hy conversations about sexual
health and gender -sensitive behaviour for the past 27 years. The methods
used are unconventional methods such as interactive workshops, wall
newspapers, story -telling, folk songs, street -theatre, travelling film
festivals, you th blogs, and other social media. MAVA began through a
newspaper as an inspiration from an Indian express Article that discussed
about issues faced by men.
Mava views men’s dominance over women has come at a cost: the
inability to laugh and cry freely, to befriend one’s children and spouse, to
be vulnerable, and to share rather than sit alone in one’s throne. In
addition to supporting women’s empowerment and creating a gender -just
society, men must recognize that eliminating or avoiding gender -based
violen ce against women will make their lives more humane, and their
collaboration with women will improve their quality of life.
Mava views males as socially conditioned to be domineering and
aggressive rather than being genetically designed to be such. There is
numerous other rising men’s organizations throughout the world,
demonstrating that males can grow into sensitive human beings who can
help prevent and eradicate gender -based discrimination and violence
against women. In the last 13 years, MAVA has train ed 700+ youth
mentors working in nine Maharashtra districts have reached out to over
4,00,000 young men and adolescent boys through strategic collaborations
with local colleges, universities, women’s groups, and grassroots
community -based organizations, an d individual health activists. These munotes.in

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Sociology of Gender
82 young people are spreading the word that woman should be respected and
treated with respect.
In an informal way there are several groups out in social media like
Facebook, where men approach one another for free or char ged legal
counseling against the crimes they have witnessed, which is practiced due
to the misuse of laws by women. The percentage is also large which
cannot be ignored. Hence, more encouragement in research is needed too.
So, people reach out to NGOs and guide each other through social
networking sites.
8.8 GLOBAL MASCULINITY Masculinity cannot be restricted locally but globally. In Nationalism,
Masculinity is used largely for military purposes. The image, power
relations, division of labor, and emotiona l ties linked with evolving global
patterns of hegemonic masculinity are used by nations attempting to build
and preserve national unity, loyalty, and strength, particularly military
might.
Scholars of masculinity come from various areas, demonstrating the
various levels of masculine diversity. To begin with, what constitutes
masculinity has evolved over time, as has what is deemed manly. Second,
masculinity is culturally specific —different cultures have different
conceptions of masculinity. Finally, mascul inity alters intra -psychically,
which implies that what it means to be a man changes through time.
Finally, masculinity varies depending on the context —even within the
same culture and historical period, different people may interpret
masculinity different ly.
Simply put, not all American, Nigerian, Chinese, or Australian men are
the same. To put it another way, “being a man” means quite different
things to a middle -aged homosexual Latino man in San Francisco than it
does to a college -aged white heterosexual youngster in Maine. Because
masculinity is so different, we can’t talk about “it” as if it were a timeless
essence shared by all men. Instead, we should talk about “masculinities,”
because masculinity means different things to different individuals in
different countries and periods. The white masculinity is different from
that of White male experiences or with a black migrant. Hence,
documenting masculinity -based literature becomes very important.
Check Your Progress :
1. List out the different types of m asculinity .



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83 Masculinity Studies 2. Write the name of Non -Governmental Organization which works on
issues related to Men in India.


8.9 CONCLUSION In this chapter, we began with learning about the meaning of Masculinity.
Masculinity refers to a set of social behaviors and cultural representations
that describe individuals being with certain characteristics of a man. The
word ‘masculinities’ is also used to acknowledge the forms of being a man
and cultural representations. The se forms related to men is also varied
throughout societies, between various groups of men within the same
civilization, and both historically and culturally. We also saw the
emergence of masculinities studies as a discipline and the main areas with
it dea ls. Masculinities Studies is an interdisciplinary field that studies
males and masculinity from a gender perspective. It is an academic branch
within Women’s and Gender Studies, which was developed in the 1970s.
Masculinity Studies looks at what it means t o be a man and how
masculinity shapes boys and men. When, for example, is masculinity
harmful because it restricts one’s ability to express a complete spectrum of
feelings and emotions? Why, for example, do many males live shorter
lives than women? What ar e the repercussions of male identity and
expression on a social, political, and historical level? Brod is largely
regarded as a pioneer in the field of masculinity research.
Different methods are used in masculinities studies like survey,
reflexivity, etc. We also saw how with time, from the twentieth century,
scholarship shifted away from biological determinism theories and toward
a better understanding of masculinities as social constructs that exist not
just as personality traits but as practices that ar e adopted by individuals
and embedded in organisations, institutions, and global systems. We also
saw the different types of masculinities like hegemonic, hybrid
masculinity, etc. Scholars in the twenty -first century investigate a wide
range of “masculinit ies.” Increasingly men are becoming conscious of
masculinity as everything they do and perform instead of something they
are, as well as the systemic disparities created by unequal gendered power
relations in masculinity practice . We need a humanistic appr oach to
understand the problems of men and figure out ways to rebuild the
conditioning especially in societies like ours.
8.10 QUESTIONS 1. Discuss meaning of Masculinity
2. Explain meaning of Masculinity Studies
3. Write a Case study on MAVA NGO
4. Explain in brief Masculinity as a construct in the society
5. Discuss the different types of masculinity. munotes.in

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84 8.11 REFERENCES  MacInnes, J. (1998) The End of Masculinity, Buckingham: Open
University Press. (2011). Masculinity. obo in Sociology. doi:
10.1093/ob o/9780199756384 -0033
 https://www.snc.edu/cvc/programs/2016 -17/harrybrod2016/
 Hearn, J. (2013). Methods and methodologies in critical studies on
men and masculinities. In Men, masculinities and methodologies (pp.
26-38). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
 https:// www.routledge.com/Routledge -International -Handbook -of-
Masculinity -Studies/Gottzen -Mellstrom -
Shefer/p/book/9781032176345
 Waling, A. (2019). Rethinking masculinity studies: Feminism,
masculinity, and poststructural accounts of agency and emotional
reflexivit y. The journal of men’s studies, 27(1), 89 -107.
 Pilcher, J., & Whelehan, I. (2016). Key concepts in gender studies.
Sage.
 Priya, N., Abhishek, G., Ravi, V., Aarushi, K., Nizamuddin, K.,
Dhanashri, B., ... & Sanjay, K. (2014). Study on masculinity, intimate
partner violence and son preference in India. New Delhi, International
Center for Research on Women.graphy, embodiment, privilege, and
power, as well as understanding of hegemonic masculinity's internal
contradictions.
 http://www.mavaindia.org/about.html
 "Masculinity Studies." International Encyclopedia of the Social
Sciences. . Retrieved June 10, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social -sciences/applied -and-social -
sciences -magazines/masculinity -studies

*****
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85 MODULE IV
9
CHILD MARRIAGE, WIDOWHOOD, SATI,
EDUCATION, POLITICAL RIGHTS
Unit Structure
9.0 Objectives
9.1 Introduction : Colonial encounter and women’s question
9.2 Reform in the status of women as a civilizing mission
9.3 Family and community; the last bastion of banished freedom
9.4 Child marriage
9.5 Widowhood
9.6 Sati
9.7 Education
9.8 Women and Education
9.9 Women and Political rights
9.10 Conclusion
9.11 Reference
9.0 OBJECTIVES  To introduce the learners with the evils against women
 To understand various reforms brought about to fight those evils
 To analyse the role of women in politics
9.1 INTRODUCTION: COLONIAL ENCOUNTER AND WOMEN’S QUESTION From very early period “women’s question” featured prominently in the
colonial discourse on India. Wester nization, enlightenment and modernity
were equated with progress. In this discourse the Indian fared badly as
they did not treat their women well. Therefore, the women became the
target of reformist agenda in the first half of 19th century as modern
Indian intellectual try to respond to western critic. Thus, female infanticide
was banned, sati was abolished and widow remarriage was legalized. But
it is well known that the actual social impact of these reforms was limited.
In pre -colonial India, as Romila Th aper has argued, the status of women
varied widely. The absence of freedom was more problem of the high cast
women following a Brahmanical gender code, than the lower cast women
and untouchables whom the very existential compulsion and demand for
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86 It is important to study the sanskritization behavior of the upwardly
mobile cast, who had started accepting the behavioral norms of the cast
system which was compulsory mandatory for moving up in its ran king
scale. Thus, middle ranking peasant and trading cast, who owned property
were forced to follow the rules of marriage inheritance and succession
prescribed by the Brahmins. The Brahminical code of marriage and
patriarchy had a distinct impact on the st atus of their women who had
previously enjoyed more freedom and autonomy.
To put it in a different way, as owners of property, they now felt
compelled to have legal “heirs’ and hence felt the compulsion to control
female sexuality and reproductive power an d maintain her patriarchal
family structure, which previously were the concerns mainly of the
property -owning Brahmins and the upper cast. Thus, there was now an
increased tendency on the part of the middle peasant and trading cast and
Dalit group to repro duce Brahmanical gender codes within their
communities.
In Hindu society the caste hierarchy is connected with the ideology of
patriarchy and maintenance of ritual purity. The composite substance of
“Jali” was transmitted to the progeny through reproducti on: through
semen and uterine blood. And here the role of women became crucial as
they had a burden of maintaining patriarchal line. It was there for essential
to control female sexuality and reproductive agency.
As women were considered responsible for b odily purity of caste, pre -
pubertal marriages were prescribed and ban on inter -cast marriage was
emphasized.
9.2 REFORM IN THE STATUS OF WOMEN AS A CIVILIZING MISSION In 19th century as the “women’s question” became a part of the discourse
of progress, the re was a movement for female education, representing a
search for a new model of womanhood as imagined by the educated
colonial males. The educated middle -class males dreamt of educated
gentle women as ideal companion for marriage. This new model of Indian
womanhood, being a fine blend of the self, sacrificing Hindu wife and the
Victorian help mate, further domesticated women as good wives and
better mothers. Uneducated women were regarded as impediment to
progress or modernization or bad for the family, ch ildren, community and
nation. “Wrongly educated” or “overeducated” and more precisely
Westernized independent women were considered to be threats to the
cherished moral order of a modernized Hindu patriarchy.
An important agenda of social reform was the st reamlining of marriage
rules and the family structure, thus establishing strict control over female
sexuality and reproductive power following the orthodox norms of Hindu
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87 Child Marriage, Widowhood, Sati, Education, Political Rights 9.3 FAMILY AND COMMUNITY; THE LAST BASTION OF BANISHED FREEDOM In the symbol ic world of Hindu society, the moral codes that structured
the position of women varied in each stratum of the hierarchy, but almost
in every situation the burden of maintaining the “honor” of the community
and family rested on women and this acted to thei r disadvantages.
It is well argued that women in this stratum of society began to lose their
autonomy as their communities. Many began to experience social mobility
and felt pressured to reinvent their identity within the norms of the
Brahmanical cultured.
9.4 CHILD MARRAIGE The literary and autobiographical evidence of the pre -colonial period
suggests that the child marriage was the universal norms in higher caste
Brahmin families, where girls were married off by the age of 10 or 11 in
the late 19th centur y as Ramakrishna Mukherji’s study shows that 63% of
caste Hindus and 31% of schedule caste of Bengal practices child
marriage as preferred form of wedding arrangement for their daughters.
The age of consent Bill of 1891, which proposed raising the age of
marriage to 12 for girls evoke passionate resistance in Bengal. However,
the 1991 census showed that educated upper castes were slowly
abandoning it whereas the socially mobile lower castes had increasingly
begun to adopt it at the turn of the century.
How ever, in second decade of 20th century child marriage began to
decline as the popular form of marriage. But this decline was not so much
because of any sympathy for the helpless child brides. It was due to
another significant change -the replacement of brid e’s price with dowry.
Among the higher caste, the practice of dowry was prevalent from Vedic
age the gift of the virgin and the gift of dowry were the two inseparable
parts of their marriage rituals.
The economy of this marriage custom was related to the c ompulsion of the
child marriage unmarried daughter remaining in the parental family
beyond the prescribed age was considered inauspicious and brought
infamy to the male line. The father of an unmarried girl would therefore
stake everything to get an approp riate for the respectable lineage. This
obviously increased the demand for dowry and marriage alliances were
always negotiated within the context of status and power in addition to
ritual purity of the families involved. By the 19th century the respectable
and well to do members of the peasant and trading caste also began to
imitate their betters.
As the Hindu nationalists’ opposition to the age of consent bill of 1891
gradually subsided the custom of child marriage began to lose its
emotional sensitivity. There was a growing but less visible campaign to
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88 demographic decline of Hindus. The subarnabankis passed a resolution
condemning the practice at their annual conference held at Calcutta in
1927. The Namasudras began to speak about the evils of this practice and
in their annual conference in Jessore in 1908 they resolved that any
Namashudra marrying his son under 20 or daughter under 10 will be
excommunicated.
9.5 WIDOWHOOD The widow remarriag e gaining the focus of rationalist – modernist –
reformist project is an issue which has been commented upon by a number
of historians today.
The widow remarriage Act of 1856 legalized widow remarriage, in the
sense that children born of such marriage woul d inherit ancestral property.
But the legalization could not make widow remarriage socially acceptable.
Widow Remarriage remain exceptional among educated even today, as it
was in 19th and the early 20th century. There was a practical defeat of this
reform movement, Despite its greater acceptance among the educated and
enlightened masses.
In Bengal widow remarriage was strictly forbidden among the upper caste
and the most middle ranking caste. It was allowed among the lower cast,
but they too appear to have shared values of their social superiors. The
couples following widow remarriage occupied lower place referred to as
Krishna – Paksha (dark fort night after full moon), which those married in
the regular way were described as Sukla Paksha (bright fort nigh t after
new moon) the widow involved in the first proposed case of widow
remarriage was later let down by her husband and was declared “out
caste” by the society. Even the observers who participated in widow
remarriage were “completely out casted” by the B adralok in Calcutta.
The spiritual values of Indian society legitimize the notion of ascetic
widowhood as model of spiritual remuneration and socialized women to
accept the noble idea of self -denial and sacrifice.
Prasannomoyee Debi in her reminiscences of household life in her family
(1901) described the condition of the widows in the following glowing
language of abortion:
The widow wore the marks of white (the colour of sacrifice) sandal paste
on their forehead, with their disciplined life, wearing white garments, with
thin bodies, emancipated by the performance of sacred rights, they were
the true renouncer (Brahmacharini), looking like the beautiful goddess
Mahasweta (another name of Sar aswati, the goddess of learning, who also
dresses in white),full of compassion, bearing the burden of widowhood
with a smiling face, they dedicated their lives to the nurturing of the sick
and caring for everyone in the household.
Such aesthitication of the image of ascetic widowhood in the early 20th
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89 Child Marriage, Widowhood, Sati, Education, Political Rights such a model. This model was also propagated as nationalist semiotic
model by Gandhiji as the most authentic symbol of essence of Hinduism.
The battle over widow remarriage had become a fight for symbol a nd
authencity for traditional elites against rationalist modernity. Widow
Remarriage would mean violation of a part of Hindu Shastras, which most
of the religious minded people would not be courageous enough to risk.
Even while Vidyasagar was criticizing t he unreasonableness of the people,
he too seems to be convinced with hierarchical ethos of traditional Hindu
society throughout the reform movement. The notion of patriarchic control
over women in Hindu society was also accepted and internalized by him.
His reform phrases clearly revealed his concern for maintaining
patriarchic control over female sexuality and family discipline.
The increasing social tendency towards adultery and feticide was
attributed to the in satiable sexual appetite of widowed women. Unable to
lead a life of self -denial, they were considered to be indulging in illicit sex
and thus put to shame all the three lineages of their husband, father and
mother. So, it was considered necessary to regulate and direct this
unrestrained and wayward female sexuality into a socially legitimate
channel that of marriage and for this it was essential to remove the
prohibition on widow remarriage.
The reform in other words, was meant to ensure social discipline and
patriarchic control over women’s bodies and desires.
Another important point to mention about this reform movement is the
marginality of women in the whole process. While Vidyasagar had started
movement out of his compassion for young widows, what followed was a
battle for a cultural symbol. The plight of widows had become subsidiary
issue and in the scriptural polemics, women did not even figure as objects.
They had not yet emerged as a conscious subject of history, trying to
assert their own rights.
None of the champions of widow remarriage eve r thought of mobilizing
women’s opinion in favour of the reform. Individual or independent
voices of women, either in support of the reform or against it, have
remained unrecorded, confirming only their marginality in this crucial
social debate.
9.6 SATI Since 19th century the practice of sati had begun to grow in popularity in
Bengal it witnessed the revised of Brahmanism after Buddhist hegemony.
It was also given textual sanction, in spite of the fact that there was no
consensus about it. In 16th C it w as not prescribed as ideal even for
Brahman widows.
Its growing popularity can be dated only from the late 18th century. Some
of the upwardly mobile shudra families began to adopt it in order to
legitimize their social status. According to one estimate, 45 percent of the munotes.in

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90 widows burnt in Bengal in 1815 -16 came from the lower range of caste
hierarchy. Between 1851 -1927, more than 42% of sati was in families
belonging to other caste than the three traditional higher caste of the
region. The adoption of this pr actice was connected to the process of
social mobility in association with affluence status with reasonable income
or literal category was involve in this practice.
The statistics, despite some possibility of a margin of error, show the
connection between the popularity of sati and contradiction of a colonial
modernity.
The reformist campaign resulted in abolition of sati in 1829. It
strengthened Hindu theological construction of widowhood. Widow
remained a site rather than a subject of this debate. Rammoha n made a
reformist argument that ascetic widowhood rather than sati enjoyed the
textual sanction. It made the task of Vidyasagar for widow remarriage
very difficult.
If one break into the semiotics of lower caste marriage reforms, it is clear
that these we re attempts on the part of upwardly mobile lower caste mates
to take control of their private space and regulate the sexuality, fertility
and labour of their women, who were now projected, following the norms
of Hindus patriarchy, as the symbol of honour o f their respective families
and caste.
Although social mobility was one positive impact of the introduction of
colonial modernity in India, it also generated the contradictory tendency of
universalizing the ethos of Brahmanical patriarchy across Hindu soci ety.
9.7 EDUCATION The most contentious issue in the realism of gender reforms was female
education. Education became a privileged in the 19th century as the
women's question became a part of discourse of social progress. Important
personalities and instit utions like Radhakanta Beb, Ishwar Chandra
Vidyasagar, Keshub Chandra Sen , the school book society and Brahmo
Samaj became involved in this campaign of 20th century.
The peasant caste like Mahishyas through their journal began to urge
literate women to educate their female neighbors and thus to spread
literacy among the womenfolk of their community. This example was
followed by another peasant’s caste as well.
The female education remained a hotly contested terrain of social reforms
on one hand it became a compulsion for educated elite to respond to
reformist discourse of progress on the other hand it was considered as a
potential threat to the harmony of the family and the peace of the
households expected to train women to become Sahadharmini in the true
sense of the term to become a helpful companion. These dilemmas and
anxiety of a revivalist nationalists’ discourse of the late 19th century
resonated against the lower caste literature in the early 20th century. munotes.in

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91 Child Marriage, Widowhood, Sati, Education, Political Rights It is interesting to note that nowhere in the news the name of the woman
who actually passed the exam was mentioned instead the family and
community were credited for their extraordinary achievement. Her identity
remains located in her family and could be indicated sufficient through the
names of her husband and father. However, the discourse of the
community could not conceal male anxiety over community could not
conceal male anxiety over female insubordination within the family and
provoke lot of resistance. Some ethical and moral training was p referred
for women against higher education with the fear that they would start
protesting against the males. But off late with breeze of higher education
many had developed a sense of liberation.
The resistance to higher education took biological argument as a last resort
to connect it with the pleasure of conjugality. They argued that men and
women are differently constituted and therefore demanded for a new
curriculum to be devised. In simple words, education seems to be affecting
the sexuality, emotions and biological functions of women. Thus, the
reformist had to seek a fine balance between female education, gender
roles and the demand of conjugality.
What is being neglected here is the image of liberated women. There were
strong voices against higher education for women. Female education was
supposed to be confined to domestic science along with rudimentary
knowledge in art and literature so that they can have some intelligent
conversation with their husband. Knowledge of literature wou ld help them
comprehend the epics, books and local history. Little mathematics would
help them to maintain the day -to –day family account and elementary
lessons in hygiene would help I nursing their ailing children and other
members of the family.
Majority of the educated peasant and trading castes dreaded their over
educated women and favored only that kind of female and the community.
It was very well argued in a mission statement of Mahishya Mahila that it
was women who made or ruined the family Therefor e for their proper
education it would present article dealing with female dharma Shastriya
ethics, historical anecdotes, biographies to great men, and some useful
recipes. It published short stories and featured article with specific focus
of proper femini ne behavior chastity and devotion to husband.
9.8 WOMEN AND EDUCATION Since the reform of social evils was linked to the issue of preserving and
strengthening basic family structure and creating good wives and mothers
the question that frequently lose was that of female education a policy
support by both progressive and orthodox reforms. Many liberal reformers
complain in favour of female education like Vidyasagar who established
40 girls’ schools in B engal between 1855 and 1858. Jyotiba Phule in the
1850s set up school for girls in Pune and 2 school for untouchables.
conservatives also joined the campaign for female education in the 19th
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92 through education however the concept of educatio n was limited to
producing good home makers and perpetuating orthodox ideology christen
missionaries were keen to use education for proselytizing girls school
were started by missionaries and British residents especially in Bengal . In
1820 the first girl s school was founded by Davia Hare in Calcutta
professor pattern founded a girls school in b ‘boy 1848 in 1851 , Bethune
started Bethune girls school in Calcutta which later become the 14
women’s college many Indian reform groups like Arya samaj and Brah ma
Samaj non education institution for women and Indian women such as
Pandita Ramabai and Ramabai Ranade were involved in project for female
education
By 1870 women had begun to white literacy work in English and also
translate works from other European l anguages in the 1880’ s, Indian
women also started to graduate from university, the just being 2 students
of Bethune school, who completed their studies at Calcutta university in
1883 . By 1901, there were 256 women in colleges and by 1921 about
905. In 19 16 the Banaras Hindu University was founded with an affiliated
women college.
Although some women benefitted from access to schools and universities
education for women was mainly confined to the needs of the bourgeoisie
and petty bourgeoisie the policies of promoting women education and the
types of education provided were not intended to promote women’s
emancipation or independence, but to reinforce patriarchy and the class
system. The plea that education would only improve women’s efficiency a
wives and mothers left its indelible mark on the educational policy.
However, education enabled some women to break into avenues of
employment that had previously been denied to them. Many women were
trained as teachers, nurses and midwives Corelia Sorabjee, a pars i, was the
first Indian women to graduate in law at oxford in 1882 and only by 1923
women were allowed to practice law. Analalisai Joshi was among the
early women doctors and there were other Kadambini Ganguli (Bengal’s
1st women doctor) Annis Jagannathan and Rukmabai to name a few.
These women had to battle against the full weight of conservatism against
the full weight of conservatism.
9.9 WOMEN AND POLITICAL RIGHTS It was in the political struggles against imperialism that Indian women
began to particip ate. The expansion of women education and their
admission to universities had produced a number of English educated
middle class women by late 19th century and they made their presence felt
in political activities. Bengali writer Swarna kumara Devi was amo ng the
earliest pioneers of reform and political agitation. In 1882, she started the
Ladies theosophical society, for women of all religions. In 1886, she
began a women association which was concerned with promoting local
handicrafts made by women. Women continued to participate in congress
politics in the 1890,s including activists like Pandita Ramabai and women
professionals such as Dr . K. Ganguly .In the early 20th century, women
became more involved in politics with the increase in nationalist activiti es, munotes.in

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93 Child Marriage, Widowhood, Sati, Education, Political Rights and women joined the agitations, organized Swadeshi meeting, and
boycotted foreign theosophist movement. Many foreign theosophists also
participated in the nationalist and women’s movement, the foremost being
Annie Besant. She came to India in 1893 and was active in the
theosophical movement and in education. She not only formed the Home
rule league in India but also become the first women president of the
Indian national congress in 1917. Other theosophists who were concerned
about Indian women’s statu s include, Margret Noble, who arrived in India
in 1895 and under the influence of Swami Vivekananda took the name of
sister Nivedita and worked in Bengal. Her work in education, cultural
activities and agitation for Swaraj was characterized by revolutionar y zeal.
The congress leader saw the advantages of mobilizing women and always
urged them to join the nationalist struggle as equals. Gandhi’s basic ideas
on women’s right were equality in some spheres and opportunities for
self-development and self -realiza tion. He realized that her subordinate
position was the result of domination by man.
Gandhi was very conscious of the power that women could have in
snuggle based on the concept of non -co-operation. He stresses the
importance of their participation in poli tical and social matters and urged
them to join nationalist movement. he claimed that women had great
ability to adore suffering and could therefore play an important part in the
movement. He claimed that the principle non-violence and political non -
violen t. It was suggested that being used to form of passive resistance in
their daily lives, they could effectively participate in socially organized
passive resistance and non -co-operation moreover, Indian women
themselves were soon to take up the Gandhian ide ology and advocate
Satyagraha as a form of struggle particularly suitable for women.
Despite intentions of reform the status of women, most of the men still
saw a women’s role basically as that of a housewife within a conservative
family structure. Women a ctivists become subsumed in the political
struggle. However, the real issues that concerned them as women were
regarded by the men as of secondary importance. The agitation of the
early social reformers about the social evils that affected. women in the
family were supplanted by nationalist issues, resulting in the neglect of
women unequal social and economic position. The few women’s issues
that were taken up were those that interested the middle -class organization
such as right to vote. The effort of Saro jini Naidu, Margaret Cousins bore
fruit and women were give the right to vote. Women were also through
their struggle given the right to enter the legislature. Dr S. Muthulakshmi
Reddi become the first women legislative councilor social legislation such
as the Devdasi bill, banning temple prostitution of young girls, met with
opposition and was unsuccessful. In the mass movement of the 1920’s and
1930’s women’s participation was much in evidence in certain acts such
as the Khadi campaigns , in the picketi ng of shops selling foreign good
and in the salt march of 1930 , as well as in the general political
demonstrations and mass agitation which resulted in the call by congress
for civil disobedience . Women all over the country joined the struggle for
independence and many thousands were jailed. Sarojini Naidu during her munotes.in

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94 years of political activity campaigned for women right, including
franchise, education and divorce. more radical then Sarojini Naidu was her
sister in law, Kamaladevi Chattopadhya whose life reflected the many
strands of activities and participation, she was also involved in the
women’s movement. Women during the 1920’s were also active in the
Indian communist Party.
9.10 CONCLUSION The study of the participation of women in the political struggles of Indian
in the 19th century and in movement for the improvement of the status for
women provides historical understanding of some of the problems faced
by women’s movement in the 3rd world. The most revealing aspect has
been the essential conse rvatism of what appears to be like radical change.
While highlighting and legally abolishing the worst acts like sati,
emphasizing female education and mobilizing women for Satyagraha, the
movement gave the illusion of change while women were kept within t he
structural confines of the family and society. Women in the nationalist
struggle did not use the occasion to raise issues that affected them as
women. While Indian women participated in all stages of the movement
for national independence, they did so i n a way acceptable and dictated by
men. never the less, the participation and involvement in political
activities show that Indian Women have a prominent part in ant -
imperialistic, anti-capitalist and democratic movements of protest over a
long time.
9.11 REFERENCES  Basu Aparna, Bharati. 1990. Women’s Struggle - A history of All
India Women’s conference 1927 - 1990. New Delhi: Manohar
Publications
 Bandyopadhya, Shekhar. 2004. Caste, culture and hegemony: Social
dominance in colonial Bengal. Sage publicatio ns: New Delhi
 Kumar Radha. The History of doing: An illust rated account of
movements for women’s rights and feminism in India. 1800 -1990.
New Delhi: Kali for women
*****

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95 10
EMERGENCE OF THE AUTONOMOUS
WOMEN’S MOVEMENT: CAMPAIGNS
AGAINST DOWRY, RAPE AND WOMEN'S
RIGHT TO HEALTH
Unit Structure
10.0 Objectives
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Background – Women’s Movements in India
10.3 Women’s Movements in India – Post-independence
10.4 Autonomous Movements – Dowry, Rape and Women’s Right to
Health
10.5 Summary
10.6 Questions
10.7 References
10.0 OBJECTIVES  To understand autonomous women’s movements in India
 To know its background, challenges and roadmap ahead
10.1 INTROD UCTION Sociologists and philosophers have discussed and defined the term
autonomy in different ways. In general, it signifies the ability to make
one’s own decisions and choose one’s own course of action. Conversely,
paternalism implies a lack of respect for a subject’s autonomy, as it
involves interference with a person’s actions or beliefs against that
person’s will. Although paternalism might be advanced as promoting a
person’s good, it hurts that individual’s autonomy. It is quite common for
women in I ndia to encounter this issue. According to so -called Indian
culture, women are to be taken care of by their men.
The ancient Indian Manu -smrti (Laws of Manu) says that the father
protects a woman in her childhood, the husband in her youth, and the son
in her old -age. The Sanskrit text has been interpreted in such a way as to
indirectly deny the autonomy of the female, saying that she does not have
to do anything since everything is taken care of by the men in her family.
This is frequently quoted throughou t India as a proof -text for controlling a
female by categorizing her as just a ‘family -woman’, an example of how
cultural and religious concepts have long denied the autonomy of Indian
women. Unlike in the West, the numerous religions and castes in India
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96 on various levels. It has been a constant subject of feminist discussions
and has been addressed by autonomous women’s groups. But the
autonomy of women’s groups themselves is a matter of concern.
Women’s movements have demonstrated autonomy in their practice,
according to Gail Omvedt (2004), who finds the Indian women’s
movement made up of groups representing all ideologies. Organizations
connected with various communist parties, social or ganizations, and
independent groups have reacted to dowry deaths, rape, and issues of
personal law. However, the question of autonomy had led women to ask:
‘Should we have a separate women’s organization?’. The answer was
‘yes’, although with many reservat ions. It was clarified by certain
individuals familiar with Western feminist theory and activism. Many
socially concerned women thought it mandatory to have women’s groups
to respond to the violence against women.
When the autonomous Indian women’s movemen t was formed in the
1970s, its main agenda was to protest against such violence. In most cases,
political parties and religious authorities hesitated to take action against
people accused of rape or violence towards women, and female leaders
allied with th em seldom raised their voices in protest. Autonomous
women’s groups organized women who would speak out in the name of
justice without fearing reprisal. They had to expose the male domination
within the party and outside in society to show what it meant to be a
progressive. Most feminists eventually abandoned the Left political parties
to form their own women’s groups for autonomy and impartial social
interventions on behalf of women’s welfare.
10.2 BACKGROUND – WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS IN INDIA In the first wave of the feminist movement, women’s organizations were
able to draw both on the benefits of modernity (from colonial rulers and
male Indian reformers) and from the idiom of “Indianness” constructed in
the nationalist discourse. Both the colonial rulers and nationalist reformers
were enthused by the ‘ideals’ of modernity – to uproot the social evil of
sati, sanction widow remarriage, prohibit child marriage, diminish
illiteracy, standardize the age of consent to marriage and guarantee
property rights through legal interventions. The involvement of women in
the reform movements demanding their civil and political rights, largely
under the leadership of the nationalists, produced a ‘unique blend of
feminism and nationalism’.
Throughout the country, a few women a ssociations were also established.
Under the leadership of Keshab Chandra Sen (Brahmo Samaj) in Kolkata,
Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar, Madhav Govind Ranade and R.G.
Bhandarkar in Pune and Mahipatram Rupram Nilkanth and his associates
in Ahmedabad organizati ons were formed to demand prohibition of child
marriage, widow remarriage and women’s education. By the end of the
nineteenth century a group of women, from the reformed elite families,
come to establish a number of women’s organizations. munotes.in

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97 Emergence of the Autonomous Women’s Movement: Campaigns Against Dowry, Rape and Women's Right to Health Swarnakumari Devi , the daughter of Devendranath Tagore, institutes the
Ladies Society (1882 Kolkata) for empowering the deprived women.
Ramabai Saraswati establishes the Arya Mahila Samaj (also in 1882) in
Pune and Sharda Sadan in Bombay. Sarala Debi Chaudhurani (daughter of
Swarnakumari Devi), the archetype of the first phase of women’s
movement in India – being critical of the women’s meetings held in
conjunction with the National Social Conference – calls attention to the
necessity of a distinct association for the women . In 1910 she establishes
Bharat Stree Mahamandal and developed its branches in Lahore, Karachi,
Allahabad, Delhi, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Bankura, Hazaribagh,
Midnapur and Calcutta to unify women from all race, creed, class and
party on the grounds o f moral and material progress.
The first phase of women’s movement in India, during the inter -war years
of 1917 and 1945, successfully addresses two significant issues: i) voting
rights (1917 -1926), and ii) reform of personal law (1927 -29). Edwin
Montague , the Secretary of State for India, proclaims (in 1917) the British
government’s intention to include more Indians in the governing process.
The All -India Women’s Conference was set up in 1927 at the initiative of
Margaret Cousins to attend the issue of wo men’s education. It was soon
comprehended that the issue of education remains tagged to the general
social problems including purdah, child marriage, and other social
customs. AIWC thus conducted a campaign to rise the age of marriage.
This resulted in the passing of the Sarda Act in 1929. AIWC also began to
campaign for the reformation of the personal law. Facing resistance to a
common civil law, it called for the reform of Hindu laws forbidding
polygamy, offering women the right to divorce and to inherit property.
Check Your Progress :
1. Describe women’s movements in pre -independent India.


10.3 WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS IN INDIA – POST -INDEPENDENCE The post -independence women’s movement in India —which saw its
heyday in the late 1970s to early 1980s —is said to have come of age.8 Its
sustained and self -identified ‘feminist’ activism has borne fruit in a
number of areas of which the most recent law reform (in 2013) post the
Delhi gang rape evokes earlier modes of holding the state accountabl e
when it comes to violence against women.
The cause of women remained a national concern in the post independent
India. The principle of gender equality adopted in the Fundamental Rights
Resolution of 1931, was later secured as a constitutional measure
guaranteeing “Equality between the sexes” (Articles 14 and 16). Various
administrative bodies were also set up for the creation of opportunities for
women. The question remains: who were these women the government of munotes.in

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98 India were aiming at? Now, there had been a subtle shift of attention of the
nationalist elites: from the upper - and middle -class women in the early
19th century – to the women at large in the Gandhian politics –
culminating in marking the poor woman as the icon of independent India.
Women’s Role in a Planned Economy (WRPE) happened to be the first
Plan on women, by the National Planning Committee (NPC) 1938.
All the way through women’ movement continued in fragments till the
culmination of the new women’s liberation movement in the late
seventies . This has its roots in the late sixties’ radicalization of the student,
farmer, trade union and Dalit politics. Since the early seventies, quite a
few movements on the radical left (Naxalbari movement in West Bengal,
Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Punj ab) and the socialist fronts had
interesting implications for women’s movement including the growth of
the various women’s organizations.
In 1973 -74 the Maoist women established the Progressive Organization of
Women, instigating a feminist critique of the radical leftist politics. On the
other corner of the country, the Chipko movement, initiated in 1973 and
joined by women in 1974, laid a milestone for the women’s movement in
India. The Chipko (embrace the tree) movement, a non -violent
environmental protes t against commercial logging in the Himalayas, holds
a deeper meaning for the eco -feminists. It is considered as the first
political -environmental movement led by the women representing their
‘deep connection’ with nature (shaped by their gendered role of
nurturing).
The United Nations organised the World Conference on Women in
Mexico (1975) and acknowledged 1975 –1985 as the International Decade
of the Woman. As a part of the ‘World Plan of Action’ the National
Committee on the Status of Women was set up in India to look at the
‘status of women’ in the country. The Committee published and presented
the Towards Equality Report (1974) in the parliament. The report,
prepared by the scholars with an interdisciplinary outlook, exposed the
abysmal state of women i n contemporary India manifested in: the
declining sex ratio, the increasing rate of female mortality and morbidity,
economic marginalization of women and the evils of discriminatory
personal laws. It made several recommendations vindicating the role of
the government in achieving ‘gender equality’ in the demographic legal,
economic, educational, political, and media spheres (through the:
eradication of dowry, polygamy, bigamy, child marriage - provisions for
crèches, better working conditions, equal pay for equal work - legal
reforms on divorce, maintenance, inheritance, adoption, guardianship,
maternity benefits - establishment of the Uniform Civil Code -
universalization of education and so on).
But the report did not comment on violence against women in t he civil
society and by the custodians of law and order (Patel 1985). However, it
got a remarkable response from the state and media. Research bodies like
the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) came up with
financial support for women relate d research. Yet even after a quarter munotes.in

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99 Emergence of the Autonomous Women’s Movement: Campaigns Against Dowry, Rape and Women's Right to Health century, as per the report of the National Commission for Women entitled
Towards Equality: The Unfinished Agenda, the Status of Women in India
2001, much of these recommendations remain unfulfilled. The publication
of the Towards Equality Report (1974) and The Convention on the
Abolition of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979 CEDAW)
offered the moral and rational basis of a new wave of autonomous
women’s movement manifested both in the activist and the academ ic
spheres.
Contrary to the formal structural mandate of the affiliated organizations –
the autonomous groups, representing women across classes -castes -
communities, were coupled together through ‘informal networking’ and a
rising ‘feminist press’. Their mo de of communication and commitment
had a leftist charge. Oriented towards pan -Indian protests, throughout the
1970 -80s, the autonomous groups primarily addressed: violence against
women and the overtly patriarchal nature of the society. They addressed
the questions of sexual oppression and violence against women in the
form of dowry killings/deaths, bride burning, rape, sati, honour killing and
so on. It is interesting to note that, in the 1980s, almost all campaigns
against violence on women resulted in pr o-women legislations. The
second phase of women’s movement is significant for its ‘real’
achievements both in the form of consciousness raising and legal
enactments.
Check Your Progress:
2. How did post -independent India work towards the women’s
movements?


10.4 AUTONOMOUS MOVEMENTS – DOWRY, RAPE AND WOMEN’S RIGHT TO HEALTH: The country wide anti -rape movement was inflicted by the Supreme Court
judgment acquitting two policemen accused of raping a minor tribal girl,
Mathura, despite the fact that the High Court had indicted them. Four
eminent lawyers addressed an open letter to the Chief Justice of India
protesting the unjust decision. This flared -up a series of country -wide
demonstrations by the autonomous women’s organizations like Nari
Niryatana Pratirodh Mancha (Kolkata), Progressive Organization of
Women (Hyderabad), Forum Against Oppression of Women (Mumbai),
Stree Sangharsh, Samata and Saheli (Delhi), Stree Shakti Sangathana
(Hyderabad), Vimochana (Banglore).
Several other rap e cases became parts of this campaign where redefining
‘consent’ in a rape trial was one of the key issues. After long discussions
with women’s groups, the rape law was amended in 1983 by the
government of India. The late 1970s saw the growth of a movement
against dowry and the violence against women in the marital home. POW, munotes.in

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Sociology of Gender
100 Stree Sangharsh, Mahila Dakshita Samiti, Dahej Virodhi Chetna Mandal
organized public protests against dowry deaths which received wide media
coverage. In the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, the definition of ‘dowry’
was too narrow and vague. Continued movement of the women’s
organizations succeeded in getting the dowry law amended in 1984 and
then again in 1986.
Madhushree Dutta, a women’s movement activist was assaulted by few
men, la te in the night, in a railway station. Without supporting her, the
police labelled her as a ‘prostitute’ soliciting in a public place. This was
followed by a series of demonstrations against the Suppression of Immoral
Traffic in Women and Girls (SIT) Act, 1956 which penalizes the victim on
the grounds of her immoral nature. Eventually the act was amended and
given a new name: The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1988.
The 1971 Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act provided women
the right to safe, sci entific and legal abortions. However, this right got
associated to female foeticide. Campaigns against this resulted in a central
legislation banning pre -natal sex selection techniques facilitating female
foeticide. While addressing the problems pertaining to marriage, divorce,
maintenance, alimony, property rights, custody and guardianship rights,
the misogynist nature of the existing personal and customary laws came
into open. All personal laws help persisting patriarchy, patriliny and
patrilocality. This culminated to a nation -wide, still on -going, debate on
the Uniform Civil Code.
On the other hand, a long thirty years of movement demanding Protection
of Women from Domestic Violence resulted in an Act in 2005. Continued
protests against female foeticide resulted in the Pre-Conception and Pre -
Natal Diagnostic Technique Act (2002). The Public Interest Litigations to
address sexual harassment at work place registered by the NGOs resulted
to the 1997 Supreme Court directives for the Prevention of Sexual
Haras sment at Workplace. The Vishakha guideline, as it was popularly
known, later took the shape of a law: The Sexual Harassment of Women at
Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013.
Violence against women, ranging from the visible to the invi sible – from
battery to sexual atrocities like molestation and rape, dowry tortures and
murders, trafficking and female infanticide – continues to be perpetrated
by families, communities and the state. Abortion of female foetuses is still
rampant in spite of a law banning it. Violence against women and girls
within the family, both parental and marital continues, as does sexual
harassment at the workplace. Community -based honour killings are still
common, and caste and communal power struggles take recourse to
chilling forms of sexual violence against women. Aggressive masculinity
leading to rape and murder of women, including minors and adolescents,
are other heinous examples.
The National Conference of Autonomous Women’s Movements
represents a wide partici pation of various women’s organisations
belonging to diverse streams ranging from radical to pure feminist groups, munotes.in

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101 Emergence of the Autonomous Women’s Movement: Campaigns Against Dowry, Rape and Women's Right to Health urban women’s groups as well as rural women’s organisations, feminist
intellectuals and women writers etc. The overwhelming majority of these
women’s groups are NGOs or NGO -backed. Some of these organisations
have done exemplary work in many specific areas concerning the
women’s movement. The National Conference has, over a decade and a
half, succeeded in giving some sort of national character to the grassroot
women’s groups.
The first national -level conference of autonomous women’s groups took
place in Bombay in 1980, in the context of the then anti -rape campaign.
The autonomous groups were defined as, “those who had created their
own space as distinct from women’s wings of established political parties,
state supported women’s groups as well as mixed organisations of men
and women”. According to a note circulated by the National Coordinating
Committee — a body that prepares for the national co nferences — on the
eve of the Fifth National Conference held at Tirupathi, the First
Conference was attended by around 200 women from around 38
organisations. The focus of the conference was rape and other forms of
atrocities on women though various other issues related to the women’s
movement were also taken up.
Besides women -specific issues like rape, domestic violence etc., the
autonomous women’s movement was also addressing issues like
environmental degradation, housing and development policies. Despite the
aversion for politics, the focus on issues like communalism and state
violence was objectively forcing the movement to articulate its response to
the events in mainstream politics.
Check Your Progress:
3. How have women’s movements dealt with the issu e of rape?


10.5 SUMMARY The genesis of the new women’s liberation movement lay in the
radicalization of Indian politics in the late sixties. The rebellious mood of
the youth, poor peasants, marginal farmers, educated Dalit and tri bal men
and women, industrial working classes found its expression in the
formation of innumerable special interest groups addressing themselves to
the needs and demands of the local masses. Macro political processes were
also finding major shifts in their rhetoric as the protest movements of the
subaltern masses had taken militant paths guided by different political
ideologies. The official communist parties faced major political challenge
in the form of the Naxalbari movement in Kerala, West Bengal, Andhr a
Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab.
Parallel to the practices of exclusion and violence against women, India
evokes an animated history of movements and protest. Women’s
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Sociology of Gender
102 manifold forms: writing, pu blic march, non -cooperation, prolonged
political and legal battles, hugging trees, excessive salting of meals,
singing songs of celebration or remembering injustices. They defy the
ostensibly resolute structures and norms concerning women’s work,
education , sexuality, family roles, and motherhood.
Multiple contexts and issues, across caste -class, region -language -sexual
orientation, have raised multiple and contending voices. The gradual
weakening of the supposed unity, which used to be the hallmark of the
first and to some extent the second phase of women’s movement in India,
is not always a matter of apprehension. The fading of the purported
solidarity could be considered as a mark of increasing consciousness at
multiple levels. For a nuanced politics of w omen’s movement internal
differences are often constitutive.
Many autonomous groups have done pioneering work in all these areas
and have made impressive advances in mobilising women to fight on all
these issues. It must be admitted that we are still laggi ng behind in these
areas. We also started late on such issues. Though there can be no two
opinions on the need for women’s organisations, whether autonomous or
radical, to take vigorous initiatives on all these issues, there is a difference
over priority a nd emphasis.
10.6 QUESTIONS • Compare pre -independent and post -independent women’s
movements.
• Elaborate on laws pertaining to dowry w.r.t. autonomous women’s
movements in India.
• How are women’s movements in India different from its counterpart
globally ?
10.7 REFERENCES • Desai, N., & Studies, S. N. D. T. W. s. U. R. C. f. W. s. (1988). A
Decade of Women's Movement in India: Collection of Papers
Presented at a Seminar Organized by Research Centre for Women's
Studies, S.N.D.T. University, Bombay: Himala ya Publishing House.
• Kumar, R. (2014). The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of
Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism in India, 1800 -1990:
Zubaan.
• Ramaswamy, B. (2013). Women's Movement in India: Isha Books.
• Roy, S. (2015). The Indian Wome n’s Movement: Within and Beyond
NGOization. Journal of South Asian Development, 10(1), 96 –:117.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0973174114567368 munotes.in

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103 Emergence of the Autonomous Women’s Movement: Campaigns Against Dowry, Rape and Women's Right to Health • Ray, P. S. R., & Ray, R. (1999). Fields of Protest: Women's
Movements in India: University of Minnesota Press.
• Calm an, L. J. (2019). Toward Empowerment: Women And
Movement Politics In India: Taylor & Francis.
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104 11
CURRENT DEBATES: SEXUAL
VIOLENCE AND RIGHTS IN MARRIAGE
AND DIVORCE
Unit Structure
11.0 Objectives
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Marital Rape
11.3 History of Marital Rape in India
11.4 The Model for Criminalization of Marital Rape
11.5 Ground of Divorce
11.6 Summary
11.7 Questions
11.8 References
11.0 OBJECTIVES  To familiarize students with important current debates within the
feminist discourse
 To know more about the rights of women pertaining to marriage and
divorce
11.1 INTRODUCTION Many contend tha t the logical solution to woman abuse in
marriage/cohabitation is for women to exit through legal separation,
divorce, or other means. However, a growing body of empirical work
shows that separation or divorce does not necessarily solve the problem of
woma n abuse. For example, in addition to experiencing lethal or nonlethal
forms of physical violence and psychological abuse, many women who try
to leave, or who have left their male partners, are sexually assaulted. Much
of the existing research on intimate m ale violence against women has
focused on the prevalence of and response to abuse that occurs within an
ongoing intimate relationship. Little attention has been paid to the abuse
that occurs after women have ended relationships.
In what is actually an und erstatement, Renzetti, Edleson and Bergen
(2001, p. 1) remind us in the Sourcebook on Violence Against Women,
‘‘In only about three decades, research and writing about violence against
women has mushroomed.’’ Even leading experts in the field argue that
‘‘keeping up’’ with the rapidly growing body of social scientific
knowledge on the many intentional male -perpetrated harms women endure
in intimate heterosexual relationships is an overwhelming and constantly munotes.in

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105 Current Debates: Sexual Violence and Rights in Marriage and Divorce ongoing task. This is because scores of social sc ientists have not only
produced rich data on the extent, distribution, correlates, and outcomes of
a broad range of highly injurious male -to-female assaults in a variety of
relationships and social settings, but they have also constructed and tested
many c ompeting theories.
Consider those who want to end, are planning to end, trying to end, in the
process of ending, or who have ended a relationship with a
marital/cohabiting partner. Only a few North American studies have
focused on women who are trying to l eave or who have left ‘‘the house of
horrors’’ (Sev’er, 2002), and all of them show that separation/divorce can
result in homicide or major violence -inflicted injuries. Clearly, the women
victimized in these ongoing relationships ‘‘do not represent the ent ire
spectrum of abused women’’.
Based on the small amount of literature summarized here and elsewhere
(e.g., Hardesty, 2002), we can conclude, then, that the risks of nonlethal
violence and intimate femicide are highest when women seek freedom
from their a busive spouses or other men they have been living with in an
intimate relationship. Nevertheless, abuse, regardless of whether women
are in ongoing relationships, are trying to end them, or have ended them, is
‘‘multidimensional in nature’’.
Specifically, in addition to experiencing lethal or nonlethal forms of
physical violence and psychological abuse, many women who try to leave
or who have left their partners are sexually assaulted. For example, Fleury
et al. (2000) found that of the 49 women in their s ample who were
assaulted by an ex -partner, 20% were raped. There are, of course, other
types of sexual assaults that many other women may have suffered.
However, we do not know for sure because social scientists have devoted
very little attention to separa tion/divorce sexual assault. Thus, a major
research gap needs to be filled.
11.2 MARITAL RAPE Rape is the gravest kind of sexual violence against an individual - an
extreme manifestation occurring in the continues sequence of sexual
violence which nullifie s the human rights of an individual completely.
According to section 375 of the Indian penal code, rape is defined as, “A
man is said to commit “rape” who, except in the case hereinafter excepted,
has sexual intercourse with a woman without her will and co nsent.” It is
said that Rape stems from sexist value and beliefs and it is not any
normalized issue that is affecting individual women. Whereas it is a social
as well as a political issue directly connected to imbalance of power
between men and women.
Marital rape is a rape committed when the evil doer is the victim’s spouse.
Where the definition of the rape remains the same, which means that the
essential ingredient to prove the crime of rape is to prove lack of consent.
Where the burden of prove is o n the victim. In some instances, consent it
is assumed that consent does not exist, i.e., minor’s consent. On other munotes.in

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106 Sociology of Gender
106 hand, in some cases consent does to even matter, and are assumed to exist,
i.e., married women / wife. In such instances, the idea of mar ital ra pe
becomes antithetical.
At present , 150 countries have criminalized the offence of marital rape and
there are only 36 countries left, which include India. It is astonishing that
countries recognize rape as a crime and prescribes penalty for the same ,
they exempt the cases when a martial relationship exists between the
victim and the evil doer. The exception is named as “marital rape
exception clause”. There are four main justifications given for not
criminalizing the offence of marital rape. With the passa ge of time and
advancement in the gender equality, first two have been almost eliminated.
First justification - wife understood as subservient of the husband. Thus, it
is said that there is no scope of rape in marriage since husband is assumed
to be m aster of his wife.
Second justification - a married women does not have any individual
identity. An identity of a married women combines with her husband i.e.,
‘the unities theory’ which means after marriage the identity women
mergers with that of her husba nd.
Third justification - “the implied consent” theory i.e., after marriage it is
widely assumed that when a man and women enter into marital contract,
the consent to sex preexist. Marriage is considered to be a civil contract
and consent to sexual activiti es is thought to be the defining element of
this contract.
Fourth justification - the most recent and vague, that criminal law must not
interfere in the marital relationship, since martial issues are once personal
problem and must be dealt in private sphere .
Chec k Your Progress:
1. What is marital rape?


11.3 HISTORY OF MARITAL RAPE IN INDIA Section 375 of IPC has a wider scope of rape which includes both sexual
intercourse and other sexual penetration such as oral, anal of the women.
However, in the exception of the same section excludes the application of
rape crime in case of husband and wife. The exception to the crime can be
due to an irrefutable presumption of a consent established in the relation of
victim and the evil doer. Or it can be that legi slature dec ides to excludes
the married couple form the section giving the holiness of the relation
believed by the society. This is probable since according to §376B where
spouses are exempted from this exception, i.e., when the husband and wife
are on ju dicial sepa ration. munotes.in

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107 Current Debates: Sexual Violence and Rights in Marriage and Divorce On analysis of these two sections (§375 & §376B) it can be assumed that
legislature beliefs that husband and wife living together is an ingredient
that denotes the consent for sexual intercourse.
The first report to deal with th e rape is sue was 42nd Law Commission
Report. Many amendments to the law ha ve been witness ed following this
report, the report is limited to understanding the prism through which the
law commission views marital rape. In this report , two suggestions were
made, first, in c ase of judi cial separation the exception clause must not be
applied. The reason given for this was unclear, which was “in such a case,
the marriage technically subsists, and if the husband has sexual intercourse
with her against her will or her consent, he cannot be charged with the
offence of rape. This does not appear to be right” this statement is seemed
to be vague since it does not give a reason why is exception not right.
The second suggestion was related to non -consensual sexual inter course
between girl aged b etween twelve and fifteen. Where the suggestion was
to separate this crime form the crime of rape, because at that time there
was different punishment for rape when wife was of age between twelve
and fifteen. The suggestion failed to classify ma rital rape as rape, but at
best as a lower form of sexual minor wrongdoing. Although the report
tried to highlight the presumption of consent in case of husband and wife,
and difference between marital rape and rape, where the former is vied to
be less ser ious. But f ails to indemnify whether to retain or delete the
exception clause 2.
The Law Commission directly dealt with the issue of validity of exception
clause 2 in 172nd report the commission argued that if all other forms of
violence by the husband to wife are cri minalized then why is this solely
left in the shadow. Upon this argument the commission completely
rejected the proposal. And stated that it will be unnecessary too much
interference in the personal life of individual and shelter s the light on
relation bet ween martial rape and the holiness of marriage.
One of the commissions recommend the criminalization of marital rape.
The law commission former under justice J.S. Verma, due to the wide
spread of heinous crime of sexual assault a gainst women. T he report
presented by the committe e suggested some amendments, one was the
criminalization of marital rape, by deleting the exception 2 under §375 of
IPC and by clearly stating that any relation being husband wife or any
such relation could not be used as a defense f or the offence of rape, or
determining whether it was consensual or nonconsensual. The report also
stated that how this immunity has been withdrawn in many jurisdictions,
and that now days marriages are no long treated as a contr act where wife
becomes part of husband of servant of husband, but is a relation between
two equals and individuals.
Flowing this amendment Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2012 was
drafted. As per bill, the word “rape” was edited to “sexual assault” so that
the scope of crim e can be inc reased but still the bill missed out on
criminalization of marital rape. Which means that the amendment bill munotes.in

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108 Sociology of Gender
108 2012 was not made keeping in consideration the suggestions made justice
J.S. Verma committee. In the 167th standing comm ittee report (t he
parliamen t standing committee on home affairs) reviewed the amendment
bill 2012 and setup public consultations. Once again , the same suggestion
was delivered, deleting on exception clause. But the committee straight
forward denied but sta ting two reasons , one that i t will be disturb the
entire family system and will just be unnecessary delivery of more
injustice in the system, second was that families are self -versed to deal
with such issues and in case of legal remedy, criminal law alread y has the
concep t of cruelty under §498A IPC.
In 2015 when a private member bill was present in the house to
criminalize the martial rape, the denial was made on the bases that, one the
“marriage is treated as sacrament” second, “the matter is already unde r
consideration by law commi ssion and no decision will be taken before the
report is out”.
Check Your Progress:
2. How has been marital rape perceived in India?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.4 THE MODEL FOR CRIMINALIZATION OF MARITAL RAPE The J.S. Verma Report is the landmark report in the history of debate o n
marital rape. As discussed above, the committee gave some suggestions to
criminalize marital rape. The committee asked for the removal of the
exemption clause, it asked to specifically mention that it is not a defense,
that there would not be a presumpti on of consent and lastly, that the
quantum of punishment is the same. But the 42nd Law commission
responded by stating that marital rape is to be put under separate section,
moreover not to be called as “marital rape’ and also have different
punishment.
1. Marriage relationship: not a walkout: Merely omission of exc eption
clause in §375 IPC is not sufficient to ensure the crime of marital rape
is covered. Because, this will lead to too must judicial interpretation
thus increase in judicial cases and discreti on. A separate definition must
be established and if excepti ons laid, should be clearly stated to reduce
the scope of too much interpretation.
2. Presumption of consent: As stated by J.S. Verma , consent is not
something to be presumed in the case of marital r ape. But practically
judiciary will no -doubted look into som e threshold of force to
understand consent in such cases. There are three ways to treat consent
while criminalizing marital rape. One, assume consent and leave
burden of proof on victi m; second, a ssume no consent and leave burden
of proof on evil doer to e stablish consent. Third, the most important munotes.in

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109 Current Debates: Sexual Violence and Rights in Marriage and Divorce draw a particular system to trace consent in special cases like marital
rape using Indian evidence act. The above -mentioned ways have its
own backdrops, since a sexual act is committed in a private sphere/
inside four walls. And producing evident to prove consent/ no -consent
will be difficult for both the parties.
As per the law currently , usage of force is not essential to prove consent in
cases of marital rape . Moreover, as stated in Uday v. State of Karnataka,
consent is understood on the basis of circumstantial evidence. Keeping
into consideration the nature of crime, producing evidence will be
extremely difficult and a minor gap of interpretation will can als o lead to
false rape charges to take revenge and ca n also lead to more crime against
women since evidence production is hard, men will feel safe from any
kind of eviction.
3. Problems in case of marital rape range from psychological , social,
physical and so on.
4. Existence of sexual intercourse i s not ev ident to prove marital rape.
Since it is assumed that married couple will engage in sexual
intercourse. Thus, differentiating marital rape form the normal rape
case.
5. The presence of evidence of sexual intercourse along with signs of
physical inj ury, or other form of cruelty can be considered as sign of
marital rape.
Check Your Progress:
3. Explain J. S. Verma’s report on marital rape.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------
11.5 GROUND OF DIVORCE There are primarily two marriage acts in India the Hindu marriage act
1955 and special ma rriage act 1 954, but there are some legislative acts to
govern the marriages in minorit y groups namely Muslim marriage act,
1939; Parsi marriage and divorce act,1862; Indian Christian marriage act,
1872. But grounds of divorce are same across all the acts, i.e., cruel ty,
male being impotent at the time of marriage, no maintenance given for
two year s, adultery, change in religion, failed to maintain restitution of
conjugal right for two year s, etc.
From all the decrees given by the act for divorce, it is clear that any ki ng
of cruelty, assault, not able to perform martial functions like sexual
intercourse, distancing for more than 2 year or not taking care of the
partner which means that state has penetrated the “privacy sphere” or
“marital sphere” and granting cruelty as a ground give the scope of
validity for marital rape as a ground of divor ce. As stated about rape is a
heinous crime against an individual which includes - assault, violence, munotes.in

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110 Sociology of Gender
110 morality deterioration. Further keeping in mind, the punishment for ra pe,
seven ye ars is the minimum punishment given to the convicted person
thus separati on of husband from wife for more than 4 years, also if the
husband is punished with 7 years if imprisonment it is a decree of divorce
under §2 clause iii of the dissolutio n of Muslim marriage act, 1939.
Check Your Progress:
4. What are the grounds for divo rce in India?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------
11.6 SUMMARY For the better part of the last century, the concept of marital rape has bee n
missing in narratives of most nations. Some commentators in India try to
pin the blame for the lack of marital rape law in India on the usual “India n
regressive culture”, however most nations criminalized Martial Rape only
after the UN’s “Declaration on the Eliminat ion of Violence Against
Women” in 1993.
India, having borrowed heavily form British Era laws, of course, also
inherits the flaws; one of t hem being the case of Marital Rape law. Section
375 of the IPC deals with rape and it criminalizes the act, but it make s an
“exception”. The exception says “Sexua l intercourse by a man with his
own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is no t rape.”
Many argue that such issues related to married couples are covered in the
“Protection of Women fro m Domestic V iolence Act 2005” and thus there
is no need for a special law to cover marital rapes or to delete that
exception part in the IPC section 375.
The Domestic Violence Act can be argued to cover the offense of marital
rape because “sexual abuse” is defined as one of the act s or conducts that
constitutes “domestic violence”.
However, there are two problems with this act, due to which it is
consi dered inadequate to deal with cases of marital rapes:
1. While the term “sexual abuse” is mentioned, the ac t doesn’t ex plicitly
define “rape” as is defined in the section 375 of the IPC.
2. The Domestic Violence act has been deemed as a “civil law” by th e
courts and thus the accused can get away without any jail term.
Therefore, there is certainly a void where husbands wh o rape their wives
can get away with it without any jail term.
11.7 QUESTIONS • How is sexual violence against women majorly understood in India? munotes.in

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111 Current Debates: Sexual Violence and Rights in Marriage and Divorce • What is the current legal situation with marital rape in India?
• What are the rights of women during divo rce in India?
11.8 REFERENCES • Bachar, K., & Koss, M.P. (2001). From prevalence to prevention:
Closing the gap between what we know ab outrape and what we do.
In: C.M. Renzetti, J.L. Edleson, & R.K. Bergen (Eds.), Sourcebook on
violence agains twomen ( pp. 117 – 142). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Bergen, R.K. (1996). Wife rape: Understanding the response of
survivors and service providers. T housand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Bograd, M. (1988). Feminist perspectives on wife abuse: An
introduction. In K. Yll o, & M. Bogr ad (Eds.), Feminist perspectives
on wife abuse ( pp. 11 – 26). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
• Campbell, J.C. (1989). Women’s response to sexu al abuse in intimate
relationships. Health Care for Women International, 10, 335 – 346.
• Campbell, J.C., & Dienemann, J .D. (2001). Ethical issues in research
on violence against women. In C.M. Renzetti, J.L. Edleson, & R.K.
Bergen (Eds.), Sourcebook on vi olence against women ( pp. 57 – 72).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• DeKeseredy, W.S. (2000). Current controversi es on defini ng
nonlethal violence against women in intimate heterosexual
relationships: Empirical implications. Violence Against Women, 6,
728 – 746.
• Ellis, D. (1992). Woman abuse among separated and divorced
women: The relevance of social support. In E. C. Viano (Ed .), Intimate
violence: Interdisciplinary perspectives ( pp. 177 – 188). Bristol:
Taylor & Francis.
• Hardesty, J.L. (2002). Separation a ssault in the context of postdivorce
parenting: An integrative review of the literature. Violence Against
Women, 8, 597 – 621.
• Mahoney, P., & Williams, L.M. (1998). Sexual assault in marriage:
Prevalence, consequences, and treatment of wife rape. In J.L. Jasinski,
& L.M. Williams (Eds.), Partner violence: A comprehensive review
of 20 years of research ( pp. 11 3 – 162). Th ousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Russell, D.E.H. (1990). Rape in marriage. New York: Macmillan
Press.
• Tanish Gupta , Marital Rape as a Ground of Divorce, 4 (2) IJLMH
Page 793 - 800 (2021), DOI: http://doi.one/10.1732/IJLMH.26205
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