Journal of Women's Studies: University of North Bengal

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The study of gender inequalities is a widely used trope in feminist philosophy. Discrimination, objectification (sexual), inequality, sexism, stereotyping, literature and aesthetics that are fundamental to feminist criticism are the central themes of the research papers here.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 26

Open Access
Women , Leisure and a Room of Their Own : a Brief Appraisal
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Mitra, Zinia
Open Access
Colours and Crisis: A Study of Cosmopolitan Womanhood in Elkunchwar's Sonata
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Sarkar, Amrita
Open Access
Step towards Liberation: Re-Visiting the English Writings of Begum Rokeya
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Bhattacharya, Dahlia
Open Access
Thinking Beyond Gender: Tagore’s Chitrangada, the Breaking of the Stereotypes
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Saha, Manika
Open Access
Study on the Occupational Status of Women of Matigara Community Development Block, Darjiling District, West Bengal
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Lepcha Nee Lama, Indira; Saha, Tannistha
Open Access
Plagiarism and Feminist Research Ethics
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Chakravorty, Dulika
Open Access
Love Marriage: Women in Sri Lankan Civil War
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Mookherjee, Sanghamitra
Open Access
Socio-Political Status of Women in Ancient India
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Goswami, Gita Rani
Open Access
Warrior with a Pen: Traversing the Feminist Perspective of Ashapurana Devi’s Pratham Pratishruti
(University of North Bengal, 2020-12) Biswas, Debolina
Open Access
“Equality and not about Equal Rights”: Redefining Fourth-Wave Inclusion and Intersectionality through the Digital Platform Agent of Ishq
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Hazra, Mousumi
The definition of the historically abounding F-Word, Feminism, is continuously being shifted from one notion to another, varying in accord with class, caste, and gender across generations. Starting with the website Everyday Sexism launched by Laura Bates in 2012, Fourth wave feminism has recently witnessed a paradigmatic shift from the previous waves of feminism. Currently, as we consider the fluidity of gender construction and interact with various forms of it every day, social media or representation of women on-screen has been one of the most influential factors behind constructing our ‘already gendered’ selves. As the applications of power disseminate the idea of empowerment, equality and freedom also differ alongside. Hence, today’s feminism looks up to a lot more exposure where people can put themselves out there without adhering to any kind of censorship or asceticism. This approach has been productively exercised through the online multimedia digital platform Agent of Ishq, directed and introduced by the filmmaker Paromita Vohra in 2015. This research will initially be focused on the way how some mainstream Indian movies, featured to be among the ‘top 10 feminist films’, formed the idea of feminism vis-à-vis how far the feminist implication through Agent of Ishq addresses and adheres to the current ‘wave’ of feminism in India. Keywords:
Open Access
Power, Patriarchy and Women’s Agency in Microfinance
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Chakroborty, Bhaskar
Technological innovation and environmental degradation have been prime agents for the existence and altering of social systems, historically world over. If latter provides basic resources for survival and sustenance and builds essential link between man and nature for human existence; the other provides tools (machines, industries etc.) with which to exploit resources for the same by earning livelihood (central to work). There are the changes seen and experienced not only in material world in terms of change in economic production from agriculture to industry, but also in terms of gender relations, with respect to women and work; especially because their work has been considered as informal and soft menial household work. Various theorists have studied this relationship between women and work (especially in the context of rural agriculture and allied activities), by framing an essential link between women, production and technological innovations. The paper focuses on the changing nature of work in relation to women’s participation in agriculture, as central to development. Then it looks at women empowerment thorough microfinance assistances.
Open Access
‘Matinee Idol’ and his Spectators: The Female and the Male Gaze
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Sen, Sudarshana
The 24 July 1980 was a fateful day for the Bengali movie viewers. The superstar of Bengali cinema breathed his last. The year 2020 marked his fortieth death anniversary. The euphoria with the star of fifties and sixties lasts even today. His mannerisms, styled acting and his charisma had inflated profit for the producer, showered fame for himself creating a furor among the cine-goers. This article will focus on how spectatorship and gendered gaze can build a ‘star’ and what their relation to the star may be and what were the elements that acted as a catalyst to this.
Open Access
Taming the Mind : Women in the Lunatic Asylums of Colonial Bengal
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Bhattacharya, Dahlia
The Lunatic Asylums in the colonial period did not have proper medical treatment or identification of female patients. The infrastructural facilities for the women were not given attention by the asylums.The Victorian morality recognized ‘work’ as a therapy and the ‘mentally ill’ were made to work in the garden, carpentry, grinding wheat and other works, leading to monetary gain in the asylums of Bengal.. The funds were applied to maintain the asylums, sometimes the local jails and led to profits for the British. The paper seeks to look into the colonial policy with regard to asylums and the hard work imposed upon the female lunatics leading to asylum ‘industries’ and how it received a new direction of economic gain.
Open Access
“Where are the tlawmngai Zo/Mizo men?” Gendered living spaces and Masculinity codes
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Chakraborty, Anup Shekhar
In order to address the gender disparities that exist in developing societies, it is necessary to have an understanding of gendered spaces. Institutions, both formal and informal, frequently play a role in determining how a society’s resources, freedoms, and privileges are distributed among its members. This research investigates the matrices of men’s public visibility in relation to the tlawmngaihna code in order to get a better understanding of the pressures that men face in societies that have strong gender norms. The research does this by looking at the world through the lens of men and masculinities. Both the machismo of politics and the edicts of the Nexus of Patriarchy place constraints on the naturalness of men and their capacity to connect with the natural world. The conventional masculine members of the Zo and Mizo ethnic group are reimagined as exemplars of ecologically responsible perfection. Despite this, members of the community and outside observers continue to question their visibility, asking, “Where are the tlawmngai Zo/Mizo men?”
Open Access
About the Contributors :
(University of North Bengal, 2021)
Open Access
Scribbles on Theorizing the Personal in Feminism and Women’s Research
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Mitra, Zinia
The terms "personal" and "political," like "private" and "public," are undergoing important changes in the current era, where Carol Hanisch's famous dictum "the personal is political" still serves as a persuasive justification for more recent uses of primary evidences in research and autobiography studies. Second wave feminism has clearly benefited from the awareness that ‘the personal is political,’ which influenced the growth of social analyses and theories, sparked fresh activities, and expanded the range of topics that could be categorized as ‘feminist issues.’ We have a strong aversion to the notion of subjectivity even in the context of subjective writing projects and are aware of the impersonal, distant tone employed and encouraged in academic works. The article questions why certain personal/subjective information is valued as knowledge or truth while some other information is downplayed or dismissed as anecdotal or just as personal experience, and it proceeds to examine feminist research and interventions in the area.
Open Access
Voices beyond Death: The Spirits of Women in the Short Stories by Rabindranath Tagore
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Sarkar, Sanghita
Fears of ghosts and ghoul and devotion towards the unnumbered local gods and goddess have always been an integral part of Bengali belief system. Inevitably, this has left a profound impact on Bengali literature as well. Be it the great Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore or the compositor of Bengali folk narratives Dakshinaranjan Mitra – spirits and ghosts have always been an inseparable part of Bengali writers’ creations. Though often reduced to the category of children’s fictions, many of these Bengali ghosts’ stories have crossed the boundaries of superstitions and beliefs and plunged into the opaque realm of human psychology. The current paper is an attempt to delve into this uncertain realm of human psyche with the help of three short stories by Rabindranath Tagore – ‘Kankal’ (The Skeleton),’Nishithe’ (In the Night), ‘Monihara’ (The Lost Jewel). The paper with the help of psychoanalytical feministic philosophy has attempted to explore how these ghosts’ stories have gone beyond the limits of local beliefs and superstitious sensations and brought out the problematic representation of gender roles and identities in contemporary Bengali society. In order to bring out the societal fissures the current paper here tries to raise such hypothetical questions as: i) How do these short stories expose in a covert manner the subjugation of the women in contemporary Bengali society? ii) How has the woman-self obtained voice after death in these short stories? iii) How do these stories register protests by the woman-spirits against the patriarchal Bengali socio-cultural beliefs and system?
Open Access
Gender Roles and the Quest for Identity: A Study of Shashi Deshpande’s That Long Silence
(University of North Bengal, 2021) Akram, Wasim
Women in all ages remain the object of suppression. They often neither have any voice nor an independent identity of their own. Men become the deciding factor about how a woman should behave and act. They have always been taught to be docile, submissive, and conventional to be accepted by the society. They are made to behave in a certain stereotypical way to maintain the male supremacy. They are given a position inferior to men in a hierarchical social structure, controlled and dominated by men and they merely serve as objects of this control and rule. The whole purpose of their existence revolves around serving in the family as someone’s daughter, wife, sister or mother. These stereotypical gender roles assigned to them by the society keep them confined within the four walls of familial entanglement where they do not have any voice or agency. Shashi Deshpande in her novel, That Long Silence captures this traumatized and painful existence of women in a middle-class Indian family. The novelist portrays the ever-suffering existence and the quest for independent identity of women through the presentation of the character of Jaya who has to maintain silence throughout her married life for the fear of disrupting familial comfort and security. I, in my paper, will attempt to address this crisis raised by the author and also show how the society creates a boundary for women to delimit their capabilities and stifle their voice and agency in a constrictive social structure that does not allow women to speak.
Open Access
Subjugation and Emancipation : Women Characters in the Select Works of Girish Karnad
(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Mahaldar, Santosh
A feminist perspective explores and analyzes among its other themes, the theme of gender inequality. It talks about the discourses of patriarchy and sexism that have kept women oppressed and marginalized economically, politically, socially and psychologically. Lois Tyson asserts: “Feminist criticism examines how literature (and other cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social and psychological oppression of women.” (Tyson, 2019, p. 79) Disparity against women based on gender distinction has been the core preoccupation of feminism. The role of women in our society has been confined within the boundaries of daughter, wife, and mother, which are suggestive of the restrictions that almost all women face in their homes. This paper draws on gender discourses to discuss the theme of subjugation of women in some select plays of Girish Karnad. The paper discusses four plays of Karnad to explore the issue ; Naga-Mandala, The Fire and the Rain , Hayavadana and Yajati . Discussion on women’s subjugation requires a proper theoretical and philosophical perspective. The essay refers to some deliberations and convictions of feminist critics like John Stuart Mill, Simone de Beauvoir, Kate Millet, and Michel Foucault. Girish Karnad was well aware that the sexist oppression of women is a feature of patriarchal dominance. We know the adage, “power sets the agenda for patriarchy.” The research aims to pinpoint how Karnad seeks for means of atonement in the select plays.
Open Access
Contribution of Muslim Women’s Participation in Non- Cooperation Movement and Khilafat Movement with Special Focus on Bengal
(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Yasmin Sabina
In the aftermath of the First World War, indications of far-reaching changes in Indian politics became evident. Mahatma Gandhi’s rise in national politics certainly brought novelty to the nationalist movement. The Rowlatt Act, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the martial law in the Punjab intensified the anti-British imperialism of the common people. After that came the Khilafat problem. Gandhiji associated himself with the Khilafat movement at its full height. Gandhiji associated himself and the Indian National Congress with the Khilafat movement in a sincere attempt to strengthen Hindu-Muslim unity. The decision of boycott of British goods was taken based on this decision and the non-cooperation movement started and took the form of mass movement. This movement played a very important role in Bengal as well.