STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21

UNIT CONTENT PAGE Nr

I WOMEN’S STUDIES, DEFINITIONS AND FEMINISM 02

II RISE OF FEMINISM IN USA AND UK 10

III WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN INDIA AND ABROAD 20 FEMINISM IN INDIA, NATION AND STATE COMMISSION IV 29 FOR WOMEN V PIONEERING INDIAN WOMEN 44

Page 1 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21

UNIT - I WOMEN’S STUDIES, DEFINITIONS AND FEMINISM

In its short history (from the late 1960s in the United States) women's studies has moved around the world as an idea, a concept, a practice, and finally a field or Fach (German for specialty or field). As late as 1982 in Germany Frauenstudium was not considered a Fach and therefore could not be studied in the university but only in special or summer courses. By the early twentieth century women's studies was recognized in higher education from India to Indonesia, from the United States to Uganda, China to Canada, Austria to Australia, England to Egypt, South Africa to South Korea, WOMEN'S STUDIES. In its short history (from the late 1960s in the United States) women's studies has moved around the world as an idea, a concept, a practice, and finally a field or Fach (German for specialty or field). As late as 1982 in Germany Frauenstudium was not considered a Fach and therefore could not be studied in the university but only in special or summer courses. By the early twentieth century women's studies was recognized in higher education from India to Indonesia, from the United States to Uganda, China to Canada, Austria to Australia, England to Egypt, South Africa to South Korea.

DEFINITIONS: Women's studies are the study of women and gender in every field. Its basic premise is that traditional education is based on a study of men—usually upper-class, Caucasian, educated men—while other groups of men and all different groups of women are erroneously subsumed under the category "mankind." Early on courses drew especially on history, literature, and sociology, but they quickly expanded to the other humanities (philosophy, religious studies, comparative literature, art, music) and the social sciences (anthropology, political science, economics, psychology, geography). Science and technology have been slower to embrace women's studies, but biology, math, technology, computer science, chemistry, physics, and medicine have all begun to examine their assumptions for sexist bias, and courses in "gender and physics," "women geologists," or "sexism and science" are de rigueur in most programs.Over the years the term itself and the naming of the enterprise have been contested and changing. The first name was "female studies," but "women's studies" quickly found more adherents. The name "women's studies" has been criticized for its ambiguous apostrophe (the study of or by women?), for its (supposed) assumption that all women can be studied together, and for its "hegemonic narrowness" that does not take into account transgendered or lesbian identities. Some programs have changed their names to "gender studies," "women and gender studies," or "feminist studies." And of course in the exporting of "women's studies" around the world, various languages are unable to translate "gender" or "women's studies" in satisfactory ways. It is safe to say, however, that all permutations share some commonalities—that women matter and that their own assessment of their experiences is the starting point for description and analysis; that the history of women's subordination is differently experienced but commonly shared; that the elimination of that subordination is a common goal. The concept of gender as a social construction that reflects and determines differences in power and opportunity is employed as the primary analytic category.

IMPORTANCE AND PURPOSE OF WOMEN’S STUDIES As Peggy McIntosh, Director of the Wellesley CollegeCenter for Research on Women has noted, the "main message anyschool delivers about what counts is delivered through itscurriculum, "' and it is a fallacy to suppose that careercounseling, Affirmative Action hiring patterns, and revised admissions policies will not be undercut by a curriculum still biased in its

Page 2 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 lack of integration of women and minorities at all levels of study. Few would argue that we need to work toward a curriculum which reflects the fact that women constitute overhalf the population and that we should work away from acurriculum that asks students to empower a cultural minority--white males-- to value their ideas exclusively, and toconform to the hierarchical structures that have been created topreserve a place at the top for the very few a place at thebottom fog the many. As McIntosh notes, "U-11 the curriculumshifts in all fields, the school hasn't really transformeditself into an institution of equity, which, more widelyunderstood, allows people cross culturally, multiracial, andof both sexes to be considered richly and fully human within themain systems of power and value."2 You may not be aware that in asking me to speak about the importance of Women's Studies in today's curriculum, you have asked me to address issues of curricular imbalance and to suggest measures for integrating the study of women throughout the curriculum, but because of the historical development of Women's Studies in this country, it is now virtually impossible to address intelligently the subject of Women's Studies without an awareness of the work that has been done in curriculum integration since the late '70's.

For, as Catherine Stimson suggests, "mainstreaming efforts have probably taken some of the most creative energies in women's studies since that time."3 Thus I will address in this paper more than one variety of Women's Studies -- curriculum integration, as well as "autonomous" Women's Studies programs. The effort of Women's Studies to balance the curriculum began as a relatively autonomous endeavor on university campuses in 1969, largely, as Catherine Stimson notes, in response to the "democratization of higher education," the "entrance of women of all classes and races into the public labor force," the "emergence of and earlier challenge to the academy and structures of knowledge by the Black movement," andthe emergence of 1960's feminism, which brought women's issues to public as well as academic consciousness.4 It is not my purpose to trace the emergence of Women's Studies within the academy. You would do well to read Catherine Stimson’s fine synopsis of that subject in Women's Studies in the United States. It is, rather, my intention to share with you current information on issues being debated by Women's Studies scholars, to present an "uneasy consensus" about the current directions of Women's Studies within the academy, to raise your consciousness slightly about phases of curriculum change, to speak briefly about models for change, as well as about initiating and sustaining a gender integration project, and lastly, to warn you about some of the problems that are likely to be encountered in any attempt to transform the liberal arts curriculum through integration of the new scholarship on women. If I can alert you to some of these issues and direct you to further relevant information, I will consider our time together to have been well spent. As Florence Howe points out, there were, from the first, "two conscious goals in women's studies: to develop a body of scholarship and a new curriculum about women and the issue of gender; second, to use this knowledge to transform the 'mainstream' curriculum, turning it into what it has never been, a co-educational one."9 This suggests Women's Studies as a two stage process, the second stage. Of which curriculum integration has begun to address. There is, however, widespread concern and debate about what effect this integration effort will have on Women's Studies. Part of this concern, I think, stems, from the knowledge that the development of a body of scholarship on women, having begun in 1969, is hardly complete, and from an uneasy feeling that the current focus on integration is premature -- that we are trying to do too much too soon. Peggy McIntosh for instance (a strong proponent of what she calls “curriculum re- vision"), quotes historian Gera Lerner as saying in 1981 that she could not at that time organize a revisionist basic text called American History: "'...it is too early. It would take a team of us, fully funded, two years just to get the table of contents organized -- just to imagine how we

Page 3 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 would create it.'" Lerner continues, "'But don't worry, we were 6,000 years carefully building a patriarchal structure of knowledge, and we've had only 12 years to try to correct it, and 12 years is nothing. '"10 McIntosh herself has repeatedly said that Women's Studies will have to flourish for 100 years before we can have an inclusive curriculum or a complete epistemology or methodology for the study of women. Yet, since the first efforts in curriculum integration at Guilford and Stephens Colleges in the late 70 and particularly since the Wingspread Conference in October, 1981 (composed largely of higher education academic administrators), the focus of many Women's Studies scholars has been curriculum integration. “The Wingspread Conference resulted in a four-fold series of recommendations to institutions, to administrators, to disciplinary groups, and to education associations. In brief, the conference recommended that institutions examine their curricula in the light of the new scholarship on women and build faculties able to teach a curriculum informed by research on women. The conference recommended that administrators support faculty, programs, departments, librarians, and governing bodies at every possible level to hasten incorporation of the new scholarship into the liberal arts curriculum. To disciplinary groups, the conference recommended that disciplinary leaders and feminist scholars undertake an analysis of the need for change in the methodologies of the disciplines in the light of the new scholarship on women. Under the leadership of the Association of American Colleges, the Washington-based education associations were urged to act as resources to their members in the effort to transform curricula and to underscore with their constituencies the importance of the new scholarship for liberal education”

FEMINISM AND ITS DEFINITION Feminism, the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. Although largely originating in the West, feminism is manifested worldwide and is represented by various institutions committed to activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.Throughout most of Western history, women were confined to the domestic sphere, while public life was reserved for men. In medieval Europe, women were denied the right to own property, to study, or to participate in public life. At the end of the 19th century in France, they were still compelled to cover their heads in public, and, in parts of Germany, a husband still had the right

To sell his wife. Even as late as the early 20th century, women could neither vote nor hold elective office in Europe and in most of the United States (where several territories and states granted women’s suffrage long before the federal government did so). Women were prevented from conducting business without a male representative, be it father, brother, husband, legal agent, or even son. Married women could not exercise control over their own children without the permission of their husbands. Moreover, women had little or no access to education and were barred from most professions. In some parts of the world, such restrictions on women continue today.Feminism is a range of social movements, political movements, and ideologies that aim to define, establish, and achieve the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that societies prioritize the male point of view, and that women are treated unfairly within those societies. Efforts to change that include fighting gender stereotypes and seeking to establish educational and professional opportunities for women that are equal to those for men.

Feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, to hold public office, to work, to earn fair wages, equal pay and eliminate the gender pay gap, to own property, to receive education, to enter contracts, to

Page 4 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 have equal rights within marriage, and to have maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to ensure access to legal abortions and social integration and to protect women and girls from rape, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in dress and acceptable physical activity have often been part of feminist movements. Some scholars consider feminist campaigns to be a main force behind major historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West, where they are near-universally credited with achieving women's suffrage, gender-neutral language, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property. Although feminist advocacy is, and has been, mainly focused on women's rights, some feminists, including bell hooks, argue for the inclusion of men's liberation within its aims, because they believe that men are also harmed by traditional gender roles. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experience; it has developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues concerning gender. Numerous feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years and represent different viewpoints and aims. Some forms of feminism have been criticized for taking into account only white, middle class, and college-educated perspectives. This criticism led to the creation of ethnically specific or multicultural forms of feminism, including black feminism and intersectional feminism. Charles Fourier, a utopian socialist and French philosopher, is credited with having coined the word "féminisme" in 1837. The words "féminisme" ("feminism") and "féministe" ("feminist") first appeared in France and the Netherlands in 1872, Great Britain in the 1890s, and the United States in 1910. The Oxford English Dictionary lists 1852 as the year of the first appearance of "feminist" and 1895 for "feminism". Depending on the historical moment, culture and country, feminists around the world have had different causes and goals. Most western feminist historians contend that all movements working to obtain women's rights should be considered feminist movements, even when they did not (or do not) apply the term to themselves. Other historians assert that the term should be limited to the modern feminist movement and its descendants. Those historians use the label "protofeminist" to describe earlier movements.

FEMINIST Feminist theories first emerged as early as 1794 in publications such as A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft, "The Changing Woman", “Isn’t I a Woman", "Speech after Arrest for Illegal Voting", and so on. "The Changing Woman" is a Navajo Myth that gave credit to a woman who, in the end, populated the world. In 1851, Sojourner Truth addressed women's rights issues through her publication, "Isn’t I a Woman". Sojourner Truth addressed the issue of women having limited rights due to men's flawed perception of women. Truth argued that if a woman of color can perform tasks that were supposedly limited to men, then any woman of any color could perform those same tasks. After her arrest for illegally voting, Susan B. Anthony gave a speech within court in which she addressed the issues of language within the constitution documented in her publication, "Speech after Arrest for Illegal voting" in 1872. Anthony questioned the authoritative principles of the constitution and its male-gendered language. She raised the question of why women are accountable to be punished under law but they cannot use the law for their own protection (women could not vote, own property, nor themselves in marriage). She also critiqued the constitution for its male-gendered language and questioned why women should have to abide by laws that do not specify women.

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Nancy Cot makes a distinction between modern feminism and its antecedents, particularly the struggle for suffrage. In the United States she places the turning point in the decades before and after women obtained the vote in 1920 (1910–1930). She argues that the prior woman movement was primarily about woman as a universal entity, whereas over this 20-year period it transformed itself into one primarily concerned with social differentiation, attentive to individuality and diversity. New issues dealt more with woman's condition as a social construct, gender identity, and relationships within and between genders. Politically this represented a shift from an ideological alignment comfortable with the right, to one more radically associated with the left. Susan Kingsley Kent says that Freudian patriarchy was responsible for the diminished profile of feminism in the inter-war years, others such as Juliet Mitchell consider this to be overly simplistic since Freudian theory is not wholly incompatible with feminism.Some feminist scholarship shifted away from the need to establish the origins of family, and towards analyzing the process of patriarchy. In the immediate postwar period, Simone de Beauvoir stood in opposition to an image of "the woman in the home". De Beauvoir provided an existentialist dimension to feminism with the publication of Le DeuxièmeSaxe (The Second Sex) in 1949. As the title implies, the starting point is the implicit inferiority of women, and the first question de Beauvoir asks is "what is a woman"? A woman she realizes is always perceived of as the "other", "she is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not him with reference to her". In this book and her essay, "Woman: Myth & Reality", de Beauvoir anticipates Betty Friedan in seeking to demythologize the male concept of woman. "A myth invented by men to confine women to their oppressed state. For women, it is not a question of asserting themselves as women, but of becoming full-scale human beings." "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman", or as TorilMoi puts it "a woman defines herself through the way she lives her embodied situation in the world, or in other words, through the way in which she makes something of what the world makes of her". Therefore, the woman must regain subject, to escape her defined role as "other", as a Cartesian point of departure. In her examination of myth, she appears as one who does not accept any special privileges for women. Ironically, feminist philosophers have had to extract de Beauvoir herself from out of the shadow of Jean- Paul Sartre to fully appreciate her. While more philosopher and novelist than activist, she did sign one of the Movement de Liberation des Femmes manifestos. The resurgence of feminist activism in the late 1960s was accompanied by an emerging literature of concerns for the earth and spirituality, and environmentalism. This, in turn, created an atmosphere conducive to reigniting the study of and debate on matricentricity, as a rejection of determinism, such as Adrienne Rich and Marilyn French while for socialist feminists like Evelyn Reed, patriarchy held the properties of capitalism. Feminist psychologists, such as Jean Baker Miller, sought to bring a feminist analysis to previous psychological theories, proving that "there was nothing wrong with women, but rather with the way modern culture viewed them". Elaine Showalter describes the development of feminist theory as having a number of phases. The first she calls "feminist critique" – where the feminist reader examines the ideologies behind literary phenomena. The second Showalter calls "Gynocritics" – where the "woman is producer of textual meaning" including "the psychodynamics of female creativity; linguistics and the problem of a female language; the trajectory of the individual or collective female literary career and literary history". The last phase she calls "gender theory" – where the "ideological inscription and the literary effects of the sex/gender system" are explored". This model has been criticized by TorilMoi who sees it as an essentialist and deterministic model for female subjectivity. She also criticized it for not taking account of the situation for women outside the west. From the 1970s onwards, psychoanalytical ideas that have been arising in the

Page 6 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 field of French feminism have gained a decisive influence on feminist theory. Feminist psychoanalysis deconstructed the phallic hypotheses regarding the Unconscious. Julia Kristeva, BrachaEttinger and Luce Irigaray developed specific notions concerning unconscious sexual difference, the feminine, and motherhood, with wide implications for film and literature analysis.

CONCEPT OF FEMINIST The request that one reconsider feminist philosophy makes at least two presuppositions: it presupposes that we know what feminist philosophy is and that feminist philosophy is in a position to be reconsidered. I believe, however, that both of these presuppositions are unwarranted. So rather than reconsider feminist philosophy, I propose first to investigate these two matters. What might 'feminist philosophy' be? The name 'feminist philosophy' suggests that a place for feminism within philosophy has been made-offered by philosophy and/or forged by feminism. Thus, it suggests the accommodation of philosophy to feminism. 'Feminist philosophy' in this sense would be like political philosophy, moral philosophy, or all the 'philosophies of (philosophy of science, history, religion, etc.). Here philosophy is the master Discipline that analyzes, criticizes, and thereby improves the practices of politics, ethics, science, history, religion, and feminism. The name 'feminist philosophy' also implies that the proper place for feminism in academic practices and institutions is in the company of, perhaps even under the protection of, one of the traditional disciplines. Thus, 'feminist philosophy' also suggests the domestication of feminism by philosophy. In this respect 'feminist philosophy' would be like feminist literary criticism, women's history, sociology of gender, psychology of women-the feminine and the feminist may appear on the academic scene only when properly escorted by one of the established disciplines. Feminism in this way becomes the helpmate of the established disciplines by supplying what they have somehow been missing, by allowing them to do better what they have always done. Such a relationship between feminism and the established disciplines is also implied by the proliferation of 'feminist perspectives' in or on the established disciplines. Feminism thus becomes another way of looking at what those disciplines have always looked at and another way of doing what they have always done; but always only one of at least several 'perspectives' that the discipline acknowledges and at least tolerates, if not embraces. My concern with 'feminist philosophy' in these senses is not an empirical concern about whether philosophy really has accommodated and/ or domesticated feminism. My concern is rather that to adopt the name 'feminist philosophy' is to assume that some combination of-accommodation and domestication is and ought to be the relationship of feminism and philosophy. I want to argue instead that, at this moment, the relationship of feminism and philosophy is much less settled and stable than the name 'feminist philosophy' suggests. Feminism has tried to be both a counterpractice in resistance to established disciplines such as philosophy and an approach accepted on an equal footing with other approaches they acknowledge. This is in part a function off the ways in which, at this moment in the American context, feminism is neither a discipline, as these are traditionally understood in academic settings, nor a traditional political movement in the sense of a distinct, coherent view of the social and political field that motivates collective action on the part of a significant number of people. 'Feminist philosophy' therefore seems to me to name a position that is accommodated and domesticated by philosophy as well as a position that is resisted by philosophy, a position from which to resist philosophy and a position from which to demand inclusion in philosophy.

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The request to reconsider 'feminist philosophy' also presupposes that the matter of 'feminist philosophy' has been considered and settled at least once, and implies that decisions reached previously about 'feminist philosophy' now need to be altered or modified. But 'feminist philosophy' cannot be reconsidered, precisely because the relationship of feminism and philosophy has never attained anything like the stability presupposed by the notion of 'reconsideration'. In addition, the request to reconsider 'feminist philosophy' makes certain presuppositions about the epistemological standpoint of its addressee. But an analysis sf these presuppositions indicates that this addressee is not in a position to engage in reconsideration. Consider the circumstances from which this particular request for reconsideration was issued and the circumstances of those to whom it was addressed. This request was first articulated under the auspices of the American Association for the Philosophic Study of Society (AAPSS) and the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University, who proposed a panel on this topic at the American Philosophical Association's Eastern Division annual meeting, thus determining that this instance of reconsideration would have an audience composed primarily of professional philosophers. That the papers from this session were to be published in a journal sponsored by the AAPSS has a similar effect with respect to audience. In addition, the panelists are all Ph.D.s in philosophy who currently hold university teaching positions and have previously spoken and written about feminism and philosophy. Consider the history of my relationship to the profession of philosophy as evidenced by a set of credentials-Ph.D. in philosophy, job as an assistant professor of philosophy, position as executive secretary of an organization for women in philosophy. These circumstances and this history would seem to have the effect of stabilizing the position of feminist philosopher by institutionalizing it and in this way making me a feminist philosopher. This particular request for reconsideration, however, also includes a demand for objectivity as this is traditionally understood by the epistemological paradigms of modern philosophy. This is suggested by the selection of two panelists well known for their criticisms of 'feminist philosophy'. It is also implied in the notion of reconsideration, which imputes epistemological agency to the knower who does the reconsidering, and leaves the object of reconsideration subject to the knower, who is unaffected by that which she reconsiders and who is in a position to validate, reconstruct, or entirely reject it. Thus, the request for consideration assumes the possibility and desirability of an epistemological standpoint entirely outside of feminism (if the request is addressed to philosophy or a philosopher as a demand that philosophy justify its accommodation of feminism) and entirely outside of philosophy (if the request is addressed to feminism or a feminist as a demand that feminism justify its desire for inclusion by philosophy). But, regardless of whether such standpoints are possible or desirable (and I think they are neither), a position outside of feminism and of philosophy surely cannot be the position of a feminist philosopher. So not only is 'feminist philosophy' in no position to be reconsidered, but the position from which one could reconsider it seems to be indeterminable. Finding the request to 'reconsider feminist philosophy' addressed to me, I find myself contradictorily constrained. I am supposed to represent 'feminist philosophy' in some way, to discuss it knowledgeably, examine it critically, and perhaps defend it; at least to make some sense of it. But I am also expected to 'reconsider feminist philosophy' from a position outside of both feminism and philosophy. Thus the request that I 'reconsider feminist philosophy' requires both that I be a feminist philosopher and that I be neither a feminist nor a philosopher.

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UNIT - II RISE OF FEMINISM IN U.S.A & U.K Feminism in the United States refers to the collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending a state of equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women in the United States. Feminism has had a massive influence on American politics. Feminism in the United States is often divided chronologically into first-wave, second-wave, third-wave, and fourth-wave feminism.

FIRST-WAVE FEMINISM The first wave of feminism in the United States began with the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention, held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19 and 20, 1848.This Convention was inspired by the fact that in 1840, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton met Lucretia Mott at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, the conference refused to seat Mott and other women delegates from America because of their gender. Stanton, the young bride of an antislavery agent, and Mott, a Quaker preacher and veteran of reform, talked then of calling a convention to address the condition of women. An estimated three hundred people attended the convention, including notables Lucretia Mott and Frederick Douglass. At the conclusion, 68 women and 32 men signed the Declaration of Sentiments, which was written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the M'Clintock family. The style and format of the Declaration of Sentiments was that of the Declaration of Independence. For example, the Declaration of Sentiments stated, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights." The Declaration further stated, "The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man towards woman." The declaration went on to specify female grievances in regard to the laws denying married women ownership of wages, money, and property (all of which they were required to turn over to their husbands; laws requiring this, in effect throughout America, were called covertures laws), women's lack of access to education and professional careers, and the lowly status accorded women in most churches. Furthermore, the Declaration declared that women should have the right to vote. Some of the participants at Seneca Falls organized the Rochester Women's Rights Convention two weeks later on August 2 in Rochester, New York. It was followed by other state and local conventions in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. The first National Woman's Rights Convention was held in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1850. Women's rights conventions were held regularly from 1850 until the start of the Civil War. The women's suffrage movement began with the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention; many of the activists became politically aware during the abolitionist movement. The movement reorganized after the Civil War, gaining experienced campaigners, many of whom had worked for prohibition in the Women's Christian Temperance Union. By the end of the 19th century only a few western states had granted women full voting rights, though women had made significant legal victories, gaining rights in areas such as property and child custody. In 1866, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the American Equal Rights Association, an organization for white and black women and men dedicated to the goal of suffrage for all. In 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, this was the first Amendment to ever specify the voting population as "male". In 1869 the women's rights movement split into two factions as a result of disagreements over the Fourteenth and soon-to- be-passed Fifteenth Amendments, with the two factions not reuniting until 1890. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the more radical, New York-based National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe organized the

Page 9 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 more conservative American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), which was centered in Boston. In 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment enfranchised black men. NWSA refused to work for its ratification, arguing, instead, that it be "scrapped" in favor of a Sixteenth Amendment providing universal suffrage. Frederick Douglass broke with Stanton and Anthony over NWSA's position. In 1869 Wyoming became the first territory or state in America to grant women suffrage. In 1870 Louisa Ann Swain became the first woman in the United States to vote in a general election. She cast her ballot on September 6, 1870, in Laramie, Wyoming. From 1870 to 1875 several women, including Virginia Louisa Minor, Victoria Woodhull, and Myra Bradwell, attempted to use the Fourteenth Amendment in the courts to secure the vote (Minor and Woodhull) or the right to practice law (Bradwell), and they were all unsuccessful. In 1872 Susan B. Anthony was arrested and brought to trial in Rochester, New York, for attempting to vote for Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election; she was convicted and fined $100 and the costs of her prosecution but refused to pay. At the same time, Sojourner Truth appeared at a polling booth in Battle Creek, Michigan, demanding a ballot; she was turned away. Also in 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for president, although she could not vote and only received a few votes, losing to Ulysses S. Grant. She was nominated to run by the Equal Rights Party, and advocated the 8-hour work day, graduated income tax, social welfare programs, and profit sharing, among other positions. In 1874 the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded by Annie Wittenmyer to work for the prohibition of alcohol; with Frances Willard at its head (starting in 1876), the WCTU also became an important force in the fight for women's suffrage. In 1878 a woman suffrage amendment was first introduced in the United States Congress, but it did not pass. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, giving white women the right to vote; the first wave of feminism is considered to have ended with that victory. Margaret Higgins Sanger was one of the first American birth control activists. She was also a sex educator, writer, and nurse. She popularized the term "birth control", opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in 1916, and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

SECOND WAVE FEMINISM Second-wave feminism in the United States began in the early 1960s.Throughout most of the 60's and ending in 1970, second wave feminism commonly followed the motto, "the personal is political." In 1963 Betty Friedan, influenced by The Second Sex, wrote the bestselling book The Feminine Mystique in which she explicitly objected to the mainstream media image of women, stating that placing women at home limited their possibilities, and wasted talent and potential. The perfect nuclear family image depicted and strongly marketed at the time, she wrote, did not reflect happiness and was rather degrading for women. This book is widely credited with having begun second-wave feminism in the United States. Also in 1963, freelance journalist Gloria Steinem gained widespread popularity among feminists after a diary she authored while working undercover as a Playboy Bunny waitress at the Playboy Club was published as a two-part feature in the May and June issues of Show. Steinem alleged the club was mistreating its waitresses in order to gain male customers and exploited the Playboy Bunnies as symbols of male chauvinism, noting that the club's manual instructed the Bunnies that "there are many pleasing ways they can employ to stimulate the club's liquor volume. “By 1968, Steinem had become arguably the most influential figure in the movement and support for legalized abortion and free day care had become the two leading objectives for feminists. The movement grew with legal victories such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of

Page 10 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which banned sex discrimination in employment), and the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965 (which legalized birth control for married couples). In 1966 Betty Friedan joined other women and men to found the National Organization for Women (NOW); Friedan would be named as the organization's first president. Among the most significant legal victories of the movement in the late 1960s after the formation of NOW in 1966 were a 1967 Executive Order extending full affirmative action rights to women, Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972), in which the Supreme Court ruled that unmarried people had the same right to birth control as married people, and the legalization of no-fault divorce (although not legalized in all states until 2010) The movement picked up more victories in the 1970s. The Title X Family Planning Program, officially known as Public Law 91-572 or "Population Research and Voluntary Family Planning Programs" was enacted under President Richard Nixon in 1970 as part of the Public Health Service Act; it is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. The Supreme Court case Reed v. Reed (1971), was the case in which the Supreme Court for the first time applied the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to strike down a law that discriminated against women. Also, while the Equal Pay Act of 1963 did not originally cover executives, administrators, outside salespeople, and professionals, the Education Amendments of 1972 amended it so that it does. Also in 1972, the Supreme Court case Eisenstaedt v Baird legalized birth control for unmarried people. Also that year Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 outlawed sex discrimination in public schools and public colleges. In 1973 the Roe v Wade Supreme Court case legalized abortion. In 1974 the Equal Credit Opportunity Act criminalized sex discrimination by creditors against credit applicants. Also in 1974 sex was added as a protected class under the Fair Housing Act, thus illegalizing sex discrimination in housing. Also in 1974 the Women's Educational Equity Act was enacted. The criminalization of marital rape in the United States started in the mid-1970s and by 1993 marital rape became a crime in all 50 states, under at least one section of the sexual offense codes. In 1978 the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was enacted; it is a United States federal statute which amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to "prohibit sex discrimination on the basis of pregnancy."

THIRD WAVE FEMINISM Third-wave feminism in the United States began in the early 1990s. In 1991, Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas, a man nominated to the United States Supreme Court, of sexual harassment. Thomas denied the accusations and, after extensive debate, the United States Senate voted 52–48 in favor of Thomas. In 1992, in response to the Anita Hill sexual harassment case, American feminist Rebecca Walker published an article in Ms. Magazine entitled "Becoming the Third Wave" in which she stated, "I am not a post-feminism feminist. I am the third-wave," which coined the term "third wave". Also in 1992 Third Wave Direct Action Corporation was founded by the American feminists Rebecca Walker and Shannon Liss (now Shannon Liss-Riordan) as a multiracial, multicultural, multi-issue organization to support young activists. The organization's initial mission was to fill a void in young women's leadership and to mobilize young people to become more involved socially and politically in their communities.

In the early 1990s, the riot girl movement began in Olympia, Washington and Washington, D.C.; it sought to give women the power to control their voices and artistic expressions. However, Riot girl’s emphasis on universal female identity and separatism often

Page 11 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 appears more closely allied with second-wave feminism than with the third wave. Third-wave feminists sought to question, reclaim, and redefine the ideas, words, and media that have transmitted ideas about gender, gender roles, womanhood, beauty, and sexuality, among other things. Third-wave feminism saw many new feminist icons such as Madonna, Queen Latifah, Angelina Jolie, Emma Watson, Beyoncé, and Lady Gaga, as well as fictional characters such as Buffy and Mulan. Third-wave feminists also used the Internet and other modern technology to enhance their movement, which allowed for information and organization to reach a larger audience. This larger audience also expanded too many male celebrities such as Aziz Ansari and Leonardo DiCaprio.

FOURTH WAVE FEMINISM Fourth-wave feminism refers to a resurgence of interest in feminism that began around 2012 and is associated with the use of social media. According to feminist scholar Prudence Chamberlain, the focus of the fourth wave is justice for women and opposition to sexual harassment and violence against women. Its essence, she writes, is "incredulity that certain attitudes can still exist". Fourth-wave feminism is "defined by technology", according to Kira Cochrane, and is characterized particularly by the use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and blogs such as Feminizing to challenge misogyny and further gender equality. Issues that fourth- wave feminists focus on include street and workplace harassment, campus sexual assault and rape culture. Scandals involving the harassment, abuse, and murder of women and girls have galvanized the movement. In the United States, these have included the Bill Cosby sexual assault cases, the 2014 Isla Vista killings, and the 2017 Harvey Weinstein allegations, which kickstarted the Me Too movement.

RISE AND GROWTH OF FEMINISM IN ENGLAND As in other countries, feminism in the United Kingdom seeks to establish political, social, and economic equality for women. The history of feminism in Britain dates to the very beginnings of feminism itself, as many of the earliest feminist writers and activists—such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Barbara Bodichon, and Lydia Becker—were British. The advent of the reformist age during the 19th century meant that those invisible minorities or marginalized majorities were to find a catalyst and a microcosm in such new tendencies of reform. Robert Owen, while asking for "social reorganization", was laying down the basis of a new deformational background. One of those movements that took advantage of such new spirit was the feminist movement. The stereotype of the Victorian gentle lady became unacceptable and even intolerable. The first organized movement for British women's suffrage was the Langham Place Circle of the 1850s, led by Barbara Bodichon (née Leigh-Smith) and Bessie Rayner Parkes. They also campaigned for improved female rights in the law, employment, education, and marriage. Property owning women and widows had been allowed to vote in some local elections, but that ended in 1835. The Chartist Movement of 1838 to 1857 was a large-scale demand for suffrage—however it only gave suffrage to men over 21. In 1851 the Sheffield Female Political Association was founded and submitted an unsuccessful petition calling for women's suffrage to the House of Lords. This probably inspired British feminist Harriet Taylor Mill to write the pro-women's-suffrage The Enfranchisement of Women (1851). On 7 June 1866 a petition from 1,499 women calling for women's suffrage was presented to the Parliament, but it also did not succeed.

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Upper-class women could exert a little backstage political influence in high society. However, in divorce cases, rich women lost control of their children.Ambitious middle-class women faced enormous challenges when they proposed entering suitable careers, such as nursing, teaching, law, and medicine, and the loftier their ambition, the greater the challenge. Physicians barred admission to the medical profession; there were a few opportunities for women lawyers, but none as clerics. White collar business opportunities outside family-owned shops were few until clerical positions opened in the 20th century. Florence Nightingale demonstrated the necessity of professional nursing and warfare, and set up an educational system that tracked women into that field in the second half of the nineteenth century. Teaching was not quite as easy to break into, but the low salaries were less of the barrier to the single woman than to the married man. By the late 1860s a number of schools were preparing women for careers as governesses or teachers. The census reported in 1851 that 70,000 women in England and Wales were teachers, compared to the 170,000 who comprised three- fourths of all teachers in 1901. The great majority came from lower middle class origins. The National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT) originated in the early 20th century inside the male-controlled National Union of Teachers (NUT). It demanded equal pay with male teachers, and eventually broke away. Oxford and Cambridge minimized the role of women, allowing small all-female colleges to operate. However the new redbrick universities and the other major cities were open to women. Medicine was the greatest challenge, with the most systematic resistance by the physicians, and the fewest women breaking through. One route to entry was to go to the United States where there were suitable schools for women as early as 1850. Britain was the last major country to train women physicians, so 80 to 90% of the British women came to America for their medical degrees. Edinburgh University admitted a few women in 1869, and then reversed itself in 1873, leaving a strong negative reaction among British medical educators. The first separate school for women physicians opened in London in 1874 to a handful of students. Scotland was more open. Coeducation had to wait until the World War. By the end of the nineteenth century women had secured equality of status in most spheres – except of course for the vote and the holding of office

CHILD CUSTODY Before 1839 after divorce rich women lost control of their children as those children would continue in the family unit with the father, as head of the household, and who continued to be responsible for them. Caroline Norton was one such woman; her personal tragedy where she was denied access to her three sons after a divorce led her to a life of intense campaigning which successfully led to the passing of the Custody of Infants Act 1839 and introduced the Tender years doctrine for child custody arrangement. The Act gave women, for the first time, a right to their children and gave some discretion to the judge in child custody cases. Under the doctrine the Act also established a presumption of maternal custody for children under the age of seven years maintaining the responsibility for financial support to the father. In 1873 due to additional pressure from women, the Parliament extended the presumption of maternal custody until a child reached sixteen. The doctrine spread in many states of the world because of the British Empire.

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DIVORCE Traditionally, poor people used desertion, and (for poor men) even the practice of selling wives in the market, as a substitute for divorce. In Britain before 1857 wives were under the economic and legal control of their husbands, and divorce was almost impossible. It required a very expensive private act of Parliament costing perhaps £200, of the sort only the richest could possibly afford. It was very difficult to secure divorce on the grounds of adultery, desertion, or cruelty. The first key legislative victory came with the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857. It passed over the strenuous opposition of the highly traditional Church of England. The new law made divorce a civil affair of the courts, rather than a Church matter, with a new civil court in London handling all cases. The process was still quite expensive, at about £40, but now became feasible for the middle class. A woman who obtained a judicial separation took the status of a fame sole, with full control of her own civil rights. Additional amendments came in 1878, which allowed for separations handled by local justices of the peace. The Church of England blocked further reforms until the final breakthrough came with the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.

PROSTITUTION Bullough argues that prostitution in 18th-century Britain was a convenience to men of all social statuses, and economic necessity for many poor women, and was tolerated by society. The evangelical movement of the nineteenth century denounced the prostitutes and their clients as sinners, and denounced society for tolerating it. Prostitution, according to the values of the Victorian middle-class, was a horrible evil, for the young women, for the men, and for all of society. Parliament in the 1860s in the Contagious Diseases Acts ("CD") adopted the French system of licensed prostitution. The "regulations policy" was to isolate, segregate, and control prostitution. The main goal was to protect working men, soldiers and sailors near ports and army bases from catching venereal disease. Young women officially became prostitutes and were trapped for life in the system. After a nationwide crusade led by Josephine Butler and the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, Parliament repealed the acts in 1886 and ended legalized prostitution. Butler became a sort of savior to the girls she helped free.

PROTECTION FOR RICH AND POOR WOMEN A series of four laws each called the Married Women's Property Act passed Parliament from 1870 to 1893 that effectively removed the restrictions that kept wealthy married women from controlling their own property. They now had practically equal status with their husbands, and a status superior to women anywhere else in Europe. Working class women were protected by a series of laws passed on the assumption that they (like children) did not have full bargaining power and needed protection by the government.

KINDS OF FEMINISM These definitions are selected from a longer list of terms (compiled from a feminism news group. The initials in parenthesis are the people who contributed the definition to the news group.

LIBERAL FEMINISM This is the variety of feminism that works within the structure of mainstream society to

Page 14 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 integrate women into that structure. Its roots stretch back to the social contract theory of government instituted by the American Revolution. Abigail Adams and Mary Wollstonecraft were there from the start, proposing 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 compromises left of center. This is how it operated in the days of the suffragist movement and again with the emergence of the radical feminists.

RADICAL FEMINISM Provides the bulwark of theoretical thought in feminism. 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 feminism; ideas which get shaped and pounded out in various ways by other (but not all) branches of feminism. Radical feminism was the cutting edge of feminist theory from approximately 1967-1975. It is no longer as universally accepted as it was not then, nor does it provide a foundation for, for example, cultural feminism. This term refers to the feminist movement that sprung out of the civil rights and peace movements in 1967-1968. The reason this group gets the "radical" label is that they view the oppression of women as the most fundamental form of oppression, one that cuts across boundaries of race, culture, and economic class. This is a movement intent on social change, change of rather revolutionary proportions, in fact. The best history of this movement is a book called Daring to be bad, by Alice Echols (1989). I consider that book a must! Another excellent book is simply titled Radical Feminism and is an anthology edited by Anne Koedt, a well-known radical feminist.

MARXIST AND SOCIALIST FEMINISM Marxism recognizes that women are oppressed, and attributes the oppression to the capitalist/private property system. Thus they insist that the only way to end the oppression of women is to overthrow the capitalist system. Socialist feminism is the result of Marxism meeting radical feminism. Jaggar and Rothenberg [Feminist Frameworks: Alternative Theoretical Accounts of the Relations between Women and Men by Alison M. Jaggar and Paula S. Rothenberg, 1993] point to significant differences between socialist feminism and Marxism, but for our purposes I'll present the two together. 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.

CULTURAL FEMINISM As radical feminism died out as a movement, cultural feminism got rolling. In fact, many of the same people moved from the former to the latter. They carried the name "radical feminism" with them, and some cultural feminists use that name still. The difference between the two is quite striking: whereas radical feminism was a movement to transform society, cultural feminism retreated to vanguardism, working instead to build a women's culture. Some of this effort has had some social benefit: rape crisis centers, for example; and of course many cultural feminists have been active in social issues (but as individuals, not as part of a movement).

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As various 1960s movements for social change fell apart or got co-opted, folks got pessimistic about the very possibility of social change. Many of then turned their attention to building alternatives, so that if they couldn't change the dominant society, they could avoid it as much as possible. That, in a nutshell, is what the shift from radical feminism to cultural feminism was about. These alternative-building efforts were accompanied with reasons explaining (perhaps justifying) the abandonment of working for social change. Notions that women are "inherently kinder and gentler" are one of the foundations of cultural feminism, and remain a major part of it. A similar concept held by some cultural feminists is that while various sex differences might not be biologically determined, they are still so thoroughly ingrained as to be intractable.

ECO-FEMINISM This branch of feminism is much more spiritual than political or theoretical in nature. It may or may not be wrapped up with Goddess worship and vegetarianism. Its basic tenet is that a patriarchal society will exploit its resources without regard to long term consequences as a direct result of the attitudes fostered in a patriarchal/hierarchical society. Parallels are often drawn between society's treatment of the environment, animals, or resources and its treatment of women. In resisting patriarchal culture, eco-feminists feel that they are also resisting plundering and destroying the Earth. And vice-versa.

MODERN FEMINIST THINKERS LINDA MARTÍN ALCOFF Linda Martín Alcoff is a Latin-American philosopher and professor of philosophy at Hunter College, City University of New York. Alcoff specializes in epistemology, feminism, race theory and existentialism. She is the author of Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self (2006) and The Future of Whiteness (2015).Alcoff has called for greater inclusion of historically underrepresented groups in philosophy and notes that philosophers from these groups have created new fields of inquiry, including feminist philosophy, critical race theory, and LGBTQ philosophy. To help address these issues, with Paul Taylor and William Wilkerson, she started "The Pluralist’s Guide to Philosophy". From 2012 to 2013 she served as president of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division. In February 2018 she was appointed president of the board of directors of Hypatia, Inc., the non-profit corporation that owns the feminist philosophy journal Hypatia

SANDRA LEE BARTKY Sandra Lee Bartky was a professor of philosophy and gender studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her main research areas were feminism and phenomenology. Her notable contributions to the field of feminist philosophy include the article, "The Phenomenology of Feminist Consciousness". Sandra Lee Bartky died on October 17, 2016 at her home in Saugatuck, Michigan at age 81.

SIMONE LUCIE ERNESTINE MARIE BERTRAND DE BEAUVOIR Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, and political activist, feminist and social theorist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory.

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De Beauvoir wrote novels, essays, biographies, autobiography and monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues. She was known for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism; and for her novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins. She was also known for her open, lifelong relationship with French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

JUDITH PAMELA BUTLER Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminist, queer, and literary theory. In 1993, she began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, where she has served, beginning in 1998, as the Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory. She is also the Hannah Arendt Chair at the European Graduate School. Butler is best known for her books Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990) and Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex (1993), in which she challenges conventional notions of gender and develops her theory of gender performativity. This theory has had a major influence on feminist and queer scholarship. Her works are often studied in film studies courses emphasizing gender studies and performativity in discourse. Butler has supported lesbian and gay rights movements and has spoken out on many contemporary political issues. In particular, she is a vocal critic of Zionism, Israeli politics, and its effect on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, emphasizing that Israel does not and should not be taken to represent all Jews or Jewish opinion.

GERMAINE GREER Germaine Greer born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literature, she has held academic positions in England at the University of Warwick and Newnham College, Cambridge and in the United States at the University of Tulsa. Based in the United Kingdom since 1964, she has divided her time since the 1990s between Queensland, Australia and her home in Essex, England. Greer's ideas have created controversy ever since her first book, The Female Eunuch (1970), made her a household name. An international bestseller and a watershed text in the feminist movement, the book offered a systematic deconstruction of ideas such as womanhood and femininity, arguing that women are forced to assume submissive roles in society to fulfill male fantasies of what being a woman entails. Her work since then has focused on literature, feminism and the environment. She has written over 20 books, including Sex and Destiny (1984), The Change (1991), The Whole Woman (1999), and Shakespeare's Wife (2007). Her 2013 book, White Beech: The Rainforest Years describes her efforts to restore an area of rainforest in the Numinbah Valley in Australia. In addition to her academic work and activism,

She has been a prolific columnist for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, The Independent, and The Oldie, among others.

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Greer is a liberation rather than equality feminist. Her goal is not equality with men, which she sees as assimilation and "agreeing to live the lives of unfreeze men". "Women's liberation", she wrote in The Whole Woman (1999), "did not see the female's potential in terms of the males actual." She argues instead that liberation is about asserting difference and "insisting on it as a condition of self-definition and self-determination". It is a struggle for the freedom of women to "define their own values, order their own priorities and decide their own fate".

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UNIT - III WOMEN’SRIGHTSININDIA & ABROAD Violence is among the most severe human rights violations, and women are often attacked for sexual reasons or even on account of their gender. The phenomenon of femicide is on the rise and reports estimate that of all women killed in 2012, almost half were killed by intimate partners or family members. Women human rights defenders are also often the deliberate targets of violence. According to a 2012 Report of the Special Reporter on violence against women, women community leaders in Colombia, and women fighting for their rights, are the main targets of gender-related killings. Under international treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, governments have a legal obligation to protect women from violence, to promote the human rights of all women and to ensure their economic, legal, social and political empowerment. This requires acting to prevent all forms of violence, reforming discriminatory laws and policies and ensuring that survivors of violence have access to justice. UN Women advocates and provides technical assistance to ensure that States create and implement laws, policies and plans to protect women against multiple forms of violence. We work with other UN partners to train and educate law enforcement and justice officials In Palestine, specialized prosecutors to enhance women survivors’ access to justice. UN Women is training a pool of 15 specialized public prosecutors to handle domestic and gender- based violence cases. We are also supporting the development of Standard Operating Procedures and helping improve coordination with service providers to ensure access to justice for survivors of violence in Palestine.Of the 25 countries with the highest femicide rates, more than half are in the Americas. With increasing rates of violence against women reported due to organized crime, and human, drug and arms trafficking, UN Women and the UN Human Rights Office have developed a Model Protocol to guide investigations of gender-based murders. Several Latin American countries are working to implement the Protocol, the goal of which is to improve treatment of victims and end impunity for the tens of thousands of women and girls murdered in Latin America each year. WOMEN'S RIGHT CONFERENCES FIRST WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN World Conference on Women, 1975 was held between 19 June and 2 July 1975 in Mexico City, Mexico. It was the first international conference held by the United Nations to focus solely on women's issues and marked a turning point in policy directives. After this meeting, women were viewed as part of the process to develop and implement policy, rather than recipients of assistance. The conference was one of the events established for International Women's Year and led to the creation of both the United Nations Decade for Women and follow-up conferences to evaluate the progress that had been made in eliminating discrimination against women and their equality. Two documents were adopted from the conference proceedings, the World Plan of Action which had specific targets for nations to implement for women's improvement and the Declaration of Mexico on the Equality of Women and Their Contribution to Development and Peace, which discussed how nation’s foreign policy actions impacted women. It also led to the establishment of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women to track improvements and continuing issues and the United Nations Development Fund for Women to provide funding for developmental programs. The conference marked the first time that the parallel Tribune meeting was successful in submitting input to the official meeting and became a catalyst for women's groups to form throughout the world.

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The World Conference on Women occurred in the 1970s amid the Cold War when geopolitical conflict was controlled based on the interests of the United States or the USSR in various regions throughout the world, polarizing the world into two camps and their respective fields of influence. At a time when the United States had just withdrawn from Vietnam, forty- eight separate conflicts would rock Asia in such places as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. African wars during the end of decolonization in the 1970s turned toward long-lasting civil wars in Angola, Ethiopia-Somali, Mozambique and other African nations, with the superpowers manipulating the conflicts in the background with troops and arms. Decolonization of the Caribbean saw twelve states gain their independence between 1962 and 1983, but simultaneously remain marginalized by pressures from world powers which continued to manipulate local concerns. Two significant Middle East conflicts occurred in 1967 and 1973 with the US backing its Arab allies and Israel, while the USSR backed Arab socialist regimes. In Central and South America various coups d'états in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador and dictatorships led to instability and decimation of indigenous populations. Responses to the conflict often had additional repercussions, such as the 1973 Oil embargo, a response to the Arab-Israeli conflict, which caused the price of oil to rise on the world market from three dollars per barrel to twelve dollars per barrel. The embargo was followed by the 1979 energy crisis, sparked by concerns over lowered production caused by the Iranian Revolution and how continued instability might impact oil availability. That in turn led to a buildup of reserves, during which time the price of oil doubled and forced the world to look at alternative sources of oil. Adding to the conflicts of the time were racial inequalities, ranging from Apartheid and Zionism to Paternalism. Work had long been ongoing by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to adopt a declaration to eliminate discrimination against women. By 1965, it was believed that enough support had been garnered to obtain passage of a declaration to secure women's human rights. Collating responses covering education, employment, inheritance, penal reform, and other issues, from government actors, NGO representatives and UN staff, CSW delegates began drafting a declaration. On 7 November 1967, the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (DEDAW), was passed by the General Assembly. In 1972, the United States Congress passed Title IX, eliminating discrimination in education for any institution receiving federal funding. That same year, CSW proposed that DEDAW become a legally binding Convention. To that end, the United Nations proclaimed 1975 as International Women's Year and the CSW set about the tasks to prepare the "machinery" necessary to secure passage. HelviSipilä, was selected as the Assistant Secretary General for Social Development and Humanitarian affairs and placed in charge of organizing events. Added significance of the date was that the conference would take place on the thirtieth anniversary of the creation of the United Nations. The World Conference on Women, 1980 or the Second World Conference on Women took place between 14 and 30 July 1980 in Copenhagen, Denmark as the mid-decade assessment of progress and failure in implementing the goals established by the World Plan of Action at the 1975 inaugural conference on women. The most significant event to come out of the conference was that the formal signing of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women took place during the opening ceremony of the conference. Marred by conflict and politicization of international and national events which had little to do with women's issues, the conference was viewed by some participants as a failure. They were able to secure passage of a modified World Programmed of Action to expand on previous targets to improve women's status, and established a follow-up conference for the end of the decade.

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SECOND WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN The 1980 Conference held from 14 and 30 July in Copenhagen, Denmark was the direct result of the First World Conference on Women, which had been held in Mexico City in 1975, establishing the World Plan of Action and Declaration of Mexico on the Equality of Women and Their Contribution to Development and Peace. These documents took the United Nations themes—Development, Equality, and Peace—of their path for women and created guidelines for nations to reach long-term objectives to improve the lives of women. When they were adopted, the UN established 1975 to 1985 as the Decade for Women and put in motion a plan for subsequent conferences to evaluate progress being made. The format of the conference was the same, with the official session made up of delegates representing their governments and the Tribune, representing NGOs. As with the previous conference, the Copenhagen conference was beset by the geopolitical divides of the Cold War and whether economics, racism, or sexism was the more important factor in the subordination of women. Initially planned to occur in Tehran, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the Iran hostage crisis, escalated the political backdrop as did the continuing tensions of conflict in the Middle East. Palestinian women, refugees, and Apartheid became topics that were added to the agenda and ensured that the event would be politicized by the various participants, rather than remaining focused on women's issues. To that end, the United States Congress issued instructions to its delegates that they would not approve any resolution which attempted to make what should be an apolitical conference into an indictment of government policy or any resolution which mentioned the word "Zionism". Saudi Arabia and South Africa boycotted the convention altogether. Having to hastily relocate the conference to Denmark, also impacted the accommodations available, in that there was no space large enough to accommodate the entire Tribune, which meant that rather than the entire group participating in exchange to create unity, the group was splintered into small venues.

THIRD WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN The World Conference on Women, 1985 or the Third World Conference on Women took place between 15 and 26 July 1985 in Nairobi, Kenya, as the end-decade assessment of progress and failure in implementing the goals established by the World Plan of Action from the 1975 inaugural conference on women as modified by the World Programmed of Action of the second conference. Of significance during the conference was the end result of the Forward- looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women being adopted by consensus, unlike the previous two conferences The conference marked the first time that lesbian rights were introduced in a UN official meeting and the turning-point for violence against women to emerge from being a hidden topic into one which needed to be addressed. Recognizing that the goals of the Decade for Women had not been met, the conference recommended and the General Assembly approved on-going evaluation of women's achievements and failures through the year 2000. In 1975, the United Nations approved the celebration of International Women's Year. As part of the celebrations they held the First World Conference on Women in 1975 in Mexico City. At that meeting, it was proposed that the following decade be proclaimed UN Decade for Women and follow-up meetings to assess progress be held in 1980 and 1985. The General Assembly adopted a World Plan of Action with recommended targets for governments to integrate women's equality, development and participation in peace initiatives. The mid-point meeting was held in Copenhagen, adding sections to the revised Programmed of Action devoted to ensuring women equal access to education, employment opportunities, and

Page 21 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 adequate health care. Both of the previous conferences had struggled with the divide caused by Cold War politics and the needs of the developing world. The geopolitical backdrop entering into the third conference was still contentious with a worldwide debt crisis soaring in Africa and Latin America, protectionist policies under Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan causing widespread uncertainty, stagnation of the USSR, the arms race build up, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The question would be whether the conference could remain focused on women's issues in the face of Soviet accusations that the United States imperialistic and war mongering tactics were undermining the goals of the Decade for Women and the US concerns that the Eastern Bloc attempts at politicization would derail any real improvement in the unique problems faced by women.

FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN The Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace was the name given for a conference convened by the United Nations during 4–15 September 1995 in Beijing, China. At this conference, governments from around the world agreed on a comprehensive plan to achieve global legal equality, known as the Beijing Platform for Action. The founding United Nations charter (1945) included a provision for equality between men and women (chapter III, article 8). Subsequently, from 1945 to 1975 various female officials within the United Nations and leaders of women's movements on the global stage attempted to turn these principles into action. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution (resolution 3010) that 1975 should be International Women's Year. In December 1975, the UN General Assembly passed a further resolution (resolution 31/136) that 1976–1985 should be the "Decade of Women". SOCIAL STATUS OF INDIAN WOMEN, A HISTORICAL VIEW WOMEN DURING THE PRE INDEPENDENCE PERIOD Women during the pre-independence period Due to the lack of self-confidence and economic backwardness of the women, male chauvinism has been completely established in the orthodox Hindu society. Most of the families as well as the society considered the female folk as material object. They did not get any regard and freedom in daily life. The spread of western education and philosophy in nineteenth century made the men concerned about the status of the other half of the society. The reformation movement was at first concentrated to abolish the sinister customs from the society. The next most necessary step was to spread female education. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the torchbearer of social reforms for the women, was strictlyagainst thissocietal evils practice prevalent in his time. He is the man who has given credit for abolishing this Satidaha lawfully. It was due to his efforts and Endeavour that Lord William Bentinck banned the custom of Sati in 1829. The abolition of this customary practice and enactment of law againstthis had not only a significant effect on life of women but also it changed mind-set of people to some extent. He wished to stop child marriage from society and start of widow remarriage system. Along with DwarkaNath Tagore, he founded “BrahmoSamaj” for the reformation of Hindu society and emancipation of women. In this context, we must remember that the Christian missionaries established first female schools in India. Obviously, they had their own interest and the upper caste Hindu families did not show any positive attitude towards the endeavor of the missionaries. Mahatma JyotiraoGovindraoPhule was given credit for opening first girl school in India. He, after educating his wife, opened a school for girls belonging to the lower castes in 1848. This was the second girl‟s school inIndia established by the Indians. Peary CharanSarkar who was a former student of Hindu College situated at Calcutta and a member of "Young Bengal" set up the first free school for girls in 1847 in Barasat, a suburban city of Calcutta (the school was later named

Page 22 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 as Kalikrishna Girls' High School). Mahatma Phule is one who had opened first home for widows from the higher caste and a home for newborn girl children to save them from female infanticide. Eshwar ChandraVidyasagar was another pillar of social reformation movement in 19th century. He widely read ancient Hindu religious texts and found that the gender discrepancy or lower status of women which was prevailing in society is not rooted in true sense in spiritual scriptures rather it was the output of nasty politics done at that time to keep women as subordinate to men. He had done a lot for widow remarriage. Due to his incessant effort, widow remarriage was legitimated in 1856. His role for spread of women education was praiseworthy. First female school in which the respected Hindu families started to send their daughters was the „Calcutta Female School‟, established by J.E.D. Bethune in 1849 (later the school was named Bethune School). His attempt was strongly supported by Madan Mohan Tarkalankar, Vidyasagar, DakshinaranjanMukhopadhyay and others. Madan Mohan Tarkalankar sent his own daughters in that school. Vidyasagar, who was the honorary secretary of that school, established 50 female schools in Bengal in 1857 onwards. He got great support fromthe then Lieutenant Governor of Bengal F.J.Halliday. However, in the initial stage there was no financial backing from the Government. The venture was solely dependent on the personal funding (Narishikshabhandar) of Vidyasagar and his supporters. It should be remembered that in the rural area there were no scope of girls‟ formal and non-formal education due to the lack of girls‟ school and educated parents and liberal persons in the family. Not only that, wherever there were girls‟ school the male teachers were not accepted by the orthodox Hindus. Another major hindrance was child marriage. At that phase, the role of BrahmoSamaj was remarkable. Keshab Chandra Sen, one of the renowned leader of BrahmoSamaj, wanted to train female teachers with the help of Miss Merry Carpenter (who came to India with the mission of spreading female education). He established „Female Normal School‟ (1871) for women teachers‟ training, „Metropolitan Female school‟ (1879) etc. Though several girls‟ schools were started at that period, yet the mind-set of the Hindu society was not favorable to enlighten the female folk. In the late nineteenth century only the women of the Brahmo, Christian and educated Hindu families got the opportunities of formal or non-formal education. However, the large section of the female was in the dark. Swami DayanandaSaraswati, the founder of Araya Samaj had translated Veda from Sanskrit to Hindi, so that common man including women can understand the Vedic religious scripture and apprehend thatthe ancient scripture gives utmost importance on women. He emphasized for the equal rights of women and men in every facets of life. He tried to change the mind-set of people with his Vedic teachings. Situation gradually changed in the first half of the twentieth century. The social reformers of nineteenth century although had laid down the stage for the emancipation of women from socio-cultural evil practices but it became more vibrant and spread to the mass by the initiative of Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi. He was the one who liberatedIndian women largely from the clutches of Purdah and other social evils. In Gandhi‟s mission of free India women have participated in the struggle for independence. According to him, women should be released from the slavery of kitchen and only then, their true potential could be realised. According to him although women have a vital responsibility in household affairs but it should not be the only one duty and responsibility for them. In fact, women should come forward to share the responsibilities of nation building. It was due to his efforts female participation in the struggle for independence became visible. They came out of their homes to organize meetings and processions, to spread the message of Swadeshi, to sell khadi, to give away their jeweler and ornaments, to picket near the shops of foreign cloth. He spread the message of equality of gender to the masses and

Page 23 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 criticized the desire of Indian people to have male child instead of a female (Patel, Sujata, 1988). Gandhi was strictly against the child marriage and favoredwidow remarriage. He said that the girls are also capable of everything that boys can do. It was mainly due to his efforts 'right to vote' came naturally to Indian women after independence whereas in other developed nations like England and America women got this right after lot of protest.

WOMEN DURING THE POST INDEPENDENCE PERIOD After independence the government of India has tried to enact laws, rules, positive discriminatory policies and measures for safeguard of women’s interest and for their up liftmen due to its very spit of democracy, sovereignty and socialistic nature of governance. In the constitutional framework the divisive social forces are tried to be reduced and attempt has been made for equality in respect of caste, gender and religion etc. Also sufficient legislative measures are enacted and developmental policies are initiated to increase women participation in economic affairs by coming out of the traditional and rigid socio-cultural constraints and customs and attitudes; initiatives have been take for increasing awareness of sex equality, but the index of success of mission seems to have found among elite circles. The occupational, property and other legislations have clearly upgraded the quality of many individual women‟s lives. However, these changes are not indicative of any significant improvement in the status of women as a whole, especially amongst the low caste, illiterate and poor female population who are in a majority. It means Gender as a socio-cultural constructed phenomenon when inter mix with other social challenges like Caste (Scheduled caste), religion (Minority), locality (rural), it further aggravates the status. Census 2011 shows our national sex ratio as 943:1,000 (943 females for every 1,000 males). The Decliningtrend in sex ratio, from 972 in the year 1901 to933 in 2001 and 943 in the year 2011, indicatesthe actualdeteriorating condition of women in the society. Biological evidence proves that resistant to diseases power women is more than men. Life expectancy is a proof of that. In our country, life expectancy of women is 65.27 years whereas for men it is only 62.36 years. Though women have a higher death rate until the age of 34, the probabilities of survival after this age are higher. Therefore, the ratio of female above 60 years is greater than male. However the child sex ratio (in the age group of zero to six) in India has dropped to 914 females against 1,000 males -- the lowest since Independence, in the provisional 2011 Census report released by the Government of India. Despite of laws to prevent abortion of female foeticide and schemes to encourage families to have girl child, the ratio has declined from 927 female children against 1,000 male children in 2001 to 914, which was perceived as a "matter of grave concern" by Census Commissioner of India C. Chandramauli. It portrays social discrimination shown towards women even at the stage of birth. Main reasons of this high gap in the ratio are sex wise abortions and female infanticide. Although Abortion is legal in our country but sex based abortion is a crime here (Regulation & Prevention of Misuse Act 1994, which prohibits any prenatal diagnostic techniques and sex selective abortions). However, gender wise abortions are on the rise in India. Although abortion of female foetus in society has a high relation with poverty due to son preference attitude for economic return point of view but in some societies opposite pictures are visualized. In economically developed states such as Haryana and Punjab, the tendency is found to be more. Though there is an increasing trend in 2011 census still Punjab and Haryana remained at the bottom of the list of sex ratio. Haryana has 830 female children and Punjab 846 against per 1,000 male children. The accepted reason for practice of female infanticide in India is the existence of dowry system, where parents of girls have to pay a great deal of money to the parents of groom during marriage. By avoiding a girl, a family can avoid paying a large dowry on the marriage of their daughter. In India dowry remains as the major point of discrimination and

Page 24 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 injustice shown to women. It has always been an important part of Hindu marriages. Not only among Hindus, are its evil tentacles now spreading to other religions also. Although dowry was legally prohibited in 1961 (Dowry Prohibition Act), it continues to be highly institutionalized. As per the prohibition of dowry Act, the precipitant and provider of dowry will be sentenced to imprisonment for 5 years and a fine of Rs 15,000 or the value of dowry if that is more. Still the practice of dowry abuse is rising in India. It is ridiculous to see that even among highly educated sections the practice of dowry is seen which is perceived as a symbol of status from both end. The statistics are more in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but miserably, the largest IT sector of the country, Bangalore has also recorded an alarming rise (Ministry of Women and Child Development, 2015). It is found from the survey data that half of the world’s malnourished children live in India primarily due to the non-availability of nutritious food to their mother during pregnancy period. In all the stages of human development i.e. Prenatal, postnatal, infancy, childhood, adolescence the girls or women suffer frommalnutrition purelydue tothe discriminatory and the narrow social attitude mentalities. This type of discriminatory attitude is more prominent among lower middle class or below the poverty line families. In the poor families where the income is not sufficient to fulfill the basic needs of life, the male members get the priority in case of food and nutrition without any consideration to the health of the females. Poverty is a major cause of poor health and various social issues in India so also the issue of illiteracy and lack of education to girls is closely related to poverty. As per census data, 2011, literacy rate in India is 74.04%. Where the male literacy rate is 82.14% and that for females is 65.46%. As per the literacy rate it shows a significant decrease of the gap in comparison to the year 2001. In the year the literacy gap was 21.59 percentage in 2001 which is reduced to 16.68 percentage points in 2011 . Also trend of literacy growth is higher among female (11.8%) where as it is (6.9%) among male in the 2001--2011 decadal period that indicates narrowing of the literacy gender gap. Nevertheless, there is huge discrepancy in between male literacy and female literacy. More boys are enrolled in primary schools than girls are. In addition, more girls drop out of school before any kind of graduation or certificate than boys do. Of course, the reason for this result of studies is the perception of the society about the role of women in the family, especially in poor areas, that women do not need education, as they have no financial responsibilities to maintain families. It is true that the people living a life below the poverty line do not have enough funds to educate all their children. Hence, they prefer giving education to boys and keep girls away from schools and colleges. Even if girls get a basic education, they are often called back to stay at home when they start their teenage in order to help their mother in choirs of household. Another problem is a lack of job offers to educated women in rural areas.

Usually parents consider it very unproductive to get the girl children higher educated as it end up working on a field and traditional engagement in domestic works like cooking, watering crop or taking care of cattle etc. Primarily in rural and economically back ward areas, parents hardly found any scope of engagement for their daughters. People have no better outlook on the future if they go to school. Consequently, the gender disparity in literacy rate is higher in rural areas. Despite several Acts and schemes undertaken by the Government, women are immobilized and are mistreated inside and outside the home. Intense study reveals that the level of awareness of Government schemes is very low. Therefore, more effective publicity as well as system for monitoring women welfare and empowering programmers has to be developed. Along with the Government lots of non- governmental organizations are also involved in the process of capacity building of the underprivileged women to improve their situations economically, educationally, socially and physically.

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SOCIAL EVIS IN INDIA The constitution of India imparts equal rights for men and women. But there are certain social evils prevailing in the society which tend to hamper the success of the country.India is a land of cultures and traditions. Many traditions which were set for purpose have taken a worse form today in the name of social evils.Social evils mean a condition which demands to be reformed or totally banned. For the development of the country it is very important to remove all the social evils else our country will not progress.There have been numerous reformers and socialites who have fought against them such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Ishwar Chandra VidyaSagar etc. All have fought for the rights of people and have successfully helped in removing many social evils from the society such as sati system etc. Let’s look at some of the major Social Evils prevailing in the society. 1. Gender Inequality 2. Child Marriage 3. Dowry system 4. 4 .Bribe and corruption 5. Adulteration 6. Child Labor 7. Caste system

GENDER INEQUALITY The major evil which India is still fighting is of gender inequality. In many areas especially villages, people still prefer boy than a girl. This has resulted in female infanticide.People kill the baby girl in the womb itself. This is leading to reduction in the population of the girls. Every child is gift of god and we should accept it.Many families tend to have many babies in hope of getting a baby boy. This also leads to poverty and overpopulation of the country.

CHILD MARRIAGE The legal age for marrying a girl is 18 years and a boy is 21 years. But in some villages, they marry the children at an early age. This leads to complicated problem in the married lives.It also affects their health badly. Children are forced to have family responsibilities at an early age of life. They should be allowed to enjoy their childhood rather than indulging in house hold activities.

DOWRY SYSTEM Dowry is when parents give their daughters some gifts on her marriage. But now days, dowry has taken its worse form. Rather than gift, the groom side demands heavy dowry. If bride side is unable to fulfill the dowry, either the marriage is broken or she is physically tortured.Some cases of brides burning themselves or committing suicide have come to notice. Government is taking strict action against the dowry demanders. People living in cities are well aware of the consequences and hence they don’t demand it anymore.

BRIBE AND CORRUPTION

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Corruption is when an officer or any person takes gifts/ cash for doing a person’s work. This system is badly affecting the nation’s growth. There are very few honest officers left in the country. But the government of India takes a strict action, in case anyone is found guilty.The person is suspended or is dismissed permanently. The citizens of the country should not either take bribe or accept any. In case anyone offers you a bribe or accepts a bribe should be immediately reported to the police. So that a valid action can be taken against that person.

ADULTERATION This is another social evil which should be eradicated as soon as possible. People are mixing adulterants or similar items in the food items so that they can make more money at the same price. Ghee, sugar and oil are the most adulterated ones. Milk is adulterated with water, turmeric with yellow powder etc. Even the medicines sold are sometimes adulterated. So we should buy branded ones.

CHILD LABOUR Child labor is a condition when children below the age of 14 years work in homes, industries or other institutions for making money. Over population and lack of education is the main cause behind this. Child labor can lead to some very devastating consequences such as robbery, criminal offense and other small thefts etc. Government of India has made a rule that no one will employ a child less than 14 years in homes or industries or coal mines. We should not play with the emotions of the children and ruin their childhood. Rather they should be given education properly.

CASTE SYSTEM This is the biggest social evil which has its roots way deep. The complete society is divided into many groups either by caste or by color. People from lower caste still face many problems in villages and are considered untouchables. We as responsible citizens of India should aim at removing and not following these practices. We all should join hands to make our country free from social evils.

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UNIT - IV FEMINISM IN INDIA AND NATIONAL & STATE COMMISSION FOR WOMEN Feminism in India is a set of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic. Women in India. It is the pursuit of women's rights within the society of India. Like their feminist counterparts all over the world, feminists in India seek gender equality: the right to work for equal wages, the right to equal access to health and education, and equal political rights. Indian feminists also have fought against culture-specific issues within India's patriarchal society, such as inheritance laws.

The history of feminism in India can be divided into three phases: the first phase, beginning in the mid-19th century, initiated when male European colonists began to speak out against the social evils of Sati; the second phase, from 1915 to Indian independence, when Gandhi incorporated women's movements into the Quit India movement and independent women's organizations began to emerge; and finally, the third phase, post-independence, which has focused on fair treatment of women at home after marriage, in the work force and right to political parity.

Despite the progress made by Indian feminist movements, women living in modern India still face many issues of discrimination. India's patriarchal culture has made the process of gaining land-ownership rights and access to education challenging. In the past two decades, there has also emerged a trend of sex-selective abortion. To Indian feminists, these are seen as injustices worth struggling against.

As in the West, there has been some criticism of feminist movements in India. They have especially been criticized for focusing too much on women already privileged, and neglecting the needs and representation of poorer or lower caste women. This has led to the creation of caste-specific feminist organizations and movements.

WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS In the ancient and medieval periods women were largely connected only to the family and most of the other women that they met were primarily through family functions at times of marriages, deaths etc. The educational experiments of the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced a new woman with interests that went beyond the household. (Forbes, 1998, reprint, 2000, 64). For the first time in India now women began to communicate with women outside their families and local communities. On the one hand was a small group of women who shared English as a common language. This made possible communication across 2 language barriers (Forbes, 1998, reprint, 2000, 64). As a result of this various women’s organizations developed from the 19th century onwards. We can divide the women’s organizations into three phases: 1. First Phase (1850-1915) 2. Second Phase (1915-1947) 3. Third Phase (1947 - Present)

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The third phase can further be Classified into three sub- phases · 1. The Period of Accommodation (1947 - late 1960s) 2. The Period of Crisis (late 1960s – 1975) 3. 1975- To till date

1.FIRST PHASE (1850-1915): The 19th cen. Social Reform Movement was the first organized all India response to the challenges posed by the Colonial Rule. But this was not meant as a radical challenge to the existing structures of society. It picked up for reform only those issues which the British pointed out as evidence of the degenerated state of Indian society. Women’s status became central to all reform. The reformers took up the issues of polygamy, purdah, widow remarriage and women’s education. Many reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy,Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar ,Jyoti Rao Phule fought for the upliftment of Women in the early 19th century. Though Ram Mohan Roy was the first Indian to campaign against ‘sati‘(widow immolation) the U.S and British missionaries had cited it from the start of the 18th century as an act of Hindu barbarism. British administrators had used it as a reason for ruling India (Civilizing Mission). Lata Mani points out that the debates over social issues constructed women as victims or heroines denying them complex personalities and agency. Tradition was not the site on which the status of women was being contested but women became the site on which tradition was debated and reformulated. (Mani, 1989).

The women’s question loomed large in the 19th cen. Not a question of what womenwanted but rather how can they could be modernized. Many of these organizations started reforms specific to women. This first organizations that came up during this time were initiated by men to uproot the social evils of sati (widow immolation), forbidding of widow remarriage, child marriage and illiteracy.The women involved were those related to male activists, elite, western educated, upper caste Hindus.IshwarchandraVidyasagar’s crusade for the improvement in the condition of widows led to the Widow remarriage act of 1856.Social reformer MahadevGovindaRanade, founded the Widow Re-marriage Association and the Deccan Education Society (which sought to increase young women's educational facilities).KandukuriVireslingam in Madras presidency founded the Widow Remarriage association in 1891(Karen I leonard and Johan leonard, 1981). Many woman reformers such as PunditaRamabai also helped the cause of Women’s Upliftment. PanditaRamabai is considered,the first Indian Feminist to address other women 3 directly about emancipation .Born in 1858 in Western Maharshtra. Her Father AnantaSastri was a learned brahmin and a social reformer.Her Father used to give a lot of lectures on the need for female education.After her father’s death she decided to carry on her father’s work.She earned a lot of fame giving lectures.The pundits of Calcutta astounded by her clearness of views and eloquence in presenting them conferred on her the highest title ‘Saraswati’, the goddess of wisdom.She started a school for child widows in 1882 in Bombay.

PanditaRamabai was amongst the few female leaders of the movement for women's emancipation. She advocated women's education and shed light on the plight of child brides and child widows. She founded the Arya MahilaSabha, which is known as the first feminist organization in India. She set up Mukti Mission for young widows, and KrupaSadan and ShardaSadan in 1889 for destitute women (Kosambi 1988). By the late nineteenth century several women’s organizations began to be formed in several parts of India such as the

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BangaMahilaSamaj and the AghorekaminiNariSamiti in Bengal, the SataraAbalonnatiSabha in Maharashtra, the MahilaSevaSamaj in Bangalore, the PrayasMahilaSamiti in Allahabad and the Bharat MahilaParishad or Ladies Conference (1904) which was a wing of the National Social Conference (1887) in Benares. Some of these were either self-help groups for women or were organized as discussion platforms. They discussed women's problems and what women could do to change the situation. Education was foremost on their list, followed by child marriage and the problems of widows and dowry. They were just beginning to formulate strategies for women; most of their efforts were still directed towards understanding and formulating the issues. A larger gathering was made possible with the MahilaParishad or Ladies Congress formed at Madras in 1908. SaraladeviChoudhurani, a well-educated woman and radical nationalist, used the Ladies Conference of the National Social Conference to propose that women form their own organization:Sarala Devi Chaudhurani formed Bharat StreeMandal (The Great Circle of India Women) in 1910 with the aim of bringing together women of all castes and classes to promote women's education. She is remembered for her speeches at the Indian National Congress meetings in favor of women's right to vote. She was involved in not only petitioning the government to give women the right to vote but also in bringing about changes in laws pertaining to marriage, divorce and property rights (Basun.d.). This was one of the short lived organizations and did not grow beyond Lahore, Allahabad and Calcutta ( Basu and Ray, 1990).

2. SECOND PHASE (1915-1947): The second phase saw the birth of three Major Organizations, Women’s India Association (WIA),National Council of Women in India (NCWI) and All India Women’s Conference (AIWC). All these organizations were formed by women between 1917 and 1927 after World-War-I.During this period struggle against colonial rule intensified. Nationalism became the pre-eminent cause. Gandhi legitimized and expanded Indian women’s public activities by initiating them into the non-violent civil disobedience movement against the Raj.In the decades that followed, Women showed active participation in the freedom for movement paving the way for some ‘womens only’ organizations. There were Organizations by Women like Saraladevi who set up the Bharat StreeMahamandal. It met for the first time in Allahabad in 1910.Soon many branches in Delhi, Lahore, Karachi, Amritsar, Lahore and Hyderabad were set up and it addressed many problems including Purdah, which to them was a stumbling block to accept female education.

WOMEN’S INDIA ASSOCIATION Women’s India Association (WIA) in 1917 was “the first purely feminist organization to arise in India (Kaur, 1932, cited in Kaur, Manmohan, 1968, 106). Annie Besant was chosen as the first WIA president. The honorary secretaries were Margaret Cousins, a teacher and Irish suffragist; Dorothy Jinarajadasa, the Irish wife of a Sri Lankan Theosophist; AmmuSwaminathan and MalathiPatwardhan. Borrowing the idea of a crosscultural association from the Tamil MātharSangam (Tamil Women's Organization) formed in 1906 by Indian and European women, Margaret Cousins sounded out her proposal to a gathering of Theosophists at Adyār after her arrival in 1915. The founders included S. Ambujammal, Dr. MuthulakshmiReddi, MangalammalSadasivier, SaralabaiNaik, Herabai Tata, Dr. PoonenLukhose, KamaladeviChattopadhyaya, BegamHasratMohani, and Dhanavanti Rama Rao.

Describing themselves as the ‘daughters of India’, its mothers and wives, their objectives were to guide the nation; serve the poor, promote women's education and compulsory

Page 30 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 universal primary education, abolish child marriage, raise the age of sexual consent to sixteen for women, win female suffrage and attain the female right to elected office. The Association soon grew to have around thirty three branches within a year and after five years added another ten branches with twenty centers and two thousand three hundred members. It claimed to represent women from all races, cultures and religions. Religion, education, politics and philanthropy were the four areas identified for intervention. Nonsectarian religious activity was promoted while in education, adult literacy; sewing and first aid were taught. Politically, the first women's delegation to demand the vote that met Secretary of State Montague, in 1917, included a large number of WIA members and in the following years it was this organization which took the lead in mobilizing support for female franchise. In the area of philanthropy, shelters for widows were set up and relief for the poor and disaster victims were provided. The WIA published a monthly journal Sri Dharma in English. Though published in English, it contained articles in Hindi and Tamil.

The daunting task for this early women’s organization was firstly, to bring women out of their homes and into the platform of political and social action and secondly to co-ordinate activities of all the local branches. One of them said, it is a bull’s work to drag out the reluctant sisters from the kitchen and to persuade them to spend a few minutes at the meetings periodically.This movement had a large agenda for women’s rights. Soon there were Branch organizations and 33 branches by the end of the year.Membership open to Indians and Europeans, it represented women of all races, religions and cultures.

STRUGGLE FOR WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE: Women's suffrage in India was a movement to fight for the right for women to gain political enfranchisement. They not only wanted suffrage but the right to stand for and hold office. In 1918, when Britain granted limited suffrage to women property holders, the law did not apply to British citizens in other parts of the Empire. Though both women and men presented petitions to the British commissions sent to evaluate Indian voting regulations, women's demands were ignored in the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms. In 1919, impassioned pleas and reports indicating support for women to have the vote were presented by suffragists to the India Office and before the Joint Select Committee of the House of Lords and Commons, who were meeting to finalize the electoral regulation reforms of the Southborough Franchise Committee. Though they were not granted voting rights, or the right to stand in elections, the Government of India Act 1919 allowed Provincial Councils to determine if women could vote, provided they met stringent property, income or educational levels.

Between 1919 and 1929, all of the British Provinces, as well as most of the Princely states granted women the right to vote and in some cases, allowed them to stand in local elections. The first victory was in the City of Madras in 1919, followed by the Kingdom of Travancore and the Jhalawar State in 1920, and in the British Provinces, the Madras Presidency and Bombay Presidency in 1921. The Rajkot State granted full universal suffrage in 1923 and in that year elected the first two women to serve on a Legislative Council in India. In 1924, the Muddiman Committee conducted a further study and recommended that the British Parliament allow women to stand in elections, which generated a reform on voting rights in 1926. In 1927, the Simon Commission was appointed to develop a new India Act. Because the commission contained no Indians, nationalists recommended boycotting their sessions. This created fractures among women's groups, who aligned on one side in favor of universal suffrage and on the other in favor of maintaining limited suffrage based on educational and economic criteria.

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The Commission recommended holding Round Table Conferences to discuss extending the franchise. With limited input from women, the report from the three Round Tables was sent to the Joint Committee of the British Parliament recommending lowering the voting age to 21, but retaining property and literacy restrictions, as well as basing women's eligibility on their marital status. It also provided special quotas for women and ethnic groups in provincial legislatures. These provisions were incorporated into the Government of India Act 1935. Though it extended electoral eligibility, the Act still allowed only 2.5% of the women in India to vote. All further action to expand suffrage was tied to the nationalist movement, which considered independence a higher priority than women's issues. In 1946, when the Constituent Assembly of India was elected, 15 seats went to women. They helped draft the new constitution and in April 1947 the Assembly agreed to the principal of universal suffrage. Provisions for elections were adopted in July, India gained its independence from Britain in August, and voting rolls began being prepared in early 1948. The final provisions for franchise and elections were incorporated into the draft constitution in June 1949 and became effective on 26 January 1950, the enforcement date of the Constitution of India.

In the 1890s nationalism arose in India with the founding of the Indian National Congress. The advent of World War I and the use in propaganda rhetoric of terms like 'self- determination' gave rise for hope among middle-class Indians that change was imminent. For English-educated elites, who had predominantly become urbanized and depended on professional income, British rule was beneficial, but they also recognized that restrictions on their wives impacted their own careers. The practice of secluding women meant that they were unable to educate children or serve as hostesses or helpmeets to further their husbands' advancement.

Indian women, who had begun participating in reform activities since the 19th century, also saw the potential for change. They escalated their efforts into demands for political rights and specifically for suffrage. Entwined with Indian nationalists, Indian feminists sought support from British suffragists as well as their own autonomy, which prevented the development of a unified identity or set of demands from women. Austen Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for India was against loosening the power of Britain in India and accused those who backed even moderate proposals for consultation of Indian princes as "meddlers" in the affairs of the British Raj. When he was ousted in 1917, his replacement, Edwin Montagu, gained approval to organize with Lord Chelmsford, Viceroy of India, and a consultation for a limited political devolution of British power.

PROTECTION OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTS IN INDIA: The status of women in India has been subject to many changes over the span of recorded Indian history. Their position in society deteriorated early in India's ancient period, especially in the Indo-Aryan speaking regions, and their subordination continued to be reified well into India's early modern period.Practices such as female infanticide, dowry, child marriage and the taboo on widow remarriage, have had a long duration in India, and have proved difficult to root out, especially in caste Hindu society in northern India.

During the British East India Company rule (1757–1857), and the British Raj (1858– 1947), measures aiming at amelioration were enacted, including Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829,

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Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856, Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870, and Age of Consent Act, 1891. Women's rights under the Constitution of India mainly include equality, dignity, and freedom from discrimination; additionally, India has various statutes governing the rights of women.

As of 2018, some women have served in various senior official positions in the Indian government, including that of the President of India, the Prime Minister of India, and the Speaker of the Loksabha. However, many women in India continue to face significant difficulties. The rates of malnutrition are exceptionally high among adolescent girls and pregnant and lactating women in India, with repercussions for children's health. Violence against women, especially sexual violence, has been on the rise in India.

CENTRAL GOVERNMANT SCHEMES FOR WOMEN IN INDIA: Under Article 15(3), the Constitution of India allows for positive discrimination in favor of women. The article, under right to equality, states that: "Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children." In addition, the Directive Principles of State Policy 39(A) states that: "The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing that the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood."

The RashtriyaMahilaKosh (National Credit Fund for Women) was set up in 1993 to make credit available for lower income women in India. More recent programs initiated by the Government of India include the Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS), the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana, Conditional Maternity Benefit plan (CMB), as well as the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls – Sabla.

MOTHER AND CHILD TRACKING SYSTEM (MCTS) The Mother and Child Tracking System was launched in 2009, helps to monitor the health care system to ensure that all mothers and their children have access to a range of services, including pregnancy care, medical care during delivery, and immunizations. The system consists of a database of all pregnancies registered at health care facilities and birth since 1 December 2009.

PRADHAN MANTRI MATRITVA VANDANA YOJANA Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY), Conditional Maternity Benefit (CMB) is a scheme sponsored by the national government for pregnant and lactating women age 19 and over for their first two live births. The programmed, which began in October 2010, provides money to help ensure the good health and nutrition of the recipients. As of March 2013 the program is being offered in 53 districts around the country.

RAJIV GANDHI SCHEME FOR EMPOWERMENT OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS – SABLA The Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls – Sabla is an initiative launched in 2012 that targets adolescent girls. The scheme offers a package of benefits to girls between the age group of 10 to 19. It is being offered initially as a pilot programmed in 200 districts. It offers a variety of services to help young women become self-reliant, including nutritional supplementation and education, health education and services, and life skills and

Page 33 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 vocational training.

RASHTRIYA MAHILA KOSH RashtriyaMahilaKosh (The National Credit Fund for Women) was created by the Government of India in 1993. Its purpose is to deliver women from lower income group with access to loans to begin small businesses.

PRIYADARSHINI Priyadarshini, initiated in April 2011, is a programmed that offers women in seven districts access to self-help groups.

NATIONAL ACTION PLAN FOR CHILDREN National Action Plan for Children was initiated in 2017, This Scheme Was Launched by Ministry of Women and child Development.

DIGITAL LAADO (DIGITALLAADO) - GIVING DIGITAL WINGS TO DAUGHTERS An Initiative started with the association of FICCI & Google Digital Unlocked to empower and strengthen daughters on digital platforms. According to Government of India 65% daughters drops out from there higher studies due to household work. This program is a nationwide initiative in which every daughter will be taught and trained to develop their talent and skills to work from home itself and get connected with the global platform. Daughters can register themselves to avail these benefits from anywhere in the world - online & offline.

TAMIL NADU STATE GOVT SCHEMES FOR WOMEN IN INDIA: Tamil Nadu Government Schemes is a consolidated list of all the welfare schemes the State Government has made available for the people of Tamil Nadu. Some of these schemes are implemented in collaboration with Central Government Schemes.

The Government of Tamil Nadu has many schemes that are useful and beneficial to the weaker sections of the society. Schemes are available for all demographics. This includes poor, children, backward classes, farmers, women and the differently abled people. There are various schemes to encourage artists, small scale industries and self-help groups.

Schemes are designed to benefit all demographics of our community namely, health, civic facilities, education, employment, etc. The scheme could either be a subsidy or a direct financial assistance.

1. Government Schemes for Women 2. Marriage schemes in Tamil Nadu 3. Tamil Nadu Government schemes for school children 4. TN Government loan schemes 5. Tamil Nadu Government Free service schemes 6. Tamil Nadu Government schemes for Agriculture

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Tamil Nadu Government Schemes for Women There are about 10 different welfare schemes for women run by the Tamil Nadu government. These are in areas of providing loan to women entrepreneurs, working women, loan for revamped microcredit loans, special literacy programmed for women and additional capital subsidy for women.

Special Literacy Program for Women Benefits: To provide education to illiterate women of all backward districts in TN.

Eligibility: 15 to 35 years of Age

Application Process: One needs to approach the office of District Collector / District Adult Education Officer / District Educational Officer.

Timeline: The period of scheme is for six months and the learning method is through continuing education programmer

ADDITIONAL CAPITAL SUBSIDY FOR WOMEN, SC/ST, DIFFERENTLY ABLED AND TRANSGENDER ENTREPRENEURS Benefits: To provide subsidy to agro-based enterprises.

Eligibility: No Eligibility Required.

Application Process: GM-DIC/RJD- Chennai / TIIC Within one year from the Date of commencement of Production

Timeline: The scheme was introduced in May 2012 and is operational.

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT SCHEMES FOR GIRL CHILD There are 10 different schemes operational by the TN government focusing the girl child. These are mainly concentrated on encouraging education of the girl child in the rural areas. There are free education schemes for girls studying undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional courses. There are schemes that give special fee and examination fee exemption. Annal Gandhi Memorial Award provides continuing education to one boy and one girl student from Hindu AD community of every district of TN who has secured first rank in the 12th STD public exams.

Benefits: Scholarship and Incentive for further education.

Eligibility: 8-14 years of Age

Application Process: Director of AdiDravidar Welfare, Chennai-5 through the Educational Institutions.

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Timeline: 6 Months

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT SCHEMES FOR MARRIAGE Annai Theresa Ninaivu Orphan Girls Marriage Scheme. This scheme has been set up to assist orphan girls in their marriage expenses. This scheme is open to citizens from all the districts of Tamil Nadu. Benefits: A cheque of Rs. 15000 will be given to orphan girls.

Eligibility: Income limit not exceeding Rs. 12000 per annum. Age limit 18 to 30 years of Age.

Application Process: Application has to be made to the District SocialWelfare Officer or Extension Officers.

Timeline: Time limit for receiving applications is 45 days before marriage.

WIDOW PENSION SCHEME IN TAMILNADU

Benefits: Destitute Widow Pension schemes assure a small sum of money (Rs. 400 to Rs. 1000 per month) to Eligible applicants. A Widow Certificate also helps applicants get special quota for government Jobs.

Eligibility: 1.No age limit 2.Must has no source of Income. 3. Must not be professional beggars Pension is given in spite of having legal heirs of above 18 years of age. 4. Must not possess property of value more than Rs.5, 000/-.

Application Process: Application with all the required supporting documents needs to be submitted to District Collector Office.

Timeline: One Year Tamil Nadu Government Schemes for Pregnant Ladies Tamil Nadu is leading the country in the health sector and its sophisticated medical services and infrastructure are something to be emulated by the rest of the country.

TAMIL NADU AMMA MATERNITY NUTRITION KIT SCHEME This scheme was launched in September 2015 and around 17 lac mothers have already benefitted from it. The scheme is run under Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefit Scheme.

Benefits: In addition to Rs. 18000, each pregnant woman will get a nutrition kit worth Rs. 4000. The kits would be disbursed twice during the pregnancy, once in the 12th week and again between 16th and 20th week of pregnancy PREGNANT WOMEN REGISTRATION SCHEME Benefits: Department of Public Health, TN has now made it mandatory for all pregnant women to register online and to receive birth certificate for their child. The registration will be done under Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) scheme, online at picme.tn.gov.in. For birth certificate, women will have to submit a 12-digit RCH number provided by the village or urban health nurse (VHN/UHN) provided on anti-natal registration at the hospital where the child is born.

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Eligibility: All Pregnant women. Mothers who have delivered before 1st January 2019 are not eligible for this scheme.

Application Process: Through the local Primary Health care Centre near your House.

Timeline: 3 Months to 12 Months. (Money will be dispersed in Two Installments) to the given bank account.

MARRIAGE SCHEMES IN TAMIL NADU 2019 In our Indian society, it is customary for the bride to wear “Thirumangalyam” made of gold during marriage. The TN government has five different schemes to help parents of economically weaker sections. This is to help take care of these expenses and to focus on their child’s education until the time of marriage.

MARRIAGE ASSISTANCE SCHEME I & II Benefits: Cash assistance of Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 50,000 is paid through ECS to girls according to their educational qualification.

Eligibility I: The bride should have studied 10th standard and passed/failed the tests.

Eligibility II: The bride should be a degree holder having studied through any regular college or a diploma holder having studied through one of the recognized colleges under Directorate of Technical Education, Govt of TN.

MOOVALUR RAMAMIRTHAM AMMAIYAR NINAIVU MARRIAGE ASSISTANCE SCHEME Benefits: Financial assistance of Rs. 20,000 to girls belonging to poor families and those below poverty line.

Eligibility: Annual income of family should not exceed Rs. 12,000 pa. Bride should not have completed 18 years of age. Only one girl from a family is eligible. The Time limit for sending the application is 45 days prior to marriage

Application Process: 1. Commissioner (for Chennai, Madurai, Trichy, Salem, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Erode and Tiruppur Corporations) 2. Municipal Commissioner (for municipalities) 3. Panchayat Union Commissioner (for rural areas) 4. District Social Welfare Officers. 5. Extension Officers (Social Welfare) Rural Welfare Officers (W)

5.DR. DHARMAMBAL AMMAIYAR NINAIVU WIDOW REMARRIAGE ASSISTANCE SCHEME Benefits: Under this scheme, Rs 25,000 is given out of which Rs. 15,000 is given through ECS and Rs 10,000 as National Savings Certificate along with 4 gm 22 carat gold coin for making “Thirumangalyam”. The degree/diploma holders are given Rs. 50,000 out of which 30,000 are given through ECS and Rs 20,000 as National Savings Certificate along with 4 gm 22 carat gold coin.

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Eligibility: No income ceiling or minimum education qualification stipulated. One of the spouses should be from SC/ST/BC/MBC community.

E.V.R. MANIAMMAIYAR NINAIVU MARRIAGE ASSISTANCE SCHEME FOR DAUGHTERS OF POOR WIDOWS Benefits: Rs.15, 000/- (by Cheque/ Demand Draft) for marriage assistance of Poor Widows in Tamil Nadu

Eligibility: Family Annual income of family should not exceed Rs. 72,000.

Application Process: To the District Social Welfare Officer / Extension Officer (SW)

Timeline: 3 months

MARRIAGE ASSISTANCE TO NORMAL PERSON MARRYING A VISUALLY HANDICAPPED PERSON Benefits: Financial assistance of Rs. 20,000 is given, 10,000 in cash and 10,000 as National Savings Certificate along with a certificate of appreciation.

Eligibility: Age of both persons marrying should be above 18 years. National Disability Identity Card

Application Process: District Disabled Rehabilitation Officer. The authority to be contacted in case of delay in service is the State commissioner for differently able, Jawaharlal Nehru Inner Ring Road, KK Nagar, and Chennai-78.

Timeline: 3 Months

DR. MUTHULAKSHMI REDDY NINAIVU INTER-CASTE MARRIAGE ASSISTANCE SCHEME Benefits: Under this scheme, Rs 15,000 is given out of which Rs. 10,000 is given through NCS and Rs 5,000 as cheque or DD. In case one of the spouses belongs to SC/ST community, an assistance of Rs. 20,000 is provided, 10,000 as NSC and 10,000 as cheque or DD.

Eligibility: No income ceiling or minimum education qualification stipulated. Age limit of 18-30 years for the bride. Time limit for sending application is 45 days before marriage. Application Process: District Social Welfare Officer / Extension Officers (SW)

Timeline: 3 Months

NATION WOMEN’S COMMISSION IN INDIA It is said that the best way to know about society, a civilization and a culture, try to know as much possible about the women. In India, women have come a long way from the rare women scholars and sages of the Vedic age to the women in different sectors of society and

Page 38 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 civilization today, such as the armed forces, arts, information technology, politics and a number of similar sectors which have traditionally been male dominated, while simultaneously balancing the roles of wife, mother and daughter. While Indian women have fought against the patriarchal Indian society and triumphed at many levels, cases of rape, dowry deaths, female infanticide, sexual harassment at workplaces, female illiteracy, and similar problems are still rampant in Indian society. It was in this backdrop that the Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI) the establishment of the National Commission for Women to fulfill the surveillance functions and to facilitate redressel of grievances and to accelerate the socio- economic development of women.

The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution. The Preamble, promotes Equality of status and of opportunity; the Fundamental Rights enshrined in Part III of the Indian Constitution and Directive Principles enshrined in Part IV of the Constitution all promote gender equality. The Constitution not only grants equality to women but has also made special provisions for ensuring equality Thus, as per the recommendations of the CSWI and in order to uphold the mandate of the Constitution, in January 1992, the National Commission for Women (NCW), was set up as a statutory body under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990 (Act No. 20 of 1990 of Government of India) to carry out the mandate set by the Act as well as CSWIAbout The Commission

This chapter aims at informing the reader of the need for a commission such as the National Commission for Women and the impetus for its establishment in 1992. The chapter further examines the relationship between the constitution and the commission, the mandate given by the constitution as well as the basic administrative set up of the commission as per the constitution.

IMPORTANCE OF THE COMMISSION: Women as a class neither belong to a minority group nor are they regarded as a backward class. India has traditionally been a patriarchal society and therefore women have always suffered from social handicaps and disabilities. It thus became necessary to take certain ameliorative steps in order to improve the condition of women in the traditionally male dominated society.The Constitution does not contain any provision specifically made to favor women as such. Though Art. 15 (3), Art. 21 and Art. 14 are in favor of women; they are more general in nature and provide for making any special provisions for women, while they are not in themselves such provisions. The Supreme Court through interpretive processes has tried to extend some safeguards to women. Through judgments in cases such as BodhisattwaGautam v. SubraChakraborty(AIR 1996 SC 922). And the Chairman Rly Board v. ChandrimaDas( AIR 2000 SC 988). case, where rape was declared a heinous crime, as well as the landmark judgment in Visakha v. State of Rajasthan, (AIR 1997 SC 3011). The courts have tried to improve the social conditions of Indian women. But these have hardly sufficed to improve the position of women in India. Thus, in light of these conditions, the Committee on the Status of Woman (India) as well as a number of NGOs, social workers and experts, who were consulted by the Government in 1990, recommended the establishment of apex body for woman.

The lack of constitutional machinery, judicial ability and social interest formed the impetus and need for the formation of the National Commission for Women. It is apparent from the prior mentioned conditions and problems that women in India, though in a better position than their ancestors, were handicapped to a great extent in the early 1990s and these

Page 39 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 handicaps and injustices against Indian women prompted the Indian Government to constitute the first National Commission for Women in 1992.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMISSION: The National Commission for Women Act, 1990 (Act No. 20 of 1990 of Government of India) constituted the National Commission for Women as a statutory body. The first commission was constituted on 31st January 1992 with Mrs. JayantiPatnaik as the Chairperson.

The Act of 1990 under Section 3 provides for the constitution of the commission. This section lays down that the commission will consist of one Chairperson, who is committed to the cause of women, five members from various fields and a member secretary who shall be an expert in the fields of management, organizational structure, sociological movement or a, member of the civil service of the Union. All the members of the commission are nominated by the Central Government

Each person holds office for a period of five years or till he attains the age of seventy. At least one member each of the Commission must belong to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe. In addition to the abovementioned members of the Commission, the Commission has the power to set up committees with members from outside the Commission.

THE MANDATE OF THE COMMISSION: Section 10(1) of the Act of 1990 provides a fourteen-point mandate for the National Commission for Women. A general overview of the mandate has been provided and a few significant clauses have been discussed. Broadly speaking the Commission's mandate can be divided under four heads – (a) safeguard of rights of women granted by the constitution and laws, (b) study problems faced by women in the current day and make recommendations to eradicate these problems, (c) evaluating the status of Indian women from time to time funding and fighting cases related to women's rights violations.

(A) SAFEGUARD RIGHTS OF WOMEN: These are enshrined in sub clauses of Section 10 (1) of the Act. They expect the Commission to examine the safeguards for women provided by the law and the Constitution. The Commission is to submit reports about these safeguards and make recommendations about the implementation of the same. The Commission is also expected to review these safeguards periodically to identify and remedy any lacunae and inadequacies. The Commission is also empowered to take up cases involving the violation of the cases.

(B) STUDY OF PROBLEMS FACED BY WOMEN: These are mainly enshrined in sub clauses of Section 10 (1) of the Act. According to these sub clauses, the Commission is to carry out studies involving the problems arising out of discrimination against woman and provide remedies for these problems. As per this part of the mandate, the Commission is also expected to advise the government about the socio – economic development of women based on these studies.

(C) EVALUATING STATUS OF INDIAN WOMEN Sub clauses of the aforementioned section of the Act deals with these responsibilities of the Commission. The Commission, according to these guidelines, has the responsibilities of the evaluating the status of Indian women under the Union Government and State Governments. It is to inspect and evaluate the conditions of detention homes and other such facilities in which

Page 40 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 women may be detained and deal with the appropriate authorities in order to improve the condition of such places. These evaluations are to be submitted to the Government through periodic reports and recommendations. Fighting cases related to women's rights violation: certain clauses in the mandate also empower the Commission to take up cases related to discrimination against women, women's right violation and fund cases which involve the rights of a large number of women. Sub clause (f) of Section 3 of the Act of 1990 empowers the Commission to take suo moto notice of matters relating to women's right deprivation, non – implementation of laws enacted to protect women and non – compliance of policies and guidelines for mitigating hardships of women, in such matters the Commission is empowered to approach the appropriate authorities and seek remedies.

FUNCTIONS OF THE COMMISSION Through this chapter the researcher will briefly outline the methods adopted by the Commission in order to carry out the mandate discussed in 2.3. As violence and discrimination against women is multi – faceted in nature, the Commission has adopted a multi – pronged strategy to combat the problem. This strategy is broadly divided into three categories – the counseling, the legal and the research functions of the Commission.

COMPLAINT AND COUNSELING FUNCTIONS: The core unit of the Commission is considered to be the Complaint and Counseling Cell and it processes the complaints received oral, written or suo moto under Section 10 of the NCW Act. The complaints received relate to domestic violence, harassment, dowry, torture, desertion, bigamy, rape and refusal to register FIR, cruelty by husband, derivation, gender discrimination and sexual harassment at work place. During 1999, the Commission received 4329 complaints related to the above types of crimes against women.

TN STATE COMMISSION FOR WOMEN: The State Human Rights Commission was constituted in the state of Tamil Nadu on 17.4.1997 in accordance with the powers conferred on the State under section-21 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. Tamil Nadu is one of the very few States which has constituted a Commission for the Human Rights.

CONSTITUTION OF STATE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, TAMIL NADU This Commission was constituted in accordance with the powers conferred on the State under section-21 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (Central Act 10 of 1994) the exercise the powers conferred upon and perform the functions assigned to it provided under this Act.Tamil Nadu is one of the very few States which has constituted a Commission for the Human Rights.It would not be out of place to mention that India was a party to the International covenant on civil and political rights and the international covenant to Economic, Social and Cultural rights, both of which were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16th December 1966 and the rights embodied in those covenants stood substantially protected by the Constitution of India. Having regard to this, and to the changing social realities and emerging trends in t nature of crime and violence, it had been considered essential to review the existing laws a procedure and the system of administration with a view to bringing about greater efficiency and transparency, the Government of India constituted National Human Rights Commission 12th October 1993 and for the same reasons and objects and with a view to provide easy a close access to the needy victims of violation, the State Human Rights Commission was constituted in the state of Tamil Nadu on 17.4.1997. At the time of constitution, Tamil Nadu was the fifth State to form this Commission, the others being the

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States of West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Himachal Pradesh. Two other States Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir have since constituted the State Commission. As under section 21 of the above Act, the Government in its order in G.O.Ms. 1465 1466 Public (L&O) Dept. dated 20.12.1996, constituted the State Human Rights Commission with the following members: a. A Chairperson who has been a Chief Justice of the High Court. b. One member who is or has been a judge of the High Court. c. One Member who is or has been a judge of the District Court. d. Two members to be appointed from amongst persons having knowledge of or practical experience, in matters relating to human rights. e. One Secretary not below the rank of the Secretary to Government who shall be the Executive Officer of the State Commission.

In accordance with section 22 of the Act, the Chairperson and Members of the Commission were appointed by the Governor on the basis or the recommendations of the Committee comprising the Chief Minister as the Chairperson and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly the Minister in charge of the Dept. of Home, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly as Members. In accordance with section 26 of the Act, the State Government has notified the salaries; allowances payable to the Chairperson and Members of the Commission as also the terms and conditions of their services in its order in G.O.Ms.No. 1465, Public (L&O) dated 20.12.1996.

In exercise of the powers conferred on it by Section 10 (2) of the Act, the Commission has issued regulations, governing the procedures to be followed in the conduct of its business and the same have been duly notified in the Government Gazette.

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UNIT - V PIONEERING INDIAN WOMEN JHANSI RANI LAKSHMI BAI: Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi 19 November 1828 – 18 June 1858), was an Indian queen of the Maratha princely state of Jhansi in North India currently present in Jhansi district in Uttar Pradesh, India. She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and became a symbol of resistance to the British Raj for Indian nationalists.

Rani Lakshmibai was born on 19 November 1828 in the town of Varanasi into a Marathi Karhade Brahmin family. She was named ManikarnikaTambe and was nicknamed Manu.Her father was MoropantTambe and her mother Bhagirathi Sapre (Bhagirathi Bai). Her parents came from Maharashtra. Her mother died when she was four years old. Her father worked for PeshwaBaji Rao II of Bithoor district. The Peshwa called her "Chhabili", which means "playful". She was educated at home, able to read and write, and was more independent in her childhood than others of her age; her studies included shooting, horsemanship, fencing and mallakhamba with her childhood friends Nana Sahib and Tatya Tope.[dubious – discuss] Rani Lakshmibai contrasted many of the patriarchal cultural expectations for women in India's society at this time. Rani Lakshmibai was accustomed to riding on horseback accompanied by a small escort between the palace and the temple although sometimes she was carried by palanquin. Her horses included Sarangi, Pavan and Baadal; according to historians she rode Baadal when escaping from the fort in 1858. The Rani Mahal, the palace of Rani Lakshmibai, has now been converted into a museum. It houses a collection of archaeological remains of the period between the 9th and 12th centuries AD.

Manikarnika was married to the Maharaja of Jhansi, GangadharRao Newalkar, in May 1842 and was afterwards called Lakshmibai (or Laxmibai) in honor of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi and according to the traditions. She gave birth to a boy, later named Damodar Rao, in 1851, who died after four months. The Maharaja adopted a child called Anand Rao, the son of Gangadhar Rao's cousin, who was renamed Damodar Rao, on the day before the Maharaja died. The adoption was in the presence of the British political officer who was given a letter from the Maharaja instructing that the child be treated with respect and that the government of Jhansi should be given to his widow for her lifetime.After the death of the Maharaja in November 1853, because Damodar Rao (born Anand Rao) was an adopted son, the British East India Company, under Governor-General Lord Dalhousie, applied the Doctrine of Lapse, rejecting Damodar Rao's claim to the throne and annexing the state to its territories. When she was informed of this she cried out "I shall not surrender my Jhansi" (Main apni Jhansi nahidoongi). In March 1854, Rani Lakshmibai was given an annual pension of Rs. 60,000 and ordered to leave the palace and the fort. According to Vishnu Bhatt Godse the Rani would exercise at weightlifting, wrestling and steeple chasing before breakfast. An intelligent and simply-dressed woman, she ruled in a business-like manner

ANNIE BESANT: Annie Besant (1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer, orator, educationist, and philanthropist. Regarded as a champion of human freedom, she was an ardent supporter of both Irish and Indian self-rule. She was a prolific author with over three hundred books and pamphlets to her credit. As an educationist, her contributions included the founding of the Banaras Hindu University. In 1867, Annie, at age 20, married Frank Besant, a clergyman, and they had two children. However, Annie's increasingly unconventional religious views led to their legal

Page 43 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 separation in 1873. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society (NSS), as well as a writer, and a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh. In 1877 they were prosecuted for publishing a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. The scandal made them famous, and Bradlaugh was subsequently elected M.P. for Northampton in 1880.

Thereafter, she became involved with union actions, including the Bloody Sunday demonstration and the London matchgirls strike of 1888. She was a leading speaker for both the Fabian Society and the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). She was also elected to the London School Board for Tower Hamlets, topping the poll, even though few women were qualified to vote at that time.

In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky, and over the next few years her interest in theosophy grew, whilst her interest in secular matters waned. She became a member of the Theosophical Society and a prominent lecturer on the subject. As part of her theosophy-related work, she travelled to India. In 1898 she helped establish the Central Hindu School, and in 1922 she helped establish the Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate Board in Mumbai, India. In 1902, she established the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le DroitHumain. Over the next few years she established lodges in many parts of the British Empire. In 1907 she became president of the Theosophical Society, whose international headquarters were, by then, located in Adyar, Madras, (Chennai).

She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress. When World War I broke out in 1914, she helped launch the Home Rule League to campaign for democracy in India, and dominion status within the British Empire. This led to her election as president of the Indian National Congress, in late 1917. In the late 1920s, Besant travelled to the United States with her protégé and adopted son JidduKrishnamurti, who she claimed was the new Messiah and incarnation of Buddha. Krishnamurti rejected these claims in 1929. After the war, she continued to campaign for Indian independence and for the causes of theosophy, until her death in 1933.

NIVETHITHA Sister born Margaret Elizabeth Noble; 28 October 1867 – 13 October 1911) was an Irish teacher, author, social activist, school founder and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She spent her childhood and early youth in Ireland. From her father, a college professor, she learned the ideal of service to mankind as the true service to God. She worked as a school teacher and later also opened a school. She was engaged to marry a Welsh youth, but he died soon after their engagement. Sister Nivedita met Swami Vivekananda in 1895 in London and travelled to Calcutta (present-day Kolkata), India in 1898. Swami Vivekananda gave her the name Nivedita (meaning "Dedicated to God") when he initiated her into the vow of Brahmacharya on 25 March 1898. In November 1898, she opened a girls' school in the Bagbazar area of Calcutta. She wanted to educate girls who were deprived of even basic education. During the plague epidemic in Calcutta in 1899, Nivedita nursed and took care of the poor patients. Nivedita had close associations with the newly established Ramakrishna Mission. Because of her active contribution in the field of Indian Nationalism, she had to publicly dissociate herself from the activities of the Ramakrishna Mission under the then president Swami Brahmananda. She was very close to Sarada Devi, the spiritual consort of Ramakrishna and one of the major influences behind Ramakrishna Mission, and also with all brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda. She died on 13 October 1911 in Darjeeling. Her epitaph reads, "Here lies Sister Nivedita who gave her all to India”

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PANDIT RAMABAI PanditaRamabaiSarasvati (23 April 1858 – 5 April 1922) was an Indian social reformer, a pioneer in the education and emancipation of women in India. She was the first woman to be accorded the titles of Pandita as a Sanskrit scholar and Sarasvati after being examined by the faculty of the University of Calcutta. She was one of the 10 women delegates of the Congress session of 1889. In the late 1890s, she founded Mukti Mission at Kedgaon village, forty miles east of the city of Pune. The mission was later named PanditaRamabaiMukti Mission.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION PanditaRamabaiSarasvati was born as Rama Dongre on 23 April 1858 in a Marathi speaking Brahmin family but later she adopted Christianity in England. Her father, AnantShastriDongre, a Sanskrit scholar, taught her Sanskrit at home. Orphaned at the age of 16 during the Great Famine of 1876–78, Dongre and her brother Srinivas traveled over India reciting Sanskrit scriptures. Ramabai's fame as a lecturer reached Calcutta, where the pandits invited her to speak. In 1878, Calcutta University, conferred on her the titles of Pandita and Sarasvati in recognition of her knowledge of various Sanskrit works. The theistic reformer Keshab Chandra Sen gave her a copy of the Vedas, the most sacred of all Hindu literature, and encouraged her to read them. After the death of Srinivas in 1880, Ramabai married BipinBehariMedhvi, a Bengali lawyer. The groom was a Bengali Kayastha, and so the marriage was inter-caste and inter-regional and therefore considered inappropriate for that age. They were married in a civil ceremony on 13 November 1880. The couple had a daughter whom they named Manorama. After Medhvi's death in 1882, Ramabai, who was only 23, moved to Pune and founded an organization to promote women's education.

SOCIAL ACTIVISM After Medhvi's death (1882), Ramabai moved to Pune where she founded Arya MahilaSamaj (Arya Women's Society). The purpose of the society was to promote the cause of women's education and deliverance from the oppression of child marriage. When in 1882 a commission was appointed by Government of India to look into education, Ramabai gave evidence before it. In an address to Lord Ripon's Education Commission, she declared with fervor, "In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the educated men of this country are opposed to female education and the proper position of women. If they observe the slightest fault, they magnify the grain of mustard-seed into a mountain, and try to ruin the character of a woman." She suggested that teachers be trained and women school inspectors be appointed. Further, she said that as the situation in India was that women's conditions were such that women could only medically treat them, Indian women should be admitted to medical colleges. Ramabai's evidence created a great sensation and reached Queen Victoria. It bore fruit later in starting of the Women's Medical Movement by Lord Dufferin. Ramabai went to Britain in 1883 to start medical training; she was rejected from medical programs because of progressive deafness. During her stay she converted to Christianity. From Britain she traveled to the United States in 1886 to attend the graduation of her relative and the first female Indian doctor, Anandibai Joshi, staying for two years. During this time she also translated textbooks and gave lectures throughout the United States and Canada. She had also published one of her most important book, The High-Caste Hindu Woman. This was also the first book that she wrote in English. Ramabai dedicated this book to Dr. Joshi, The High-Caste Hindu Woman-to be specific a Brahmin woman which showed the darkest aspects of the life of Hindu women, including child brides and child widows, sought to expose the oppression of women in Hindu-dominated British India. In 1896, during a severe famine, Ramabai toured the villages of Maharashtra with

Page 45 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 a caravan of bullock carts and rescued thousands of outcast children, child widows, orphans, and other destitute women and brought them to the shelter of Mukti and SharadaSadan. A learned woman knowing seven languages, she also translated the Bible into her mother tongue—Marathi—from the original Hebrew and Greek.By 1900 there were 1,500 residents and over a hundred cattle in the Mukti mission and she was also involved in establishing a Church at Mukti. The PanditaRamabaiMukti Mission is still active today, providing housing, education, vocational training, etc. for many needy groups including widows, orphans, and the blind.

SAROJINI NAIDU Sarojini Naidu (née Chattopadhyay; 13 February 1879 – 2 March 1949) was an Indian political activist and poet. A proponent of civil rights, women's emancipation, and anti- imperialistic ideas, she was an important figure in India's struggle for independence from colonial rule. Naidu's work as a poet earned her the sobriquet Nightingale of India.

Born in a Bengali family in Hyderabad, Naidu was educated in Chennai, London and Cambridge. Following her time in England, where she worked as a suffragist, she was drawn to Indian National Congress' movement for India's independence from British rule. She became a part of the Indian nationalist movement and became a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and his idea of swaraj. She was appointed the President of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and later became the Governor of the United Provinces in 1947, becoming the first woman to hold the office of Governor in the Dominion of India.

Naidu's poetry includes both children's poems and others written on more serious themes including patriotism, romance, and tragedy. Published in 1912, "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad" remains one of her most popular poems. She was married to Govindarajulu Naidu, a general physician and had five children with him. She died of a cardiac arrest on 2 March 1949.

INDIRA GANDHI Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress she was the first and, to date, only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. She served as prime minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father.

Gandhi served as her father's personal assistant and hostess during his tenure as prime minister between 1947 and 1964. She was elected President of the Indian National Congress in 1959. Upon her father's death in 1964, she was appointed as a member of the RajyaSabha (upper house) and became a member of LalBahadurShastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. In the Congress Party's parliamentary leadership election held in early 1966 (upon the death of Shastri), she defeated her rival Morarji Desai to become leader, and thus succeeded Shastri as Prime Minister of India.

As prime minister, Gandhi was known for her political intransigency and unprecedented centralization of power. She went to war with Pakistan in support of the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in an Indian victory and the creation of Bangladesh, as well as increasing India's influence to the point where it became

Page 46 of 48 STUDY MATERIAL FOR B.A HISTORY WOMEN’S STUDIES SEMESTER - VI, ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 - 21 the leading regional power of South Asia. Citing separatist tendencies, and in response to a call for revolution, Gandhi instituted a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 where basic civil liberties were suspended and the press was censored. Widespread atrocities were carried out during the emergency. In 1980, she returned to power after free and fair elections. After Gandhi ordered military action in the Golden Temple in Operation Blue Star, her own bodyguards and Sikh nationalists assassinated her on 31 October 1984.

In 1999, Indira Gandhi was named "Woman of the Millennium" in an online poll organised by the BBC. In 2020 Gandhi was named by the Time magazine among world's 100 powerful women who defined the last century.

MUTHULAKSHMI REDDI Muthulakshmi Reddy, spelled Reddi in some British Indian sources, (30 July 1886 Madras – 22 July 1968) was an Indian medical practitioner, social reformer and Padma Bhushan award recipient. Muttulakshmi Reddy was appointed to the Madras Legislative Council in 1926. This nomination marked the beginning of her lifelong effort to "correct the balance for women by removing social abuses and working for equality in moral standards″. She was a women's activist and social reformer. She had a number of firsts to her name: the first female student to be admitted into a men's college, the first woman House Surgeon in the Government Maternity and Ophthalmic Hospital, the first woman Legislator in British India, the first Chairperson of the State Social Welfare Advisory Board, the first woman Deputy President of the Legislative Council, and the first Alderwoman of the Madras Corporation AvvaiHome.

Reddy was born in the princely state of Pudukkottai of Tamil Nadu. In spite of various constraints faced by girls in India of her time, she completed her higher education and was admitted into the medical profession. In 1907, she joined the Madras Medical College, where she achieved a brilliant academic record. With several gold medals and prizes to her credit, Reddy graduated in 1912 to become one of the first female doctors in India. Soon after, she came under the influence of Annie Besant, and then of Mahatma Gandhi. Her father was S. NarayanaswamiIyer, the Principal of Maharaja's College. Her mother was Chandrammal, a Devadasi. Her father was ostracised from his family because of his marriage to a Devadasi. She developed a close relationship with the maternal side of her family, and this closeness made her very perceptive of the Devadasi community and their issues. NarayanaswamiIyer broke the tradition and sent Muthulakshmi to school. Her enthusiasm for learning was so great that Muthulakshmi's teachers decided to instruct her in subjects beyond those approved by her father. At the onset of puberty, she was obliged to leave school, but tutoring continued at home. Chandrammal wanted to search for a bridegroom but Muthulakshmi had different aspirations. She expressed a need to be different from the common lot. She was against the subordination of women to men and rebelled whenever she heard people say that only boys needed education.

When Reddy passed the Matriculation exam she applied for admission to Maharaja's College but her application was not welcomed by the Principal or the parents of other students. Her gender was a factor as was her background. The Principal thought she might "demoralize" the male students. The somewhat enlightened Maharaja of Pudukottai ignored these objections, admitted her to the college, and gave her a scholarship. Her father suggested that she can become a school teacher but she had higher aspirations. She entered Madras Medical College, completed her studies in 1912, and became House Surgeon in the Government Hospital for Women and Children in Chennai.

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She later married Sundara Reddy with the proviso that he promised to "always respect me as an equal and never cross my wishes." In 1914, when she was twenty-eight years of age, they married in accordance with the 1872 Native Marriage Act.

WOMEN AND SELF HELP GROUPS Self Help Group (SHG) is a group of 12 to 20 women of the same socio-economic background who come forward voluntarily to work together for their own upliftment.The unique feature of the SHG is its ability to inculcate among its members sound habits of thrift, savings and bankingRegular savings, periodic meetings, compulsory attendance, and systematic training are the salient features of the SHG concept. Each group selects one animator and two representatives from among themselves. The animator is responsible for providing leadership to the group and to maintain the various registers. The representatives assist the animator and maintain the bank accounts of the group.

SHGS 1. Self Help Groups consist of 12-20 BPL women members in the age group 18-60 years residing in the same area. 2. NGOs and PLFs affiliated with TNCDW undertake the formation of SHGs. 3. They are trained to become cohesive as a group through regular meetings and encouraged to cultivate savings habit. 4. Capacity Building Programme such as SHG and A & R training are imparted to the Group members and within a period of six months. 5. After a period of 6 months, SHGs are rated for Credit Linkage by a Committee consisting of Bankers, APOs, NGOs, Block level officer and PLF Representative. 6. For the eligible Credit rated SHGS, credit facilities are largely made available through Banks, both for revolving fund and economic activity. 7. Other sources of funding for Credit linkage are SGSY, TAHDCO, NABARD & SJSRY 8. Under various Skill Training Programmes, eligible SHG members are encouraged to start economic activities or undertake self-employment. 9. Efforts are made by TNCDW for marketing the products produced by SHGs wherever possible locally and for sale in exhibitions.

In order to enable all poor women living below poverty line to join and benefit from the Self Help Group movement, the group formation is undertaken with special focus on NREGS women workers, urban slum dwellers and in Village Panchayats where SHG coverage is still inadequate. Hence, Tamil Nadu will have the distinction of enrolling all women living below the poverty line into SHG movement.

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