UGC NET Women Studies flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Intersectionality

Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) to describe how race, gender, class and other social axes interact to produce distinct experiences of discrimination that single-axis analysis cannot capture.

Performative gender

Judith Butler's claim that gender is produced through repeated stylised acts and speech, not an inner essence; there is no pre-discursive gendered self behind the performance.

Standpoint theory

The epistemological claim that marginalised groups can hold privileged insight into social relations because dominant groups lack incentive to see structural oppression clearly.

Compulsory heterosexuality

Adrienne Rich's term for the institutionalised assumption and enforcement of opposite-sex desire, which erases lesbian existence and shapes kinship, economy and culture.

Seneca Falls Convention

1848 gathering in New York regarded as the start of organised US women's rights activism; its Declaration of Sentiments demanded suffrage and equality in law and education.

Towards Equality Report

1974 Indian government report on the status of women that documented declining female participation and legal inequality, catalysing India's autonomous women's movement.

Beijing Platform for Action

Outcome of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, listing twelve critical areas of concern including poverty, violence, health, media and the girl child.

Vishaka judgment

1997 Supreme Court decision that laid down binding guidelines against sexual harassment at the workplace, later codified in the POSH Act, 2013.

Article 15(3)

Indian constitutional clause permitting the state to make special provisions for women and children, providing the legal basis for protective and affirmative legislation.

POSH Act 2013

Indian law requiring Internal Committees in workplaces with ten or more employees and Local Committees elsewhere, with inquiry timelines and protection against retaliation.

Domestic Violence Act 2005

Civil law defining domestic violence to include physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economic abuse; provides protection, residence and monetary orders through Protection Officers.

Triple talaq ruling

Shayara Bano v. Union of India (2017), in which the Supreme Court set aside instantaneous triple talaq as unconstitutional, followed by the 2019 statutory prohibition.

Double burden

The unequal load of paid employment plus unpaid domestic and care responsibilities borne disproportionately by women, constraining time, mobility and labour market participation.

Gender pay gap

Difference between women's and men's average earnings, expressed as a percentage of male earnings; driven by segregation, career interruptions and unexplained discrimination.

Feminisation of agriculture

The trend in which women take over farm work as men migrate to cities, while land titles, credit and extension services remain largely in male names.

Time Use Survey

Statistical instrument recording how people spend time across paid work, unpaid care and leisure; India's 2019 survey quantified women's disproportionate unpaid domestic burden.

PCPNDT Act 1994

Indian law banning prenatal sex determination and advertising of such services, aimed at curbing sex-selective abortion and improving the child sex ratio.

Reproductive rights

Rights to decide freely on the number and spacing of children, access reproductive health care and be free from coercion, affirmed at the 1994 Cairo ICPD.

Navtej Singh Johar

2018 Supreme Court judgment reading down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to decriminalise consensual same-sex conduct, citing privacy and equality.

Gender Parity Index

Ratio of female to male enrolment at a given education level; a value of one indicates parity, below one female disadvantage and above one female advantage.

Feminist pedagogy

Teaching approach, associated with bell hooks, that treats knowledge as co-constructed, values lived experience and challenges hierarchical authority in the classroom.

Hidden curriculum

Unofficial lessons transmitted through school routines, textbooks and teacher expectations, often reinforcing gendered roles and omitting women's contributions.

Male gaze

Laura Mulvey's concept describing visual media structured around an active male viewer and a passive female object of display, shaping cinematic technique and narrative.

Symbolic annihilation

Gaye Tuchman's term for media patterns that omit, trivialise or condemn a group, thereby reinforcing its subordinate social status through representation.

Objectification theory

Fredrickson and Roberts' model linking sexual objectification to self-objectification, body shame, appearance anxiety and heightened mental health risk in women.

Gynocriticism

Elaine Showalter's mode of feminist criticism that studies women as writers, focusing on female literary tradition, authorship and gendered narrative forms rather than images of women.

Intimate partner violence

Physical, sexual, psychological or economic abuse by a current or former partner; NFHS-5 reports about 29% lifetime prevalence among ever-married Indian women.

Dalit feminist critique

Argument that Indian feminism has been dominated by upper-caste perspectives and must centre caste as a structure shaping violence, labour and knowledge production.

NALSA judgment

2014 Supreme Court decision recognising transgender persons as a third gender and directing the state to ensure non-discrimination and welfare entitlements.

Gender and Development

Framework that shifts from adding women to projects toward transforming gender relations and power in institutions, policy and development outcomes.

106th Amendment

2023 Indian constitutional amendment reserving one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, with implementation pending delimitation.

Reflexivity

Feminist research practice of critically examining how the researcher's own position, assumptions and relationship to participants shape data collection and interpretation.