SUBJECT: GENDER STUDIES

PRESENTED BY: MAHIMA AGARWAL

Talking about the gender inequalities prevalent even today makes my heart bleed with despair and
immense disappointment as to how could it be a welcome sign for a progressive, modern society.
Gender studies is not only studying about the lives of women in general but also, studying about
how the hierarchal society still dominates the social realm, about how there are still so many
inequalities in the name of an equal platform being offered to men and women, about how it’s not
only the opposite sexes pulling each other down but women pulling other women down in the name
of competition and insecurities that they have been brought up with.

Why is it that a biological phenomenon responsible for bringing humans to the world still
considered a taboo and women still find it hard to openly express what they go through? Why is it
that only women have been asked to dress appropriately and not men being thought how to
conduct? Why is it that girls are expected to be a virgin while getting married while there are no
biological tests for men to be tested for the same?
A Quote from Manusmriti says:
pitā rakṣati kaumāre bhartā rakṣati yauvane |
rakṣanti sthavire putrā na strī svātantryamarhati ||
Meaning: The father guards her during virginity, the husband guards her in youth, the sons guard
her in old age; the woman is never fit for independence.
How have phrases like these even been scripted? How can something that is biologically created be
a reason for defining a social performance. Sex is something that is biologically constructed and has
been understood for something that cannot be changed. But gender has been socially constructed
and it’s time for it to be socially destructed.No wonder the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ have been
universally used interchangeably these days. To stereotypically tell that women can only cook and
men can only go to offices, that nurses can be women but doctors have to be men, that teachers can
be women but professors have to be men is enough evidence to show how women in general have
been expected to be chained down to the ground level and only men are allowed to fly.