Gender Studies

GENDER STUDIES II SEMESTER 2019 Admission MA SOCIOLOGY (SOC2 C08) UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT School of Distance Education Calicut University- P.O, Malappuram- 673635, Kerala 190358 School of Distance Education UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT School of Distance Education Study Material II Semester MA SOCIOLOGY 2019 Admission (SOC2 C08) GENDER STUDIES Prepared by: Smt. Barsheena Mumthas. P, Assistant Professor on Contract, Department of Sociology, University of Calicut. Scrutinized by: Dr. Leela P.U., Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, St. Teresa’s College, Ernakulam. Gender Studies 2 School of Distance Education CONTENTS MODULE 1: GENDER AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT MODULE 2: PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER MODULE 3: GENDER DYNAMICS IN INDIA MODULE 4: GENDER AND KERALA SOCIETY Gender Studies 3 School of Distance Education Gender Studies 4 School of Distance Education MODULE 1 GENDER AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT 1.1 Gender Studies: Genesis Of Women’s studies/gender studies 1.2 Basic Concepts - Sex/Gender, Gender identity, Gender Stereotypes, Gender discrimination, Gendered division of labour, Heteronormativity, LGBTIQ 1.3 Different waves of Feminism, Feminist Perspectives - Liberal, radical, Marxist, Socialist, Eco-feminism 1.1Gender Studies Genesis of Gender Studies Gender Studies is an academic area of study that critically examines how gender shapes our identities, our social interactions and our world. Through exposure to interdisciplinary perspectives, students develop a framework for thinking about power relations and the ways that those relations are shaped and challenged by intersecting constructions of gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, age and nationality. Gender Studies examines everyday experiences, social and political institutions, literary and philosophical contributions, and past and present ideas and world events. The discipline provides students with tools to engage with and critically analyze. Gender Studies is an inter-disciplinary area of study which engages critically with gender realities, gender norms, gender relations and gender identities from intersectional perspectives. To study gender intersectionality means to focus on the ways in which gender interrelates with other social categorizations such as ethnicity, class, sexuality identity, nationality, age, disability etc. Teachers and students of Gender Studies are diverse, but share a belief that women and men, girls and boys, are much more than just gendered stereotypes and cultural “dopes” who simply perform a pre-given gender/sex, defined by a heteronormative two-gender-model. In Gender Studies, we analyze how gender/sex interacts with other social distinctions such as ethnicity, class, sexuality identity, nationality, age, disability etc. We explore how gender, power and norms are intertwined and cannot be understood independently of social and cultural contexts. We scrutinize how various kinds of social injustice, for example, class- and ethnicity-based injustices, often haves strong gendered dimensions. A key focus of Gender Studies is the question: Gender Studies 5 School of Distance Education how to foster change, make space for diversity and for new kinds of social, cultural and ecological sustainability and equality. Gender Studies educates agents for change. History of Gender Studies Even though Gender Studies is a relatively a new phenomenon in higher education, it is today well established as an interdisciplinary field of study which draws on knowledge from humanities, social sciences, medicine, and natural science. The basis for the academic field of Gender Studies was in many countries laid in the 1970s, when women in Academia protested against the ways in which academic knowledge production made women invisible and ignored gendered power relations in society. Interdisciplinary study environments started to mushroom, among others in many European countries and in North America, where. So-called Women’s Studies Centers were set up, gathering critical teachers and students who wanted to study gender relations, and women, in particular. A common denominator for the development was strong links to women’s movements, activism, feminist ideas and practices. The research agenda was emancipatory, and the aim was to gather well founded scholarly arguments to further the political work for change in society, science and culture. Since the start in the 1970s, gender research has been inspired by and embedded in many different and sometimes partly overlapping scholarly traditions, such as empiricism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, post structuralism, critical studies of men and masculinities, critical race theory, critical studies of whiteness, intersectionality (Intersectionality is a term that was coined by American professor Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. The concept already existed but she put a name to it. The textbook definition states: The view that women experience oppression in varying configurations and in varying degrees of intensity). And postcolonial theory, queer studies, lesbian, gay, bi and Trans studies (so-called LGBT studies), critical studies of sexualities, body theory, sexual difference feminisms, black feminisms, ecological feminisms, animal studies, feminist techno science studies, materialist feminisms. The field of study has grown and expanded rapidly on a worldwide basis, and given rise to a diversity of specific national and regional developments. Feminist criticism and women’s studies It was feminist criticism of gender inequality in the 1970s that provided the impetus for gender studies. In Academe, moreover, it was initially a critical response to the lack of knowledge and interest that was shown in half of humanity. Women’s studies, as the subject came to be called, started to complement the knowledge base of various Gender Studies 6 School of Distance Education disciplines. It was considered necessary to add knowledge about women’s lives and conditions in order to ensure that the knowledge base was not biased and that ignorance about the situation of women did not lead to injustice. It was considered necessary to study the situation and fill knowledge gaps. However, it proved difficult to mainstream the results of women’s studies. They challenged and changed the overall disciplinary structure and in time disciplinary criticism grew stronger.They challenged and changed the overall disciplinary structure and in time disciplinary criticism grew stronger. The new insights were used to scrutinize academic traditions. Studies were made of the potential gender blindness of various disciplines, but more subtle questions were also raised about the influence of endocentric issues on all research. Established concepts and theories were reappraised. Attention was drawn to the discrimination of women researchers and women pioneers in various disciplines such studies, which may be characterized as complementary research, cannot be said to be state of the art today. The progress made varies in different disciplines and the task is by no means finished. Complementary research is almost always a necessary first step towards developing gender studies in a new field, and criticism of gender blindness in individual disciplines is still an important task. The main subject of women’s studies was the past and present position of women in society, i.e. not only the situation of women, but also their social relationships, including relationships between men and women. These studies also raised issues that could not be addressed either by the established disciplines or in the framework of women’s studies. It also became clear that it was not possible to understand the complex nature of social relationships solely by means of studies of women’s material circumstances, social affiliation, actions or failure to act etc. Historically and culturally determined conceptions of sex, or gender, proved to be important for people’s understanding of other people and the organization of social relationships. Gender Studies and Gender Theory Gender researchers study how people think, interpret, perceive, symbolize, feel, write, paint, dance, fantasize, wish, experience, define – in other words “construct” – what we normally call sex and what this word means and what it meant in the past. However, the epistemological dimension of gender studies does not deny the material, biological aspects. Ideas about the body, for example biological descriptions of Gender Studies 7 School of Distance Education the human body, have cultural and social consequences too. Biology is relevant to gender, not as an integral component but as a subject of research Gender is about sexuality and the labor market, processes and structures, science criticism and gender equality, culture and social organization, what exists and what might exist. It is about power and resources and figures of speech, body and soul, individuals and groups; about whether, and if so how, one gender is superior to the other and how such a situation has arisen and been reproduced. Gender is a specific object of study, but the issues could be formulated with reference to most of the things people do. It is therefore a wide-ranging and complex discipline. All gender researchers cannot know everything about gender, and many of them are not interested in gender studies outside their own subject. Others regard gender theory as a discipline in its own right that finds inspiration in other disciplines. The purpose of interdisciplinary gender studies is to understand gender from as many different viewpoints as possible. The knowledge obtained

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