Introduction:

Gender relations according to the critical discourse analysis in this study are paralleled as offered
by feminists in a literary approach that tends to be affirmative action (Irigaray, 1985; Kristeva,
1980). Both feminists present an affirmative action agenda as a form of disappointment with
other approaches that alienate themselves from social structures. The results of this study can be
a reference for the structural and cultural movement agenda in the fight for equality between men
and women relations through awareness and critical power through the use of language,
especially in the text of above article written on Gender Inequality in India but UNICEF INDIA.
Culturally the meaning of discrimination occurs, weakening, denial, and even domestication of
women by men through the text, especially in the above article written on Gender Inequality in
India but UNICEF INDIA. Kaplan & Robert (2002) call it ambiguous because modern society
should reconstruct the meaning of language that is more communicative, balanced and mutually
'regard', not reason that tends to hegemony texts and language meanings that weaken, deny, and
domesticate the opposite sex. Ambiguity in the perspective of cultural studies with the above
article is parallel to the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). (Fairclough, 1995;
Wodak & Meyer, 2001) call it the giving of meaning to language based on contextual and
historical experience with certain perspectives, including discriminating against women. Giving
meaning to language like that, Boldyrev & Dubrovskaya (2016) call it an attractive relationship
between language and socio-cultural context. Specifically, Mills (1995); Rezanova & Kogut,
(2015) shows, language texts are deliberately created by showing men and women in different
positions in social structures, and have a negative effect on social construction on an ongoing
basis.

What is Discourse?

Since its introduction to modern science the term 'discourse' has taken various, sometimes very
broad, meanings. In order to specify which of the numerous senses is analyzed in the paper under
discussion, it has to be defined properly. Originally the word 'discourse' comes from Latin
'discourses' which denoted 'conversation, speech'. Thus understood, however, discourse refers to
too wide an area of human life, therefore only discourse from the vantage point of linguistics,
and especially applied linguistics, is explained here. Discourse analysis is a qualitative method
that has been adopted and developed by social constructionists. Although discourse analysis can
and is used by a handful of cognitive psychologists, it is based on a view that is largely anti-
scientific, though not anti-research. Social constructionism is not easy to define, but it is
possible.

Seven criteria which have to be fulfilled to qualify either a written or a spoken text as a discourse
have been suggested by Beaugrande (1981). These include:

Cohesion: grammatical and logical relationship between parts of a sentence essential for its
interpretation

Coherence: the order of statements relates one another by sense.

Intentionality: the message has to be conveyed deliberately and consciously.

Acceptability: indicates that the communicative product needs to be satisfactory and the
audience approves it.

Informativeness: some new information has to be included in the discourse;

Situationality: circumstances in which the remark is made are important;

Intertextuality: reference to the world outside the text or the interpreters' schemata;

What Is Critical Discourse Analysis?

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies
the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by
text and talk in the social and political context. With such dissident research, critical discourse
analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social
inequality. Some of the tenets of CDA can already be found in the critical theory of the Frankfurt
School before the Second World War. Theory formation, description, and explanation, also in
discourse analysis, are socio-politically "situated," whether we like it or not. Reflection on the
role of scholars in society and the polity thus becomes an inherent part of the discourse analytical
enterprise. This may mean, among other things that discourse analysts conduct research in
solidarity and cooperation with dominated groups.

Fairclough’s Model
Fairclough has been identified as one of the pioneering figures in the CDA domain. His works
expand and develop the theoretical framework of CDA and have several applications in the
education domain. Fairclough focuses on analyzing discourse in the light of sociocultural change
in relation to discursive change. He considers discourse as a social practice that is produced by
social actors interactively in social life. Thus, discourse is not merely a set or a form of sentences
rather it reflects ideological implications and dominations. Fairclough (1989) tackles discourse
from three dimensions: 1. text (spoken or written), 2. Discourse practice including discourse
production, consumption and distribution, 3. Sociocultural practice Additionally, Fairclough sets
three levels of discourse analysis for these dimensions: description, interpretation, and
explanation. In the light of Fairclough’s model, discourse is analyzed and described linguistically
to figure out the discursive strategies, vocabularies, and discourse structures which then
interpreted and explained with relation to the social, societal and cultural background context to
find out underlying agenda of discourse. The current study adopts Fairclough’s model to
examine if there is a gender discrimination embedded in the articles written about the both
genders. The study utilizes Fairclough’s model to relate discursive structures to Indian cultural
and social structure. In light of Fairclough’s sociocultural model, the analysis of discourse starts
with analyzing the text (description). Text analysis is conducted via the analysis of the texture of
text, vocabulary, transitivity, modality, topicality, presupposition, and ambiguity. Words could
carry ideological implications. For instance, the overwording emphasizes certain connotations
and denotations that influence the addressees’ cognition and perception. The use of synonyms,
antonyms, euphemism, and metaphor creates and constructs ideological and social convictions.
Transitivity is a powerful technique in depicting the agency pattern in the discourse such as the
use of passive, back grounding, foregrounding, and nominalization. This interprets how language
influences peoples’ cognition, ideologies and convictions. To clarify the point more, the use of
repetition and metaphor could establish certain conceptions and beliefs in peoples’ mind.
Metaphor makes complex abstract senses understandable through creating certain semantic
maps.

Text analysis:

Text is one of the main pillars and central to the analysis on Fairclough model. Analysis of text is
strongly linked with the analysis of language used by people in real setting. This approach in the
beginning was named as ‘Critical Language Study’ as the special focus was to raise
consciousness of socially exploitative relation with special focus on language. Many adjectives ,
adverbs , nouns , pronouns , verbs , determiners , conjunctions and preposition are used in the
text . Let’s discuss one by one many adjective are used in the text e.g full , potential, their ,who ,
unequal , most , higher, disadvantaged, more , likely , developmentally, pre-school , large ,
greater, extensive , social, formal , Indian , global , powerful, diverse , most, due , patriarchal.
Adverb are used in the text e.g . Whenever, statistically , globally , just , only , where ,
also ,differently , freely , fully , deeply. Preposition are used in the text e.g . In , of , for ,
among ,and , across , while , on , that , at ,as .Pronoun are used in the text e.g . her , his , their ,
who, them, they . Determiner are used in the text e.g . every , those ,the, this . Nouns are used
in the text e.g. Child, gender , inequalities, lives, care, reality, India , girls , boys , homes,
communities , day, textbooks, movies, media, men, women, support, result, opportunities,
impacts, survival, rates birth, track, country, drop ,school , adolescence, experience, freedom,
face , limitations, ability , work , education, marriage, relationships, adulthood, quarter ,
workplace , leaders , fields ,rights . Many verbs are used in the text e.g reach , hinder , see,
deserves , participate die , tend , make , affecting, continue, expand, do enjoy, entrenched. In
order to be direct , clear and straightforward the writer has written most of the sentence in active
voice . But there are some sentences in passive voice which are very small in number .

Interpretation:

Discourse Practice, according to Fairclough (1995, p 58-59), have two facets:

institutional process (editorial procedures) and discourse process (changes the text goes through
in production and consumption). Interpretation involves the analysis of lexical choices, cohesion,
coherence and different stylistic features which focuses on the particular theme and broader
socio-political perspective of the speaker. This leads to the analysis above syntactic level. This
analysis can be divided into two sections. In the first section, there is analysis within the clauses
or sentences that highlights the Theme, Rheme, Given and New Information. In the second
section, there is analysis of relationship of the sentences or clauses with each other by focusing
on the four types of thematic progression. Informative Structure is developed through a series of
Theme, Rheme, Given and New Information. This creates an organization in the sentences of the
speech. They lend cohesion and coherence to the speech. We make sentences grammatically and
thematically correct by following the informative and thematic structure. This cohesion
heightens the impact of the message and feelings by the speakers. This gives a power to the
speaker to have a deep impact on the audience. It creates a logical sequence within the sentences.
The sequence of given and new information also help in making the speech effective. They serve
as a bridge between the speakers and the audience. Moreover, Mark and Unmark and Multiple
Themes function as a magnet to hold the whole discourse together. In the speech coherence is
developed through Given and New information. Audience gets from the speech only one theme
through the related sentences that show cohesion and coherence. During the editorial procedure
formal as well as contextual links have been used for making the text cohesive. Several cohesive
devices used by the writer can be pin-pointed. In the sentence given below a anaphoric reference
has been used where “ their ” refer back to girls and boys .

“Wherever they live in India girls and boys see gender inequality in their homes and
communities every day “

“girls tend to face extensive limitations on their ability to move freely and to make decisions
affecting their work, education, marriage and social relationships.”

“India will not fully develop unless both girls and boys are equally supported to reach their full
potential.”

Demonstrative determiners like “this, that” etc. have also been used at various places. One can
easily find the use of conjunctions like “but, and, because, otherwise” etc.

Thematic Progression of the speech is developed through Constant Theme Pattern. The selected
part of the speech is well knitted, well thought and well organized. It has been created with the
help of chain of related ideas and appropriate words focusing on the main idea. This technique
keeps the feeling of the audience intact. It encourages to get united and free them from the long
slavery. Only Constant Theme Pattern is followed in this speech the rest of the three patterns are
not used in the speech. Constant Theme Pattern aims at maintaining the emotional impact on the
audience by focusing on the main idea or theme. Throughout the speech, we find the repeation of
words and sentence. This is a very outstanding feature in this speech called repetition. The term
repetition is restricted to mean the case of exact copying of a certain previous unit in a text such
as a word, phrase or even a sentence (Leech, 1969). If we study the selected part of the speech
more carefully, it is easy for us to find many other examples of repetition used:

Globally girls have higher survival rates at birth, are more likely to be developmentally on track,
and just as likely to participate in preschool, but India is the only large country where more girls
die than boys. Girls are also more likely to drop out of school.

Here the phrase “ likely to” has been repeated three times.

In India girls and boys experience adolescence differently. While boys tend to experience
greater freedom, girls tend to face extensive limitations on their ability to move freely and to
make decisions affecting their work, education, marriage and social relationships.

Here the phrase “ tend to ” has been repeated four times.

Parallelism is another syntactic over-regularity. It refers to the exact repetition in equivalent

positions but it is different From the common repetition. To put it simply, parallelism means the
balancing of sentence elements that are grammatically equal. In this text writer uses parallelism
to create a strong rhythm to help the audience line up his ideas. Here are few examples:

Across India gender inequality results in unequal opportunities, and while it impacts on the lives
of both genders, statistically it is girls that are the most disadvantaged.

Globally girls have higher survival rates at birth, are more likely to be developmentally on
track, and just as likely to participate in preschool, but India is the only large country where
more girls die than boys. Girls are also more likely to drop out of school.

In India girls and boys experience adolescence differently. While boys tend to experience
greater freedom, girls tend to face extensive limitations on their ability to move freely and to
make decisions affecting their work, education, marriage and social relationships.

There are risks, violations and vulnerabilities girls face just because they are girls. Most of these
risks are directly linked to the economic, political, social and cultural disadvantages girls deal
with in their daily lives .

These example shows parallelism writer used these words again and again .

Explanation:
The article on which we are going to apply CDA is about Gender discrimination in article written
by UNICEF India. Gender inequality, or in other words, gender discrimination refers to unfair
rights between male and female based on different gender roles which leads to unequal treatment
in life. The concept gender inequality has been widely known in human history but not until the
beginning the 20th century has the transformation of gender relations become “one of the most
rapid, profound social changes” (Wright & Rogers 2009). It is the discrimination on the basis
of sex or gender causing one sex or gender to be routinely privileged or prioritized over another.
Gender equality is a fundamental human right and that right is violated by gender-based
discrimination. Indian society has never been liberal and generous towards females.
Unfortunately, this discrimination continues in one form or the other even now. There have been
many reforms to empower women, however, in certain states of India there is a great imbalance
in the male-female ratio. According to the census 2011, from the total child population in
India, girls account for 48% many of whom are engaged in child labor, child trafficking
and child marriages. Evil practices, such as female foeticide is quite common. India is a
patriarchal society, which likes to hold on to its traditional beliefs and practices. Patriarchal
norms hold back many girls from striving their dreams by receiving a quality of education,
medical facilities and overall awareness of their well-being. The article also explains the
influence of patriarchal system in India by raising the point that Some Indian women are global
leaders but powerful voices in diverse field but most women and girls in India do not fully
enjoy many of their rights due to deeply entrenched patriarchal views, norms, traditions
and structure. For instance, women living in rural areas are not allowed to go to school. They
are asked to stay at home, do the household chores and look after their little siblings. As soon as
they hit puberty, they are married off whether or not they are ready for it. Poverty and illiteracy
play their part in such ill practices against women. Dowry deaths, marital rapes, etc. are few of
the evils of the society still tormenting women everywhere, from villages to the cities. In the
article the idea is presented through the sentences like: "Here are risks, violations and
vulnerabilities girls face just because they are girls. Most of these risks are directly linked
to the economic, political, social and cultural disadvantages girls deal with in their daily
lives. This becomes acute during crisis and disasters”. Gender inequality is a threatening
problem which causes unfair treatment in society between different genders. This concept is also
highlighted in the article through the sentences like Every child deserves to reach her or his
full potential, but gender inequalities in their lives and in the lives of those who care for
them hinder this reality. These dissimilarities are distinguished from biological and anatomic
factors, especially from differing reproductive roles in life. This misperception comes originally
from the wrong understanding about the position of each gender in life. And from every angle of
life, we all see the paradox that makes women suffer adversities and put women into unpleasant
situation. However, the method of gender discrimination in one place differs from that in others.
For example, in workplace gender equality accelerate when you enter the job racing, not
only the dissimilar salary, inequality at work is demonstrated through the differences
between genders and the amount of money paid (Hsu 2012). Gender disparity starts in
childhood and are right now limiting the lifelong potential of children around the world –
disproportionately affecting girls. From the moment they’re born, girls and boys face unequal
gender norms regarding expectations and access to resources and opportunities, with lifelong
consequences – in their homes, schools and communities. For example, the world’s boys are
often encouraged to go to school and get an education to prepare for work, while girls carry
heavy household responsibilities that keep them from school, increasing the odds of child
marriage and pregnancy. The above article also highlights the women discrimination in Indian
society as it is mentioned in the above article that wherever they live in India, girls and boys
see gender inequality in their homes and communities every day. The gender discrimination
starts from even before the girl child is born. In many instances she is prevented from being
born. The girl child is considered a burden. She is often deprived after basic rights and equal
opportunities to lead a wholesome childhood and adult life. Gender discrimination, starting in
childhood, continues to rob children of their childhoods and limit their chances –
disproportionately affecting the world’s girls. A girl is far more likely to be denied her rights,
kept from school, forced to marry and subjected to violence – her voice undervalued, if it’s heard
at all. This assault on childhood also deprives nations of the energy and talent they need to
progress. Every girl and boy deserve an equal chance to survive and thrive. In the above article
this concept is stated with the words like Wherever they live in India girls and boys see
gender inequality in their homes and communities every day – in textbooks, in movies, in
the media and among the men and women who provide their care and support. Across
India gender inequality results in unequal opportunities, and while it impacts on the lives
of both genders, statistically it is girls that are the most disadvantaged. Regarding to the
reasons and the origin of gender inequality, it can be seen that Asia would be the place where
gender discrimination has seemed to be a “tradition”.According to the General office for
population family planning, the idea of distinguishing men from women came from the impacts
of Confucianism and the awareness of people about life. Men were thought to have a duty of
continuing the ancestral line. In that society, not having a son meant to be disrespectful
towards the ancestor. Going on with this wrong conception, women are more likely to lose
the role in community (Nguyen n.d.). Women are treated as second class citizen in India, and
the situation is getting worse. The country’s record on gender equality is dismal. According to a
report by the Worlds Economic Forum, India ranked 134th out of 145 countries for gender
parity in 2018, down for 130th in 2017. Now it is an alarming need for the India to empower
women if they want to progress. For India to maintain its position as a global growth leader,
more concentrated efforts at local and national level and by the private sector are needed to bring
women to parity with men. While increasing representation of women in public spheres is
important and can potentially be attended through some form of affirmative actions, and attitude
shift is essential for women to be considered as equal within their homes and in broader society.
In this article, this concept is highlighted through the use of quotation that “India well not fully
develops unless both girls and boys are equally supported to reach their full potential.”
Pratibha Patel who is an Indian politician and lawyer also talk about gender inequality and said
that "Women have talent and intelligence but due to social constraints and prejudices it is
still a long distance away from the goal of gender equality.”