Gender, Religion and caste Flashcards
What is gender division based on?
social
expectations and stereotypes.
Describe sexual division of labour.
OR
public/private division
- Boys and girls are brought up to believe that the main responsibility of women is
housework and bringing up children. This is reflected in a SEXUAL DIVISION OF
LABOUR in most families: women do all work inside the home such as cooking,
cleaning, washing clothes, tailoring, looking after children, etc., and men do
all the work outside the home. - It is not that men cannot do housework; they simply think that it is for women to
attend to these things. When these jobs are paid for, men are ready to take up
these works. - Most tailors or cooks in hotels are men. Similarly, it is not that women do not work outside their home. In villages, women fetch water, collect fuel and work in the fields.
- In urban areas, poor women work as domestic helper in middle class homes, while middle class women work in offices. In fact the majority of women do some sort of paid work in addition to domestic labour. But their work is not
valued and does not get recognition.
Result of division of labour
- The result of this division of labour is that although women constitute half
of the humanity, their role in public life, especially politics, is minimal in most
societies. - Earlier, only men were allowed to participate in public affairs, vote and
contest for public offices. Gradually the gender issue was raised in politics. - Women in different parts of the world organised and agitated for equal rights.
There were agitations in different countries for the extension of voting
rights to women. These agitations demanded enhancing the political and
legal status of women and improving their educational and career opportunities. - More radical women’s movements aimed at equality in personal and family life as well. These movements are called FEMINIST movements.
How did the political expression of gender division and political mobilization improve women’s role in public life?
Political expression of gender division and political mobilisation helped to improve women’s role in public life. We now find women working as scientists, doctors, engineers, lawyers, managers and college and university teachers which were earlier not considered suitable for women. In some
parts of the world, for example in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden,
Norway and Finland, the participationof women in public life is very high.
Oppression, Disadvantage and discrimination faced by women.
- The literacy rate among women is only 54 per cent compared with 76 per
cent among men. Similarly, a smaller proportion of girl students go for higher
studies. When we look at school results, girls perform as well as boys, if not
better in some places. But they drop out because parents prefer to spend their
resources for their boys’ education rather than spending equally on their sons and
daughters. - No wonder the proportion of women among the highly paid and
valued jobs is still very small. On an average an Indian woman works one
hour more than an average man every day. Yet much of her work is not paid
and therefore often not valued. - The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 provides that equal wages should be
paid to equal work. However in almost all areas of work, from sports and
cinema, to factories and fields, women are paid less than men, even when both
do exactly the same work. - In many parts of India parents prefer to have sons and find ways to
have the girl child aborted before she is born. Such sex-selective abortion led to
a decline in child sex ratio (number of girl children per thousand boys) in the
country to merely 919.
What has led to the rise of feminists and women movements?
Women representation has led many feminists and women’s movements
to the conclusion that unless women control power, their problems will not
get adequate attention. One way to ensure this is to have more women as
elected representatives.
Describe women’s political representation in India.
- In India, the proportion of women in legislature has been very low. For
example, the percentage of elected women members in Lok Sabha has
touched 12 per cent of its total strength for the first time in 2014. Their share in
the state assemblies is less than 5 per cent. - In this respect, India is among the bottom group of nations in the world . India is behind the averages for several developing countries of Africa and Latin America.
- In the government, cabinets are largely all-male even when a woman becomes the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister.
Solution to Women’s representation in politics.
- One way to solve this problem is to make it legally binding to have a fair
proportion of women in the elected bodies. This is what the Panchayati Raj
has done in India. One-third of seats in local government bodies – in panchayats
and municipalities – are now reserved for women. Now there are more than
10 lakh elected women representatives in rural and urban local bodies. - Women’s organisations and activists have been demanding a similar reservation of at least one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women. A bill with this proposal has been pending before the Parliament for more than a decade. But there is no consensus over this among all the political parties. The bill has not been passed.
What is the religious composition in Northern Ireland?
In the case of Northern Ireland, even when most of the people belong to the same
religion, there can be serious differences about the way people practice that
religion.
Ways in which religion is expressed in politics.
- Gandhiji used to say that religion can never be separated from politics. What
he meant by religion was not any particular religion like Hinduism or Islam
but moral values that inform all religions. He believed that politics must be guided
by ethics drawn from religion. - Human rights groups in our country have argued that most of the victims of
communal riots in our country are people from religious minorities. They
have demanded that the government take special steps to protect religious
minorities. - Women’s movement has argued that FAMILY LAWS of all religions
discriminate against women. So they have demanded that government should
change these laws to make them more equitable. - Ideas, ideals and values drawn from different religions can and perhaps should play a role in politics. People should be able to express in politics their needs, interests and demands as a member of a religious community.
Those who hold political power should sometimes be able to regulate the
practice of religion so as to prevent discrimination and oppression. These
political acts are not wrong as long as they treat every religion equally.
How is religion in politics, communal politics?
- The problem becomes more acute when religion is expressed
in politics in exclusive and partisan terms, when one religion and its followers are
pitted against another. - This happens when beliefs of one religion are presented as superior to those of other religions,
- when the demands of one religious group are formed in opposition to another .
- and when state power is used to establish domination of one religious
group over the rest.
Communalism involves thinking of: -
- The followers of a particular religion must belong to one community.
- Their fundamental interests are the same.
- Any difference that they may have is irrelevant or trivial for community life.
- It also follows that people who follow different religions cannot belong to the same social community.
- If the followers of different religion have some commonalities these are superficial and immaterial.
- Their interests are bound to be different and involve a conflict.
- In its extreme form communalism leads to the belief that people belonging to different religions cannot live as equal citizens within one nation.
- Either, one of them has to dominate the rest or they have to form different nations.
Why does the situation become critical when communalism is involved?
People of one religion do not have the same interests and aspirations in every
context. Everyone has several other roles, positions and identities. There are many
voices inside every community. All these voices have a right to be heard. Therefore any attempt to bring all followers of one religion together in context other than religion is bound to suppress many voices within that community.
Forms in which communalism is expressed in politics.
- The most common expression of communalism is in everyday beliefs.
These routinely involve religious prejudices, stereotypes of religious
communities and belief in the superiority of one’s religion over other religions. This is so common that we often fail to notice it, even when we believe in it. - A communal mind often leads to a quest for political dominance of one’s
own religious community. For those belonging to majority community, this
takes the form of majoritarian dominance. For those belonging to the
minority community, it can take the form of a desire to form a separate
political unit. - Political mobilisation on religious lines is another frequent form of communalism. This involves the use of sacred symbols, religious leaders,
emotional appeal and plain fear in order to bring the followers of one religion
together in the political arena. In electoral politics this often involves special appeal to the interests or emotions of voters of one religion in preference to others. - Sometimes communalism takes its most ugly form of communal violence,
riots and massacre. India and Pakistan suffered some of the worst communal
riots at the time of the Partition. The post-Independence period has also seen
large scale communal violence.
Why did the makers of the constitution choose a secular model for our country.
Communalism was and continues to be one of the major challenges to
democracy in our country. The makers of our Constitution were aware of this
challenge. That is why they chose the model of a secular state.
