In Search of Women’s and Gender Studies Conference

A search for Gender Studies conferences led me to this webpage which listed the exact same conference, same title, same CFP, same sub-themes, happening everyday, sometimes 3-4 same conference on the same day but at different locations around the world. The first page of the search results contained 102 listings of the same conference scheduled from Jan 18 to April 10th. There were four more pages to browse. Means, over 400 of the same Gender Studies conference in 2024 across the world. How many of them in India?

I decided to search for the same conference in India by using the country filter. I did not find anything. “Maybe my search inputs is wrong, let me try that again,” I thought. I searched step by step choosing Country and topic. I could not find Gender Studies in main topic. It was not even present as a sub-topic under Social Sciences and Humanities. I finally found it under “Interdisciplinary” as the main topic. Finally, when I clicked on “search” for country India, main topic Interdisciplinary and sub topic Gender Studies: NO RESULT.

A total of 102 same conference in less than four months across the globe but not a single one in India. What does that tell us about the value or relevance of Women’s and Gender Studies in India?

The Neglect of Women’s and Gender Studies in India

I am a feminist activist who did a PhD on Women’s Studies after 12 years of professional experience in the field of legal and feminist research, journalism (women women, gender and social development as a beat), and development communications. I am an award winning blogger and social media influencer for over 15 years. I started my own social entrepreneurship to help NGOs get online and run their own social media communications. I have the practical knowledge of the digital media, digital public infrastructure in India, the skills to manage people and programs and lead an organization, and a critical understanding of women and gender issues and India’s social and human development issues.

With all that knowledge and experience I did a PhD in Women’s Studies but now when I look for Jobs, collaboration opportunities or plain and simple Conferences and seminars to share my knowledge I come to realize that there is no work happening in India in the field of Gender Studies.

Women’s Studies and Women’s and Gender (WGS) as a discipline of higher education started in India in the 1980s, the same time it started in the first world nations of Europe, United States and even Africa. But WGS in first world nations have gone ahead by leaps and bounds and India is lagging behind in every aspects:

• Low number of top universities imparting Graduate or Post Graduate degree in Women and Gender Studies – Most university do not have a department of WGS. They do not even offer the course under Social Sciences, Humanities or Liberal Arts departments.
• Low Number of students enrollment – Most students graduating out of college do not know they can Women’s /Gender Studies for Masters and higher education. Even though Women’s Studies is taught in India since 80s in nearly 150 Women’s Studies Centers under UGC. Moreover, Women’s Studies is one of the main subject that can be opted for UPSC exams / Civil Services Mains Exam.
• Low Faculty Recruitment. There is govt fund cuts which is affecting faculty recruitment. 33% of faculty positions in Indian universities across disciplines are lying vacant. Situation is worse for Women’s Studies faculty positions. Most recruitments are happening on contractual basis. The current regime led by a radical right populist party with ethno-religious identity politics at its core is rather threatened by Women’s Studies and that shows.
• Lack of Employment opportunities – This is a circular conundrum much like the feted chicken and egg. Recruitment agencies do not look for Women’s Studies background while recruiting. Job Descriptions rarely specifically seek a WS background. Accordingly student enrollment is less and accordingly individuals with domain expertise is less. Low student enrollment because low job opportunities, low job opportunities because of lack of awareness about domain expertise.
• Lack of Innovative Research – Women’s and Gender Studies syllabus and the research areas in the Women’s Studies centers and departments in India are very narrow. They mostly center around violence, sexuality, education and few others. New and innovative research in modern fields such as digital innovations, digital spaces are lacking.
• Conferences and collaboration – I already spoke about the lack of conferences. There is only one national level annual or biennial Women’s Studies conference one can look forward to with confidence that it will take place every two years. The National Conference by Indian Association of Women’s Studies (IAWS) have taken place every two years since 1981. Unfortunately, there is almost zero publicity of the conference outside the few academic circles. The most recent one, the 17th National Conference took place in Kerala but there has been no mainstream media coverage. Being the only annual event, there are too many presenters, too little listeners, and not much networking opportunity and close in-depth attention to each other’s papers.
• Apart from the IAWS National Conference, women’s studies department in each university/center organize their own events depending upon availability of funds and time and other factors. There is no certainty about their occurrence which means there is not much to look forward to or be motivated with.
• Factors such as these point to only one conclusion, that Women’s Studies in India is still at a nascent stage despite being around for four decades. Women’s Studies and Women’s movement are inextricably connected. In fact WS as a discipline came out of women’s movements. But it appears both are now neglected because if you don’t strengthen women’s studies you would not produce new generation feminist scholars who are aware of women’s history, women’s movement making, the history of patriarchy and oppression.

The solutions

The government should make new policy initiatives to strengthen Women’s and Gender Studies. Institutions such as Women and Child Development Ministry, National and State Commissions of Women should specifically hire candidates from Women’s Studies background. This should give a nudge to nonprofit organizations working on women and gender issues and private sector firms claiming to take CSR initiatives for women empowerment must all specifically hire experts from WSG background.

The New Education Policy have some good features such as holistic learning and opening up of disciplines so that even a science students can take up a women’s studies course. But this needs strong implementation with leadership from University Grant Commission. UGC have to take strong measures to empower the Women’s Studies Centers.

With aid and encouragement from the government and UGC, HEIs should be able to offer courses and hire quality faculty. The faculty recruitment should also think out of the box and hire women’s studies scholars with demonstrated interests and participation to feminist movements.

The media has a big role to play in raising awareness about the both Women’s Studies and women’s movement. Media platforms should have journalists on the feminism / women’s studies beat. They should report on latest conferences, the latest research papers the PhD in Women’s Studies theses coming out each year.

Lastly, a basic introduction to age appropriate women and gender studies should happen at middle school. The fact that being born with a female biological sign and being woman are two different things, one is a biological sign and other is a socially created and violently enforced construct should be known from teen to pre-teens so that as they grow up, they not only make their own independent choices but also take interest in knowing more by pursuing higher studies in women, gender and sexuality.