Gender Discrimination Against Women 59654s

PSY468A COURSE PROJECT

Socio Cognitive Analysis of Gender Discrimination against Women INSTRUCTOR: Shikha Dixit

MADE BY Akshay Kumar Sanghi Rohit Kumawat Shashank Bhushan Pranab Kumar Prusty

INTRODUCTION We aim to find the sociological and psychological reasons behind Gender discrimination in today’s society and to untangle the thread between its roots and the forms it is taking such as protests for gaining access to education and breakage of age old traditions and customs to enter the prohibited places in the temple premises. The main reason for the selection of the topic is the widespread prevalence of discrimination against women; be it in having access to education, occupying top posts in professional field or simply equal treatment in of having right to do what they want, dress up in manner they want to, etc. Although the constitution of India has granted equal rights to both men and women, gender disparity still remains. In of literacy females stands at 65.46%, compared to 82.14% for males. This discrimination of women in different spheres of live is what leads to several incidents such as the fight of women to enter Nashik Shiva temple, Shani Shignapur temple sanctum, Haji Ali Durgah, Kolhapur’s Mahalaxmi temple, etc. We plan to study some of these issues beginning with the root cause of this discrimination and the various stereotypes which society has of women. We plan to study the root of the gender discrimination that lies in our school system and the family structure of Indian households. Then we plan to extend the discussion to the stereotypes which the society has about women that they are incompetent and should remain behind the men, myths and beliefs about temple worship such as women should not worship in specific temples as they are “unclean”. Finally we plan to study the women’s psychology and their attitude in their forceful entry into the temple premises. CONSTRUCTS USED Bias- Bias is an inclination to hold a skewed or prejudiced opinion of something or someoneobjects, individuals or groups and can be both positive and negative. Gender bias is one of the many biases that exist in society. Believing that a certain gender is superior to another and discriminating on the basis of this belief can be called gender bias. Schemas- Schemas are mental frameworks centred on a specific theme that helps us to organize social information. Attribution- These are the mental explanations or reasons people use to interpret past events. Stereotype- A stereotype is a thought that can be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things. These thoughts or beliefs may or may not accurately reflect reality.

Justifiability- It describes how, when a person encounters cognitive dissonance, or a situation in which a person's behaviour is inconsistent with their beliefs, that person tends to justify the behaviour and deny any negative associated with the behaviour. Power Relationships- The concept of "power relations" deals with how different groups are able to interact with and control other groups. METHOD Newspaper articles regarding gender discrimination and its manifestations in the society were our primary basis of search. As we reviewed the articles we found out that there had been several instances when women fought for their rights and some of the latest issues included attempts to gain entry into the temples. On careful review we found that they revolved mainly around religious beliefs and traditional practices, so we selected concepts of stereotypes and bias. We also found strong cases of justifiability and thought that the practices must have been attributed to external factors as human beings tend not to take the blame on themselves. ANALYSIS Gender discrimination is a very well acknowledged word, yet it is practised profoundly in our social system. On one side we have a legal system that gives equal rights and opportunities to both sexes and the other side that is even stronger, is deeply rooted social and religious beliefs. We are also a part of the social system or the group so our stereotypes and schemas about women are affected very much. We take help of these social and religion beliefs to justify our attitudes, attributions and inferences that discriminate male and female. We will see how much the gender - bias is consciously present even in early education system that transfers in future. Gender discrimination in school system can be seen as the difference in the opportunities available for girls and boys in regard to access to access to education from the earliest stages. The factual data of the gap in enrolments in the school clearly shows this. People make attribution for this cause which has external locus of control. For example – “The barriers standing in the way of girls attending schools – poverty, compulsion for girls to look after home and siblings, lack of women teachers and separate schools and lack of transport facilities.” Along with this there are many social beliefs and stereotypes people have, through which they justify their reason for not sending the girls to school such as

“Girls are part of a family till they married and after that they will become part of the other family. Marriage is the be – all and end – all for the girls so why should we waste our money.” Stereotyping that children must be cared only by females and household chores should only be done be female member of the family also prevent the girls from attending school. People also stereotype a girl student as vulnerable that is why they are not sent to far away school for higher education resulting in high dropout rates at upper primary school level. Often there are unrecognised, unintended and unknown biases in the mind of teachers, s and peers in schools, which inhibit girls from using opportunities available to them. For example “Quite often more chances are given to the boys than to the girls to answer question or to take on responsibility.” In poor families self – image and self – esteem is also not high. Parents also don’t see it as a problem because they do not see it as an important issue, therefore engaging girls in household chores and child bearing. All these factors – stereotyping, social representation, beliefs, unconscious bias and low self – image causes gender bias at the primary school system. Gender discrimination at this early age is reflected in future at a big level such as restricted entry of women in many temples. These religious beliefs and traditions once again came to limelight when a woman entered into the premises of Shani shrine in Maharashtra which was widely criticised by the temple committee; ‘dudh abhishek’ of the idol was performed and a bandh was observed to protest the incident. In another case Trust of Haji Ali Dargah cited menstruation as one of the reasons for restriction of women saying it is ‘unclean or embarassing’ showing that these beliefs still exist in society. The justifications for such beliefs are given such as ‘Menstruation is a natural process and women are exempted from offering namaaz during periods. Men do not have this exemption.’ Another statement which clearly expresses how firm these beliefs are is the statement by Sabrimala temple trust chief “Women would be allowed in- but only when a scanning machine was invented to check whether or not they were menstruating.” A famous sadhu Jaggi Vasudev who goes by the moniker Sadhguru justifies it by terming it as discretion rather than discrimination and how the occult rituals conducted in the temple are not compatible with female presence in any form; signifying that power relationships also play an important part in maintaining these beliefs. He further elaborates that ‘these hurdles are necessary in blocking out the negative energies of planetary influences on human lives’ attributing this act to external forces which are outside their locus of control. Another justification is that women are prohibited from offering worship at the famous temple’s sanctum owing to the myth of ‘harmful vibration emanating from the Saturn God or Lord Shani.’

These acts of protest by the woman on the other hand once again reflect the importance that education plays in our lives by making us aware of the world around us. Woman now on becoming aware about the laws and how they have been suppressed for decades are coming up to demand their rights. In one such incident about 200 women activists attempted to break the “age old tradition” by entering the inner sanctum of Nashik Shiva teple where entry is denied to the women. The justifications given by women included “Why should women be debarred from entering the temple’s sactum santorum? It is our constitutional right to enter any place of worship”, “Even our gods do not believe in it, then why should we?” In another incident which occurred in the Shani Shignapur temple, a group of women planned to enter the temple by forceful means even booking helicopters to enter the temple premises.Some of the changes caused by such protests include the decision to allow women to perform ‘abhishek’ with men in the Kolhapur’s Mahalaxmi temple after a number of protests. DISCUSSION The various incidents of protest by women clearly show their will to be at par with men in every aspect. Kolhapur’s Mahalaxmi temple incident reminds us that such changes in the society are possible. But the social and religious beliefs are so deep rooted and the power relationships are so dominant that such changes are very difficult to be created. The laws can only act upto a level and final changes have to be taken by the society- more importantly by the women and it can only occur when they gain access to education. Education is the prime aspect which gives them the confidence and power to question the rituals and customs which have been suppressing them for such a long time. CONCLUSION The analysis evaluated the sociological and psychological reasons which have been responsible for discrimination of women. Some of the main reasons included social and religious beliefs among the people and also the power relationships. The schemas and stereotypes that women are inferior to men and that only they are responsible for household chores still exist in the societies which have been some of the barriers due to which they lack education. The women on becoming educated are becoming aware of their rights and are coming up against these traditions and beliefs which is reflected in their fight to gain entry into the temples. The temple trusts and various sadhus etc. use various methods such as justifiability, attributing the traditions to external causes such as planetary influences to maintain their dominance in the society. Women on the other hand take help of law to gain their rights and this has large been made possible by their gaining access to education. Education may show its effects slowly but it is bound to have a positive importance in the society.

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When god is out of reach for women – The Hindu Nov30,2015 Maharashtra temple ‘purifies’ shrine after woman offers prayers- rediff.com Nov30,2015 On Mahashivratri, women fight to enter Nashik Shiva temple-The Hindu Mar7,2016 Sadhguru barring women from temples ‘discretion’ rather than discriminationwww.newsminute.com, Feb4,2016 Women plan to enter Shani Shingnapur temple sanctum on R-Day- The Hindu, Jan23,2016 Shani temple issue: It’s over to Fadnavis- The Hindu, Feb6,2016 Women activists firm on worship at Shani Shingnapur temple today- The Hindu,Jan26,2016, Gender discrimination in school system- The Hindu, Dec18,2001 The question of learning- Frontline, Feb4,2001