Chapter No.

1
INTRODUCTION TO GENDER STUDIES
WHAT IS GENDER STUDIES?

Gender study is a subject that deals with the socio-economic and political role, rights
and responsibities of male, female and third gender.

Academically, Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which directly analyses

being a gender and the concept of gender. Gender in this instance is not about being a man or
a woman but rather the experience of being masculine or feminine.  It examines the social and
cultural construction of both masculinity and femininity and does not refer to the biological
difference associated with each. 

Thus gender study recognizes that gender has to be taken seriously. It is also a field that
recognises that often, within academic disciplines and also other spheres of society, the
perspective that has been applied has been that of the most powerful people in society, and that
this is often at the expense of less powerful people. Gender studies then exists as an important
means of correcting such imbalances.

Importance of Gender Studies

Gender studies allow people in different social environments to solve gender-related

conflicts by providing a common understanding regarding gender identity and relationships. It
studies how men and women are the same and ways in which they differ. Gender study enables
an understanding of each gender's needs and the unique contributions each gender makes to
society.

Much gender-related abuse, discrimination and maltreatment has occurred throughout

the course of history due to a lack of knowledge. Women have been kept from participation in
politics and in the workforce. Historically, even when women were permitted employment, they
received lower wages than their male counterparts for doing the same type of work. Women
were prohibited from keeping property. In some cases, women were considered property,
subject to abuse and even death without legal repercussions for the aggressor.

Gender study examines the causes of these injustices and looks for real-world solutions
and means of prevention. It promotes awareness of the value of all people, regardless of sex.
Gender study examines all spheres of life, including the home and family, the workplace,
religious institutions, education, government and the media. Gender studies research also
investigates the nature of gender, and thereby helps society and individuals establish healthy
gender-related expectations and models of identity.

Gender is a fundamental aspect of personal and social identity and a biological,

psychological and cultural category of paramount importance for people everywhere. In
addition, gender is often a criterion for social stratification and different political treatment, as
well as a favored symbol for expressing values and beliefs.

Gender studies offers opportunity to students to focus on the varied issues, in both
contemporary and past societies:

 Human reproduction
 Gender roles in the family and society
 The psychology of identity
 Sexual orientation
 Representations of women and men in literature, music and art

Functional principles of Gender Studies

There is an enormous and growing body of research, encompassing the fields of

biochemistry, neurobiology, physiology and psychology, which all point to a clear conclusion:
that there are profound differences between men and women. These go well beyond the
obvious physical appearances and reproductive differences; men and women differ at many
levels, and also approach relationships differently.

The following are the functional principles of Gender Studies

1. Gender differences exist; they are a fundamental reality of our biology and impact our
psychology. Our maleness and femaleness is a key aspect to our personhood.

2. Acknowledging, rather than ignoring (or worse denying), gender differences is the only
intellectually honest response to this reality.

3. Gender differences are complementary; individuals, collective humanity, and society as a

whole, all benefit from masculine and feminine characteristics. Society has better for having
men with a clear understanding of their masculinity and women with a clear understanding of
their femininity.

4. Gender identity confusion does exist in a small minority of individuals. Gender identity is a
personal conception of oneself as male or female. For example, if a person considers him a
male and is most comfortable referring to his personal gender in masculine terms, then
his gender identity is male.

SEX AND GENDER

 Historically, the terms “sex” and “gender” have been used interchangeably, but their
uses are becoming increasingly distinct, and it is important to understand the differences
between the two.

Sex refers to biological differences; chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and

external sex organs.

 Referring to the biological aspects of an individual as determined by their anatomy,

which is produced by their chromosomes, hormones and their interactions.
 Male, female, or intersex. Sometimes called a "binary" concept because there are
primarily two sex types (male or female).
 Generally male or female
 Something that is assigned at birth
 Sex is associated with Nature.

Gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or

feminine.

 Gender is the state of being male or female in relation to the social and cultural roles that
are considered appropriate for men and women.
 Gender is the socially constructed roles and behaviors that a society typically associates
with males and females. An example of gender is referring to someone who wears a
dress as a female.
 It is ‘non binary concept’.
 Gender is determined by the conception of tasks, functions and roles attributed to
women and men in society and in public and private life.
 Generally man and woman.
 Gender is associated with Nurture

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENDER STUDY AND WOMEN STUDY

WOMEN STUDIES
Women study is older than gender studies. The subject matter of women studies is
women. It is not only focusing on the full understanding of women but stresses on the need of
new criteria and method for assessing the status of women in all spheres of life.

According to UN National Women’s Studies Association “Women Studies is an

educational strategy for change”. In Women Studies, women are kept at center while discussing
the topics of health, education, politics and literature. The subject matter of Women Studies is
women but women’s lives don’t exist in vacuum; they are located in a social context which
includes the study of men and children. Women study is an offshoot of second wave feminism
(1970). Women studies study women and their role in social, political and economic spheres
and various challenges that women on the basis of their sex faces.

Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study, with the following general set of
goals:
  To review women's roles as citizens, as workers, as consumers, as producers, and so
forth, through the development of human culture and history;
 To understand the role of "social location" or "positionality" denoting the relative position
of an individual within a power structure;
 To critique and reassess political and cultural assumptions regarding sex and gender
that is, to study ideological formations that devalue women as less than human, or less
than fully human;
 To explore the barriers to women’s equality, then and now

Women Studies as content:

Women Studies can be referred in the context of content as:

 Political movement: the history of the women’s movement and activism;

 Intellectual movement: the study of feminist or woman-centered ideas and thinking;
 Historical movement: the recovery of women’s lives and experiences throughout
history;
 The study of similarities and differences in the experiences of various categories of
women; for example, white and non-white; gay and straight; able-bodied and
disabled; young and aging;
 The comparative study of women’s literature, art and other forms of cultural
production.

Is Women's Studies all about women?

Women studies isn’t all about women. Women's Studies is about women in relation to:

 Men, children, and family;

 Politics and power;

 Gender and sexuality;

 Cultural production and consumption;

 Economics and class;

 Race and other so-called identity markers; and

 Self-perception and the perception of others as defined by social norms.

In other words, Women's Studies is about women, and men, and their children. It’s about
how sex and gender affect the way every single one of us lives in relation to another. Finally,
Women's Studies is a field that declares itself politically as feminist.

GENDER STUDIES
Gender Studies is a broader discipline as compare to Women Studies. Gender
studies include men, women and third gender. It concentrates on the social, political and
economic role, rights and responsibilities of men, women and third gender. Gender Studies
discuss men as equally as women whereas Women Studies normally focus on the women for
most of the time. The discipline of gender studies critically examines how gender shapes our
identities, our social interactions and our world. 

It is an academic study of the phenomenon of gender. It tries to analyze those traits

and characteristics that a person on the basis of his gender is expected to perform. Gender
Studies also explain the position of man, woman and third gender on the basis of class, race,
caste, religions and sexual identity in different societies.

Gender Studies was developed in 1990 when academics expand the scope of
Women Studies. It examines the way in which historical, cultural and social events shape the
role of gender in different societies.

Gender study has many different forms. One view exposed by the philosopher
Simone de Beauvoir said: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one". This view proposes
that in gender studies, the term "gender" should be used to refer to the social and cultural
constructions of masculinities and femininities, not to the state of being male or female in its
entirety. However, this view is not held by all gender theorists. Other areas of gender study
closely examine the role that the biological states of being male or female have on social
constructs of gender. Specifically, in what way gender roles are defined by biology and how they
are defined by cultural trends.

Gender studies is used to develop a framework for thinking about power relations
connected to social constructions of gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, age, and nationality
through multiple perspectives and theories.

The contents of Gender Studies are almost same as taught in Women Studies and
the objectives of the content are also similar to the Women Studies but in Gender Studies, all
the genders and their relationships are taken at the center.

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY NATURE OF GENDER STUDIES

Gender Studies is a field of social science that deals with understanding and
analyzing the social, cultural and biological setup of gender in a society. In the various courses
taught in the division, the students will be introduced to the ways in which the various field of
knowledge can be examined from the gender perspective by rereading philosophical texts,
historical research, major works in the fields of religion, literature, politics, economics and more.

It is the critical study of assumptions on gender and sex effect the ideas about men,
women, LGBT individuals in the cultural, social and political hemisphere. People from any
background, social or natural sciences, can study Gender studies as a minor. It also takes a
multidisciplinary approach to understand problems faced by different genders.

Sociology: It is used to understand the structure of the society and how it is affecting gender
discrimination.

Anthropology: It is used to explain ideas about gender and how they evolved.

Psychology: It is used to understand the human nature and the nature of human sexuality.
Biology: It can differentiate the biological differences between different genders.

Political Science: It is used to understand the political role of gender and movements for rights.

Religious Studies: This is used for the understanding of the gender role given by the different
religions.

Gender Studies is diverse in that it can be applied to several other disciplines of study,
like literary theory, drama studies, film studies, performance theory, art and history.

AUTONOMY / INTEGRATION DEBATE IN WOMEN STUDIES

The great "Autonomy vs. Integration Debate" was born out of alarm on the part of some
Women's Studies scholars about the rapid proliferation of curriculum integration projects. Some
scholars would prefer to focus on questions germane to Women's Studies' autonomy as a
discipline. For instance, they feel that "Women's Studies is not ready for integration into
'mainstream' departments, because it is still too focused on white, middle-class, heterosexual,
young, able women; and it can never be truly autonomous as long as it is in the academy . They
distinguish between integration and transformation, stating that transformation is a broader and
worthier goal, in that it argues for a restructuring of the patriarchal academic hierarchies and
acknowledges Women's Studies' claim to a unique focus in the academy "on the gender system
as a central part of human social and cultural organization, and our parallel work to reconstruct
knowledge itself from a woman's viewpoint."

In 1982 discussion surfaced at the annual National Women’s Suffrage Association

(NWSA) and in the Women Studies Quarterly about strategies for women studies in higher
education. Should gender studies, or women studies, be offered and studied as a separate
field? Or should it be merged in other subjects e.g. in political science a chapter about
contribution and behaviour of women in politics.

The debate concerned whether or not the limited time and funding available to feminist
academics should be devoted to revision of the mainstream curriculum or the development of
autonomous women's studies programmes. Those who supported autonomy believed that
feminists should work in isolation and try to focus on problems of women particularly instead of
focusing on their issues as part of a bigger picture. They believed integration within the
academic fields (and within the society as well) would lead to feminists being steered away from
their main goals. Integrationists that integration would help reach the people who can influence
the society and change things or women. They also believed that change is a slow process and
it requires actors working within the system to change it. They would not be just theorizing about
change like the autonomists, they would be attempting to actually do so.

Perhaps most easily translatable to curricular integration efforts is Schuster and Van Dyne's
model. Schuster and Van Dyne present six stages: Stage 1, Invisible Women; Stage 2, Search
for Missing Women; Stage 3, Women as a Subordinate Group; Stage 4, Women Studied on
Their Own Terms; Stage 5, Women as a Challenge to the Disciplines; and Stage 6, The
Transformed Curriculum. The movement toward curriculum integration begins at Stage 5. A
"transformed" Phase 6 course would
  be self-conscious about methodology and use gender as a category of analysis, no
matter what is on the syllabus (even if all males);
 present changed content in a changed context and be aware that all knowledge is
historical and socially constructed, not immutable;
 develop an interdisciplinary perspective, to make, visible the language of discourse,
assumptions of a field, and analytical methods by contrast with other fields;
 pay meaningful attention to intersections of race, class, and cultural differences within
gender, and avoid universalizing beyond data;
 study new subjects on their own terms, not merely as other, alien, non-normative, and
non-Western, and encourage a true pluralism;
 test paradigms rather than merely "add on" women figures or issues, and incorporate
analysis of gender, race, and class by a thorough reorganization of available knowledge;
 make student's [sic] experience and learning process part of the explicit content of the
course thereby reaffirming the transcendent goals of the course; and
 Recognize that, because culture reproduces itself in the classroom, the more conscious
we are of this phenomenon, the more likely we are to turn it to our advantage in teaching
the transformed course.

It rightly states that "For women and for men, working to transform the curriculum
through women's studies requires political, intellectual, and personal change." Women's Studies
scholars who are reluctant to participate in curriculum integration projects because they feel
either' that Women's Studies is thereby co-opted by non-feminist men, or is diluted through their
efforts, would do well to examine assessments of the outcomes of curriculum integration
projects.

In short, we must make the cultural traditions of women and so-called minorities visible
in a curriculum in which they have been invisible. We must respond not only to demographic
trends, but to a moral imperative that grows out of the recognition of the previous exclusivity of
the traditional liberal arts curriculum. That is the task of Women's Studies today. We cannot
afford to underestimate its importance.

STATUS OF GENDER STUDIES IN PAKISTAN

In Pakistan, there are 12 universities which offer BS Gender Studies, 6 universities offer
M.Phil in Gender Studies and only 1 university offer Ph.D. in Gender Studies.

Gender Studies, first introduced as a five-year project in 1989 by the Women’s

Development Division, Government of Pakistan, has now developed into a well established
discipline across the national universities of Pakistan. The purpose to introduce Gender Studies
was to make women visible and to develop or create alternative concepts, approaches, and
strategies for national development with an active participation of women.

The emerging changes in women studies consider able for evaluating the status of
gender studies in Pakistan. Ironically, this is the same determinant that can decide status in
Pakistan and same in the whole world. That approach is always in a trend that can provide
facilitation towards women studies. The facilitation that can lower gap between men and
women. It is a pure outcome that women studies want to achieve. The year when women
started to grow was 1989. It was the year when Center of Excellence in Women’s studies
established by the ministry of Women Development.

After establishment, the first step was taken towards the goal of government to boost
women role in society. The center was the initial step and now there are many steps that have
been taking by the government since 1989. The center is liable to conducts research in women
studies, gathers information about the gender gap and suggests initial step to lower that
identified gap. Further, the center is conducting various sample tests so that real time problem
of women can explore.

Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies; Alam-e-Niswan published twice a year by

Pakistan Association for Women's Studies. The first issue was published in 1994.

In June 1997, the center was involved in its full operations towards the objective as it
set. That research institute has taken three years to gain the title of the only research institute of
women. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been working on the
perception inculcated in the Pakistan about Gender Studies. Historically, 1999 observed the
way in which “Country WID profile-Pakistan” was the biggest platform.

After the policies formulation for the gender in Pakistan, the subject matter goes with the
proper implementation of those policies. The policy implementation is Pakistan is the way that
shows which policy was highly beneficial in raising the status of gender or else. The society is
changing and this paradigm shift endorsed changes during the development of the individual.
This subject matter was consistent with change specifically from 1999 to 2007. This is the
principle in which the policy environment was penetrating at the platform of gender studies. The
socio-cultural context is the other mindset that was developed in the same manner so that
gender equality could monitor. The customary practices are also monitored during the change
from one level of study to another level. In the end, one can say that status of gender studies in
Pakistan that was initiated with boasted behavior still continues at the same pace.

Gender alludes to the socially constructed roles of men and women. It encompasses not
just women: addressing gender ‘issues’ is acknowledging and understanding the bias,
experiences, challenges and perspectives as affecting - and effected by - men, women, boys
and girls. Gender mainstreaming aims to address the disparities between males and females,
and to challenge those normative political, social and cultural structures that create inequality
and ignore gender bias.

List of the programs of Women Studies and Gender Studies in Pakistan

 Institute of Women Development Studies — University of Sindh, Jamshoro1994

 Women Studies Department — AIOU 1997
 Women Research and Resource Center — FJWU, RWP
 Women studies center — University of Balochistan, Quetta.
 Department of women studies — Punjab University, Lahore
 Department of women studies — Peshawar University