FOUNDATION COURSE 1
IDEAS OF INDIA
FINAL ASSESSMENT
SUBMITTED BY
GONELA KRISHNA VAMSY – M2022LSP007
SECTION A
Q1. How do you mark some differences between women in a movement, women’s movement and
feminist movements?
“One is not born, but rather becomes a woman,”
Simone de Beauvoir
Women in a movement refers to women’s participation in the movements for purposes that do
not necessarily address the concerns of women directly. For example, this includes participation of
women in the Bhakti movement like Mirabhai, Andal and in the freedom movement like in non
cooperation movement, Quit India movement. Women like Usha Mehta, Sarojini Naidu, Rani Guindinlu ,
Kanakalata Baruah , women in Telangana movement etc. participated in the freedom movement.
Women in movement also can refer to concerns of women being raised like in the socio religious reform
movements under Raja Ram Mohan Roy against Sati, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar for Widow
Remmariage etc.
Women’s movement come under new social movements to improve the quality of life of
women by voicing against the patriarchal structures, values, oppression and exploitation at the
intersection of gender and class,caste,religion etc. Women’s movements questions inequalities at
household, society, market and the State.In pre independence India, women’s movement was
subsumed under the nationalist struggle with women’s question being restricted only to the concerns in
the public sphere ( due to public private divide (Partha Chatterjee).
Autonomous women movement in post independence India since 1970s mostly focused on the
issue of violence against women. This led to anti arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh against
alcoholism leading to violence against women. Women’s movement in post independence India led to
progressive changes like the enanctment of Domestic Violence Act 2005, Criminal Law Amendment Act
2013( Due to Nirbhaya Movement) , Sec 498 A ( Adultery - decriminalized by the Supreme Court in
2019). Women’s movement is also integrated into Dalit movement, adivasi and labour struggles.
Women’s movement works against issues of women in public sphere, like violence against
women, rapes, sexual harrsasment at workplace etc. by adhering to the public private divide. Feminist
movement, especially radical feminism on the other hand asserts that PERSONAL IS POLITICAL. It
asserts that the public private divide hinders the state intervention on issues of that woman face in
the private sphere. By emphasizing that personal is political , feminists call for action against
exploitation in the personal sphere. Feminist also emphasize on the need for transforming patriarchal
structures that lead to subordination of women. Eva Figes and Germaine Greer( The Female Enunch)
assert that partriarchy pervades all spheres and at all levels of life and call for its transformation
against the gendered division of work. Feminist movements emphasize on the issues of private sphere
too like the REPRODUCTIVE rights of women, bodily autonomy of women etc.
Feminist movement aims at the emancipation of women. The liberal feminism under women
like Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Women) , Emmeline Pankhurst emphasised on
the civil and political rights of the women. Second wave of feminism asserted for social and economic
rights of women. Radical feminism called for transformation of patriarchy. They differentiate between
the biological sex and the socially constructed gender identities . Betty Friedan in her work The
Feminine Mystique highlighted how the myths like breadwinner father homemaker mother are used for
the subordination of women. Carole Pateman calls the Social Contract to be Sexual Contract based on
the masculinist assumptions about human nature. Kate Millet, Shulamith Firestone and other radical
feminists assert against Sigmund Freud’s dictum that anatomy is destiny. Post modern feminists like
Angela Davis call gender to be a performative word. Black feminists like Bell Hooks highlight the issue of
intersectionality within feminism with difference in the concerns of white and black women. Post
Colonial feminists like Chandra Mohanty Talpade assert that the issues faced by women in the third
world are different and complex than those of the developed nations of the West. Catherine Mc Kinnon
calls for a feminist theory of state to taken woman’s concerns into consideration. Ann J. Tickner has
repostulated the Morgenthau’s realist principles of International politics from a feminist perspective.
Cynthia Enloe(Bananas, Beaches and Bases) and Hillary Clinton call for a feminist foreign policy.
Eco Feminists like Vandana Shiva, Maria Mies highlight how the masculinist traits of capitalist
development lead to environmental degradation which disproportionately affects the women, especially
among the poor and the marginalized.
Currently in the networked knowledge economy, feminist movements are utilising social media
and internet as a space for expressing dissent against patriarchal norms, casual sexism, harassment etc.
as visible in the # ME TOO , TIMES UP, NO MORE PAGE 3, Bring our girls back .
Way Ahead:
Feminist movements should also be inclusive take into consideration the concerns of all sections
of women – irrespective of caste, class, religion, race and ethnicity. Issue of marital rape under Sec 375
of IPC should be relooked to address the concerns of women.
Women should not be viewed as the second sex or the mere recipients of welfare benefits but
should be treated as equal partners in the development process to attain Sustainable Development Goal
5 (GENDER EQUALITY). Gender mainstreaming at all levels, renouncing practices derogatory to women
(A51A(e)), effective implementation of Maternity Benefit Act, Prevention of Sexual Harassment at
Workplace Act etc. is needed to truly realize the potential of Nari Shakti.
“I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved,”
Dr.B.R.Ambedkar
