Program(s):
Abbey Griscom
India Program
Re-valuing women and girls as investment: A way to end the gendercide in India
When deciding what I wanted to focus my research project on for India I wanted to partake in a project that I found interesting and challenging. I have been interested in the gendercide, which I will explain further in my proposal, and the historical undervaluing of women within society. I also was inspired by a talk during the Gender Studies Symposium from this year that focused on the organization Girl Effect and how with neoliberalism, girls have been turned into an investment and are given the burden of ‘ending poverty.’ Initially, I had thought about pursuing these topics individually, yet, the more research I did proved how the two pieces fit together and added to the dialogue of existing research in a new way. I believe that my project will follow me past my trip to India, and I find myself excited by the prospect that I might further my research potentially as a senior thesis or as a potential fulbright project after I graduate from Lewis & Clark. This project has the opportunity to grow because I am not really sure what my finalized argument is and I find that incredibly exciting.
The gendercide, or the deliberate murder of humans based on gender, has been a social reality throughout the world and accounts for skewed gender ratios between males and females. Although this phenomena is not culturally specific to India, India has the second highest number of women missing in the world. The organization Gendercide Awareness Project (GAP) reports that 43 million women in India are missing. Most of the explanation surrounding why gendercide occurs is economical; men provide for families, whereas women are viewed as financial burdens. In places like India where patrilocal traditions are practiced, women leave the home to go live with their husbands and their families; thus, women are viewed as economic burdens. However, a new dialogue surrounding women has been started, one where women are worth investing in. Because the gendercide is explained and understood to be a result of the undervaluing of women as a result of their place within the economy, the solution to gendercide is to revalue women.
The global community has been challenged to “invest in girls” to end global poverty by western organizations such as girleffect and is encouraged to buy from companies that are started and female run such as saribari where “The women create beautiful, sustainable, handmade products, while making their lives new. [Saribari] invite[s] you to journey into the freedom story of one woman with your purchase” (saribari.com). Now, these are only two examples of a plethora of organizations that have similar messages. However, an overwhelming amount of organizations speak of women as capital; women and girls are given value when they are able to be seen as producers capable of existing within a capitalistic environment. These messages are also mainly an appeal to white western audiences to help and save brown women a version of ideological neo-colonialism. Rather than an argument that women should be valued and not murdered in the millions because they are human beings and gendercide is an epidemic, women only may hold value when they produce. For my project I want to look at the ways in which contemporary Indian women are being revalued within a capitalistic structure; more specifically the complex relationship between how women are simultaneously being brutally murdered for simply existing, while also being exploited by their potential to produce and be a marketing technique for predominantly western organizations. My paper will go beyond trying to answer if these processes are good or bad, rather, I want to focus on the underlying implications at work by adopting both Marxist and Postcolonial Feminist critiques against these structures, namley neoliberalism.
This project is one that I am able to pursue in each of the locations that we are living in. In fact, my research will be elevated by the opportunity to examine these complex relationships in a variety of regions. Gendercide is not exclusive to one specific region of India, it is experienced in India in its entirety. Similarly, women are being “invested” in throughout India, both through education and job opportunities. I also plan to conduct research and interviews at various organizations and environments that are in all three cities as well as use travel time to visit businesses and organizations.
To research my topic I would like to conduct interviews with a variety of people. There are many grassroots organizations that are devoted to women’s rights and ending the gendercide, while I am in India I intend to contact various organizations to interview and observe. During one of my free travel periods I intend to visit Kolkata to visit Sari Bari’s location there, and have contacted the company to inquire about conducting interviews, regardless, I believe that a visit there would be very important to my research. During my last visit to Ahmednagar, I visited a women run start up business in the small town of Aragon, which I intend to revisit during my other travel period. I also hope that during my time in Delhi I will be exposed to both students and faculty at the University that I can talk to about my project and potentially be exposed to more people who I could interview.
Preliminary research
“Add sugar and spice; Gendercide in India." The Economist 9 Apr. 2011: 15(US). Academic OneFile. Web.
This article is very straightforward, defining the gendercide and later talking about causes. I believe this article is important to my project because it is very clear and compact; I also believe that it is important to have sources that are known for talking about the economy, and the Economist is well known.
Asoka Bandarage. (1984). Women in Development: Liberalism, Marxism and Marxist-Feminism. Development and Change, 15(4), 473-612
This article takes a marxist feminist approach on neo-feminist cross cultural feminist strategies, which is what my project also aims to do. question who benefits
Edgar Dahl. (2010). Gendercide? A Commentary on The Economist's Report About the Worldwide War on Baby Girls Journal of Evolution and Technology, (21)(2), 20-22.
This source is a critique of the popular Economist article Gendercide: The worldwide war on baby girls (included in sources). I believe that this is relevant to my topic because it offers a different perspective on the issue of gendercide and its implications.
Gangoli, G. (2006). Engendering Genocide: Gender, Conflict and Violence.Women's Studies International Forum, 29(5), 534.
This source is a review article on three books that address thematic connections between gender, conflict and violence. This source is of particular interest to me because of Gangoli’s argument of women as symbolic bodies of a nation and I believe that this argument is incredibly relevant for my project.
Garikipati, S. (2008). The Impact of Lending to Women on Household Vulnerability and Women’s Empowerment: Evidence from India. World Development, 36(12), 2620-2642.
One major way that women are “invested” in is by loans, this article is relevant to my research because it found that loaning money to Indian women may be beneficial to women and their household, it also paradoxically found that it wasn’t empowering to the women involved.
Karuna Ahmad. (1979). Studies of Educated Working Women in India: Trends and Issues. Economic and Political Weekly, 14(33), 1435-1440.
Although education and better employment opportunities are often stated to be the way of improving the status of women, Ahmad argues that there is “little objective basis to warrant such assumption” (Ahmad 1979). I believe that this source is relevant to my project because the assumption that access to education and jobs is the very argument of those who seek to revalue women.
Lim, L. (1983). Capitalism, imperialism and patriarchy: The dilemma of third world women in multinational factories. In J. Nash (Ed.), Women, Men, and the International Division of Labor. Albany: State University of New York Press.
This chapter attempts to further the question of: is factory work liberating as is asserted by economist and governments, or exploitative as asserted by feminists. Lim goes beyond this question to look at the underlying implications and the multifaceted and complicated relationships between capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. I believe that this source will be useful in my project for Lim is incredibly detailed in her analysis especially on her section about capitalism. One limitation is that this Chapter is over 30 years old.
Paul Schultz, T. (2002). Why Governments Should Invest More to Educate Girls.World Development, 30(2), 207-225.
Ritu Dewan. (1999). Gender Implications of the `New' Economic Policy: A Conceptual Overview. Women's Studies International Forum, 22(4), 425-431.
This article is especially interesting in relation to my project. As a result of globalization the Indian economy was able to engage in global trade. Dewan examines the “New Structural Adjustment Programme” (1991) and its implications for women workers. Dewan is able to provide insight on the effects of these programs, as they affected her life as well and organizations that she aligns herself with.
The Economist. (2010). Gendercide: The worldwide war on baby girls.
This source is cited and talked about a lot for it received a lot of global attention. I’m not sure if I will end up using it in my project, however, I thought that it was worth noting and could possibly be helpful.
Kalpagam, U. (2000). THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT IN INDIA TODAY--NEW AGENDAS AND OLD PROBLEMS. Feminist Studies, 26(3), 645-660.
This source is relevant to my paper because it looks at the contemporary women’s movement in India which is relevant in my research because the issues I am concerned with are agendas of the women’s movement in India as well as globally.
girleffect.org
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/07/201372814110570679.html
http://saribari.com/visit-us/
http://www.girleffect.org/why-girls/
http://www.causebecause.com/news-detail.php?NewsID=231
http://www.girleffect.org/
http://www.gendap.org/faq.html
http://www.itsagirlmovie.com/
http://www.sciencedirect.com.watzekpx.lclark.edu/science/article/pii/S0305750X0800137X
Update as of 10/14 ***
During my time in Delhi I interviewed two people,Prabu Mahapatra, a professor of labor at the University of Delhi, as well as a friend that I made through the University of Delhi. From my interview with Prabhu I learned more about the multiple ways in which empowerment refers to: both empowerment via the state and through social programs (ie NGOs and interpersonal practice). As someone who studies labor, he was able to give me a comprehensive overview of the ways in which women engage with labor, and also raised points about how women have always engaged in work in the home, but it is viewed differently than wage earning work. I have also contacted Urvashi Butalia, a feminist publisher and activist, who said she would do an electronic interview with me, as well as another student from Delhi University who preferred to do a written interview rather than one in person.
The type of people who I am interviewing fall into three categories: Scholars/activists, NGOs, and friends and students that I have meet through my time in India.
The structure of the interview varies on the type of category of participant. However, each participant is asked to give their understanding/definition of what “women’s empowerment” means to them based on their own experience.
For Scholars/activists I intend to come up with personalized interview scripts in a semi-structured form to ask more conceptual and abstract questions about the economy, history of women’s labor/work, and how women are valued within Indian society. From these questions, I probe when I see necessary.
I haven’t interviewed any NGOs yet, but I am finding them based on searching on the internet through google with the search terms “women’s empowerment + (the city we are in)” I found two NGO organization that I intend to visit during our time in Chennai called ANEW (association of nontraditional employment of women) and WOW (women of worth) both who explicitly cite empowerment as a goal in their mission statement.
Lastly, I have interviewed people who I have come into contact since being in India. The interviews have been less formal and more focused on the actual understanding of the terms “empowerment for women” and what that means to individuals from their experience. It is important to note that those who I have come into contact with are not representative of the population of India, and I will not strive to make any arguments/leaps that they would be, but none the less, interviewing these people is still relevant to my project.
A quite summation of thoughts after my initial research and interviews:
Women in India have been undervalued within society. Perhaps one of most striking examples of how this manifests in in the very open and deadly preference of male sons. The gendercide, or systematic mass killing of baby girls is usually justified with the male preference. The preference of sons lies in their worth within society: men historically have been the demographic that are able to participate in the public sphere/work sphere whereas women are seen as financial burdens. However, within the past 20 years, more and more women have entered into/participated in the public sphere and working force, more so than at any other point. In fact, fighting for women to be able to exist within the public sphere/work force has been central to both empowerment platforms from both the State and activists. Women are rebranded of beings of “worth” and of “investment.” Rather than focusing on how women are human beings who deserve not to experience violence and oppression, the focus is placed on how women can now be producers. Perhaps what is most ironic is that historically as well as in contemporary society, women have always worked, but the work is what is referred to as invisible work. It is domestic work that occurs in the domestic sphere. It is invisible for it only is noticed when it is not done, and it is not paid work. Many women also participate in the informal sector, but do so from their homes, producing goods and earning small, unregulated wages from their home. Much of the language used surrounding female empowerment is about how women are able to have a new life when they enter the job sector outside of the home; there is a societal rebirth when women enter capitalistic structure of the public sphere.
Some questions I hope to answer:
Do women feel empowered from entering the job sphere? Which women are able to enter the job sphere, what are the necessary conditions for women to do so? How does this explain the harsh violence against women that is directed to women who are entering the public sphere (rape, lack of bathrooms, looks, and harassment)? Is the way to revalue women through capitalism? Is there a way to revalue women without capitalism?
Update as of 11/2***
While in Chennai I had the opportunity to conduct 3 interviews
On October 20th
I went to ANEW (Association for Non traditional Employment of Women) a NGO in Chennai that centers around empowering women by helping them gain jobs within the formal sector.
I interviewed the president of ANEW Vinodhini Sudhindran
I interviewed the project coordinator of ANEW Tanya Verony
On October 23 I interviewed Kavitha Muralidharan a journalist from Chennai.
Update as of 11/24***
Conducted three interviews with Didis at NIRMAN
Miradidi interview on 11/19
Ranididi interview on 11/25
Riubohana Begam interview on 11/25