Influence on

gender in
literature

FROM INDIAN TEXT

The Vedas cry aloud, the Puranas shout;
"No good may come to a woman."
I was born with a woman's body
How am I to attain truth?
"They are foolish, seductive, deceptive Any connection with a woman is
disastrous."
Bahina says, "If a woman's body is so
harmful,
How in the world will I reach truth?"

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING QUOTATION FROM

THE PREFACE TO FROEBELS BOOK:
I have been sorry to give so masculine a
preponderance
to the child in this book, but the reason for
this mode of
expression may be attributable to the
peculiarities of our language.
Many sentences would be unintelligible if
it
were always used to designate a child as
well as an object.
I might have used her instead of him
but where then, would have been the
masculine supremacy?

FEMALE CHARACHTER SHOWN IN BOOKS AND

NOVELS:

Books for children have very often limited choices

and maintained gender discrimination. Most
traditional readers SHOW females DRESSED IN SKIRTS
OR DRESSES, no matter what their occupations or
activities. Illustrations in children's books have also
PLACED WOMEN IN PASSIVE OBSERVER ROLES WHILE
MEN ARE PICTURED AS ACTIVE. Studies have
frequently shown that illustrations confirm the
subordinate, LESS VALUED role for FEMALES while
stressing the ACTIVE ADVENTURESOME role for
MALES. When one objective of schools is to provide
equal educational opportunities for all students,they
FALL SHORT of fulfilling their goal when they use
books that shoe limited,restricted gender role
behaviours.

DEVELOPMENT OF WOMENS
LITERATURE

The trend of educating women began again in

the late 19th century with the rise of the
reformist movement in India which saw more
women's participation in rebelling against British
rule. This led to a new stage in the development
of women's literature in India. The body of work
produced was often related to the freedom
struggle and the reform and nationalist
movements. Although there were still women
such as Bhabani and Jogeswari whose writings in
the early 19th century questioned the patriarchal
dominance of their husbands, the majority
concentrated on the freedom struggle.

The earliest woman writing during the reformist period was

Savitribai Phule, who along with her husband championed
the cause of women's education. She was the first woman
teacher in modern Maharashtra and together with her
husband started the first school for girls. Her writing
carries the mark of an activist and scholar who
wholeheartedly believed in the cause of the untouchables.
Among the women writers who followed was Pandita
Ramabai Saraswati who was educated both in English and
in Sanskrit. In her The high caste Hindu woman she argues
against the patriarchal reading of the Hindu scriptures and
early scholarly works of learned Brahmins which
encouraged a repressive and demeaning interpretation
favouring the suppression of women.

SAROJNI NAIDU
Sarojini Naidu, dubbed the
nightingale of India,
published her first set of
poems at the age of sixteen
and went to England where
she was educated at King's
College in London, and later
at Cambridge. Her writings
as an activist and as the
governor of Uttar Pradesh
reflect her honest and
heartfelt concerns about the
situation of her country.

GROWTH IN WOMENS WRITING

Women's writing in the 20th century moved towards a

medium of modernism in which womanist and
feminist statements were combined with political
messages. The writings of women such as Hamsa
Wadkar conveyed an honest impression of a world of
professional women whose careers in television and
stage segregated them as a class apart, yet subjected
them to the same brutality and force of patriarchy. In
her autobiography, Hamsa Wadkar talks about her life
as an actor from the age of eleven, her marriage to a
suspicious and abusive husband, the birth of a
daughter, her life after eloping with another man, the
imprisonment she faced at his home along with two of
his other wives, and her rape by a justice of peace.

THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL AND

READINGMATERIALS ON CHILDREN'SGENDER
ROLE SOCIALIZATION
As Children develop,there are many environmental
influences on their socialization to adult roles.
Influences include parents,media,peers and school
experience. The reading materials children use in
school show MALES AND FEMALES in VARIOUS
ROLES; the portrayal of males and females in those
materials has a strong impact on how children
VIEW male and female roles in society. This
overview of LITERATURE dealing with the influence
of reading materials on gender role socialization
suggests that adherence to traditional gender roles
is encouraged and perpetuated by the books used
in schools today much as it was 25 years ago.

As an influence on gender role learning,the

school setting is one in which children develop
friendship,model teacher behaviors,and learn
from TEXTBOOKS and other reading materials
which REINFORCE GENDER STEREOTYPES AND
BIASES.
HISTORY BOOKS for example, divide the past into
a time frame based on men's livesWARS,POLITICS,GOVERNMENT- and generally
IGNORE WOMEN'S LIVES.
Although schools should be one of the most
important social settings in which children can
validate and refine their gender beliefs, they are
frequently found to expose children to
MASCULINE and FEMININE IMAGES that are even
more rigid than those in the wider society.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS ARE 'SEXIST AND ENFORCE

GENDER INEQUALITY'

Kids' books are almost twice as likely to feature a male

hero than a female heroine and could be reinforcing
gender inequality, new research warns.

The gender bias was even worse when it came to books

with animal characters - often favoured by publishers
as 'gender neutral' -with male animal heros featuring in
three times more books than female animal heroines.

Researchers from Florida State University, USA, also

discovered that while books printed during the 1990s
came close to equal representation of male and female
human characters, animal characters were twice as
likely to be male as female.

In a conclusion that will baffle fans of Alice's Adventures

in Wonderland, Anne of Green Gables and The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz, researchers said their findings
indicated a 'symbolic annihilation of women'.

RESEARCH

One group of researchers has identified six

aspects of the social representation of
gender in the school setting.
1.) Social categories- using gender to
categorize students. (lets form two lines)
2.) Group composition- using group
composition to make sense of classroom
interaction; forming groups by gender.
3.) Material culture- cultural marking of
objects as either masculine or feminine.

WOMEN WRITING AND SOCIETY

Women writers such as Mahashwetadevi

combined women's causes with political
movements. In Draupadi Mahashwetadevi
creates a world of tribal rebels whose fight
against a political system of enforced
capitalism has driven them to become
Naxalites (supporters of a Chinese-style
Communism). Others such as Sashi
Deshpande build a platform of universal
female experiences. In Binding Vines she
examines the experiences of women coming
from different echelons of society.

Over the years and throughout the

political instability which affected
Indian society at large, along with a
myriad of other influences which
have affected culture, language and
social patterns, women's literature in
India has evolved to show common
experiences, a sense of sisterhood
and a range of female experiences
that question the recurring face of
patriarchy.

SURVEY BASED CONCLUSION

Looking at almost 6,000 children's books

published between 1900 and 2000 it was
found that MALES are CENTRAL CHARACTERS
in 57% of children's books published each
year, with just 31% having FEMALE CENTRAL
CHARACTERS. MALE ANIMALS are CENTRAL
CHARACTERS in 23% of books per year, the
study found, while FEMALE ANIMALS star is
only 7.5%.

MADE BY:
Farheen

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