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Social Stratification

Notes Human Development Perspective
There is no doubt that in the empowerment of women, the human development perspective is
very crucial. Concerns of women’s nutrition and health, education, employment, environment
and above all else, their basic human right to life free from violence need to be factored into public
policy.
Education is basic for empowerment of women. It is education that provides knowledge, awareness
in regard to social, civic, political, economic and environmental issues and skills for securing
gainful employment and means of livelihoods. Through governmental and non-governmental
efforts substantial progress has been made in this sector. Some of the vital factors inhibiting
education of women are outdated values held by people regarding the role of women are outdated
values held by people regarding the role of women consequent on which there is a definite
preference for the purpose of imparting education.
As compared to men, women have a significantly lesser rate of work participation, though of late,
their participation rate has been increasing faster than that of men. As per 1991 census, women’s
work participation was 22.27 per cent. The employment of women is mostly in the organized
sector. However, the strength of women in the All India Services is not indicative of any significant
degree of empowerment of women. While the higher judiciary should stand credit with it’s
landmark judgements, in its structure, it continues to be a male bastion.

What is Indira Mahila Yojana ?

Women and Media
Media in any society serves as the mirror of the society in reflecting concerns for women. Mostly,
it is not playing any proactive role in championing their causes. Media persons express their view
that they should not adopt the role of advocacy for the sake of objectivity. The mainstream cinema
in Hindi and other vernacular languages is still trapped in the stereotyped image of women as
week, submissive and conformist type. With the advent of Cable TV and serials being telecast by
popular channels heavy doses of religiosity and ritualism are being pushed down the throat. All
sorts of superstitions and anti-emancipation themes are being promoted. It is only the so called
‘parallel cinema’ and some television programmes seem to be interested in women’s liberation
and empowerment. The saga of women’s empowerment has been that of a war in which several
battles have been fought against male domination and many more battles have to be fought. India
cannot progress without proper and true empowerment of women.

Feminism and Feminist Movement
Feminism concerns itself with women’s inferior position in society and with discrimination
encountered by women because of their sex. Feminism is thus a term that emerged long after
women started questioning their inferior status and demanding an amelioration in their social
position. Even after the word ‘feminism’ was coined, it was still not adopted as a term of
identification by many of those who campaigned for women’s rights organizations in the late
1960s and early 1970s did not call themselves feminist. It is only more recently that the label
‘feminist’ has been applied to all women’s rights groups in discriminately.
The term ‘feminism’ embraces a variety of movements and ideologies concerned with the
emancipation or liberation of women, the establishment of equal rights for women, and opposition
to forms of male dominance. It may be looked as a movement to gain for women equal rights with

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