Top Gender Discrimination in Women

• Lie #1 - Women are less than human
  The women in Playboy magazine are called "bunnies," making them cute little animals or "playmates," making them a toy. Penthouse magazine calls them "pets." Porn often refers to women as animals, playthings, or body parts. Some pornography shows only the body or the genitals and doesn't show the face at all. The idea that women are real human beings with thoughts and emotions is played down.
  
• Lie #2 - Women are a "sport"
  Some sports magazines have a "swimsuit" issue. This suggests that women are just some kind of sport. Porn views sex as a game and in a game, you have to "win," "conquer," or "score." Men who buy into this view like to talk about "scoring" with women. They start judging their manhood by how many "conquests" they can make. Each woman I "score" with is another trophy on my shelf, another "notch" in my belt to validate my masculinity.
  
• Lie #3 - Women are property
  We've all seen the pictures of the slick car with the sexy girl draped over it. The unspoken message, "Buy one, and you get them both." Hard-core porn carries this even further. It displays women like merchandise in a catalog, exposing them as openly as possible for the customer to look at. It's not surprising that many young men think that if they have spent some money taking a girl out, they have a right to have sex with her. Porn tells us that women can be bought.
  
• Lie #4 - A woman's value depends on the attractiveness of her body
  Less attractive women are ridiculed in porn. They are called dogs, whales, pigs or worse, simply because they don't fit into porn's criteria of the "perfect" woman. Porn doesn't care about a woman's mind or personality, only her body.
  
• Lie #5 - Women like rape
  "When she says no, she means yes" is a typical porn scenario. Women are shown being raped, fighting and kicking at first, and then starting to like it. Porn teaches men to enjoying hurting and abusing women for entertainment.
  
• Lie #6 - Women should be degraded
  Porn is often full of hate speech against women. Women are shown being tortured and humiliated in hundreds of sick ways and begging for more. Does this kind of treatment show any respect for women? Any love? Or is it hatred and contempt that porn is promoting toward women?
  
• Lie #7 - Little kids should have sex
  One of the biggest sellers in pornography is imitation "child" porn. The women are "made-up" to look like little girls by wearing pony tails, little girl shoes, holding a teddy bear. The message of the pictures and cartoons is that adults having sex with kids is normal. This sets the porn user up to see children in a sexual way.
  
• Lie #8 - Illegal sex is fun
  Porn often has illegal or dangerous elements thrown in to make sex more "interesting." It suggests that you can't enjoy sex if it isn't weird, illegal or dangerous.
  
• Lie #9 - Prostitution is glamorous
  Porn paints an exciting picture of prostitution. In reality, many of the women portrayed in pornographic material are runaway girls trapped in a life of slavery. Many having been sexually abused. Some of them are infected with incurable sexually transmitted diseases that are highly contagious and often die very young. Many take drugs just to cope.

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TOXIC PORN, TOXIC SEX: A REAL LOOK AT PORNOGRAPHY

Porn & addiction...sex out of context

On a cool, dark night, there's nothing augmented than a blazing ember in the fireplace. It's safe, hot, relaxing and ardent. Now take on to that same blaze out of the fireplace and slip it in the center of the thriving room. Suddenly it becomes destructive. Sex is following that ember. As long as it's expressed in the protective loyalty of a marriage attachment, it's fabulous, affectionate and admiring. But porn takes sex outside that context.

What Fuels Porn Addiction

One of the most offended parts of mental air is a healthy idea of who we are sexually. If these ideas are mixed, a necessary share of who we are becomes twisted. The porn culture tells you that sex, esteem and intimacy are all the same shape. In porn, people have sex subsequent to quantity strangers -- people they just met. All that matters is my satisfaction. It doesn't matter whose body I'm using, as long as I purchase it. Porn gets you to think that sex is something you can have anytime, anywhere, back anyone, in the space of no outcome.

effects of pornography - porn addiction - pornography addictionThe problem in the space of porn's shallow viewpoint is that associations are not built on sex, but occurring for adherence, caring and mutual trust. In that context, as well as flare in the fireplace, sex is astounding. Being subsequently someone who loves and accepts you, someone who is effective to you for your sum lives together, someone you can manage to pay for yourself very to, that is what makes sex in fact colossal.

To Find Freedom from Porn Addiction: Recognize the Lies

You can't learn the concrete about sex from pornography. It doesn't contract in firm. Pornography is not made to educate, but to sell. It's a colossal issue that makes a lot of money and doesn't care how. They'll dispute out you anything they think will make you arrive liveliness and get bond of more. So, pornography will proclaim all lies attract and bond the audience. Porn thrives upon lies -- lies nearly sex, women, marriage and a lot of extra things. Let's see at some of those lies and see just how intensely they can mess happening your vibrancy and attitudes.

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Promoting Hegemonic Masculinity

Investigations into popular culture representations of masculinity suggest that hegemonic masculinity and its corresponding characteristics are emphasized (Craig, 1992, 1993; Evans & Davies, 2000; Gauntlett, 2002; Hanke, 1992; Messner, 2000; Vigorito & Curry, 1998).  This is particularly true within sport, which has always been regarded as a male domain (Lenskyj, 1990; Messner, 1988) and highly symbolic of masculine culture (Dworkin & Wachs, 1998; Koivula, 2001; Thornton, 1993). In particular, sport emphasizes the characteristics of the dominant masculinity such as violence and aggression (Dworkin & Wachs, 1998; Thornton, 1993), toughness (Dworkin & Wachs, 1998; Messner, Hunt, & Dunbar, 2001; Sabo & Gordon, 1995), risk-taking (Coakley, 1994; Sabo & Gordon, 1995), and competition (Koivula, 2001; Thornton, 1993).

            As a primary masculine culture in which the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity are highly valued and frequently displayed, sport culture may be considered an important socializing agent for learning masculinity and masculine behaviour.  Messner (1992), for example, contends that sport is one of the most powerful socializing institutions for masculinity, while Messner et al. (2001) maintain that sports programming sends uniquely powerful messages that may aid in the socialization of males into the dominant masculine culture.

            While there have been numerous investigations into masculinity in sport, few of these investigations have focused specifically on professional wrestling.  This may be largely due to the discounting of professional wrestling as a legitimate “sport” (Atkinson, 2002) and its categorization as a form of entertainment.  Nevertheless, Atkinson (2002) argues that professional wrestling is conceptually comparable to professional sports such as football, hockey, and soccer, and Schnirring (2000) contends that professional wrestlers are much like other competitive athletes.  Thus, professional wrestling can be considered a pseudo-sport, and as such, investigations of masculinity in professional wrestling can be undertaken to determine whether professional wrestling exhibits the same kind of dominant “cult of masculinity” revealed in sport.

            To date, only a handful of critical commentaries, conference papers, and graduate research projects have looked at masculinity or gender roles within professional wrestling, with only a footnote or two appearing in published academic papers dealing with sport and masculinity (see Messner et al., 2001). Nevertheless, what has been done suggests that masculinity is presented in professional wrestling primarily in its culturally ideal form.  For example, Jhally and Katz (2002) contend that professional wrestling glamorizes the culturally ideal form of masculinity, emphasizing physical strength and aggression. Likewise, the Communication Studies 298 research team (2000) found evidence of a hegemonic masculinity in professional wrestling displays which emphasizes strength, toughness, aggression, violence, and dominance.  In performing a textual analysis of Wrestlemania events, Cherry (2002) similarly found the dominant masculinity to be strong in professional wrestling with themes of violence, strength, toughness, emotional restraint, and athleticism predominant.  Moreover, Atkinson (2002) argues that many of the masculine characteristics presented in professional wrestling are the same characteristics exalted in conventional male sports, including violence and aggression, physical prowess, competition, athleticism, courage, and physical toughness.

            Interestingly, Stroud (2000) contends that professional wrestling may be even more extreme in constructing masculinity than so-called conventional sports.  Including professional wrestling in their analysis of sport and masculinity, Messner et al. (2001) found that messages about masculinity were most clear in the dramatic spectacle of professional wrestling.  Moreover, while Mazer (1998) argues that alternative masculinities are sometimes presented in professional wrestling, she maintains that it is typically the culturally dominant form of masculinity that is packaged and sold to professional wrestling audiences.

            As professional wrestling may be considered an alternative form of sport with a heavy entertainment component, it might be expected that this form of “sports-entertainment” would provide more opportunity for alternative expressions of masculinity than mainstream sports.  Thematic analyses concentrating on the construction of masculinity in televised professional wrestling were thus undertaken to determine whether alternatives to hegemonic masculinity were given space for expression within this popular pseudo-sport.

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Women's Movement

Social Movements: women's movements

It is well recognized that women are victim of many domestic crime since ancient time. To tackle such situation and enhance the position of women, numerous woman movements were started. It is said that women's movements are among the most important crusade of modern social movements. Historical records indicated that since nineteenth-century, Canadian women's suffrage campaigns to recent direct actions for sustainable development in India, wherever women's movements have been established, national organizations and local grassroots groups have worked together to support women and girls. Diverse, even conflicting, compassions of women's interests rise from differences in gender, race, class, cultural, religion, and sexuality, as well as from global divisions of wealth and power. However, the rifeness of oppression against women has resulted in formation of international women's movements with common agendas, linked to struggles for sovereignty, democracy, and secure livelihoods around the world.

To honour woman, March 8th is celebrated around the world. It is considered as a historical day, an icon of the struggle waged against mistreatment and oppression by women all over the world, for over a century. It is a day to express and demonstrate collective strength and to renew struggle of women for equality and justice.

When apprising the ideologies of women movements, it is specified that within the women's movement, there have been different understandings of patriarchal oppression and its outcomes and, therefore, also varied strategies to combat it. Some organizations have small intellectual groups while there have been some that have had mass support. Some have emerged in support of certain causes or for the purpose of a focused campaign, while there are some groups that have existed for years with evolving agendas. The principles vary from radical, liberal, socialist, Marxist and Gandhian, to the new fundamentalist.

It is documented in many studies that the women's movement has a long history in India. Much longer than the current 'second wave' movement, or even the 'first wave' of earlier this century. The Shakti cults go back centuries, and the concept of Shakti, the female power principle was recognized thousands of years ago. In this form, the women's movement signifies, not merely an oppositional force powered by anger, a rather negative reaction to oppression, but the development of a distinctive female culture, a positive creative force inspiring men and women alike (Liddle et al. 1986). The changes or rather the transitions that have occurred within the women's movement in India have not followed a chronological or linear pattern, but have at all stages involved a collage of influences, local, national and international.

The goals and structures of women's movements reveal the commonalities as well as the differences among women. For example, feminist movements tend to be related with the aspirations, and the opportunities, of middle-class women. Feminist movements include women's rights movements focusing on the goals of equal rights under the law and equal access to education, careers, and political power; women's liberation movements that challenge cultural patterns of male dominance in the family and personal life through strategies that raise the awareness of women of their own subjugation, often within the context of women-only groups. Black feminist movements address racism along with sexism; and socialist feminist movements look women's empowerment as tied to the role of government, labour, and civil society in safeguarding the rights of all citizens to equity and social security. The campaigners in feminine movements tend to be working-class women organizing to address problems of poverty and sexism and their overwhelming effects on the health and wellbeing of their families. Womanist, a term invented by the writer Alice Walker, refers to the confidence, strength, and wisdom of African-American women based in their cultures and long struggle to support their children and communities and to end racism and all forms of prejudice.

Religiously diverse, multilingual, and caste-divided India also has one of the most vibrant and many-stranded women's movements in the world. One of their primacies is challenging patriarchal religious practices, while at the same time respecting religious differences. Another is lessening the poverty and insecurity of women and their families.

It is found in reports that the women's upliftment period began in the late nineteenth century, first among elite Hindu men and women and, later, Muslims. Besides stressing education, they called for reform of the practices of widow remarriage, polygamy, purdah (the veiling and seclusion of women), property rights, and sati (the ritual suicide of widows). To curb these sinful acts made by society's traditional leaders or heads, Women established their own autonomous organizations, the most important of which was the All India Women's Conference (AIWC) in 1927. In 1934, when AIWC introduced a bill for equality in marriage, divorce, and property rights, they drew upon the nationalist rights discourse; and after independence in 1947, women were granted constitutional equality. However, the Hindu, Islamic, and other religious communities retained jurisdiction over family law (Desai 2001).

In second phase of women empowerment, grass-roots organizations formed and these focused not only upon gender but also upon caste, class, and culture as roots of women's persecution. The groups in this movement were associated with grass-roots labour, labourer, and tribal movements as well as leftist opposition parties. Among their activities were protests by tribal women in the Toilers' Union in Maharastra against alcohol-related domestic violence and by the Chipko movement of poor women in the Himalayas to protect their forest resources and highlight women's unrecognized economic contributions. The Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), a union of women working as street vendors and rag-pickers and in home-based industries, established the first women's bank for poor women (Desai 2001).

Women's participation in movements has been in four major forms:

1. For social, economic and political rights of specific categories of people like tribal, peasants and industrial workers.
2. For improvement in conditions of work and autonomy to women.
3. For equal remuneration for work.
4. In general social movements on issues affecting men and children like abortions, adoption of children, sexual exploitation.

Sustainable, grassroots development as a precedence of Indian women's movement organizations is demonstrated by the organization Stree Mukti Sangharsh (Women's Liberation Struggle). They envisaged development that promotes equality between men and women and overcomes the economic and environmental consequences of the rural areas precipitated by large multinational corporations whose focus on short-term gains have created unsustainable forms of development (Desai 2001). In the decades 1970s, autonomous, openly feminist women's movements ascended. These groups were annoyed by the dismissals of cases of girls raped by police and by religiously sanctioned violations of women's human rights. Their campaigns refocused on violence against women, dowry deaths (the murder of brides for their dowries), sex-selective abortions, and sati (Kumar 1995).

The success of women's movement organizations has met with an antifeminist repercussion, which calls upon familial, communal, and religious identities to try to push back women's gains (Kumar 1995). Since poverty and insecurity raised the flame of reactionary fears, the feminist tactic of promoting grassroots-based sustainable development is a double-edged one. It addressed both the economic independence of women and the long-term security and well-being of the whole community.

In academic domain, The International Women's Decade, 1975-85, has provided push to the growth of social science literature on women, their status in society and issues related to gender-based discrimination and inequality in particular. Gender studies are always on the priority agenda of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and the University Grants Commission (UGC). Several universities have Centres for Women's Studies. A research institute focusing on women, the Centre for Women's Development Studies was established with the support of ICSSR in 1980. There is also a full-fledged academic journal focusing on gender studies. A survey of literature by Malvika Karlekar (2000) on 'Women's Studies and Women's Development', sponsored by ICSSR covers the studies up to 1990. It is a valuable document for further research in the field. By now, we also have a few compilations including an annotated bibliography on women's studies (Vyas and Singh 1993). Social science texts on various aspects of gender has increased significantly during the 1980s and 1990s. Many monographs and essays use the term 'movement' in a broader sense in their titles dealing with women writings, discourse, issues affecting women's position in socio-economic spheres, rather than confining themselves to mobilization and collective action by women.

Except for a few, many of the studies are subjective, impressionistic and polemical for action prescription for action written by feminist activists in journalistic style. For activists involved in feminist movements, feminism is not merely a discourse to be analyzed, but 'a method of bringing about social change'. Some theoretical studies are also available, but it is sensed that they deal mainly with issues raised by western scholars. Even if this is so, this should not disparage the importance of such studies. Western influence affects all spheres of our life.

In the period of globalization, 'women's resistance to male domination' was the product of western education. British, women took the initiative in establishing women's organizations and defining their objectives. Women's liberation movements in India are believed to be mainly influenced by women's movements in the west, which emphasized the 'universality' of gender oppression and therefore 'universal sisterhood' of women. This has been interrogated by many intellectuals. It is contended that feminism as a movement is entrenched in the specific 'national history and culture' (Niranjana 2000).

A few scholar-activists have begun to raise issues relevant to the Indian background. Liddle and Joshi stated that the nature of male dominance is different in India from that in western society, therefore, the demands and resistance of women against males are also different. They argue:

"Ideologically, cultural imperialism has introduced the notion of female inferiority which had no part in Indian culture, where female power and its containment were stressed. Although females were segregated in the upper castes into the domestic sphere, this separation did not imply an inferior evaluation of the domestic, since that arena was crucial to the maintenance of caste purity. The inferiority notion adds a derogatory component to the gender ideology, serving to worsen women's position. It also makes for a degraded position for women abroad when added to the imperialist ideology of Western racial superiority; for, the context of imperialism creates a notion not only of women's inferiority to men, but also of Indian women's inferiority to Western women (Liddle and Joshi 1986)."

Some editors and activist scholars, also emphasized the need to look into Indian traditions and try to separate the devastating aspects from the points of strength within the cultural traditions, and start using the strengths to transform the traditions. Indian cultural traditions have remarkable potential within them to combat reactionary and anti-women ideas. If people can identify their points of strength and use them creatively. Gabriele Dietrich criticized that the use of religion has been ignored by women's movements as an obscurantist hangover. She feels that the women's movement needs to go into the cultural question more profoundly. The effort to give women a new sense of identity beyond family, caste and religion needs to grapple with the problem of cultural identity and continuity. It is reasonably easy to point out what has been oppressive and destructive of women in cultural.

It is a fact that there is a gap. Traditional idioms and symbols are also creatively used to liberate women from subservient positions in the social system. In that context, there is a debate on Gandhi's role during the freedom struggle to bring women into the political domain. Vina Mazurndar (1976), Devaki Jain (1986) and others perceive Gandhi as a great liberator who embraced a revolutionary approach to enhance the status of women. Malavika Karlekar argued that Gandhi developed the 'tradition' of a new feminity. Thus, the Gandhian woman was to use her traditional qualities to build a new positive image of action, resistance and change. The Gandhian method of self-questioning and analysis is now being picked up by the women's movement which denies the universality of incarcerating stereotypes' (1991). Madhu Kishwar contended that while in many ways, Gandhi's views on women and their role in society are not very different from those of the 19th century campaigners, in some other important ways he marked a crucial break from that tradition. The most vital difference is that he did not see women as objects of reform, as helpless creatures deserving charitable concern. Instead, he visualized them as active, self-conscious agents of social change. He is principally concerned with bringing about radical social reconstruction. One of the most lifelong contributions of Gandhi to the women's cause was that he gave it moral legitimacy. He helped to create a tradition and socio-political atmosphere in which even today; hardly anyone will publicly stand up and explicitly oppose women's fundamental rights or will deny them participation in politics. Gandhi's action, in bringing women self-respect in social life, in breaking down some of the prejudices against their participation in social and political life, in promoting an atmosphere of sympathetic awareness of their issues, goes far beyond his own views and pronouncements of women's role and place in society (1985).

Traditions and symbols are also competently used by the champions of status quo to mobilize women in the public area. Culture and traditions are conceptualized in a way to reinforce the women's position submissive to the male. Community rights based on traditional religious codes are emphasized over citizens' rights. Women are organized and mobilized to defend and disseminate traditional institutions with patriarchal authoritarian structures and value systems. Hindu women organizations supporting Hindutva ideology demand a Common Civil Code which has in practice a Hindu bias. The Mahila Morcha of BJP observed, 'We conceptually differ from what is termed as the women's liberation movement in the West.' We require a sort of readjustment in the social and economic setup. No fundamental change in values is desirable.

Women in India do not have comfortable place within the household, and the society. That has only to be re-established and reaffirmed (Kapur and Cossman 1995). For the champions of this position, tradition and values are derived from Brahminical scriptures rather than custom and usage. This is being done for the elimination of political opponents and the establishment of saffron power (Kapadia 2002).

It was documented in reports that The Sangh Parivar protected the sati system and formed the Rani Sati Sarva Sangha which canvassed and mobilized women for the celebration of sati. They stolen a slogan used by women's liberation movements: 'Hum Bharat ki nari hain, phool nahi, chingari hain' (We, the women of India, are not flowers but fiery sparks) (Akerkar 1995). Some of the leaders (both male and female) of the Parivar motivated their women members to be rebellious and challenge male supremacy. Amrita Basu observed that the message these leaders convey 'is that women can assume activist roles without violating the norms of Hindu womanhood or ceasing to be dutiful wives and mothers. The support of prominent men in religious and political life not only legitimates their roles but also bridges the rift between good citizens and devoted wives and mothers' (1999).

The riots dealt a severe shock to the principle that women have a separate existence away from their communal identity where people can debate problems of rape, divorce and maintenance on common platform. The women's movement does not stand in isolation and is an integral part of other social movements (Agnes 1994). Some reports by women's groups on communal riots during the post-demolition of disputed structure of Ayodhya period in 1992-93 in Ahmedabad, Surat and Bhopal also observes, 'Even the most committed work among vulnerable sections of women is not capable of enabling such women to liberate themselves from the pressures of divisive identity politics, without a conscious direction to confront this type of politics which is so inimical to women's rights and the movement for equality (Agnihotri and Mazumdar 1995).?

There is no repudiating that it does empower a specific and socially crucial group of middle class women, if not in absolute feminist direction then definitely in a relative sense. It helps previously homebound women to retrieve public spaces, to acquire a public identity, it confers upon them a political role and even leadership. It teaches the woman not to regard herself as merely feminine but as full-fledged citizen. It gives her access to serious intellectual cognition. It prepares the woman to be a citizen of an authoritarian Hindu rashtra, to crash secular, democratic politics (Sarkar 1991).

It is argued, Gender does not have an emancipatory potential that is 'natural' or 'innate'. Gender power grows from a sense of solidarity to being a force for itself only through intervention, contestation, and an exercise of and struggle over choices. Certainly, a feminist consciousness does not snuggle within a woman, ready to attain progressive self-realisation within a congenial environment, but is acquired through bitter conflicts and problems of choices within herself most of all (Sarkar and Butalia 1995).

Many scholars categorize women's movements according to their theoretical perspective. Neera Desai observed that 'the women's movement is the organized effort to achieve a common goal of equality and liberation of women and it presupposes sensitivities to crucial issues affecting the life of women. For a concerted action to move towards the objective, there has to be some unifying ideological thread for various units' (1988). On the basis of the ideological paradigm, Gail Omvedt (1978) organized women's movements into two types:

1. Women's equality movements
2. Women's liberation movements

First category may not directly challenge the existing economic or political or family structure, but rather aim at accomplishing an equal place for women in it, and at abolishing the most open remnants of feudal patriarchy, whereas the women's liberation movements directly challenge the sexual division of labour itself.

Kalpana Shah divides the women's movements into three categories on the basis of their approach towards elucidating women's unequal positions in the modern society and ways to liberate them from subjugation. They are:

1. Moderate or Women's Rights Position
2. Radical Feminism
3. Socialist Feminism (1984)

Sangari and Vaid make a distinction of women's movements into two theoretical categories:

1. Modernizing of patriarchal modes of regulating women.
2. Democratizing of gender relations both at home and the work place.

These theorists stated that 'movements by working class and peasant women have a greater potential for democratizing patriarchal power relations than the modernizing movements' (1989).

In general, Women's movements in India are divided into periods (Kumar 1993). They are:

1. Social reform movements during the freedom movement.
2. The movements from 1947 till 1975.
3. The movements emerging during and after the International Women's Decade.

Gail Omvedt also explained four kinds of movements related to women which can be called as women's movement and also distinguishes between them.

1) Movements where women participate: In these movements, men and women together fight some form of oppression. But the oppression due to sexual differentiation is not the focus of these movements. So Omvedt does not call such type of movements as women's movements.

2) Movements of women: There may be movements on general issues (slum improvement, price rise) where women are the only participants. But sole participation of women itself does not make them women's movements. In fact such movements may confirm the gender division of labour where men fight for wage rise and women fight against price rise, without challenging the male-dominated family and social structure.

According to Omvedt, these movements has a progressive role as they give women participants a chance to experience their own collective strength.

3) Women's reform movements: Reform movements include the series of movements on education for women, for abolition of Sati that took place in the pre-independence India. Although these issues were concerned with women, Omvedt refuses to call them women's movements because these movements did not challenge the fundamental structure of oppression in family and society.

4) Women's liberation movements: These are channelled by an ideology of fighting the sexual division of labour and patriarchy. They also act against the specific issue of women's oppression and move in the direction of liberation. Omvedt called these movements, as women's movements.

Women's movements do not see women's issues as subordinate to the social goals, but keep them in focus in relation to other social goals. As Agnes (1994) stated that the women's movement in India does not stand in isolation and it is an integral part of other social movements. the women's movement in India can be deliberated in terms of its two phases, the social reform phase; and freedom movement phase.

There is a discrepancy between pre-independence and post-Independence women's movements in India. The pre-independence movements were fundamentally about social reforms and initiated by men. Comparatively, the post-independence movement demanded gender equality, questioned gender-based division of labour and highlighted the oppressive nature of the existing patriarchal structure.

When evaluating the women initiatives in other countries, it is demonstrated that in the euphoria of post-independence, it was believed that women's status would radically improve along with other marginalized groups because they were now the masters of their destiny. However, when this was not achieved, there was an increase of various movements which raised a number of issues around diverse subjects such as land rights, wages, security of employment, equality. Some of the issues on which women got together were work, population policies, atrocities on women, including rape and liquor.

A number of administrative bodies were established for the creation of opportunities for women. Many women were inducted into the government. In the two decades that followed, 1950s and 1960s, there was a lull in the activities of feminists and in the women's movements in India. Women, however, started realizing that the constitutional promise of equality did not by itself resolve the equality questions, especially in a country as diverse as India, which comprises different religions and cultures.

The challenge of addressing inequality issue of women still exist. Women's organizations and feminists were unable to tackle the problems of women belonging to different religious groups. By the time, the feminist movement stepped into the 1970s, minority identities had begun to harden. This divisive environment affected Muslim women. Religious fundamentalists tried to place the responsibility of preserving religio-cultural identity on women. This identity condition, with women in the centre, diverted attention away from Muslim women's grim realities and the deviations from the actual Islamic position. Having been a secular movement, the women's movement found itself facing major challenge that it did not know how to handle. On the conceptual level, Indian Feminists were in a quandary: how to assimilate Muslim women's issues into broader feminist issues and, at the same time, defend their religious and cultural identity. This has been most obvious in the case of Muslim Personal Law. Placing Muslim women's issues within the confines of religion has further marginalized them, and created uncertainty among the secular feminists in addressing their problems for fear of hurting religious sentiments. The 1970s also witnessed the split of the Indian Left Front. This led to a number of doubts regarding their earlier analysis of revolution. New Leftist movements and ideas emerged. A few streams of feminist movements also developed, such as the Shahada movement, which was a Bhil tribal landless labourer's movement against the exploitation of the tribal landless labourers by non-tribal landowners. It began as a folk protest, and became militant with the involvement of the New Left party.

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Types of Feminism

Types of Feminism:

There are three basic forms of feminism:

1. Liberal feminism
2. Social feminism
3. Radical feminism

Liberal feminism: It is imbedded in classic liberal thought and believes that individuals should be free to develop their own abilities and follow their own interests. This approach visualizes gender inequalities as rooted in the attitudes of our social and cultural institutions. Liberal feminists do not understand women's equality as requiring a reorganization of society, but they do seek to expand the rights and opportunities of women.

They focus mostly to protect equal opportunities for women through legislation. Passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972 was major step forward for liberal feminist programme, which in part states that, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Reports indicated that in US, 35 states have ratified the amendment; 38 are needed for it to become part of the U.S. Constitution. The 15 states that have not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment include those in the Deep South, Midwest and Southwest and include Florida, Missouri and Nevada.

Socialist feminist theory: It advanced the philosophies of Karl Marx. Socialist feminism was a subdivision of feminism that became popular in the women's movement during the 1960s and 1970s. Socialist feminism recollects many of the same goals as the first feminist movements. Socialist feminists accepted the ideologies of radical feminists that gender roles need to be abolished. But they visualized gender and sexuality as social constructs both capable of transformation. While they recognize that biology does play a role in determining personality, anatomy does not confine or limit our capabilities as human beings on an emotional or a physical level.

Akin to Marxists, socialist feminists viewed capitalism as a major factor in women’s oppression, as well as in the oppression of other minority groups. Dissimilar to Marxist feminists, however, socialist feminists believe that capitalism is only one of many tangled factors that contribute to women’s oppression. Other factors include male dominance, racism, and imperialism.

It is established in reports that socialist feminists agree that liberal feminism does not appreciate the depth of the oppression of women and basically only addresses the situation of women of the upper and upper middle classes. They also agree that women have been oppressed in almost all known societies, but the nature of this repression has differed because of the different economic realities. Socialist feminists do not contemplate that the oppression of women is based solely on the economic system, and they recommend that patriarchy and capitalism are combined into one system. They consider that we must understand the continuing effects that colonization, imperialism, and racism have on the women of the world.

Socialist feminists inferred that it is incorrect to propose that any one form of oppression is the most important form of oppression. Instead, they identify that oppression based on sex/gender, class, race, and sexual orientation are all interwoven. To effectively challenge any one of these forms of oppression, it is required to well understand and challenge all of them.

Radical feminist theory: Radical feminism is concerned with equivalence for women. Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical reorganisation of society in which male dominance is eliminated in all social and economic contexts. Radical feminists seek to abolish patriarchy by challenging existing social norms and institutions, rather than through a purely political process. This includes challenging the concept of traditional gender roles, opposing the sexual objectification of women, and raising public mindfulness about such issues as rape and violence against women.

Feminist political theory is a progressive field in political science that mainly focus on gender and feminist topics within the state, institutions and policies. It raises concern on the "modern political theory, dominated by universalistic liberalist thought, which claims indifference to gender or other identity differences and has therefore taken its time to open up to such concerns" (Veronique Mottier, 2010). Feminist political theory is a dissimilar subfield of feminist theory working towards three main goals:

1. To understand and critique the role of gender in how political theory is conventionally construed.
2. To re-frame and re-articulate conventional political theory in light of feminist issues (especially gender equality).
3. To support political science presuming and pursuing gender equality.

Feminist political theory incorporates a broad scope of approaches. It overlays with related areas including feminist jurisprudence/feminist legal theory; feminist political philosophy; female-centred empirical research in political science; and feminist research methods (feminist method) for use in political science the social sciences. Undeniably, researchers stated that, insofar as almost all versions of feminism involve "demonstrating the ways in which politics, understood as power relations, is present in our everyday lives," one could reasonably "describe feminist theory as a whole as a kind of political philosophy distinguishing factor of feminist political theory from feminism broadly is the specific scrutiny of the state and its role in the reproduction or redressing of gender inequality.

Feminist researchers have also examined the internally inconsistent and disciplinary apparatuses of welfare policies. Across various regions, feminists are challenging both the paring down of the state’s welfare responsibilities and the intensification of security functions in post-9/11 geopolitical coalitions.

It has been well documented in literature that within feminist theory, states occupy an aggravated space. Whereas states have often supported feminist objectives, states are also the locus of many of the problems that occupy feminists, such as militarism, moral regulation, and the cheapening of women’s labour. In spite of the feminist normative opposition to views from nowhere in particular that purport to be relevant everywhere, feminist state theory has played its key discussions with little specification of state contexts. Geographic coordinates and national histories remain largely undescribed in classics within the field of feminist state theory (Carole Pateman, 1988). It has been emphasized in literature that, dissimilar to more disciplined and conventional versions of state theory dominated by political science and legal studies, feminist state theories focused on other areas such as literary studies, anthropology, queer theory, development studies, history, and sociology.

In debate, Sunder Rajan and Sen argued strongly against philosophical purism, articulating modes of engagement that are cautious of the dangers of governance feminism while also being attentive to the redistributive potentialities of state power. Little’s article contradicts unitary notions of the state and indicated important subnational regional differences with respect to Canada.

Sunder Rajan’s article defines the political insufficiencies of the mourning figure as the locus of feminist opposition to the state and argues instead for a more robust agonistic approach to state politics that accounts for many female subjects and political outcomes. Park critiques use of “shame” as the framing device for understanding the history of comfort women, calling rather for an emphasis on injury and its attendant redressals. Kotef perceived that the targeting of women and children in Gaza in 2008–9 signalled a shift in the moral economies governing security. The gendered formulation of women’s role in war and peace making is being reconfigured as states such as Israel and Sri Lanka target civilians with impunity.

To summarize, Feminism is the planned movement which encourages egalitarianism for men and women in political, economic and social areas. In vast literature, it is documented that Feminist theory is an extension of the general movement to empower women around the globe. Feminism can be elaborated as a recognition and critique of male supremacy combined with effort to change it. It is well established that feminist combats for the equality of women and argue that women should share equally in society's opportunities and scare resources. Feminists consider that women are harassed due to their sex based on the prevailing belief of patriarchy. Removal of patriarchy will result in liberty for women.

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Theories of the state: Feminist

Feminist theory is about equality for women and men. Though, all feminists struggle for gender impartiality, there are many ways to approach this theory, including liberal feminism, socialist feminism and radical feminism. Feminist theory is the expansion of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. The aim of feminist theory is to understand the nature of gender inequality. It scrutinizes women's social roles, experience, interests, chores, and feminist politics in various fields, such as anthropology and sociology, communication, psychoanalysis, home economics, literature, education, and philosophy.

Many scholars proclaimed that feminism is the faith that women should have equal rights to men. As a result, the feminist movement battles for equal rights and opportunities for women. There are several types of feminism and feminists themselves tend to disagree about the ways in which women are deprived and which action should be taken to get equal rights. For example, ‘social feminists’ believe that women are exploited by the capitalist system both at work and home.

Many intellectuals stated that feminist theory emphases on analysing gender inequality. Subjects explored in feminism include discrimination, objectification (especially sexual objectification), oppression, patriarchy, stereotyping, art history and contemporary art, and aesthetics.

Both females and males who categorize themselves as feminists disagree on many things. That being said, most feminists agree on following basic principles:

- Working to increase equality: Feminist thought links ideas to action insisting, we should push for change toward gender equality and not just talk about it.

- Expanding human choice: Feminists believe that both men and women should have the freedom to develop their human interests and talents, even if those interests and talents conflict with the status quo. For example, if a woman wants to be a mechanic, she should have the right and opportunity to do so.

- Eliminating gender stratification: Feminists oppose laws and cultural norms that limit income, educational and job opportunities for women.

- Ending sexual violence & promoting sexual freedom: Feminists feel that women should have control over their sexuality and reproduction.

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