Unearthing Gender : Folksongs of North India

The gender box : A framework for analysing gender roles in forest management

“…But these represent the minority. Women's access to land in India is widely recognised as inequitable: Naga women of north India do not own land generally (Cairns 2007);Jassal (2012) found that women's lack of rights to land, a touchy subject where she worked, also in northern India, resulted in serious disadvantages for women's status and work opportunities. See Koopman and Faye (2012) for an historically informed examination of this issue in several countries in Africa.…”

“…In northern India, cooking involved an agerelated progression (Jassal 2012): young girls and women are relegated to the least skilled (and least enjoyable) cooking tasks, as helpers. In middle age, they take on the guiding, even commanding role, and in old age, they are relieved of cooking.…”

“…They emphasise submission, maintenance of the patrilineage's honour, purity and obedience to husband and mother-in-law (Jassal 2012). …”

“…The northern Indian Yadava caste-officially described as 'backward'-tried to raise caste status by limiting women's work outside the home, including in forests (Jassal 2012). Hull (1996) reports similar encouragement of domesticity among the Javanese middle class, as do Djoudi and Brockhaus (2011) among higher status pastoral groups in Mali.…”

Pre-marital Relationships and the Family in Modern India

“…It is important here to understand that resistances do not simply warrant an overthrow of structure, though at times that too happens when the woman breaks up the relationship, but also exist in small pockets (Scott 1985(Scott , 1990, as women adopt strategies, pick fields of battle, and negotiate within the power structure of their household (Gold and Raheja 1994;Jassal 2012;Jeffery and Jeffery 1996). 10 Some women explained to me that they agree to follow the rules and norms regarding dress codes and food at the beginning of the marriage, only to overturn them once they have established themselves in the new household.…”