Gender Teacher School 1

GENDER AND CASTE OPPRESSION FACED BY A DALIT FEMALE TEACHER

IN NEPALESE SCHOOL: A CASE OF BIMALA PARIWAR

Backgrounds of the study

This study is prepared for the partial fulfillment of Master in Philosophy on the subject
Gender Education and Development. This Case Study is carried out in the one of the school of
Tanahun district. Here the case is related to Bimala Pariwar (name changed). This study tried to
explore the problems faced by her during the profession, the way she tackled to solve the problems
she faced in her teaching life and I have tried to find out the gender issues from the study of this cases
and tried to relate this case to the gender education and development.

There are five teachers in the school. Among them one is female from Dalit family and four
are male. Among four male teachers three are from so called high caste i.e. two gentle men from
Brahmin and one from Kshetriya and one from Newar community. The school seems very well
practiced in the form of inclusion. The community of school is mixed having various caste peoples
such as Brahmin, Kshetriya, Newar, Gurung, Tamang, Damai, Kami, Bhote and Kumal.

Her Choice of Teaching Profession to be a Role Model

She was about 3 years old; there was a lady teacher nearby her house, who used to teacher in
the school that situated in the central of her village. She had always followed her to go to school
because the lady teacher lets her students to sing and dance. So that she like very much to go school.
And, she impressed by the classroom activities of her teacher and she started to copy the activities of
the lady teacher. When she formally joints the school then the female teacher made her class monitor.
Being class monitor she got the chance to rehearsal the role of teacher in the classroom.

Ministry of Education lunched a pre-service teacher training program for those female who
are from the marginalized groups. As being a female of marginalized and oppressed caste there were
the chance to select for the scholarship so that she submitted the application for the scholarship
program. She faced an interview. She selected for the scholarship program. Then went to the head
quarter of Tanahun district and started to study in the teacher training center. She finished her 10
months pre-service teacher training program.

From these two incidents she was interested to be a teacher. She knew that teacher is a
recognized profession and she thought that she would be able to maintain the expense of house hold.
So she is very interested to be a teacher. Similarly, she responded that she came to teaching profession
when there are no options for where elsewhere. Long holidays, opportunity to stay close to the home,
job security, opportunity that teaching provided to run family life, short working hours were also
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equally important factors for her selecting teaching profession. Social higher status and opportunity
for self advancement is another cause for to join teaching service.

She Impressed from her Teacher

There was a female teacher in the school from where she passed the school level education.
The female teacher always inspires the girl students to study hard and to be a good teacher after their
study. The female teacher was well known lady in the village and she has honorable status in the
village. From the female teacher she is very impressed so that she decided to be a teacher and
committed to be a role model in the Dalit community.

The Gender and Caste Oppression in the Profession

Gender discrimination shall be defined as any behaviors, actions, or policies which adversely
affect women due to disparate treatment, disparate impact, or the creation of a hostile or intimidating
work or learning environment. Sexual harassment, a form of gender discrimination, shall be defined
as unwelcomed sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a
sexual nature when: (1) submission to such conduct is made either or implicitly a term or condition of
an individual's training or professional position, (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an
individual is used as a basis for professional decisions affecting such individual, or (3) such conduct
has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work/learning performance
or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment (http://www.amwa-doc.org).
According to Bista (2003) educational research in Nepal has not examined the issue of sexual
harassment yet. As such, what constitutes sexual harassment in the context of Nepal has not been
defined properly (p. 121). In this context a list of acts that are believed to be sexually offensive or
unacceptable was prepared by reviewing the available western literature by him. I have maintained the
lists in the coming section of this study.

Sexual harassment and gender discrimination fundamentally preclude the objectives of

schools via multiple routes. Examples are:

 Interference with the quality of learning,

 Interference with both quality of the practice of medincine and the performance of
other professional activities,

 Negative impact on morale,

 Interference with opportunities for promotion and career development,

 Negative impact on women's physical and psychological well-being,

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 Negative impact on patient care and doctor/patient relationships.

 Interference with opportunities to assume leadership positions within medicine.

Gender equality can mean different things to different people. I asked her to define the
meaning of gender equality in the context of education and schooling. She responded that treating
boys and girls equally. She further added creating an opportunity where boys and girls have the same
opportunity to learn.

Taking my exploration of gender issues in schools a bit further, I asked her if there existed
gender discrimination in her school in any form. Firstly, she answered that she is not facing any
gender discrimination. The sensitivity involved in the notion of gender discrimination and cultural
sanctions where matters involving sex can or cannot be discussed may, in part, prompted she not to be
open. Given that it is only an exploratory study, it should not be interpreted that there is no gender
discrimination in schools.

She faced various problems to enter this profession. Her husband's mother was not in the
favor of her teaching profession. She had the thinking that if she joins to school there might have the
lacking of doing house hold working. Her husband was unemployment so he was also thinking that it
would be better that if he has a job before her wife. So the whole family members of her house seem
against her joining teaching profession.

When the notice was published for the application to the post of female teacher. The
headmaster started to seek a lady who works as a female teacher from the higher caste. The head
teacher torn the notice that was published on the notice board of the school. She has noticed about the
publication of notice through the staff of the school. Then she submitted the application for the post.
Another female candidate from higher caste also submitted application. The candidate from higher
caste was completed her Intermediate degree from Faculty of Education. There was a compulsory
provision of positive affirmation action to the female candidates who has completed 10 months
teacher training program with scholarship. But the selection committee did not respond to this
provision. They both appeared in the selection examination but she could not succeed.

The Dalit Utpidit Uthan Mancha recognized that I have been victim of the oppression from
the so called higher caste. The Dalit Utpidit Mancha complained to the District Education Office then
the DEO requested her to visit to District Education Office. There were representatives Dalit, she, the
Head Master of concerning school, School Supervisor, Resource Persons and representatives of
human rights. A discussion was held for a longtime. It takes two days to decide regarding to this case.
Finally, the decision was done in the favour of her. She became the teacher of that school where she is
working up to date.
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Now, she is working as a teacher in the school. She is happy in one hand because she got the
chance to teach in the school and she is being a role model in her society, on the other hand she is
facing harassment sometimes. At the beginning some of the students from higher caste called her
Damini teacher. Why she comes her without doing sewing profession. She kept closed her mouth
expecting that the day will come when the entire human will be treated equally.

As the concepts of purity (chokho) and impurity (asuddha) are the central points when we
discuss regarding Dalit and so called high caste. When she had joined the school, she felt that the
teacher were not happy form her selection as a teacher. They did not express about it directly but she
felt from their behavior. The teachers used to go to take Tiffin separately. From this behavior she felt
that the so called higher caste teachers hated her.

`The students from Brahmin and Kshetriya family used to stay in the front bench of the class.
When she started to teach at that class the students stated to stay at the last seats of the class because
they felt that they should be come to touch with Damini teacher. Some of the Dalit students noticed
her about this phenomenon. From this phenomenon she came to know that she is facing the problems
of caste discrimination.

Her fellow teachers from the so called higher caste were not too closed to her but the teacher
from Newar community seemed compassionate and always tried to be closed to her. She was happy
with him because she has had a closed friend. One day the Newar teacher tried to pat on her shoulder
when they were discussing on a specific subject matter. She opposed such behavior, at that moment
the Newar fellow tried to caught her hand. She came to know that he is trying to cheat her. That was
the examples of the harassment she faced in her profession.

Sometimes they go to the gathering of guardians. The male guardian of her student did not
response to her but the guardians always concerned to the male and high caste teachers. She
sometimes thought that why they were ignoring her. She started to analyses the situation relating to
gender and caste issues then she came into conclusion that she is facing double oppression i.e. gender
oppression and caste oppression.

The students in her school those from Dalit community are very glad due to her appointment
as a teacher and their guardians are also happy. They feel that she should care their children and then
their children will do better than before. The girls of the school are starting to consult to her. She
heard from the Dalit guardian has taken as a representative of their communities.

Freedman mentioned the argument by Stanko (1988) that it is a factor in explaining job
segregation, as women in traditionally male sector of the lobour market are more likely to report
harassment than women working in traditionally female work place. According to Bista (2003)
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educational research in Nepal has not examined the issue of sexual harassment yet. As such, what
constitutes sexual harassment in the context of Nepal has not been defined properly (p. 121).
Therefore, a list of acts that are believed to be sexually offensive or unacceptable was prepared by
reviewing the available western literature by him. These are as follows: (a) making comments on
clothing, (b) Making comments on physical appearance or body parts, (c) asking very personal
questions (d) giving pat on the back or elsewhere, (e) inappropriate touching (f) invitation for outing
(g) invasion of personal space (h) making sexual remarks or gesture (i) sending sexually offensive
materials, (j) displaying sexually offensive materials, (k) making suggestive looks, (l) making sexual
or dirty jokes (m) making unwelcome sexual advances, (n) talking about sexual activity, and (o)
attempted rape (p) making unnecessary phone calls.
In attempt to examine the incidence of sexual harassment in the schools, I consented with her
to talk about the sexual harassment. She hardly accepted my request. Then, I begin the discussion
with breaking the ice by asking the question that is she heard about the sexual harassment. She has no
ideas about the term sexual harassment but she is aware about the unaccepted behavours. I briefly
explained about the sexual harassment and the acts listed from the western literature. However, she
shied and felt difficult to talk, she started to discuss.
Traditionally, Nepal is a gender segregated society. Social and cultural barriers do not permit open
interaction between males and females although these practices are gradually vanishing in recent
years (Bista, 2006). He further added that teaching has remained male dominated profession in Nepal;
the women who choose to become a teacher must work in a male dominated environment. In this
context, I asked her about the interaction between her and male colleagues in schools. She responded
me that some time she felt friendly environment and some time she felt painful. Her male colleagues
always talk about the politics but she is not interested in politics so that she does not participate in the
discussion. Some time they joke. Some jokes are dirty and gender biased. Her male colleagues
sometime do not notice her existence in the office. She never engaged in such environment but she
often engages when the discussions are related to school but such kinds of discussion held rarely.
Sometime her young male colleagues appreciate her dress calling Damaiko chhorile ramro
silayera nalagaye kasale lagaune ta [who would wear such a beautiful dress, if the daughter of Tailor
does not wear]. Similarly, when they discuss about any subject matter, one of her male colleagues
always pat on her shoulders. She responded that her colleagues always ask about the personal
questions but she prefers such a behavior because she feels very close from asking the personal
questions. She also mentioned that to asked or be asked very personal questions cannot be considered
as an act of sexual harassment. It is common among them and it keeps close relationship to the
personal level. The finding of my study is similar to Bista (2006) to the comment of personal
questions.
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Teachers will be able to perform effectively if they are assigned to teach subjects of their
choice. She was asked whether she were teaching subjects of her choice. She responded that she is
faced with a situation where she does not get to teach subjects of her choice. She is very much
interested to teach mathematics in school and she says that she can do better in mathematics teaching
but school administration assigned her to teacher the subjects such as Creative and Expressive Arts.
This made her astonished and she feels that there is no environment to exercise the knowledge she
has. I was interested to know that about the regretting becoming a teacher. In regard my query, she
responded that she is not regretted to join the teaching profession.

I asked her to describe the kind of discrimination they observe or experience in their schools
on a day-to-day basis. Responses do confirm the existence of discriminatory practices in schools.
Here are some brief comments:

 More opportunity is provided to male rather than female teachers. It there is an

invitation for a training courses or a workshop from the DEO Office, male teachers will
be the ones to be asked first.
 It is always the male teachers who make major decisions.
 Head teachers always believe that male teachers are more capable of doing things.
Often, male teachers will be asked to take on challenging and rewarding responsibilities.
 Girls are often told to clean the classrooms, paint the floor, and fetch drinking water.
On the other hand, boys will be made monitors to control classrooms and maintain order.
 If the male teachers come late them it is an issue. But, when female teachers are late,
them a meeting will be held to discuss this.
 Extra-curricular activities are mainly for boys.
 Boys get more opportunity to learn than girls.
 The teachers also described the discrimination that takes place in the family in favor
of boys. He is one example.
 Boys get more opportunity to learn than girls.
 The teachers also described the discrimination that takes place in the family in favor
of boys. Here he is one example.
 Sons are sent to private schools where as daughters are sent to government schools.
My class contains a crowd of girls. If this situation is to continue, girls will not learn how
to behave and interact with boys or with males.
How does she feel in environments that are male dominated? In order to find out the situation,
I asked her how often she feels lonely or isolated while she is not at work. Bista (2006) states that to
feel lonely or isolated is different from the feeling of being ignored or neglected. One can feel lonely
when there no no one around to share one's feelings, But, one can feel ignored or neglected when the
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environment fails to give the due attention, recognition, or consideration that one deserves (p. 118). In
this context, I asked her to assess the extent to which she felt ignored or neglected. Then she gave a
example of how she made to feel ignored or neglected:
I never involved in any kind of decision-making. Most of decisions are
taken outside the school after school hours. One day District Education Office
asked for a teacher to participate in a 10 days recurrent teacher training program in
Resource Center. My male colleagues were gathered in a restaurant and decided to
send male teacher in that training. I felt I am ignoring from my male colleagues.
They are regularly engaged in making a whole range of decisions about how
schools are managed and run or how resources should be spent. I am excluded
from all these decisions.

There are no separate toilets for girls and female teacher. They have to go to the Jungle for
urinating. Due to lack of separate toilet for girls and female teacher, she feels uneasy and
discriminatory behavior of school administration.

Her Way to Handle the Oppression

Her ways to handle the oppression is not different from the general women acts in the socio-
cultural context of Nepal. I asked her how she handles the oppression that she feels. She mentioned
that she does not take part in the discussion after school hours and she do not go out alone with male
colleagues. Some time if she heard the dirty jokes, she pretends that she has not heard that joke.
Sometime she lied when her male colleagues call her outing but she takes parts when all the members
of the staff outing together.

Sometimes her male colleagues call her to take a journey to the nearby market for shopping
and sometimes her male colleagues request her to go to picnic. In such a condition, she lie saying to
have household work and to assist her parent.

The Gender Issues Underline the Case

Based on my study, I have listed some of the gender issues underline this case. These are as follows:

 The issues of female teacher's participation in the discussion that held in school is unsolved.
The male colleagues of female teacher ignore the necessity of female teacher. They are not
convinced that school management is a team management.

 Reducing the gender discrimination in schools and creating gender friendly environment in
school seems challenging.
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 Awareness regarding sexual harassment in school is necessary, it is also the duty of school
to train teacher on gender and it will success when all the members of the schools can
contributes.

 Share of female teachers in Nepalese schools is in lower status. To improve these situation
female teachers should be appointed as head teacher.

 Nepalese schools environment is not Dalit and female friendly.

Relation between the Issues and the Readings in the Class

The subject matters of the Master in Philosophy in the subject named Gender, Education and
Development is related to gender and education in relation to education. The subject of theis case
study is resembles to the discussion that held in the classroom. The discussion was based on the
theoretical perspectives but my study is based on theoretical as well as empirical. Therefore, this Case
Study helped me to understand the gender issues, gender discrimination and workplace oppression.

The issues that I have raised in this study is relates to the content and the issues raised by
different feminists writer and researchers. Mullins in her writing mentioned a statement that the
American mother and teachers tell to their daughters and students is that when you grow up, you can
be whatever you want to be (Mullins, 1998). She further adds that in United States almost everywhere
they go, they are encouraged to believe that girls can be just as smart, athletic, and successful as boys.
But in Nepal this case study finds out that the message is just the opposite. From the day they born,
they are constantly reminded of the things are not allowed to do. Education is the tool that can help
break the pattern of gender discrimination and bring lasting change for women in developing
countries (Ibid). A burning issue rise here, how the education can play a role to break the pattern of
gender discrimination and bring lasting change for women, when the female teacher is discriminated
by her male colleagues.

Here, the differences between male teacher and female teacher seem due to hierarchical
difference. The idea of difference is never neutral in its effects on social structure (Freedman, 2002).
Such kinds of differences in behavior affect the behavioural pattern of the students. The students
could copy the behavior of the teachers and they will perform discriminatory behaviors.

De Beauvoir argues that women's inferior position is not a natural or biological fact but one
that is created by society. The female becomes feminine after birth and assigned the role this leads to
be the women, the social roles and modes of behavior that civilizations have assigned to women have
kept them in an inferior position to that of men. She argues that there is no biological distinction to be
made between men and women. She maintains that the psychological and behavioural aspects of sex
and the products of patriarchal cultures and not the inevitable products of biological differences. She
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argues that there is an irreducible biological difference between men and women. Woman is a
biological and not a socio-historical category, event through all the behavior associated with
femininity is clearly a social construction. Freedman (2002) cites Oakley (1996) argues that a woman
is nothing more than an oppressed social class. Oakley's argument seems truth in the context of this
case. She further maintained that sex is nothing more than a social construct and that the division
between men and women is merely a product of social power relations with no basis in natural or
human biology.
Similarly, Freedman mentioned the argument by Stanko (1988) that it is a factor in explaining
job segregation, as women in traditionally male sector of the lobour market are more likely to report
harassment than women working in traditionally female work place. According to Bista (2003)
educational research in Nepal has not examined the issue of sexual harassment yet. As such, what
constitutes sexual harassment in the context of Nepal has not been defined properly (p. 121).
Michele Barrett (1980), stresses the way in which ideology has a pivotal role in the
construction of gender, particularly through the institution of the family and the ideology of
familialism. Marxist feminist analyses women's oppression in terms of both capitalism and
patriarchy namely dual system theory. She combines a non-materialist account of patriarchy (centered
on psychoanalytic theory) with materialist account of capitalism.
The dual system analyses of women's participation in the labor market aims to combine-
Marxist class-based analysis of capitalist production with a radical feminist account of gender relation
under patriarchy. Hartman argues that capitalism and patriarchy are linked but that patriarchy
precedes capitalism and is not unique to capitalist societies. For her, it the sexual division of labour
that is the crucial point in women's subordination, and this division of labour occurs in societies that
are not capitalist. So patriarchy and capitalism are independent but linked; they are two distinct
systems but intertwined and create interdependent and solidarity among men, which allows them to
dominate women. Men control women's sexuality and reproductive capacities and thus determine
when they will have children and in what conditions, which limit women's access to well-paid jobs.
Thus concludes that women earn less than men partly or wholly because they are restricted to less
valued and less well-paid sectors of the labor market (Freedman, 2002).

Reference

Freedman, J. (2002). Conccept in the Social Sciences: Feminism, New Delhi: Viva Books Private
Limited.

Bista, M. B. (2006). Status of Female Teachers in Nepal, Kathmandu: UNESCO

Mullins, J. (1998). Children in Need. Retrieved on February 23, 2009 from

http://www.childreninneed.com/magazine/gender.html at google.com
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http://www.amwa-doc.org/index.cfm?objectld=0F0FA5B9-D567-0B25-5C4C96B876E06BC3.
Retrieved on May 9, 2009 at google.com

This paper is submitted to the Tribhuvan University, Nepal for the partial fulfulment of
Master in Philosophy in Education by Bishnu Prasad Mishra on July 2009

E-mail: mishrabishnu@yahoo.com

Monday November 23, 2009