WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS

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UPSC SOCIOLOGY MAINS SYLLABUS

Paper 2 – Indian Society : STRUCTURE AND CHANGE

Part C – Social Movements in Modern India – Women’s movements 

 

  •  Women’s movements can be termed as conscious and collective movements that try to deal with a set of problems and needs specific to women.
  • These needs or problems are, in turn, created by a socio-cultural system that categorically puts them at a disadvantage in comparison to men. 
  • Feminism, the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes.
  • Although largely originating in the West, feminism is manifested worldwide and is represented by various institutions committed to activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.

 

WAVES OF FEMINISM

First Wave

  • The first wave in the late 19th-century was not the first appearance of feminist ideals but it was the first real political movement for the Western world.
  • In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft published the revolutionary Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
  • Reproductive rights also became an important issue for early feminists.

Second Wave

  • Second-wave feminism took place in the 1960s and ‘70s.
  • It built on first-wave feminism and challenged what women’s role in society should be.
  • Three main types of feminism emerged: mainstream/liberal, radical, and cultural.
  • Mainstream feminism focused on institutional reforms, which meant reducing gender discrimination, giving women access to male-dominated spaces, and promoting equality.
  • Radical feminism wanted to reshape society entirely, saying that the system was inherently patriarchal and only an overhaul would bring liberation. It resisted the belief that men and women were basically the same.
  • Cultural feminism had a similar view and taught that there’s a “female essence” that’s distinct from men.

Third Wave

  • Third-wave feminism also became more conscious of race.
  • Kimberle Crenshaw, a gender and critical-race scholar, coined the phrase “intersectionality” in 1989.
  • The term refers to how different kinds of oppression – like those based on gender and race – intersect with each other.
  • While mainstream first and second-wave feminism had largely ignored or neglected racial disparities within gender, the Third wave paid more attention. 
  • The phrase “third-wave feminism” was coined in 1992 by Rebecca Walker, a 23-year old Black bisexual woman.

Fourth Wave

  • With the MeToo movement and a resurgence of attacks on women’s rights, many believe we’re living in a new wave.
  • Social media activism has propelled the movement firmly into the technological age.
  • It builds on the third wave’s emphasis on inclusivity and asks hard questions about what empowerment, equality, and freedom really mean.
 

 

WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

 

Social Reform Movements during Colonial period

  • The women’s movements began as a social reform movement in the 19th century.
  • purred by new European ideas of rationalism and progress, the reformers tried to create a new society, modern yet rooted in Indian tradition.
  • They began a critical appraisal of Indian society in an attempt to create a new ethos devoid of all overt social aberrations like polytheism, polygamy, casteism, sati, child marriage, illiteracy etc. all of which they believed were impediments to progress of women.
  • There were two groups of social reformers, 1) Liberal Reformers and 2) The Revivalists. Both the groups undoubtedly recognised the oppressive social institutions’ customs of India.
  • Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen, Iswarachandra Vidya Sagar, Kandukuri Veeresalingam Panthulu, M. G. Ranade, Karve, Swami Vivekanantia, Swami Dayanand Saraswathi and others provided leadership to the women’s movement by frankly acknowledging the degraded position of Indian women.

 

Women’s Movements as part of Nationalist Movements

  • The characteristics of the second phase of women’s movement i.e. the national movement are: for the first time many women belonging to the middle class started taking part in the political activities.
  • ill 1919, the national movement was limited to the urban upper class and it was later with Gandhi’s entrance into the national movement, participation of the masses began to take place.
  • In this phase, political developments and women’s participation in the National movement went hand in hand.
  • Pandita Rama Bai’s Sharda Sadan (1892) in Poona, Shri Mahipatram Rupram Anathashram in Ahmedabad (1892), Shri Zorastrian Mandal in Bombay (1903), Maternity and Child Welfare League in Baroda (1914) , Bhagini Samaj in Poona (1916) all were established and worked with the particular objective of improving women’s lives.
  • These regional organisations were followed by national organisations like Women’s Indian Association (1917) and The National Council of Women in India (1920).

 

Post-Independent India

  • According to Vina Mazumdar , after Indian independence, ‘for all practical purposes, the women’s question disappeared from the public arena for over twenty years’.
  • However, from the mid 1960s onwards, we see the birth of new socio-political movements as poverty and unemployment were widespread and people grew disillusioned with government development policies, the prevalent economic rights, land rights and the price rise.
  • India saw a series of struggles and peasant movements in the early 1970s such as the anti-price-rise agitation in Bombay and Gujarat between 1972 and 1975 and the Chipko Movement which began in 1973.
  • Of particular importance to the women’s movement were the agitations such as the Shahada agitation and the subsequent formation of the Shramik Sangatana in the 1970s of the Bhil (tribal) landless labourers against the exploitative landlords which was triggered off after the rape of two Bhil women.

 

FEMINIST THEORY

  • Feminist theory is a major branch within sociology that shifts its assumptions, analytic lens, and topical focus away from the male viewpoint and experience toward that of women.
  • In doing so, feminist theory shines a light on social problems, trends, and issues that are otherwise overlooked or misidentified by the historically dominant male perspective within social theory.
  • Theories of gender oppression go further than theories of gender difference and gender inequality by arguing that not only are women different from or unequal to men, but that they are actively oppressed, subordinated, and even abused by men.
  • Structural oppression theories posit that women’s oppression and inequality are a result of capitalism, patriarchy, and racism.