a hv Mu rd l U a GOJe& cetue: (Roots Upwards) An inter-disciplinary journal focusing on women and related issues Vol. 12 April 2019 Urdhva Mula 2019 vol. 12 Urdhva Mula (Roots Upwards) An Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies Journal The motto “UrdhvaMula” i.e. roots upwards. Two simple words, which can instil hope and courage when one is faced with various challenges of life. (from The Bhagavad Gita) 1 Urdhva Mula 2019 vol. 12 CONTENTS EDITORIAL ARTICLES Women Studies in Academic Disciplines: 6 Disciplining the Disciplines - Prof. Maithreyi Krishnaraj Transgression versus Transcendence an Analysis of 54 Dynamics of Women’s Sexuality in the Indian Epics Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata - Dr. Sarla Santwani Women, Work and Empowerment: 70 A Case Study of the IT Sector - Priyanka Dwivedi The promise of the #MeToo movement for preventing and 83 reporting sexual harassment - Dr. Linda Lane Contribution of Socio-Cultural Factors in 96 Crime against Women - Dr. Jasmine Damle Identities and Negotiations between Women Householders and 113 Domestic Workers: A Case Study of Select Areas of Aligarh - Dr. Tauseef Fatima and Dr. Shafey Anwarul Haque Workplace Discrimination against Women in 130 the Formal Sector: Bias in the Quality of Work in the Metropolitan Cities of India - Dr. Sampriti Biswas 2 Urdhva Mula 2019 vol. 12 BOOK REVIEW Political Feminism in India an Analysis of Actors, 152 Debates and Strategies - Dr. Shital Tamakuwala Women’s Employment: Work in Progress 156 - Ms Damyanty Sridharan STATEMENTS AIDWA and FAOW 158 SC judges in matter of Complaint of 158 sexual harassment against CJI ABOUT AUTHORS List of Publications of Sophia Centre for Women’s Studies and Development ---------------- 3 Urdhva Mula 2019 vol. 12 EDITORIAL The whole world is shaken by the brutal gang rape of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in Hyderabad on November 28, 2019 by 4 young men in their twenties. Public outcry all over the country resulted in the Hyderabad police killing the 4 rapists in an encounter killing on 6-12-2019. This has raised major concern about how we raise our boys, symbolic protests and erosion of due process of criminal justice system. Popular support to the police action of ‘instant justice’ shows helplessness, restlessness and frustration of common people in response to increasing sexual harassment, stalking and brutal sexual violence of women in the streets and public places. In a neoliberal world marked by cut-throat competition, individuation and private greed, patriarchal control over women’s sexuality, fertility and labour have been intensified in an unprecedented manner. This is wiping out the legacy of collective endeavour and collective wisdom of women’s studies. In this difficult time of women’s studies as an academic discipline, veteran scholar Maithreyi Krishnaraj’s article serves as a conscience keeper and reminds us of discipline-wise construction of knowledge done by the pioneer women’s studies scholars. She shows the way the Indian philosophical tradition assigns subordinate status of women. Dr. Sarla Santwani’s well researched article provides an analysis of Transgression versus Transcendence in the Indian Epics such as Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata with regards to women’s sexuality. She critically reflects on double standard of sexual morality for men and women by deconstructing several plots and subplots of these two epics. Priyanka Dwivedi’s article is based on ethnographic research and semi structured interviews of women in Information Technology service businesses in Bangalore focuses on gender-based discrimination of women working in the IT sector and remedies to create an ecosystem for their empowerment. Linda Lane, in her article reflects on the promise of #MeToo movement for reporting and preventing sexual harassment (SH). The article engages with definitions of sexual harassment and theories of whistleblowing dialogue with 4 Urdhva Mula 2019 vol. 12 illustrative #MeToo narratives to discuss why reports of SH take long time to surface and why they may remain unreported and unaddressed. Contribution of socio-cultural factors in crime against women in India is examined by Jasmine Damle with special focus on Nirbhaya gang rape in Delhi (2012), Shakti Mills gang rape in Mumbai (2013), Kopardi gang rape Case in Maharashtra (2013 Gang rape of a Dalit girl in Khairlanji, Maharashtra. Tauseef Fatima and Shafey Anwarul Haque’s article is based on paid and unpaid work of women and brings out nuances of identities and negotiations between women Householders and domestic workers in select areas of Aligarh. Workplace discrimination against women in the formal sector in the Metropolitan India is profiled in the article by Sampriti Biswas that suggests that he women need to be given way more meaningful work which is rich not only in intrinsic rewards that is self-satisfaction but also in extrinsic rewards such as promotions from the company, higher pay, opportunities for enhancement of skills. The review of Vibhuti Patel and Radhika Khajuria’s book, Political Feminism in India An Analysis of Actors, Debates and Strategies by Dr. Shital Tamakuwala captures current discourses marked by intersectionality in the women’s movement in India. Damyanty Sridharan has reviewed an edited book by Pamela Philipose and Aditi Bishnoi on Women’s Employment: Work in Progress that provides a kaleidoscopic view of women’s work in different sectors of the rural, urban and tribal economy in India. This issue has also included statements by AIDWA and FAOW on SC judges in matter of Complaint of sexual harassment against CJI. We invite authors to send their original research-based articles, book reviews, statements, poems, obituaries of women studies scholars and women activists for publication in this peer reviewed and globally circulated journal. Vibhuti Patel --------------- 5 Urdhva Mula 2019 vol. 12 ARTICLES Women Studies in Academic Disciplines: Disciplining the Disciplines - Maithreyi Krishnaraj Let us relook at different disciplines in specific ways to note how women’s Studies (WS) intervened in interrogating established disciplines and in modifying them. Disciplines are domains of inquiry that share objects of study, problems for investigation, values, terms, concepts, methods and assumptions, governed by a general set of rules and categories guiding the pursuit of knowledge. Many feminist scholars are trained in one or the other of academic disciplines and work within their disciplines. Within its own limits, each discipline, recognizes true or false propositions. What feminist scholars have done is to push back the acknowledged territory of a discipline beyond its conventional borders. This has resulted in a process of destabilising the informal boundaries between disciplines. Anthropology, cultural anthropology, sociology, economics, politics and social psychology have been drawn upon in varying ways. The form this has taken is to open up new and substantive topics (for example, the issue of dowry in economic analysis) where they were hitherto considered outside the discipline. Real inter-disciplinarily implies not simply the use of more than one discipline to solve a problem or analyse an issue but also the integration of disciplines to create a new epistemology, to rebuild the prevailing structure of knowledge by creating new organising concepts, methodologies, skills and a reciprocal assimilation of disciplines. We have made forays but not arrived at a well-defined and integrated realm. WS began by critiquing why established disciplines had fault lines with regard to portrayal of women. The following are some of these inconsistencies: Taking what applies to males as equally applicable to females Make 'Man' stand for human disregarding 'woman' Recording the experiences of men only Regarding the experiences of men as more important If including women, to do so from the point of view of men Women not having had a chance to build theories 6 Urdhva Mula 2019 vol. 12 In other words, omission, bias, distortion in the representation of social reality characterised existing disciplines. (Allen and Kitch, 1998; Armstrong ed. (1992) In a single essay one can neither deal with all disciplines nor examine each in detail. I propose therefore, to point out the major departures that have given us a better understanding of society. We take up social sciences like anthropology, sociology, economics, politics and psychology and among the humanities philosophy, history and literature briefly. We include some new feminist investigation of science. Finally, we take note of some important methodological departures that spring from epistemological dissent. Anthropology Anthropology has had a significant influence on women studies because its cross-cultural studies yield material for verifying whether general propositions of universal women's oppression are true; if some societies are better at according status to women, to identify factors that contribute to 'better' status. Sanday (1981), Leacock, (1981, 1983), Ardner (1986), Reiter (1982), Dube (1986. 1988. 1993, 2001) These pioneers have enriched our knowledge of gender in different cultures and have given us not merely a perspective but some conceptual categories Dube showed how the symbolism of seed as male contribution and earth as woman’s contribution in reproduction gave primacy to male role in reproduction. Sanday argued how what determines status is the public role of women. Leacock dismissed the idea of male dominance by citing the important role women who as food gatherers played a significant role. Ardner Historically, women were the property of men (Hierschon, 1984). Various factors that have been identified are: systems of marriage (monogamy, polygamy, polyandry) and inheritance (male or female line); economic participation of women, distinction between private and public, and symbolic articulation of the relative importance of male- female contribution to reproduction. Sanday (1981) seeks to answer why there is a power difference between men and women. Why is it that in some societies women seem to play a more prominent role than in others? She notes that some clothe sacred symbols of creative power in the guise of female while others do so as male.