From Antagonism to Acknowledgment: Development of Gender and Women’s Studies as Academic Discipline in Pakistan

This paper aimed to analyze historically the development of Gender and Women’s Studies as a separate academic discipline in Pakistan. We employed to the secondary data resources that included archives, official gazettes of the Government of Pakistan, notifications and, organizational records for data collection. The historical analysis with the feminist research method focused on the evolution of the discipline. The research revealed that gender and women’s studies on an academic discipline have been established in different public sector universities after international pressure and the struggle of Pakistani women’s movement. Further, the research documented the discipline’s voyage from resentment to an acknowledgement of gender studies as academic field. Thus, it can be concluded that there is a potential for transformation in the everyday lives of the students and teachers, nevertheless braced with limitations, challenges, and prospects for the growth of this as a discipline. Although discipline does reflect a commitment to the contribution towards the society concerning to the subject matter, these are; however, not rooted in feminist ideology. There are bigger questions rather than concluding thoughts that require additional research related to discipline, its scope, and local knowledge production and so forth. Besides, it requires sincere efforts from a policy planning perspective to generate research and theory on gender issues in a local context.

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Non-violent revolutions are believed to take place: A Discourse-Historical analysis of the Armenian Velvet Revolution in Armenian news media

Discourse & Communication ◽

10.1177/17504813211017708 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 175048132110177

Author(s):

Shushan Azatyan ◽

Zeinab Mohammad Ebrahimi ◽

Yadollah Mansouri

Keyword(s):

News Media ◽

Historical Analysis ◽

Academic Field ◽

Discursive Strategies ◽

Velvet Revolution ◽

The People ◽

History Of ◽

The Government

The Velvet Revolution of Armenia, which took place in 2018, was an important event in the history of Armenia and changed the government peacefully by means of large demonstrations, rallies and marches. This historic event was covered by Armenian news media. Our goal here was to do a Discourse-Historical Analysis of the Armenian Velvet Revolution as covered by two Armenian websites: armenpress.am-the governmental website and 168.am-the non-governmental website. In our analysis we identified how the lexicon related to the Armenian Velvet Revolution was negotiated and legitimized by these media, and which discursive strategies were applied. We concluded that ‘Armenpress’ paid more attention to the government’s speeches, discussions, meetings and tried to impose the opinion of the government upon the people. In contrast, ‘168’ tried to present itself as an independent website with a neutral attitude toward the Velvet Revolution but, in reality, as we can conclude from the negative opinions about the Velvet Revolution in the coverage of ‘168’, it also represented the government’s interests. There was also a discursive struggle over the exact meaning of ‘revolution’ and the sense of ‘velvet’ in politics and the academic field that was to some extent introduced by these media.

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The First Women’s Studies Research Centre: A History of Women’s Studies and Its Progenitors

Indian Journal of Gender Studies ◽

10.1177/0971521518763472 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 212-233

Author(s):

Maithreyi Krishnaraj

Keyword(s):

Women's Studies ◽

Academic Disciplines ◽

Research Centre ◽

Women's Issues ◽

Women’S Studies ◽

Master's Thesis ◽

History Of ◽

The Government ◽

Set Up ◽

The University

The beginning of Women’s Studies has a special history in India. It owes its origin not only to some stalwarts but also to the historical times in which its birth took place. Its location in the SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai was at the initiative of Dr Neera Desai, a Professor of Sociology at that university. Her own work on women’s issues in her Master’s thesis and her involvement in the women’s movement gave her the background for envisaging that a women’s university should engage with analysis of women’s condition and not just teach women other academic disciplines. It was with this motive, that the Research Centre for Women’s Studies was set up in 1974, a year before the publication of the report Towards Equality of the Government of India. The university - originally begun at the initiative of the educationist Shri Dhondo Kheshav Karve received a handsome grant from the industrialist Shri Damodar Thackersey and got named after his mother Shrimathi Nathibai Damodar Thackersey hereafter SNDT Women’s University. The Centre with the involvement of able and farsighted administrators at this university spearheaded the development of this Centre, which became the torch bearer for raising women’s issues.

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‘This is education as the practice of freedom': Twenty Years of Women’s Studies at the University of Oxford

Exchanges The Interdisciplinary Research Journal ◽

10.31273/eirj.v3i1.128 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 113-127

Author(s):

Eleri Watson ◽

Charlotte De Val ◽

Eleri Anona Watson

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

Women's Studies ◽

Public Intellectual ◽

Early Career ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Academic Field ◽

Postgraduate Students ◽

Women’S Studies ◽

University Of Oxford ◽

The University

On 23 May 2015 students on the Women’s Studies Masters (M.St course) at the University of Oxford organised a conference to commemorate twenty years of Women’s Studies at Oxford, entitled: ‘Teaching to Transgress’: Twenty Years of Women’s Studies at Oxford. The conference consisted of a mixture of papers from leading academics in the field of Women’s Studies, as well as from postgraduate students currently enrolled on the M.St programme at Oxford, with the intention of giving young early career women the opportunity to present their research to a broad interdisciplinary audience.Since its foundation in 1995, the Women’s Studies course has strived to enact what the American feminist and activist bell hooks terms ‘education as the practice of freedom’.[1] Reflecting upon the discussions emerging from the conference, the conference organisers Charlotte De Val and Eleri Anona Watson ask: ‘what are the new and repeated challenges we face in fulfilling this practice of freedom?’ They also consider the changing scope of Women’s Studies as an academic field alongside present debates regarding its future in the UK and further afield. Examining debates of ‘possibility’ and ‘impossibility’ within Women’s Studies—that is to say, materialist versus post-structuralist critiques—in conjunction with questions of accessibility and ‘intellectual gatekeeping’, this article proposes that the future of Women's Studies is not the ‘apocalyptic’ vision that its critics would often have us believe. Indeed, one of the themes emerging from the conference was that as long as the field practices radical self-questioning and self-critique, Women’s Studies will maintain its academically and socially transformative potential.[1] bell hooks’s writings cover gender, race, teaching, education and media, emphasising the connections with systems of oppression. hooks is the author of pioneering works such as Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism (1981), Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre (1984) and Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice (2013), and remains a leading public intellectual in feminist and educational studies.

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Jejak Perempuan Buruh Migran dalam Masyarakat ASEAN 2015

Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik ◽

10.22146/jsp.13129 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 147

Author(s):

Desintha Dwi Asriani ◽

Ezka Amalia

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Data Analysis ◽

Women's Studies ◽

Migrant Workers ◽

Secondary Data ◽

Secondary Data Analysis ◽

Analysis Approach ◽

Women’S Studies

In the embodiment blueprint of ASEAN Community 2015, there are three important elements of thepolitical and security pillar, the pillar of economic, social and cultural pillars. Are assumed to be mutuallyreinforcing. However, before the ASEAN Community currently limited to realizing economic growth anddefense. Women migrant workers issues such precisely NOT SIGN hearts 8 Sector The services will beliberalized. Writing the initials of the Women’s Studies That puts the migrant workers Astra Honda Motor as ISU Main hearts ASEAN Community Discourse 2015. Article Search Google using secondary data analysis approach, cCritical notes the issue of women migrant workers and the opportunities that may bemanaged critically describe.

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Women's Studies as Cultural Movement and Academic Discipline in the United States and West Germany: The Early Phase, 1966-1982

Women in German Yearbook ◽

10.1353/wgy.1994.0015 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 1-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ann Taylor Allen

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Women's Studies ◽

Early Phase ◽

Academic Discipline ◽

The United States ◽

West Germany ◽

Women’S Studies ◽

Cultural Movement

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Significant Activities Of The Centre

Pakistan Journal of Gender Studies ◽

10.46568/pjgs.v1i1.260 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 39-40

Author(s):

Centre of Excellence for Women’s Studies

Keyword(s):

Special Education ◽

Women's Studies ◽

Women's Rights ◽

Women’S Rights ◽

Women's Development ◽

National Policies ◽

Women’S Studies ◽

The Government

Founded in 1989 by the Ministry of Women Development, Youth Affairs and Special Education, the Centre is an outcome of the continuous realization of the Government of Pakistan to integrate women’s development and women’s rights in its national policies. The Centre is first in Pakistan to offer M.A degree in Women’s Studies from 1996 and onwards. In 2007 the Centre has started B.S. (4 years) programme in Women’s Studies. It is also the first institution to offer M.Phil/Ph.D. degree in Women’s Studies from the year 2002.

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Women’s Studies in Praxis: Dr Neera Desai’s Contribution towards Developmental Work for Rural Women in Udwada, South Gujarat

Indian Journal of Gender Studies ◽

10.1177/0971521518761451 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 256-280

Author(s):

Vibhuti Patel

Keyword(s):

Women Workers ◽

Women's Studies ◽

Rural Women ◽

Academic Discipline ◽

Baseline Survey ◽

Industrial Workers ◽

Feminist Activism ◽

Women’S Studies ◽

And Gender ◽

Corporate Social

Dr Neera Desai personified combination of both theory and praxis in women’s studies that sees itself as an academic discipline to improve women’s status through knowledge construction, teaching and training, documentation, research, and action. She founded Centre for Rural Development (CRD) in SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai to take the learning of women’s studies to transform women’s reality through feminist activism. CRD began its work among rural women in Udwada village of Paradi Taluka in Valsad District of Gujarat by baseline survey to identify the needs of the community. Economic programmes were initiated along with consciousness raising on reasons of subordinate status of women. Involvement of women’s rights activists and women’s studies scholars ensured dialogues on vision, mission, goals, objectives methods of mobilisation and issues to be taken up by the CRD. The interface between macroeconomic changes in the post reform period after 1991. The new industrial belt established in South Gujarat took away young women as industrial workers. In 2013, the SNDTWU authorities decided to give away the CRD to a corporate house to administer as a Corporate Social Responsibility. Nevertheless, women workers and office bearers of the CRD, mentored by Neeraben continue to be active in the development sector as trainers, CBOs, consultants, researchers, writers, elected women representatives in local self-government bodies, social workers in CSR activities and continue to uphold the ethos of CRD. Now they talk in terms of gender sensitisation, practical and strategic gender needs, gender planning and gender budgeting.

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