Gender and Society

Course Type	Course Code	No. Of Credits
Discipline Core	NA	4

Course coordinator and team: Teena Anil

Summary

The course aims to develop sociological thinking about inequalities, especially those relating to gender, as they emerge across the life course. Through engaging with key moments in the life course (including birth and the ascription of gender identity; childhood and education; sexual reproduction, parenting and families; paid and unpaid work; illness and health) the course will build on student’s own experiences and observations to encourage the growth of a sociological imagination. To begin with we will examine family as an institution in shaping/gendering the child rearing practices, role of socialization to continues through different phase of an individual life, in the family, in schools via formal and informal curriculum and in peer groups. Similarly, it will further explore the relationship of gender and gendered identities with the workplace and economy, health and nation. more widely—men and women are differently located with unequal pay, privilege and power. Throughout the course we will be critically examining the sociology as a discipline, is the study of society gender-blind or gender-conscious? By the end of the course, you should have gained an understanding of gender and the concept of inequality and be able to provide critical accounts of the links between gendered social relations, cultural representation and individual behaviour and experiences.

Objectives

Compare and contrast sociological perspectives used to interpret gender relations;

To draw attention to how gender inequality remains structurally embedded in a systemic patriarchy;

Identify the main agents of gender socialization and their impact gender construction;

Describe gender ideology and practices in multiple social institutions and across cultures and societies;

Identify how tribe, class, caste and religion affect gender relations and experiences;

Identify role of nation and community membership in transforming or reinforcing the gender inequalities and gender practices.

Learning Outcomes:

At the conclusion of the course students are expected to:

Understand how gender relations are fundamentally relations of inequality.

Develop how gendered inequalities as social exclusions are differently expressed across different institutional domains.

Apply how gender inequality intersects with other bases of inequality such as: Tribe, ethnicity, class, sexuality, disability, etc

Examine role of public’ to ‘private’ arenas, in (re) producing gender difference across variety of institutional and micro-political contexts and in relation to other forms of inequality.

Appreciate the difference between speaking about gender sociologically and speaking about gender as “members of the culture.”

Equip to analyse how social structure and culture shape gendered identities and experiences, using ethnographic or content analysis research methods.

Overall structure:

This course is organized around five modules.

Module No.	Topic	Duration (weeks)*
1	Gendering Sociological Imagination	3
2	Gendering Social Institution: Family, Marriage and Kinship	2
3	Separate and Unequal: The Gendered World of Work	3
4	Gender and Health	2
5	Nation, Community and Cultural Representation	3

Essentials Readings

Chaudhari. M. Gender and Advertisements: The rhetoric of globalisation, Women’s Studies International Forum Vol. 24, Issues 3-4 May- August 2001, Pages 373-385.
Delamont, S. (2003) Feminist Sociology. London: Sage
Geetha V., Gender, Stree Calcutta, 2002
Goffman, Erving.1979, Gender Advertisements. New York: Harper & Row.
Judith Butler, “Your Behaviour Creates your Gender”http://www.critical-theory.com/watch-judith-butler-behavior-creates-gender-3-minutes/
Murthy, Laxmi, and Rajashri Dasgupta. 2012. Our Pictures Our Words: A Visual Testament to the Women’s Movement in India. Zubaan, New Delhi. (available in AUD library)
Paromita Vohra. 2002. Unlimited Girls http://www.cultureunplugged.com/filmedia/play/452
Smith, Dorothy. 1992. “Sociology from Women’s Experience: A Reaffirmation”. Sociological Theory 10 (1): 88-98.
Dube, Leela. (2001). Matriliny and women status. Economic and Political Weekly, 3144-3147.
Fernandez Walter and M. Pereira. 2011. (accessed) ‘Customary Laws in Northeast India: Impact on Women’. New Delhi: National Commission for Women.
Kabeer, Naila. (2010). Gender Social Protection Strategies in the Informal Economy. Delhi: Routledge.
Rao, Anupama (Ed.) 2018 Gender, Caste and the Imagination of Equality, Kali for Women
Sharma, Kalpana 2019, Single by Choice: Happily Unmarried Women, Kali for women Chowdhry, Prem. (2017). Understanding Women s Land Rights: Gender Discrimination in Ownership: Volume -13 (Land Reforms in India series). Delhi: Sage Publications
Sonowal, C.J. 2010. ‘Transition of Gender System through Time and Space: Case Study of a Tribal Group in Assam, India’. Global Journal of Human Social Science, Vol. 10 Issue 4 (Ver 1.0), 16-28. September 2010.
Vatuk.S, 2021 Marriage and its Discontents Women, Islam and Law in India. Zubaan Publication.
— (2019): Time Use Survey (January-December 2019): National Statistical Office. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (multiple years): Periodic Labour Force Survey Reports, Government of India.
A still from Tobacco Embers (1982) by Deepa Dhanraj.
Agrawal, Anuja (2006): "Family, Migration and Prostitution: The Case of the Bedia Community of North India" in A. Agarwal (ed.), Migrant Women and Work, Women and Migration in Asia, Vol 4 (New Delhi: Sage Publications), 177-94
Beck, H and S Darokar (2005): "Socioeconomic Status of Scavengers Engaged in the Practice of Manual Scavenging in Maharashtra", Indian Journal of Social Work, 66(3): 223-36.
Ghosh, Jayati. 2009 Never Done and Poorly Paid: Women’s Work in Globalising India, Kali for women
Gopal. M (2010): "Traditional Knowledge and Feminist Dilemmas: Experience of the Midwives of the Barber Caste in South Tamil Nadu", paper presented at the Peer Review Workshop, "Transforming Science: Feminist Perspectives", Mum bai, SNDT Women's University.
Lakshmi Lingam, 1998, Introduction. In: Understanding Women's Health Issues: A Reader. Kali.
N. Mitali , How COVID-19 Deepened the Gender Fault Lines in India's Labour Markets, Vol. 57, Issue No. 51, 17 Dec, 2022, Economic Political Weekly.
Nihila, Millie (1999): "Marginalisation of Women Workers: Leather Tanning Industry in Tamil Nadu", Economic & Political Weekly, 34(16-17): WS21-WS27.
Padmini Swaminathan, 2004, The Trauma of ‘Wage Employment’ and the ‘Burden of Work’ for Women in India: Evidences and Experiences, Working Paper, MIDS.
Padmini Swaminathan, When Women Take on Wage Work, A Report from Tamil Nadu’s Export Processing Zone. MIDS.
Parliament of India (2012). Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and Empowerment of Women in Rural Areas, New Delhi: Lok Sabha Secretariate (Committee on Empowerment of Women).
Pinto, Sarah (2006): "More than a Dai", Seminar, 558.
Preety R Rajbangshi, Devaki Nambiar, and Aradhana Srivastava, 2021, Community health workers: challenges and vulnerabilities of Accredited Social Health
Ramaswamy, Gita (2005): India Stinking: Manual Scavengers in Andhra Pradesh and Their Work (Chennai: Navayana Publishing.
Sen, Gita (2010): "Beyond a Segmented Economics of Work ", The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 53(1): 43-59
A still from Something like A War (1991) by Deepa Dhanraj. It is a scathing feminist critique of the state’s family planning campaign.
Amirta Nandy 2017 Motherhood and Choice: Uncommon Mothers, Childfree Women, Zubaan Publication House.
Amrita Pande (Summer 2010), ‘Commercial Surrogacy in India: Manufacturing a Perfect Mother-Worker’, Signs (Vol. 35, No. 4), pp.969-992.
Beebeejaun, Y. 2017. Gender, urban space, and the right to everyday life. Journal of Urban Affairs, 39(3), pp.323-334.
Berghahn Books, 2008
Burt, Z., Nelson, K., Ray, I. 2016. Towards gender equality through sanitation access, Discussion paper, 12, UN Women.
Christa Wichterich, Maya John, (eds.) 2023Who Cares?: Care Extraction and the Struggles of Indian Health Workers
Greed. 2019. Join the queue: Including women’s toilet needs in public space. The Sociological Review, 67(4), pp.908-926.
Jean Dreze, Reetika Khera Anmol Somanchi Maternity Entitlements Women Rights Derailed EPW Vol. 56, Issue No. 47, 20 Nov, 2021.
Jenna Grant, 2023, Fixing the Image, Ultrasound and Visuality of care in Phnom Penh, University of Washington Press.
Jesse Olszynko-Gryn, 2003, A Woman’s Right to Know Pregnancy Testing in Twentieth-Century Britain, The MIT Press.
Lingam, Lakshmi, 1998, Reproductive Technologies and Violation of Women's Bodies. In: Understanding Women's Health Issues: A Reader. Edited by Lakshmi Lingam.
Padmini Swaminathan 2009, Women, Work and Health: Examining Linkages, Addressing Challenges, Indian Journal of Human Development. BMC Health Services Research.
Patel, Tulsi. 2007. Sex–selective Abortion in India: Gender, Society and New Reproductive Technologies. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
R. Ved, K. Scott, G. Gupta, O. Ummer, S. Singh, A. Srivastava and A. S. George (2019), how are gender inequalities facing India’s one million ASHAs being addressed? Policy origins and adaptations for the world’s largest all-female community health worker programme. Human Resource for Health.
Rao. Mohan, 2022, Iron in the Soul: Two-Child Norm in Population Policies Again, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Sage Publication.
Sarah Pinto Where There Is No Midwife: Birth and Loss in Rural India
Volume 10 of Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives
Sharma, K. (2008). Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Issues and Challenges” Reproductive Health Matters. (pp. 14-24)
Srinivasan, Sharada 2012 Daughter Deficit: Sex Selection in Tamil Nadu, Kali for women
A Media Education Foundation Production A Film by Sut Jhally, 2009, The Codes of Gender: Identity & Performance in Popular Culture.
Agarwal B, (ed), Structures and Patriarchy: State, Community and Household in Modernising Asia, New Delhi, Kali for Women, 1988.
Agarwal B., A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia, 1994, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Aloysius Irudayam S.J., Jayshree P. Mangubhai, Joel G. Lee, 2006, Dalit Women Speak Out: Violence against Dalit Women in India’ New Delhi
Bina Agarwal. 2008. ‘Why Do Women Need Independent Rights in Land?’ in Mary E. John (ed). Women’s Studies in India: A Reader pp. 175-184. New Delhi: Penguin Books.
Chaudhari. M. Citizens, Workers and Emblems of Culture: An Analysis of the First Plan of the Document on Women, 29(1-2):211-235, January 1995 Contribution to Indian Sociology
Chaudhuri, M. Gender in the Making of the Indian Nation-State, Vol. 48, No. 1/2 (MARCH - SEPTEMBER 1999), pp. 113-133 Sociological Bulletin
Culture in a Colonial Society; Oxford University Press. (pp. 110-135)
Geetanjali Singh Chanda 2008 India as Home, Zubaan Publishing House.
Geetha, V. “Periyar, Women and an Ethic of Citizenship.” Economic and Political Weekly, 1998: WS9-WS15.
Ghosh, A. (2005). Power in Print: Popular Publishing and the Politics of Language and
Guru, G. 1994. Maharashtra Women’s Policy: Coopting Women. Economic and Political Weekly. Vol - XXIX No. 32.
Jaising, I. 2011, Elusive Equality: Constitutional Guarantees & Legal Regimes in South Asia, Malaysia and China Kali for women
Nongbari, Tiplut. 2002 Khasi Women and Matriliny: Transformations in Gender Relations, Gender, Technology and Development Volume 4, Issue 3, Sage Publication.
Radha Kumar 1993 Towards Becoming ‘The Mothers of the Nation’ Chapter in History of Doing.
Ramaswamy, Sumathi (2001). Maps and Mother Goddesses in Modern India. Imago Mundi. Vol. 53, pp.97-114.
Report of the Sub-group on Safai Karmacharis submitted to The Chairman of The Working Group on the “Empowerment of Scheduled Castes (SCs)” for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-2012)
Shram shakti Report, 1988: Introduction, Chapter 4 (Published by Government of India)
Singh Rajeev Kumar and Ziayuddin. 2009. Manual Scavenging as Social Exclusion: A Case Study. Economic and Political Weekly. Vol - XLIV No. 26-27. s
Towards Equality Report, 1975: Introduction, Recommendations and Chapter on Women in the Organized Sector (Published by Government of India)
Uberoi, P. (1990). Feminine Identity and National Ethos in Indian Calendar Art; Economic Political Weekly, (pp. WS41-WS48).
Zoya Hasan, Ritu Menon, (2004) Unequal Citizens Status of Muslim Women in India, New Delhi, OUP.

Pedagogy:

a. Instructional design

The course will be a combination of class lectures, discussions, invited lectures, and exposure visits.

b. Special needs (facilities, requirements in terms of software, studio, lab, clinic, library, classroom/others instructional space; any other – please specify)

Support for organising local visits to related sites

c. Expertise in AUD faculty or outside: AUD and external faculty

d. Linkages with external agencies (e.g., with field-based organizations, any others)

Linkage with agencies working in the area of environment and waste.

Assessment structure (modes and frequency of assessments)

The course will have the following assessment situations

Media essay: choose a recent article from the media – a newspaper, magazine, transcript of a radio or TV show – that illustrates an aspect of gendered state practices and/or nationalism (word limit is 1500-2000 words) write a summary of the ways in which your article relates to the material covered in this course. Bring your essay and the article to class for discussion. If the article is not in English, please provide an English summary. (30%)

Mid Term Test (30%)

The assignment has two components: One, students in each group work in collaboration to produce a visual product that no longer than 10 minutes for presentation. Two, each student submits a three-page paper based on your portion of the research for the project the day before presentation in class. (40%). These will be creative visual presentations on gender, race, class, and nation based on your research of visual materials on specific topics allotted to the group. Students will be expected to form research groups early in the semester to prepare for the group projects.