Women, Gender Equality and The State

"Women, Gender Equality and the State approaches the question of state policy towards women with a view to understand the manner in which the issue of equality between men and women has been addressed by the Indian state. The major argument is that the manner in which women have been defined by the state policies since independence is not only crucial to understanding the nature of these policies but also to the way it has constructed gender divisions, monitored, enforced and regulated the relations between men and women with important implications for women. The ideological definition of women’s work and sexuality in state policies has actually resulted in reinforcing and sustaining an ideology of female domesticity. An important function of state policies has been to retain a specific gender-based organisation of daily life, thereby, sustaining unequal gender relations. To illustrate her argument, the author analyses the development of state welfare intervention since independence with a view to understand as to what extent the policy interventions incorporated the needs and experiences of women. It has been argued that the state has not genuinely addressed the issues of reproduction and household work and thus, the problems resulting from sexual division of labour and sexual stereotypes have remained neglected. The study attempts to explore the ideological assumptions which inform state laws and policies and unravel the complex and subtle forms in which state policies reinforce deeply gendered assumptions, relations and roles, thereby, sustaining unequal relations between men and women."