GENDER JUSTICE: A UTOPIAN IDEAL
A Feminist Perspective
Keywords:
Women and Gender Justice in Society, Understanding Gender, Gender-based Division of Labour, Women and Gender Justice in the Church, Gender-biased Theology, Gender Justice PossibleAbstract
There has been a growing awareness of the dignity and role of women all over the world since the 1980s. People are beginning to realise that the Feminist Movement is one of the signs of the times that deserves our attention. The United Nations Declaration on the Decade of Women (1975-1985) acknowledges and establishes the movement as essential to the promotion of fundamental human rights in the spirit of its motto: equality, development and peace. As Pope John XXIII rightly remarks in his encyclical, “Since women are becoming ever more conscious of their human dignity, they will not tolerate being treated as mere material instruments, but demand rights befitting a human person both in domestic and in public life.”
References
“Higher Education and Women: Opening a Window to Reality,” Jeevadhara 33, 193 (January 2003), 70.
A. Oakley, Sex, Gender and Society, Aldershot: Gower, 1972, 158-159. See also S. L Bem, The Lenses of Gender: Transforming the Debate on Sexual Inequality, London: Yale University Press, 1993 and R. W. Connell, Gender and Power: Society, the Power and Sexual Politics, London: Polity, 1987.
A. Whitehead, “Some Preliminary Notes on the Subordination of Women,” IDS Bulletin 10, 3 (1979), 11.
Anandi S. and A. R. Choudhury, “Patriarchy and Gender Relations: An Overview” in Rudolf C. Heredia and Mathias Edward, eds., The Family in A Changing World, New Delhi: Indian Social Institute, 1995, 22.
Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q.92, art.1, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, London: Burns, Oats & Washbourne, 1922, vol. 4, 275.
Arockiasamy, “Women in Christianity,” 174. See also Susanne Heine, Women and Early Christianity: Are the Feminist Scholars Right? London: SCM Press, 1987.
Arundhuti Roy Chaudhury, “Communal Politics and Women’s Rights,” Women’s Link 5, 1 (January-March, 1999), 3-7.
B. Bhattacharya and G. Jhansi Rani, “Defining a Framework for Gender Analysis in Development Planning,” Journal of Rural Development 13 (April-June, 1994), 244.
Bina Agarwal, ed., Structures of Patriarchy-State, Community and Household in Modernising Asia, New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1991.
C. Arockiasamy, “Women in Christianity,” in Sebasti L. Raj, ed., Quest for Gender Justice, 174.
Corpos Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL) 70.59. In De Cultu Feminarum C.197-202, Tertullian condemns the use of jewellery and other feminine ornaments. For a defence of Tertullian, see E. Carnelley, “Tertullian and Feminism,” Theology 92, 31-35.
Deniz Kandiyoti, “Gender, Power and Contestation,” in C. Jackson and R. Pearson, eds., Feminist Visions of Development: Gender, Analysis and Policy, New York: Routledge, 1998, 145.
E. Schillebeeckx, The Church with a Human Face: A New and Expanded Theology of Ministry, New York: Crossroad, 1985, 119.
E. Schussler Fiorenza, Bread Not Stone: The Challenge of Biblical Interpretation, Boston: Beacon Press, 1984, 9ff.
Elaine L. Graham, Making the Difference: Gender, Personhood and Theology, London: Mowbray, 1995. See also M. Gatens, “A Critique of the Sex/Gender Distinction,” in S. Guneru, ed., A Reader in Feminist Knowledge, London: Routledge, 1991, 139-157.
G. M. Hodgson, Economics and Institutions, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988, 10.
Genevieve Lloyd, “Augustine and Aquinas,” in Ann Loades, ed., Feminist Theology: A Reader, 96.
Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy, New York: Oxford University Press, 1986, 238.
J. Scott, Gender and the Politics of History, New York: Columbia University Press, 1988, 42.
J. Chatterji, “Perspectives of Joint Women’s Programme,” Religion and Society 40, 1 & 2 (March-June 1993), 57.
Joan D. Chittister, Heart of Flesh: A Feminist Spirituality for Women and Men, Grand Rapids, Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998, 26-27.
John XXIII, Pacem in Terris (Encyclical Letter, 11 April 1963), AAS 55 (1963), 267-268.
K. Ratna and B. Crossman, “Communalising Gender? Engendering Community: Women Legal Discourse and Safforn Agenda,” EPW, 23 (April 24, 1993).
Kamla Bhasin and Nighat Said Khan, Some Questions on Feminism and its Relevance in South Asia, Delhi: Kali for Women, 1986, 9. See also J. C. Brown and C. R. Bohn, eds., Christianity, Patriarchy and Abuse: A Feminist Critique, New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1990.
Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy, 138. See also Ann O’Hara Graff, “The Struggle to Name Women’s Experience,” in In the Embrace of God: Feminist Approaches to Theological Anthropology, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1995, 71-89.
Malavika Karlekar, Poverty and Women’s Work: A Study of Sweeper Women in Delhi, New Delhi: Shakti Books, 1982. See also Rosamma George, “Women’s Endless Struggle Continues,” Indian Currents (March 12, 2000).
Margaret Galiardi, “Bonding: The Critical Praxis for Feminism,” The Way (1986), 138.
Marie de Merode de Croy, “The Role of Woman in the Old Testament,” Concilium 134, 4 (1980), 74.
Mary Crawford, Talking Difference: On Gender and Language, London: SAGE Publications, 1995, 13.
Mary E. Hunt, “’We Women are Church’: Roman Catholic Women Shaping Ministries and Theologies,” Concilium 3 (1999), 113.
N. Kabeer and R. Subrahmanian, “Institutions, Relations and Outcomes: Framework and Tools for Gender-Aware Planning,” Discussion Paper 357, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, September 1996.
Naila Kabeer, Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought, New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1996, 59.
Raj Pruthi and B. R. Sharma, eds., Trends in Women Studies, New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1995, 146.
Ranjani K. Murthy, “Power, Gender Relations and Development Organisations,” Madhyam 13, 2 (December 1998), 26.
Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk, London: SCM Press, Ltd., 1983, 94.
S. D. Isvaradevan, “God Language and Women,” in Aruna Gnandason, ed., Towards a Theology of Humanhood: Women’s Perspectives, Delhi: ISPCK, 1986, 75. See also Pauline Chakkalakal, “Linguistic Apartheid,” Indian Currents 14, 11 (March 17, 2002), 30-31.
Joan Chittister, Women, Minister and the Church, New York: Paulist Press, 1983, 6-7.
Tissa Balasuriya, Mary and Human Liberation, Colombo: Logos, 1990, 66-68.
Vibhuti Patel, “Emergence and Proliferation of Autonomous Women’s Groups in India: 1974-1984,” in Rehana Ghadially, ed., Women in Indian Society: A Reader, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1988.
Women’s Policy Research and Advocacy Unit, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, “The Status of Rural Women in Karnataka Study: A Summary Report of the Preliminary Findings,” September 1997.