EDITORIAL
We are happy to announce that the 2021 issue of Journal of
Women’s Studies is now published.
Women’s Studies Journal has focused on women's concerns,
gender, sexuality, caste, literature, and media since its first publication.
Feminism may appear to be an area where there has been extensive
research and studies and perhaps nothing more remains to be said, but on
the contrary, there endure areas untouched or unexplored enough in
feminist studies with new areas of emerging concerns. Feminism is crucial
to understanding the sites of sex, gender, and subjectivity. A common
theme in feminist studies remains the investigation of gender inequality.
The research papers presented in this issue have as their key
concerns discrimination against women, men, and the non-binary,
objectification (sexual), inequality, sexism, stereotyping and
representations in literature which is fundamental to feminist criticism.
Feminism(s) opens up inquiries into the unequal distribution of
power under the heteronormative model, under the hegemonic gender
norms structured and normalized in a society that has consistently
maintained the male dominance, opens up inquiries that help to disrupt the
assumptions of sex and its designations into the rigid categories of sex/
gender.
While feminism is an area that has engaged many
researchers, Women’s Studies as an academic discipline is relatively
young and is looked at as an unconventional discipline as far as Indian
universities are concerned, although there is NET examination in it and
quite a number of Universities in India offer a full credit post –graduation
course in Women’s Studies.
It is important to remember that the Indian Council of Social
Science Research (ICSSR), funded by the government of India recognized
the status of women in India as its “priority area” in the early 1970s and
ordered studies for the CSWI that would seek to improve social
investigations into the status of women in India through initiative in
women's studies. It is important to recognize the pioneering role of the
S.N.D.T Women's University Research Unit on Women's Studies, which
was founded in 1974. Another pioneering organization is IWAS. The
decision to form the Indian Association of Women's Studies was
announced at the 1980 National Conference on Women's Studies
(Mazumdar, 1981). According to Desai et al. (1984: 5), the Indian
Association of Women's Studies (IAWS) adopted objectives to break the
isolation between academic and social activities by welcoming all
involved in teaching, research, and action for women's development as its
members in order to develop and disseminate information, organize
specific action programmes, and assist institutions in developing
programmes related to teaching, research, and action. It aimed at
establishing a stable base for starting and supporting the advancement of
Women's Studies. The decision of the authorities of NBU to introduce Post
graduation in Women’s Studies in University of North Bengal from 2021
has been greatly appreciated by NAAC peer team. They have recognized
and appreciated the space within the academia devoted to discussions of
gender inequalities (and other related inequalities) that exist in society as
a significant addition to the broader spectrum of education in the
area. Being multidisciplinary in approach Women’s Studies allows its
students to engage in critical discussion with other academic disciplines.
The interdisciplinarity of Women's Studies can be understood through its
collaborative programmes that incorporate gender issues and viewpoints
from a wide range of disciplines. Women's Studies attempts to disseminate
knowledge of gender discrimination, understand the reasons for such
discrepancies and find out ways to combat the conditions of inequality in
order to identify strategies to eradicate them.
The essays in this volume are multidisciplinary; they present a
slew of issues that call into question some of our conventional thinking
and interpretations. The essays critique the social constructivist
assessments that the politics of gender hegemony instruct and promote by
using the feminist theoretical frameworks. The writings raise questions
regarding the ‘personal’ and the 'political', investigate the matrices of
men’s public visibility in relation to certain prevalent codes in order to get
a better understanding of the pressures that men face in societies that have
strong gender norms, endeavor to explore into the realms of the human
psyche, discuss women’s representations in literature, research into films
and the constructed ‘gazes’, attempt to redefine Fourth Wave feminism’s
inclusion and intersectionality through the Digital Platforms.
The editorial board of Women’s Studies, University of North
Bengal, extends its sincere thanks to the authorities of the University of
North Bengal for their support and encouragement, to the members of the
Advisory Committee, and the Academic Board of Women’s Studies for
their valuable inputs and support. We take this opportunity to thank all the
contributors for their essays. We thank NBU Press team for their patience
and support. The authors reserve the responsibility of answering any
future queries about methodology or citations and referencing.
I express my gratitude to the entire editorial team whose
commitment and perseverance has made this issue possible.
With best wishes.
Dr. Zinia Mitra
Professor,
Department of English
&
Director, Centre for Women’s Studies