Women's/ Gender Studies: Missing Link to Restructure Social Institutions

Abstract

Women's Studies as a discipline, has helped in producing knowledge from the perspective of women. The worldview developed by women has gained much interest in India today. This is due to the continuous efforts of women producing knowledge in every field be it arts, science or technology. But the visibility of women and Women's Studies is still a pertinent question asked in the universities teaching women's/ gender studies. Feminists have made several attempts to challenge the patriarchal institutions. Both scholars and activists have tried to break this chain of hierarchical structure. Feminist epistemologies and methodology have also been limited to scholars in Women's Studies. As pointed out by many research scholars, the NGO-isation of the discipline has contributed to this limitation. This marginality in university settings has restricted Women's Studies from becoming the tool it had initially intended to be. The teachings and understandings have also evolved from personal to political and now to individual level. Therefore, as a student of gender studies, one is informed of both the women's movements and Women's Studies. But the experience also tells that the larger part of the society is unaware of these struggles. Also, very essential is to note that one was not aware of both movement and discipline before beginning as a learner of this discipline. This paper is an attempt to underline the marginal preference shown towards Women's Studies by other institutions like universities which have led to limited reach of Women's Studies to NGOs and few other institutions. Policy making and implementation bodies have long been gender insensitive. Educational institutions also need gender sensitive individuals for analyzing and structuring course materials that are apt for a gender aware new generation. Such institutions can potentially answer the question of employability and training of Women's Studies practitioners.