JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY HYDERABAD

Course Objectives:

• To develop students’ sensibility with regard to issues of gender in contemporary India.
• To provide a critical perspective on the socialization of men and women.
• To introduce students to information about some key biological aspects of genders.
• To expose the students to debates on the politics and economics of work.
• To help students reflect critically on gender violence.
• To expose students to more egalitarian interactions between men and women.

Course Outcomes:

• Students will have developed a better understanding of important issues related to gender in contemporary India.
• Students will be sensitized to basic dimensions of the biological, sociological, psychological and legal aspects of gender. This will be achieved through discussion of materials derived from research, facts, everyday life, literature and film.
• Students will attain a finer grasp of how gender discrimination works in our society and how to counter it.
• Students will acquire insight into the gendered division of labour and its relation to politics and economics.
• Men and women students and professionals will be better equipped to work and live together as equals.
• Students will develop a sense of appreciation of women in all walks of life.
• Through providing accounts of studies and movements as well as the new laws that provide protection and relief to women, the textbook will empower students to understand and respond to gender violence.

UNIT - I

UNDERSTANDING GENDER Gender: Why Should We Study It? (Towards a World of Equals: Unit -1) Socialization: Making Women, Making Men (Towards a World of Equals: Unit -2) Introduction. Preparing for Womanhood. Growing up Male. First lessons in Caste. Different Masculinities.

UNIT - II

GENDER AND BIOLOGY Missing Women: Sex Selection and Its Consequences (Towards a World of Equals: Unit -4) Declining Sex Ratio. Demographic Consequences. Gender Spectrum: Beyond the Binary (Towards a World of Equals: Unit -10) Two or Many? Struggles with Discrimination.

UNIT - III

GENDER AND LABOUR Housework: the Invisible Labour (Towards a World of Equals: Unit -3) “My Mother doesn’t Work.” “Share the Load.” Women’s Work: Its Politics and Economics (Towards a World of Equals: Unit -7) Fact and Fiction. Unrecognized and Unaccounted work. Additional Reading: Wages and Conditions of Work.

UNIT - IV

ISSUES OF VIOLENCE Sexual Harassment: Say No! (Towards a World of Equals: Unit -6) Sexual Harassment, not Eve-teasing- Coping with Everyday Harassment- Further Reading: “Chupulu”. Domestic Violence: Speaking Out (Towards a World of Equals: Unit -8) Is Home a Safe Place? -When Women Unite [Film]. Rebuilding Lives. Additional Reading: New Forums for Justice. Thinking about Sexual Violence (Towards a World of Equals: Unit -11) Blaming the Victim-“I Fought for my Life….” - Additional Reading: The Caste Face of Violence.

UNIT - V

GENDER: CO - EXISTENCE Just Relationships: Being Together as Equals (Towards a World of Equals: Unit -12) Mary Kom and Onler. Love and Acid just do not Mix. Love Letters. Mothers and Fathers. Additional Reading: Rosa Parks-The Brave Heart.

TEXTBOOK

All the five Units in the Textbook, “Towards a World of Equals: A Bilingual Textbook on Gender” written by A. Suneetha, Uma Bhrugubanda, Duggirala Vasanta, Rama Melkote, Vasudha Nagaraj, Asma Rasheed, Gogu Shyamala, Deepa Sreenivas and Susie Tharu and published by Telugu Akademi, Hyderabad, Telangana State in the year 2015.

Note

Since it is an Interdisciplinary Course, Resource Persons can be drawn from the fields

of English Literature or Sociology or Political Science or any other qualified faculty who has expertise in this field from engineering departments.

REFERENCE BOOKS:

• 1. Menon, Nivedita. Seeing like a Feminist. New Delhi: Zubaan-Penguin Books, 2012
• 2. Abdulali Sohaila. “I Fought For My Life…and Won.”Available online at: http://www.thealternative.in/lifestyle/i-fought-for-my-lifeand-won-sohaila-abdulal/