Keynote Address on Women's Studies at Mysore, 17-2-2013

Women’s Studies and Gender Studies are complementary interdisciplinary fields whose research, scholarship, and creative activities examine women’s lives, conditions and contributions within their historical, social, cultural, national and transnational contexts and explore how gender is constructed and negotiated within and across societies.

Major difference between "women's studies" and "gender studies" is this; while the former concentrates on women specific issues the latter focuses on power relations that determine differential impact on women and men. So, if you are interested in dealing with the broad issue of how gender affects people, and want to examine both women's and men's experiences, you must opt for "gender studies" (GS). If your primary focus is to be on girls and women, you must opt for "women's studies" (WS).

What is Women’s Studies?
Women’s Studies is a science concerned about women’s equality with man and the development of women. WS provides an analytical tool, a worldview to understand the status of women and an alternative viewpoint to existing knowledge construction. It is inter-disciplinary in perspective. It signifies the importance of studying women, whose omission from scholarship and teaching prompted the formation of Women's Studies during 1970s and acquired its legitimate space in the academia by mid-1980s after “End of Women’s Decade” Conference in Nairobi in 1985. Women’s studies as a discipline uses various theoretical frameworks on gender relations to inform our understanding of women's lives and places in human societies, it emphasizes that the discipline should not be an ivory tower intellectual pursuit but must ensure the political and intellectual benefits that accrue from studying women. Women’s Studies is an activist and partisan discipline, i.e. it is pro-women; at the same time, not anti-men. WS emphasizes the need for providing a material basis for women’s independence and autonomy. Important objectives of women’s studies are as follows:

• To facilitate the process of understanding, recognizing and giving due importance to the contributions made by women and men.
• To examine the reasons for subordination of women and for male domination.
• To empower women to attain gender justice and an effective role in all decision- making processes.
• To evolve development alternatives with women.
• To ensure visibility of women as change agents for the enhancement of the status of women.
• To identify and understand roots of inequality that result in invisibility, marginalisation and exclusion of women from the intellectual world.
• To support social action aimed at equality, development, peace, education, health and employment of women.
• Organizing seminars, workshops, debates, talks and discussions to keep women’s concerns centre stage in the public domain.

Gender Studies
Gender studies deconstructs patriarchy and subordination-domination relations between men and women with an understanding that gender relations are socially constructed and can be changed thro’ social, economic and political intervention. Gender studies has played crucial role in facilitating the encounter between academic pursuits and active involvement in developmental issues thro’ teaching, training, research, documentation and extension work. Gender studies as hold men accountable for their power. Over last 2 decades it has focused on networking between groups and individuals who are concerned with gender issues, violence against women and children, unjust laws, media, decision-making, household strategies, health, women’s movement and political participation, gender in history and, gender sensitive counseling. The over-arching goal of gender studies is to accelerate the development of women and its specific goals of are:
• To identify issues and problems of women and men undertake studies relating to their roles and status in society.
• Use the tool of gender audit to identify practical and strategic gender needs o