Have I done right?
Once I shared with my professor that I am pursuing a Master in Gender Studies, he told me that I have chosen a very good subject and it will remain a hot cake for the upcoming twenty years! This made me really happy with my decision for opting Gender Studies, though for whatever reason I chose to do so.
Working in the developmental sector for the past nine-years and leading several women-focused projects which usually come under ‘Gender Equality Projects’, now I want to continue my career as a Gender expert. Though I have had a good amount of experience working in women-related projects with women including gender and sexual minority women as well, I still don’t know what it takes to become a Gender Expert. But, I believe joining a Master’s course in Gender Studies is definitely going to help me become one.
However, I am still not comfortable sharing that I am studying Gender Studies as many perceive Gender as ‘a too easy subject.’ To add to this, people often say that they had completed Gender Studies even without attending a single class. At that point, I even had a conflicting thought if I am wasting my time studying the subject that is too easy!
What makes Gender Studies an easy subject?
It abruptly makes me anxious so I began pondering on what makes Gender Studies so-called an easy subject. Many would answer that being a woman; you can just share your experience and see how other counterpart women are experiencing at home and in society. It would have been relatively difficult if you are a man that is seen as a privilege. Moreover, you are the main subject so studying your own vulnerability and marginalization process ought to be easy for a woman. Hence, one reason for Gender Studies being easy is that there is a misconception that it deals with the study of the women and most probably by the women.
And, what women do in homes and offices, are easy tasks — jobs. Women are made to do so-called easy tasks because women are considered as the second sex by society as stated by Simone de Beauvoir. Simone de Beauvoir, a French writer, political activist, feminist, and social theorist, is best known for the book called ‘The Second Sex’ published in 1949 where she mentioned: “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
Contemplating deeper on what does ‘becoming a woman’ means, it really needs you to be a woman to understand the ground reality of how a woman feels and experiences. These feelings and experiences are not innate as no one is born with these feelings but rather become so, by social norms and beliefs that enforce one ‘to think’ or ‘to feel’ in a certain way as a woman. This is because society expects people to act based on the biological sex assigned at birth. In this way, biology guides one to adopt a certain demeanor, attitude, liking, and preferences that are considered correct and apparently acceptable in society and is distinct for man and woman. If one defies this rule, you are considered unfit for society.
Sex and Gender
Here, genitalia or biological difference means ‘Sex’ and societal expectation associated with the genitalia at birth means ‘Gender.’ You are ‘male’, “female’, or ‘intersex’ based on your reproductive organs, hormones, and chromosomes which later determine your physiology and display a noticeable distinction as a child grows up. When one born with female genitalia, she obviously grows into a woman, and similarly, with male genitalia, one becomes a man. This is fair enough, and it’s natural.
Yet, what remains relatively unfair is how you are treated in your homes and society based on the distinction brought by the biological sex and hormones. Your body and your thinking should correlate, and that thinking is already prescribed by the family, school, community, religion, and society.
Gender: A multi-dimensional, multi-sectoral concept
Gender, though, relatively seems focussed on women’s issues and concerns, it is not. Gender is as complex as our society. Gender is a muti-dimensional and multi-sectoral concept. It is huge, understanding women are only a part and parcel of understanding Gender. Gender encompasses human beings — be it women, men, gender, and sexual minorities or LGBTIQA+. If understanding gender would have been easy, the world would have been a much better place to live.
It’s really amusing to hear people say that ‘understanding Gender is easy and for women, it is relatively easy.’ It’s just sharing your experience and story as a woman. It’s just speaking about women’s space and women’s rights.
Does it so? Well, that was also my idea when I was doing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment projects. I still remember looking for the loopholes where women are not included or engaged, and during the project period, after analyzing those gaps and we design activities to fill those gaps, looking for women agents who will be empowered by the project whose successes we took pride in. Fulfilling gaps created due to the discriminatory system and policies based on the sex/gender system is one of the parts of Gender Equality, but what is the real outcome? Project-related Monitoring and Evaluation tools might show that we succeeded in diminishing the parity and creating gender equality. But, does it really happen in reality?
Gender is beyond the notion of subjectivity and objectivity
Some believe that ‘Gender’ is subjective, but I perceive Gender beyond the notion of subjectivity and objectivity. Gender is looking at oneself and believing in you what you are with conviction. If you feel, you are a woman or man; you are a woman or man even if societal norms and values do not validate you being a woman or a man. But, it is not easy, while going against all the norms and values already set by society and you are made answerable to the society and social institution.
Like any other social science studies, understanding Gender needs a considerate analysis of society, human interaction with the social institution, the relationship between social institutions, politics, human behavior, emotions, and psychology, history, biology, ecology, and so on. This is what we must learn in Gender Studies. We just don’t look for what is meant to be a woman and analyze women's lived experiences, rather we look for what is meant to be a human being irrespective of sex/gender division.
In Gender classes, we analyze why there is a difference in human being based sex /gender system since ancient time, why the relationship of man, woman, and the other gender identity within family, society, and social institutions are not the same, why this disparity triggers the human brain to display different emotions and behavior for certain sex or gender, why there are multiple sexual and gender identities within men and women, and what will happen if we don’t stop the disparity among these sexual and gender identities.
Now, just imagine, when you study this perplexing stuff, what would possibly happen to you? Does it sound easy, certainly not? Believe me, Gender Studies is not an easy subject, even though people find it easy to pass an exam.
For me, I have to deal with the constant challenge of instructing my brain to deconstruct the information that is stored previously and re-encode with new information. I do it every day now. I mean ‘deconstructing my existence as a woman and re-encoding my existence as a human being.’ What I have shared about Gender here is just the tip of an iceberg; it is more complex than it sounds. Hence, my verdict is Gender Studies should not be taken lightly and should not be considered an easy subject.
