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PART II M.A. IN WOMENS STUDIES

Duration: 1 Hour INSTRUCTIONS TO THE CANDIDATE The test is divided into TWO SECTIONS. Choose ONE question from each section and follow the instructions. SECTION I carries 40 marks, SECTION II carries 30 marks. SECTION I: Answer ANY ONE in about 750 words. 1. 2. 3. Socio-economic factors determining high drop-out rates of girl children in India. Women in Sports: Issues and Concerns. Dalit women and representation in Panchayati Raj Institutions. Marks: 40 Total Marks: 70

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SECTION II:

Marks: 30

Choose ANY ONE of the two texts below, read and answer the accompanying questions (250 words). 1. Many womens organisations oppose the idea of allowing divorce on grounds of incompatibility, arguing that many men will take advantage of it to abandon their wives and remarry, while few women will have the resources to opt out of unhappy marriages. The fact that men who wish to do so already abandoned their wives without divorcing them, and that women need economic safe guards built into the divorce law rather than provisions that prevent their husbands from getting a legal divorce, does not cut much ice with these organisations. Some of them are invested in claiming the higher ground for Indian culture and society, arguing that the ease with which people can legally divorce and remarry in Western democracies has lead to a break down of the family. (An extract from Ruth Vanitas Gandhs Tiger and Sitas Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture (2005), New Delhi: Yoda Press, p. 7). Questions: A. B. Do you agree that allowing divorce on grounds of incompatibility will harm women more than help them? Discuss. Today, there is legal protection to women in live-in relationships. What is your opinion in this matter? OR 2. If commodification means to sell consumer goods, then we must ask why certain images of the body that transgress the more traditional representations of women are considered more problematic than, say, the more pervasive representations of the saree-clad housewife selling detergents, washing machines, bathing soap, moisturising lotion, microwaves, refrigerators, music systems, computers, clothes or even sanitary napkins? To my mind, the sexism of ads showing women selling domestic appliances are far more problematic because they permanently place women in the kitchen. This usually never causes outrage because it reinforces womens role in the family. If the objective of selling all consumer products is profit, can we say that selling certain consumer goods, like cosmetics, constitute more degradation than others? (An extract from Shohini Ghoshs The Troubled Existence of Sex and Sexuality: Feminists Engage with Censorship in Mala Khullar (Ed) Writing the Womens Movement: A Reader (2005), New Delhi: Zubaan, pp. 506-7). Questions: A. B. Comment on the media representations of women in the family. How contemporary media representations of beauty, gender and sexuality are impacting men and womens relationships?
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