PaRCha - JNU - All Organisations - 2007 ID-46696
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Students' Federation ollndia .
IC MEETING on .
SON GJ:NDER .
MemberI National Commlss.
INDU AGNIHO.
Senior FellowI Centre for.
AYESHA KID.
Former Chairperson, t=o~4.
Date: 29th Se .
Time: 9.15pm .
Venue: Ganga Mess .
"All agree in recognising the fact that females exist in the human species; today as always they make up about one half of humanity. Andyet we are told that femininity is in danger; we are exhorted to be women, remain women, become women. It would appear, then, thatevery female human being is not necessarily a woman; to be so considered she must share in that mysterious and threatened realityknown as femininity." .
Friends, -Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex .
The oppression and subjugation of women has taken myriad forms over the centuries. For thousands of years, the main sphere of activity for.
females has been confined within the household, and a systematic de~ial of their right to equality, education, livelihood, property and.
participation in political life has taken place. Patriarchy or male domination operates in our society by making females believe that they arephysically, emotionally and intellectually weaker than men. Right from their birth, girls are taught to complement men as good daughters.wives, mothers and sisters, rather than as self-reliant individuals. Feminine virtues are emphasized as those of silence, shyness, passivity,dependence,purity and self-sacrifice, and females are socialized at every step into embodying these .
'essential' feminine values. .
The subordination and subservience of women, however, has rarely gone unchallenged in any era. Women have often broken traditional.
gender roles and status quo, but they have either been demonized as 'witches' or exoticized as 'goddesses'. The modem day demonization.
of feminists as 'home breakers' continues. In either case empowered women have not been accepted as a part of daily life or as a proof of.
what womenkind can do or be like. Each and every right for women has been eamed through sacrifices and struggles. In 1792, whenMary.
Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women, she wrote it to demand the right to higher education for women because theireducation was restricted to only 'domestic' education. The systematic and organized fight of women against their oppression began in the.
modem era through the organization of a small 'Women's Conference' on equal rights for women in 1848. The first wave of the organizedwomen's movement demanded equality for women through voting rights, equal wages, access to higher education and property rights. In1910, Clara Zetkin, a leading socialist feminist proposed that an International Women's Day be observed by women fhroughcut the world inorder to press for women's rights. Even an elementary right like universal suffrage or the right to vote for all women was earned step by step.
beginning with Finland (1906), Norway {1913), Soviet Union (1917), Austria {1918), United States (1920), United Kingdom (1928) etc. Even.
as recently as in 1994 black women finally earned universal suffrage in South Africa and Kuwaiti women finally earned the right to vote only.
in 2005. .
Today, the equality of women before law still does not exist in all countries. However, even in countries where equal citizenship rights exist,.
gender discrimination and the subjugation of women continue in every field. In our own country, the practices of dowry or female foeticide areincreasing by the day. These primib~ve practices that are rooted in the devaluation of females and 'son preference' are receiving a new fillipfrom market forces which have converted marriage and female foeticide into multi-crore industries. Sexual harassment and rape grab.
national headlines every other day. The solution is often forwarded as 'judo-karate classes', 'dress codes.
' or greater restriction on women.The brutal rape and murder of Muslim women during the Gujarat Genocide or of a dalit girl and her mother in Khairlanji are testimony to thefact that females continue the face the worst brunt of communal and caste violence. The moral policing of women continues unabated with.
attacks on co-ed education, Valentines Day, sex-education etc. still being rampant The market and the media are also manipulating theaspiration of females for greater freedom. On the one hand they commodify and objectify women, on the other they also draw women into.
increased consumerist practices through 'brands' that invoke the slogans or symbols of women'sliberation. .
Thefollowing facts and figures about our country reveal the extent of gender discrimination in our society today:.
The overall fem::tle literacy rate in our country is only 53.7% while the male literacy rate is 75.3%..
Out of the 11 crores of children who are illiterate in the age group of 6 to 10 years in the world, over 4 crores are in India. Girlsconstituteabout two-thirds of these out-of-school children. .
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PaRCha - JNU - All Organisations - 2007 ID-46696
.
j 1 .
.<.:r ·· ,.
~"iili-·' ,. .
Students' Federation ollndia .
IC MEETING on .
SON GJ:NDER .
MemberI National Commlss.
INDU AGNIHO.
Senior FellowI Centre for.
AYESHA KID.
Former Chairperson, t=o~4.
Date: 29th Se .
Time: 9.15pm .
Venue: Ganga Mess .
"All agree in recognising the fact that females exist in the human species; today as always they make up about one half of humanity. Andyet we are told that femininity is in danger; we are exhorted to be women, remain women, become women. It would appear, then, thatevery female human being is not necessarily a woman; to be so considered she must share in that mysterious and threatened realityknown as femininity." .
Friends, -Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex .
The oppression and subjugation of women has taken myriad forms over the centuries. For thousands of years, the main sphere of activity for.
females has been confined within the household, and a systematic de~ial of their right to equality, education, livelihood, property and.
participation in political life has taken place. Patriarchy or male domination operates in our society by making females believe that they arephysically, emotionally and intellectually weaker than men. Right from their birth, girls are taught to complement men as good daughters.wives, mothers and sisters, rather than as self-reliant individuals. Feminine virtues are emphasized as those of silence, shyness, passivity,dependence,purity and self-sacrifice, and females are socialized at every step into embodying these .
'essential' feminine values. .
The subordination and subservience of women, however, has rarely gone unchallenged in any era. Women have often broken traditional.
gender roles and status quo, but they have either been demonized as 'witches' or exoticized as 'goddesses'. The modem day demonization.
of feminists as 'home breakers' continues. In either case empowered women have not been accepted as a part of daily life or as a proof of.
what womenkind can do or be like. Each and every right for women has been eamed through sacrifices and struggles. In 1792, whenMary.
Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women, she wrote it to demand the right to higher education for women because theireducation was restricted to only 'domestic' education. The systematic and organized fight of women against their oppression began in the.
modem era through the organization of a small 'Women's Conference' on equal rights for women in 1848. The first wave of the organizedwomen's movement demanded equality for women through voting rights, equal wages, access to higher education and property rights. In1910, Clara Zetkin, a leading socialist feminist proposed that an International Women's Day be observed by women fhroughcut the world inorder to press for women's rights. Even an elementary right like universal suffrage or the right to vote for all women was earned step by step.
beginning with Finland (1906), Norway {1913), Soviet Union (1917), Austria {1918), United States (1920), United Kingdom (1928) etc. Even.
as recently as in 1994 black women finally earned universal suffrage in South Africa and Kuwaiti women finally earned the right to vote only.
in 2005. .
Today, the equality of women before law still does not exist in all countries. However, even in countries where equal citizenship rights exist,.
gender discrimination and the subjugation of women continue in every field. In our own country, the practices of dowry or female foeticide areincreasing by the day. These primib~ve practices that are rooted in the devaluation of females and 'son preference' are receiving a new fillipfrom market forces which have converted marriage and female foeticide into multi-crore industries. Sexual harassment and rape grab.
national headlines every other day. The solution is often forwarded as 'judo-karate classes', 'dress codes.
' or greater restriction on women.The brutal rape and murder of Muslim women during the Gujarat Genocide or of a dalit girl and her mother in Khairlanji are testimony to thefact that females continue the face the worst brunt of communal and caste violence. The moral policing of women continues unabated with.
attacks on co-ed education, Valentines Day, sex-education etc. still being rampant The market and the media are also manipulating theaspiration of females for greater freedom. On the one hand they commodify and objectify women, on the other they also draw women into.
increased consumerist practices through 'brands' that invoke the slogans or symbols of women'sliberation. .
Thefollowing facts and figures about our country reveal the extent of gender discrimination in our society today:.
The overall fem::tle literacy rate in our country is only 53.7% while the male literacy rate is 75.3%..
Out of the 11 crores of children who are illiterate in the age group of 6 to 10 years in the world, over 4 crores are in India. Girlsconstituteabout two-thirds of these out-of-school children. .
\.
-...
.
.. .
~ .
\ .
'Jl, .
.
' .
'· .
. ~ _,1 ;:.
I .
~.
) I,.·;'; :: .·;-"] -.~~~1 .
y .
I .
.. ,,. ' .
~··.
r: . ',' .,,. ....-. .
'' .
;t, relipaben.the .
Nith.
theinto .
Girls ' .
i6 .
.