Gender Inequality: A Multidimensional Study

Gender is the cultural definition of behaviour defined as appropriate to the sexes in a given society at a given time. "Gender is a set of cultural roles. It is a costume, a mask, a straitjacket in which men and women dance their unequal dance." Unfortunately, the term 'gender' is used both in academic discourse and in the media as interchangeable with sex. For laymen, sex and gender are synonymous, in fact, its widespread use is probably due to it sounding a bit more 'refined' than the plain word 'sex' with its 'nasty' connotations. Such use is unfortunate, because it hides and mystifies the difference between the biologically given sex and culturally created gender. Let us make our analysis a little more clearly. Whenever in technical terms we talk about sex, we mean biological composition and whenever we talk about gender we attach a cultural meaning. When only one sex had influence over the process, as is typically the case in male-dominated pastoral or horticultural societies, tight hubs of related individuals emerged. However, the average number of related individuals is predicted to be much lower when men and women have an equal influence closely matching what was seen in the populations that were studied. Thus, there is need to describe women status in tribals' communities as well as in rural urban India. The authors argue that sexual equality may have proved an evolutionary advantage for early human societies, as it would have fostered wider-ranging social networks and closer cooperation between unrelated individuals. "It gives a far more expansive social network with a wider choice of mates, so inbreeding would be less of an issue, and persons come into contact with more people and they can share innovations, which is something that humans do par excellence." The findings appear to be supported by qualitative observations from the tribals groups in the study. In the tribal's population, women are involved in household work with outside professional works by traditional and trend modern occupation while there is still a division of labour. Overall, sociologically, the status of tribals' women is better than urban and rural women of India.

About the Author :
Dr. Swapan Kumar Kolay born in 1966 at Midnapur, West Bengal. He obtained M.Sc. with first class in Physical/ Biological Anthropology (1992) and Ph.D. (1999). Mrs. Sushila D. Mahant is Post-graduate M.Sc. in Anthropology and secure first class first (Gold Medel). She is also specialized in plant ecology and Environment