A World of Equals: A Textbook on Gender

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

As more and more women join the workforce and public life, it becomes ever more important that men and women are comfortable working with each other. A nuanced discussion of gender issues is urgent and imperative. Beyond the constitutional guarantees of equality, there are myriad hidden, everyday scenarios in which power and prejudice operate to devalue, exclude, humiliate, discriminate and suppress.

A World of Equals: A Textbook on Gender attempts to sensitise readers to gender and gender-related issues. Using examples from popular literature, films and advertisements, the book raises issues relating to inequalities of race, religious affiliation, class, caste, disability and the sexual spectrum, and stimulates discussions on these subjects.

The book is accompanied by an app that provides links to resources mentioned in the text.

This textbook grew out of a course designed for undergraduate engineering students in Hyderabad. Public figures, educationists, journalists, parents and ordinary citizens (like our present publisher) who learnt about the initiative invariably responded by saying 'this is the need of the hour." The warmth and enthusiasm with which the course was received by students, teachers and, the press, no less, far exceeded our expectations. And the sentiment was shared across genders! We were thrilled to see students take home copies of the course material to share with their parents.. Obviously, discussions that had started in class were continued over dinner. NGOs used the lessons in gender training sessions and realised that the material was also useful for stimulating discussion among older adults. Readers particularly appreciated the variety of writers and texts they encountered during the course of their discussions. Why is a book like this, which provides a deeper and more informed discussion of gender issues, the 'need of the hour?"

Uppermost in the minds of those who welcomed and supported this initiative was perhaps the disturbing degree of violence against women that is being reported now. The horrifying rape and murder of 'Nirbhaya' in December 2012 and other such incidents that followed, brought to the forefront the vulnerability of young women in public life and the urgent necessity of addressing the reasons and contexts that lead to such violence. But violence against women is not the only reason why a nuanced discussion of gender issues is urgent and imperative.

In recent months there have been several instances of public figures, industry leaders and well-known academics and scientists who have been charged with sexual harassment or who have roused public anger because of statements they made about women. Some of these statements and actions might have been 'innocent' in the sense that these people may not have thought what they were saying or doing was illegal or unacceptable; maybe they thought they could make verbal or physical advances to a colleague and get away with it. A better education in gender issues could have helped them avoid behaviour that not only causes hurt to others but also injures their reputation and standing. No serious professional today can afford to remain 'innocent' about gender issues.

As more and more women join the workforce and public life it becomes ever more important that men and women are comfortable working with each other. The Vice Chancellor of a university shared the information that foreign companies and institutions frequently complained that their Indian employees often lacked this level of comfort. She hoped the course and this book would go some distance in changing things.

Another reason why we all need an education in the various axes of inequality is that the analyses of inequality and the aspirations for equality have become more complex. And this is true whether those inequalities relate to race, religious affiliation, class, caste, disability, or the sexual spectrum.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages