Previous year question

Write short notes

Gender issues

Social construction of gender

Analyse the impact of feminist thought on the status of women. 60

Examine the impact of globalization on women. 60

Discuss how we can see masculinity and femininity as socially constructed. 60

Discuss the social construction of gender inequality with special reference to tradition bound
societies like India. 60

Feminist Theories that Explain Subordinate Position of Women

There have been different theoretical explanations for the subordinate position of women in various
spheres of society, be it in the family, community, economy or polity. These theories both seek to
explain as well as suggest strategies to change the status of women in society.

Liberal Feminism

The perspective of liberal feminism, which was flourished in the 1960s, has its origin in the
enlightenment period — the age of reason and individualism. In liberal feminism the sex role
differences of men as bread earner and of women as bearer and rearer of children are accepted with
a proviso that both are considered equal. They argued that women are rational beings rather than
sexual beings. They believed that the legal subordination of one sex to other is wrong. Hence, they
should have civil rights, the right to vote and must be given education so that they can be better
mother and wives as well as have equality vis-à-vis men. Thus, the liberal feminists argued for equal
rights for women but accepted the existing social order as valid and advocated for the improvement
of the social customs and institutional laws, attitudes without altering the social structure,
particularly the family. They did not believe in the radical restructuring of the society, but
accumulation of reforms will transfer the society. Although they believed in equality, they could not
explain the roots of inferior status of women in the society. The main criticism against this theory is
that it has overlooked the necessary connection between sexual oppression, sexual division of
labour and economic class structure.

Radical Feminism

The demand of radical feminists is the destruction of patriarchy. The main contention of radical
feminism, a perspective that originated towards the end of 1960s, is that the roots of inferior status
of women in society lies in the biological factors, the hierarchical sexual division of society and the
social construction of sex roles in the society. They argued that the biological distinction of male and
female is used for distinguishing the social functions and power. The sex role distinctions in the
society justify the gender inequality. The sex role distinctions are maintained in the patriarchy
through the sexual division of labour in the family and society. Patriarchy’s chief institution is family
where sexual division of labour is perpetuated through sexual division of labour. The radical
feminists ask for the dissolution of the institution of family and the action programme that they put
forward for gender equality are sexual preferences, control over one’s body, free sexual experience
and collective child care. They argue for a sexual revolution to overthrow male dominance.
Socialist Feminism

According to the socialist feminist view women’s inferior status rooted in private property and class-
divided society. Like radical feminists they also believed that institution of family is instrumental in
maintaining the inferior status of women in society. For them power is derived from sex and class
and this is manifested materially and ideologically in patriarchy and class relations. The
powerlessness of women in society is rooted in four basic structures: those of production,
reproduction, sexuality and socialization of children. Family and economy are vitally interacting
systems and the unequal and hierarchical sex roles operate both in the domains of family and
economy. Overthrowing of capitalism by itself will not mean transformation of patriarchal ideology.
It would be necessary to organize struggles simultaneously against capitalism and patriarchy.

All the three perspectives agree to the existence of gender roles in the society and while the liberal
feminists do not view the interconnection between gender roles and gender disparity, the other two
perspectives believe the existence and perpetuation of gender roles in the family and society as
responsible for the gender disparity in the society. They also believe that various societal agencies
play a proactive role in constructing, maintaining and perpetuating gender and gender roles, which
favours the subordination of women in the society.

Social Construction of Gender

Gender is a social, psychological and cultural construct and it is developed in the process of
socialisation. Different societies and cultures may therefore have different understandings of what is
‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’. Societies create norms and expectations related to gender, and these are
learned in the course of people’s lives – including in the family, at school, through the media. All of
these influences impose certain roles and patterns of behaviour on everyone within society. Gender
norms – often limited to notions of masculinity and femininity – change over time, but are usually
based on a heteronormative order which stipulates that there are two sexes (genders) and they are
attracted to each other. People who do not appear to fall under this binary notion of gender often
suffer from exclusion, discrimination and violence.

Gender is both an analytical category – a way of thinking about how identities are constructed – and
a political idea which addresses the distribution of power in society.

Gender norms are learned and internalised by all members of society.

Gender norms vary across different cultures and over time.

Traditional gender norms are hierarchical: they presuppose an unequal power structure related to
gender that disadvantages mostly women.

Gender is not necessarily defined by biological sex: a person’s gender may or may not correspond to
their biological sex. Gender is more about identity and how we feel about ourselves. People may
self-identify as male, female, transgender, other or none (indeterminate/unspecified). People that
do not identify as male or female are often grouped under the umbrella terms ‘non-binary’ or
‘genderqueer’, but the range of gender identifications is in reality unlimited.

Gender is deeply personal to every individual: some people recognise their gender identity early in
childhood, and some only later on.
Gender intersects with other categories, such as class, skin colour, ethnicity, religion or disability.
Read more about intersectionality.

Gender is something we express (gender expression), sometimes intentionally, and sometimes

without thinking. We communicate our gender in a number of ways, for example by the way we
dress, the way we move, our hair style, and the way we interact with others21.

Gender expression can vary for an individual from day to day or in different situations, but most
people can identify a range on the scale where they feel the most comfortable. Some people are
comfortable with a wider range of gender expression than others.

Gender may appear to be a complicated idea, but once the biological determinism common in
everyday thinking about differences between women and men is challenged, it becomes easier to
understand gender.

Aspects of sex will not vary substantially between different human societies and over time, while
aspects of gender may vary greatly.