Page 204 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Unit 9: Gender and Stratification

and caring which men can never develop. Vandana Shiva in her conception of ecofeminism Notes
critiques development and establishes the connection between ecological destruction and
capitalist growth as a patriarchal project.
• Emancipation of women necessarily calls for challenging patriarchy as a system which
perpetuates women’s subordination. Several structures of society such as kinship and family,
class, caste, religion, ethnicity, educational institutions and state reinforce patriarchy. Some
of the experiences of multiple patriarchies can be illustrated by analyzing the dynamics and
interface of, social forces which institutionalize and legitimize patriarchy in society.
• The first lessons of patriarchy are learnt in the family where the head of the family is a man/
father. Man is considered the head of the family and controls women’s sexuality, labour or
production, reproduction and mobility. In a patriarchal family the birth of male child is
preferred to that of a female. The former is considered as the inheritor of the family while the
later is considered as paraya dhan.
• These stereotypes of masculinity and femininity are not only social constructs but also have
been internalized by both men and women. While the pressure to earn and look after the
family is more on the man, the women are supposed to do the menial jobs and take care of
their children and even other members of the family. It is because of these gender stereotypes
that women are at a disadvantage and are vulnerable to violence and other kinds of
discriminations and injustices. Systemic deprivation and violence against women : rape,
sexual harassment, sexual abuse, female foeticide, infanticide, witch-killing, sati, dowry deaths,
wife-beating, high level of female illiteracy, malnutrition, undernourishment and continued
sense of insecurity keeps women bound to home, economically exploited, socially suppressed
and politically passive.
• Laws of Manu insist that since women by their very nature are disloyal they should be made
dependent on men. The husband should be constantly worshiped as a god, which symbolized
that man is a lord, master, owner, or provider and the shudras and women were the
subordinates. It legitimized that a woman should never be made independent, as a daughter
she should be under the surveillance of her father, as a wife of her husband and as a widow
of her son.
• Patriarchal constructions of social practices are legitimized by religion and religious institution
as most religious practices regard male authority as superior and the laws and norms
regarding family, marriage, divorce and inheritance are linked to patriarchal control over
property biased against women.
• The dictionary meaning of the term ‘subordination is to give secondary status. The term
‘subordination’ is generally used as a noun. It is used with reference to human beings. But it
cannot be called as an essential quality that belongs to human beings. Goodness, kindness,
rationality, generosity and such other qualities can be sensibly talked about as the qualities
or Predicates of humans but subordination cannot be a predicate because it does not form a
necessary part of human nature.
• The more important issue is the justification of subordination. The justification of
subordination consists in evaluating that somebody is a lesser being and hence a subordinate
being. Every act of subordination implicitly or explicitly presupposes such an evaluative
claim. This claim accompanies the fact of subordination. The evaluation that somebody is a
subordinate being stands in need of explanation. Such an evaluation cannot be explained in
terms of cause-effect relation because it is not an event of the physical world. It is a kind of
action carried out by human beings in their inter-personal relationship with the social world.
Every human action is purposive and it springs from certain intentions on the part of the
actor.
• The subordination of woman as a part of human history has to be understood from both
these aspects. It is not my aim to consider the question whether all women across the world

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