Gender Gap in Himachal Pradesh

Despite its profound socio-economic significance not much work has been done on gender gap in geography in India. Most of the geographical writings on gender issues in the country are based on secondary data. The present study employs primary data and thus, is of special importance of this regard. It focuses on varied inequalities between males and females in different spatial units of the study area. The data were collected from five sample settlements in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh. Gender inequality in the study area as also elsewhere in the country is essentially based on power relations in society obtaining at a given point of time. Generally speaking, the higher the socio-economic disparities, the higher is the gender gap. In order to close down the gender gap, the present pro-male ideology of the household has to be replaced by a more fair and egalitarian ideology. However, it will be difficult to bring about genuine gender equality until and unless the socio-economic disparities are removed. The book has grown out of my doctoral work done at the Punjabi University, Patiala. The issues covered by this volume have significant practical as well as academic implications and thus, will be useful for social scientists working in different fields.