3056 GENDER AND POLITICS

Course Name: 3056 Gender and Politics

This paper is an elective paper that intends to introduce students to themes and issues in the study of gender and politics. It seeks to develop new insights among students on the diverse perspectives that have emerged to offer explanation and understanding on the origin and consolidation of patriarchy and its relationship with the idea of state.
It introduces the students to debates in western political tradition on patriarchy, feminism, nature-culture dichotomy, public-private dichotomy and tries to situate it in the Indian context. In this regard readings on Uniform Civil Code, Personal Laws, women reservation and political representation are invoked.
The paper aims to study development and the women question. Also, this paper attempts to explore the idea of violence, its various manifestations and forms and the subjection of women.

The paper remains useful for students who wish to pursue research in the area of gender studies and development.

The paper has utility for students preparing for UGC NET-JRF exam and SLET exam

Course Plan: Gender and Politics

1. Sex and gender; gender socialization and stereotyping; gender division of labour; Masculinity/Feminity, Private-public Dichotomy Equality and difference,

1. Gender critiques of development; Alternative approaches-WID,WAD,GAD

2. Women and work- gender gap, sexual division of labour

3. Women and Health

1. Indian constitution and Women’s rights, Political participation of women and the Reservation debate

2. Citizenship and feminist debates

3. Women’s movement and the state

1. Violence against women- Rape, Sexual Harassment, Domestic Violence.

2. Sexuality-LGBT movement

3. Personal laws and the UCC debate

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Bhasin Kamla, What is Patriarchy?, Kali for Women, New Delhi, 1993
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Menon, Nivedita, Seeing like a Feminist,
Walby, Sylvia, Theorising Patriarchy, Blackwell Publishers, UK, 1990,
Okin, Susan Moller, The Public/Private Dichotomy in Farrely, Collin(ed), Contemporary Political Theory, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2004, pg 185-194.
Bhasin, Kamla, Exploring Masculinity, Women Unlimited, New Delhi, 2004.

Visvanathan, Nalini, Lynn Duggan, Nan Wiegersma and Laurie Nionoff(ed) The Women, Gender and Development Reader, Zed Books, London, 2011.
Kapadia, K (ed.) 2002. The violence of development: the politics of identity, gender & social inequalities in India
John, Mary E, Women’s Studies in India: A Reader, Penguin, 2008 • Allandale, Ellen, Women’s Health and Social Change, Routledge, 2009

Rajan, Rajeswari Sunder, The Scandal of the State: Women, Law and Citizenship in Postcolonial India, Duke University Press, London, 2003
Sen, Samita, Towards a Feminist Politics? The Indian Women’s Movement in Historical Perspective, Policy Research Report on Gender and Development, Working Paper Series No. 9, available online at http: //www.worldbank.org/gender/prr.
John, Mary E(ed), Women’s Studies: A Reader, Penguin Books, 2008 • Chaudhuri, Maitreyee, Gender in the making of the Indian Nation State, Sociologial Bulletin, Vol 48, No1/2 (March –September) 1999.
Khullar, Mala(ed.), Writing the Women’s Movement: a Reader, Zubaan,New Delhi, 2005
Kumar, Radha, The History of Doing, Zubaan, New Delhi, 1993
Dietz, Mary G, Context is All: Feminism and Theories of Citizenship, Daedalus, Vol. 116, No. 4, Learning about Women: Gender, Politics, and Power (Fall, 1987), pp. 1- 24
Menon, Nivedita, Gender and Politics in India, • Yuval-Davis, Nira, Women, Citizenship and Difference, Feminist Review, No 57, Autumn, 1997, p 4-27.

Khullar, Mala(ed), Writing the Women’s Movement: A Reader, Zubaan Books, New Delhi, 2005
Kumar, Radha, The History of Doing, Kali for Women, 1993
John, Mary E, Women’s Studies in India: A Reader, Penguin, 2008
Newbigin, Eleanor, Personal Law and Citizenship in India’s Transition to Independence, Modern Asian Studies / Volume 45 / Special Issue 01 / January 2011, pp 7 – 32

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