Unit Wise Assessment

Sociology of Gender
VI Semester 2020

Ashham Saleel. K
VI Semester M.A. Sociology
Jamia Millia Islamia
UNIT- 1

Considering the intersection of gender, ethnicity and

class, discuss which branch of feminism provides realistic
alternatives for ways women can “celebrate” both their
diversity and unity at the same time.

The term feminism can be used to describe a political, cultural or

economic movement aimed at establishing equal rights and legal
protection for women. Feminism involves political and sociological
theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference, as
well as a movement that advocates gender equality for women and
campaigns for women's rights and interests. Although the terms
"feminism" and "feminist" did not gain widespread use until the 1970s,
they were already being used in the public parlance much earlier; for
instance, Katherine Hepburn speaks of the "feminist movement" in the
1942 film Woman of the Year.
According to Maggie Humm and Rebecca Walker, the history of
feminism can be divided into three waves. The first feminist wave was
in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second was in the
1960s and 1970s, and the third extends from the 1990s to the present.
Feminist theory emerged from these feminist movements. It is manifest
in a variety of disciplines such as feminist geography, feminist history
and feminist literary criticism.
During much of its history, most feminist movements and theories had
leaders who were predominantly middle-class white women from
Western Europe and North America. However, at least since Sojourner
Truth's 1851 speech to American feminists, women of other races have
proposed alternative feminisms. This trend accelerated in the 1960s with
the Civil Rights movement in the United States and the collapse of
European colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, parts of Latin America
and Southeast Asia. Since that time, women in former European
colonies and the Third World have proposed "Post-colonial" and "Third
World" feminisms. Some Postcolonial Feminists, such as Chandra
Talpade Mohanty, are critical of Western feminism for being
ethnocentric. Black feminists, such as Angela Davis and Alice Walker,
share this view.
Feminists and scholars have divided the movement's history into three
"waves". The first wave refers mainly to women's suffrage movements
of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (mainly concerned with
women's right to vote). The second wave refers to the ideas and actions
associated with the women's liberation movement beginning in the
1960s (which campaigned for legal and social rights for women). The
third wave refers to a continuation of, and a reaction to the perceived
failures of, second-wave feminism, beginning in the 1990s.
Black feminism argues that sexism, class oppression, and racism are
inextricably bound together. Forms of feminism that strive to overcome
sexism and class oppression but ignore race can discriminate against
many people, including women, through racial bias. The Combahee
River Collective argued in 1974 that the liberation of black women
entails freedom for all people, since it would require the end of racism,
sexism, and class oppression. One of the theories that evolved out of this
movement was Alice Walker's Womanism. In 1983, Alice Walker
developed the term “womanist” to describe “a Black feminist or feminist
of color.” Her term defined a more communal and humanist expression
of feminism that acknowledged queer black women and aligned with
long-standing traditions of black women’s thought and activism. Sister
Outsider, by Audre Lorde, is one of many foundational womanist
writings produced during this period. In her essays and speeches, Lorde
discusses the connected issues of sexism, racism, classism, and
heterosexism, while calling for new tactics that centered these
intersections. It emerged after the early feminist movements that were
led specifically by white women who advocated social changes such as
woman’s suffrage. These movements were largely white middle-class
movements and had generally ignored oppression based on racism and
classism. Alice Walker and other Womanists pointed out that black
women experienced a different and more intense kind of oppression
from that of white women.
Black women are often thought to be at a disadvantage because of
racism and sexism, but some black feminists view their position as one
of possibility. They argue that in the struggle for freedom, the people
most exposed to different forms of oppression understand best how to
dismantle them. While late nineteenth century black feminisms were
grounded in heterosexual black women’s bodies, by the end of the
twentieth and into the twenty-first century, radical black feminisms
came to center queer and trans black women, girls, and gender
nonconforming people. Black women’s experience of racism, sexism,
and classism are inseparable. Their needs and worldviews are distinct
from those of black men and white women .There is no contradiction
between the struggle against racism, sexism, classism and all other-isms.
All must be addressed simultaneously.

Intersectional Feminism
Intersectional Feminism as a term, was first coined by American
professor Kimberle Crenshaw in the year 1989. It is the study of
overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of
oppression, domination, or discrimination. It means that women
experience oppression in varying configurations and in varying degrees
of intensity. Patterns of oppression are not just interrelated but are
influenced by those interrelations.The experiences of women and other
gender minorities of colour, poor, and immigrants were excluded from
feminist forefronts. These people face sexism racism classism
simultaneously which puts them in even worse social political and
economic situations than those which are faced by males from the said
minority groups.
By the implication of this, we can also say that feminism is something
that reflects on the experiences and the various multilayered aspects of
people from different class/caste/race/ethnicity and cultural
backgrounds. The experiences also differ based on their sexuality,
gender, age, etc. Intersectional feminism takes cognizance of all these
differences and talks about feminism from the different axes of
oppression. In other words, intersectional feminism challenges the
dominant idea of feminism which is overtly white/upper-class/upper-
caste/ableist/cis heterosexual and which fails to take into account the
marginalized standpoints.
Reference
1. Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race, and Class (New York: Vintage,
1983)
Unit- 2

Explain why the universal validity both of gender-neutral

development theory and of feminist concepts that are derived
from white, Western middle class woman’s experiences is
questioned.

The disparity among the oppressed people has a significant role in

determining the problems, level of oppression they are faced, how much
their voices are being heard, how the society sees them etc. Feminism
takes up issues that are generally related to women and other gender
minorities, but the collective effort only generalizes the problems to
represent a much wider population. In this process the voices of the
minorities of minorities become unheard. Feminist movements tend
undermine the concerns of black gender minorities, Muslim feminist
concepts, immigrant problems by setting the focus constantly on white
heterosexual women’s issues, this move almost negates the underlying
sub surfaces of race, class, gender minorities. “The real problem of
feminism,” states Elizabeth Spellman, “is how it has confused the
condition of one group of women with the condition of all women”
The Combahee River Collective’s defining statement, issued in 1977,
described its vision for Black feminism as opposing all forms of
oppression—including sexuality, gender identity, class, disability, and
age oppression— later embedded in the concept of intersectionality.
The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be
that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual,
heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the
development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that
the major systems of oppression are interlocking. The synthesis of these
oppressions creates the conditions of our lives. As Black women we see
Black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the
manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face.
Women of color in the U.S., for example, not only define themselves in
a struggle against white men and men of color, but also in resistance to
white women. The same holds for third world women who find
themselves fighting against the omission of their experiences and the
overarching assumptions made by “first world” feminists regarding their
needs and the forms of subordination they confront. White feminists
defined gender as the principal source of their exclusion from full
participation in American life; black women were forced to confront the
interplay between racism and sexism and to figure out how to make
black men think about gender issues while making white women think
about racial issues.
Western feminism, and more specifically U.S. White middle-class
feminism, is the most dominant movement that affects women’s
identities worldwide, it universalized western values and concepts.
Feminism is not one single unified movement with universal values and
principles. There are many different types of feminisms, such as: White
feminism, Black feminism, Indigenous feminism, Chicana feminism,
Chinese feminism (which is affected by women's roles during the
Communist Revolution), and Islamic feminism (which has different
forms and ideologies in different Muslim communities). They all ask for
women’s rights according to their cultural, traditional, religious, and
historical context. The privileged white women’s movement against
sexism is reffered as the ‘bourgeoisie’ which opposes the sexism of
conservatives, such as misogynistic statements or anti-abortion
legislation, and calls for liberal reforms such as equal pay or proper
electoral representation for women, rather than a systemic restructuring
of society and an end to capitalism, racism and imperialism.
The other is the movement for women who constitute what grassroots
movements term "the 99 percent", which mobilises workers, recognises
the relationship between gendered labour and capitalism, and confronts
war and racism as twin evils responsible for violence against women.
The feminist approaches of predominantly white western women were
rejected by many feminist organizations arguing that the development
model itself lacked the concepts developing and under developed
countries and other minority groups. They gave more importance to
overcoming poverty and emerging from the damages of colonialism and
war left than achieving equality.
When the white middle class women’s struggle classified and
generalized as pressing issue of feminism it is insufficient for
development. Gender roles and identities are widely vary from culture to
culture and also development policies are changed into inclusive pattern
of consisting not just woman’s issues but also environmental and war
related. A development conceptualization of gender must include
different identities regional gender issues and also it should address the
differences and relationship between the issues across the plate to bring
an all-inclusive understanding of gender development.
The cultural and developmental framework provided by the western
middle class women’s feminism is a generalized concept which
primarily founded on a class and race specific experiences, this
mainstream representation fell short in being a universal model. Equality
for women is impossible within the existing economic, political and
cultural processes that reserve resources, power and control for small
groups of people. But neither is development possible without greater
equity for and participation by women.
Reference
1. Sendi, Kholod.The Limitations of U.S. White Middle-Class
Feminism in the Middle East International Journal of Gender and
Women’s Studies June 2017, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 109-120.
2. Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race, and Class (New York: Vintage,
1983)
Unit- 3
Is feminism all about being anti-war? Discuss any one
role of women in war situations with the help of
prescribed readings.

Although wars between countries have been declining, violence within

states is on the increase. Over the last two decades, civil conflicts have
more than doubled, jumping from 30 in 2001 to 70 in 2016. 1 These
wars are concentrated in poor countries with a toxic combination of
fragile institutions, inequality, discrimination and social conflict. These
factors, together with others such as the intensity of natural disasters,
food crises, the increasing threats posed by climate change, terrorism
and record numbers of displaced persons, are shaping a new
international landscape.
A few decades ago, women and girls in conflict situations were forced to
endure brutal incidents of sexual violence, had fewer resources for
protection and survival, lost their loved ones and had to take
responsibility for their families, were forced to join the combatants, or to
flee leaving everything behind. Today, all of these risks are not only just
as real, but they are compounded by fact that the very nature of wars
invades ever more private spaces, becoming a threat to their identity and
their security. Added to this, many outbreaks of violence today are of
religious or ethnic origin, linked to issues of identity, which play against
women and women’s rights. Many of these conflicts are marked by
extreme violence and gender-based abuse.
Women usually don’t start wars, but they do suffer heavily from the
consequences. Conflict spurs much higher rates of sexual violence. It
renders women acutely vulnerable to poverty, the loss of jobs and the
destruction of assets such as homes. Essential health services crumble,
underlined by a maternal mortality rate that is 2.5 times higher on
average, in conflict and post-conflict countries.
Sexual violence against women and girls is widespread in conflict and
used as a war tactic. Reports from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo on the extent of conflict-related sexual violence range from 18 to
40 per cent among women and girls and between 4 and 24 per cent
among men and boys. Domestic violence, trafficking, child marriage, are
also exacerbated during conflict.
However, women and girls are not merely victims in situations of inter-
or intra-state violence. They can have critical perspectives on their
position, make choices, and organize collectively. Women can take
active roles in violence, such as joining the conflict, or participate in
peace processes .The specific experience of women and girls in armed
conflicts greatly depends upon their status in societies before armed
conflict breaks out. Where cultures of violence and discrimination
against women and girls exist prior to conflict, these abuses are likely to
be exacerbated during conflict. Similarly, if women are not allowed to
be part of decision making before conflict, it is usually extremely
difficult for them to become involved in decisions during the conflict
itself or the peace process and post-conflict period. Thus, gender
relations in pre-conflict situations as shaped by ethnicity, class, caste and
age often set the stage for women’s and girls’ experiences and options
during and after armed conflict.
Aisling swaine in her book ‘Conflict-Related Violence Against Woman:
Transforming Transition’ remarked that there are many underlying
conditions of gender roles cultural practices of that society contributes to
violence against women during conflict and after the conflict. Swaine
observed that there is significant variation in violence against women
across conflicts. There is also the issue of issue of increased violence
from non-state actors (civilians) to engage in violence against women
and children as well as the breakdown of law creates an environment of
formal legal impunity and the legality that offers special protection for
forces and state actors also encourages violence. Aisling Swaine argues
that the policy analysis of how to prevent or address violence against
women during conflict should consider pre-conflict gender inequalities
and pre-existing forms of VAW. These factors indicate tolerance and
opportunities for violence that will come to bear influence during
conflict.
Violence against women in conflict zone is also happening in India
primarily in in the North East region and Kashmir. The Armed Forces
Special Powers Act (AFSPA) accords armed force some special powers
to operate in conflicted areas there have been serious allegations pf
misuse of special powers vested in the armed forces. There have been
many reported custody deaths shootings and rapes from the affected
regions, but the forces and government always points greater violence in
order to change the focus.
Women’s position in conflict zones is not only victim. They also engage
in resistance and military actions. Equal access to active service in the
armed forces is another primary discourse that has developed in feminist
peace and conflict theory. For equality feminists this meant the right for
women to hold any position traditionally restricted to men. However,
equality feminist theory in the field of peace and conflict theory provides
at least two paths of the: ‘Bringing women in’ approach. Women’s
experience in the military, as well as critical reflections of female
fighters in liberation struggles claim the right of women to equal access
to all spheres. However these accounts also show the deeply internalised
and militarised masculinity of military spheres.
Since its groundbreaking deployment in 2007, India has sent four all-
female police units to Liberia, each serving a one-year rotation. Their
success in the postwar country has inspired other nations to defy
tradition and deploy more female troops in U.N. peacekeeping roles. The
Female Formed Police Unit is a symbol of progress for U.N. Security
Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, which
stipulates that peacekeeping missions support women’s participation in
post-conflict peace building. The United Nations’ ultimate goal is gender
parity in the civilian, military and police sectors, but, globally, women
make up just 8.2 percent of roughly 13,000 U.N. police and only two
percent of military police.
Gender equality is the best indicator for ensuring peace, over and above
other parameters such as the country’s level of democracy, wealth or
religious or ethnic composition. Countries with laws which discriminate
against women (on issues such as marriage, custody, divorce or
inheritance) are more likely to suffer from conflict or instability.
Reference
Aisling, Swaine 2018. Conflict-Related Violence Against Women:
Transforming Transition
Sangamitra, Choudhry 2016. Women And Conflict in India