Gender Test - 2

The government has set up Anganwadis in several villages. These are Child care centers.

The provision of crèches helps many women to take up employment outside the home. It also makes it possible for more girls to attend schools.

Ramabai championed the cause of women’s education. She was given the title Pandita because she could read and write Sanskrit, a remarkable achievement as women then were not allowed such knowledge.

Being a boy or a girl is an important part of one’s identity. The society we grow up in teaches us what kind of behaviour is acceptable for girls and boys, what boys and girls can or cannot do. Identity is a sense of self-awareness of who one is. Typically, a person can have several identities. For example, a person can be a girl, a sister and a musician.

The wages of the domestic workers are very low because the work those domestic workers do, does not have much value.

Girls that are from Dalit and Adivasi backgrounds are less likely to remain in school. The 2001 census 49% is less likely, than Dalit and Adivasi girls, to complete primary school.

83.6 per cent of working women in India are engaged in agricultural work. Their work includes planting, weeding, harvesting and threshing. Yet, when we think of a farmer we only think of a man.

The main responsibilities that lie with women are for housework and giving tasks, like looking after the family, especially children, the elderly and sick members.

Across the world, the main responsibility of a women is  housework and care-giving tasks, like looking after the family, especially children, the elderly and sick members. Yet, as we have seen, the work that women do within the home is not recognised as work. It is also assumed that this is something that comes naturally to women. It, therefore, does not have to be paid for. And society devalues this work.

The Samoan Islands are part of a large group of small islands in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. In the 1920s, according to research reports on Samoan society, children did not go to school. They learnt many things, such as how to take care of children or do household work from older children and from adults. Fishing was a very important activity on the islands. Young people, therefore, learnt to undertake long fishing expeditions.

Fishing was a very important activity on the islands. Young people, therefore, learnt to undertake long fishing expeditions.

The government has set up anganwadis or child-care centres in several villages in the country. The government has passed laws that make it mandatory for organisations that have more than 30 women employees to provide crèche facilities. The provision of crèches helps many women to take up employment outside the home. It also makes it possible for more girls to attend schools.

The Samoan Islands are part of a large group of small islands in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. In the 1920s, according to research reports on Samoan society, children did not go to school

Gender is a term that you may often have heard. It is a term, however, that is not easily understood. It determines, for example, who we are and what we will become, where we can go and where not, the life choices available to us and those we eventually make. Our understanding of gender is often based on the family and society that we live in. This leads us to think that the roles we see men and women around us play are fixed and natural. In fact, these roles differ across communities around the world. By gender, then, we mean the many social values and stereotypes our cultures attach to the biological distinction ‘male’ and ‘female’. It is a term that helps us to understand many of the inequalities and power relations between men and women in society.

Double-burden Literally means a double load. This term is commonly used to describe the women’s work situation. It has emerged from a recognition that women typically labour both inside the home (housework) and outside. In most societies, including our own, the roles men and women play or the work they do, are not valued equally. Men and women do not have the same status. If we add up the housework and the work, women do outside the home, we find that women spend much more time working than men and have much less time for leisure.

Melani was a domestic worker who narrate about her experience of working in Delhi as– A domestic worker’s day can begin as early as five in the morning and end as late as twelve at night.Despite the hard work they do, their employers often do not show them much respect. This is what “My first job was with a rich family that lived in a three-storeyed house. The memsahib was very strange as she would shout to get any work done. My work was in the kitchen. There were two other girls who did the cleaning. Our day would begin at 5 o’clock.

The Samoan Islands are part of a large group of small islands in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. In the 1920s, according to research reports on Samoan society, children did not go to school. They learnt many things, such as how to take care of children or do household work from older children and from adults. Girls had to continue looking after small children or do errands for adults till they were teenagers. But, once they became teenagers they had much more freedom. After the age of 14 or so, girls also went on fishing trips, worked in the plantations, learnt how to weave baskets.

Housework actually involves many different tasks. A number of these tasks require heavy physical work. In both rural and urban areas women and girls have to fetch water. In rural areas women and girls carry heavy headloads of firewood. Tasks like washing clothes, cleaning, sweeping and picking up loads require bending, lifting and carrying. Many chores, like cooking, involve standing for long hours in front of hot stoves.The work women do is strenuous and physically demanding.

A lot of the children in Rosie Ma’am’s class drew women as nurses and men as army officers. The reason they did this is because they feel that outside the home too, women are good at only certain jobs. For example, many people believe that women make better nurses because they are more patient and gentle. This is linked to women’s roles within the family. Similarly, it is believed that science requires a technical mind and girls and women are not capable of dealing with technical things

They do a lot of work like sweeping and cleaning, washing clothes and dishes, cooking, looking after young children or the elderly. Most domestic workers are women known as Melanie.

Several women today work both inside and outside the home. This is often referred to as ‘double burden’.

Rashsundari Devi was born in West Bengal. At the age of 60, she wrote her autobiography in Bangla. Her book titled Amar Jiban is the first known autobiography written by an Indian woman.

Societies assign different values to the roles men and women play and the work they do, which becomes a basis for inequality and discrimination. Work Done primarily by women as housework is often not considered ‘work’ and, therefore they feel invisible and self devalued.

Domestic workers are often not treated well by their employer. Despite the hard work, their wages are low and their employers often do not show them much respect.

The Samoan Islands are part of a large group of small islands in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. In the 1920s, according to research reports on Samoan society, children did not go to school. They learnt many things, such as how to take care of children or do household work from older children and from adults. Fishing was a very important activity on the islands. Both boys and girls looked after their younger siblings. But, by the time a boy was about 9 years old, he joined the older boys in learning outdoor jobs like fishing and planting coconuts.

On an account of experiences of being in a small town in Madhya Pradesh in the 1960s, From Class VI onwards, boys and girls went to separate schools. The girls’ school was designed very differently from the boys’ school. They had a central courtyard where they played in total seclusion and safety from the outside world. The boys’ school had no such courtyard and our playground was just a big space attached to the school.

In most families once girls finish school, they are encouraged by their families to see marriage as their main aim in life.

Harmeet’s family did not think that the work Jaspreet did within the house was real work. This feeling is not unique to their families. Across the world, the main responsibility for housework and care-giving tasks, like looking after the family, especially children, the elderly and sick members, lies with women. Yet, as we have seen, the work that women do within the home is not recognised as work. It is also assumed that this is something that comes naturally to women. It, therefore, does not have to be paid for. And society devalues this work.

Boys are usually given cars to play with and girls’ dolls. Both toys can be a lot of fun to play with.

Rashsundari Devi was born in West Bengal. At the age of 60, she wrote her autobiography in Bangla. Her book titled Amar Jiban is the first known autobiography written by an Indian woman.