Women on the margins and the role of NGOs in India

Dabhi, Jimmy

doi:10.1504/ijicbm.2009.024653

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…As Jovchelovitch (1997) suggests, hegemonic representations emerge when certain groups have greater access to resources than others, particularly communication channels. In India, middle and upper-class urban dwellers usually have the greatest access to such resources and, as Dabhi (2009) discusses, are over-represented within governmental and non-governmental organizations due to the NGOization of women's movements (see also : Roy, 2015). Additionally, Rao (2014) suggests that such representations are advanced by the media to appeal to their middle-class audiences, likely to be the case in this research as India's digital divide results in the primary consumers of YouTube videos being urban middle-class (Parsheera, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies also point to the caste-based nature of violence against women in India where women at the bottom of the caste hierarchy are subject to sexual violence by dominant caste men (Dabhi, 2009;Swabhiman Society & Equality Now, 2020). Yet, victims of caste-based violence rarely obtain justice due to a judicial system that runs in favour of powerful castes (Pal, 2018;Swabhiman Society & Equality Now, 2020).…”

Section: Gender and Social Hierarchies In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Empowered but endangered? An analysis of hegemonic womanhood in Indian gender advocacy campaigns

D'silva

Hakoköngäs

2022

J. Soc. Polit. Psych.

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This research examines digital gender advocacy campaigns in India during the 2010s. By employing thematic analysis and conceptual tools of the social representations theory into the analysis of 250 gender advocacy videos published on YouTube, we answer the following questions: a) How are dangers to women in India discussed in recent video campaigns? b) How is the topic objectified and anchored in multimodal narration? c) How is hegemonic womanhood constructed in the campaigns? The findings suggest that campaigns present two social representations of dangers with sexual harassment depicted as a danger for urban middle-class women and the issues of early marriage, lack of female education, and gender-biased sex selection as rural dangers. The primary solution suggested by the campaigns is to encourage women to actively claim their place in society, placing the main responsibility for changing the situation on women themselves. The secondary solution suggested is to encourage families to support girls and women. Thus, the analysis shows how social representations created by gender advocacy in India put responsibility on individuals and excuse social institutions from addressing inequality, while maintaining power relations and class disparities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gender and Social Hierarchies In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Empowered but endangered? An analysis of hegemonic womanhood in Indian gender advocacy campaigns

D'silva

Hakoköngäs

2022

J. Soc. Polit. Psych.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Furthermore, India has one of the world's most rapidly expanding middle‐classes, which has shaped feminist movements and discourses in the country through its higher consumption power and greater representation amongst decision makers in government and NGOs (Dabhi, 2009). It is therefore important to understand how intended middle‐class audiences in India respond to neoliberal feminist ideas conveyed by gender advocacy campaigns and how such ideas are embraced or resisted by them, which previous research has not explored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not to blame, but still responsible: Negotiating social representations of neoliberal feminism amongst urban middle‐class Indians

D'silva

2024

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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Indian gender advocacy has been criticised for promoting individualistic neoliberal solutions to issues requiring structural change. Such solutions are most accessible to middle‐class women and their dominance in gender advocacy is attributed to the middle‐class viewership of campaigns. Few studies have researched how this intended audience responds to such messages. As patriarchy benefits men, it is also important to understand how gender intersects with social class to shape responses. Accordingly, this research explores the reception of neoliberal feminist ideals in Indian gender advocacy amongst an urban middle‐class audience of 25 participants, comprising of 13 women and 12 men in Bengaluru, India. The theoretical and methodological framework is the social representations theory. Participants viewed three campaign videos and undertook semi‐structured interviews. Thematic analysis was employed to explore their perceptions of the causes and solutions to the issues portrayed in the campaigns, leading to three themes being identified. In the theme of ‘individuals’, participants held women responsible for resisting oppression. In the theme of ‘culture’, participants viewed culture as a cause of patriarchy, with cultural change seen as a solution. In the theme of ‘institutions’, participants discussed institutional sexism but were pessimistic about institutional reform. These findings suggest that whilst patriarchy is blamed on cultural norms and institutional failure, solutions are often conceived in terms of self‐transformation of individual women. These results are situated in social representations' theoretical premise of themata and positioning to analyse how social locations like gender, class and regional identity were mobilised by participants to contest or maintain a neoliberal feminist ideology. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

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“…Although initially led by women activists linked to leftist organizations, the organizations conducting gender advocacy in contemporary India are extremely heterogenous. Their managements represent a variety of classes, castes and religio‐cultural and political ideologies, shaping their advocacy and activities (Dabhi, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Same old story of good cop–bad cop? A narrative approach to social representations of the police's role in addressing gender‐based violence in Indian gender advocacy

D'silva

2022

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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Despite considerable evidence of the patriarchal nature of the police and underreporting of gender‐based violence in India, there is a dearth of literature on how gender advocacy campaigns in India tackle these issues. This study addresses this gap by exploring how the police is represented in gender advocacy in India. The material comprises of eight campaign videos from two ideologically opposing organizations: Amnesty International, an international human rights organization and Ministry for Women and Child Development, a government body. Social representations theory and narrative analysis are applied in the analysis to answer how the role of the police is narratively constructed. Results suggest two contrasting representations held by each organization in line with their organizational identities. While Amnesty constructed the police as villains obstructing women's access to justice, the Ministry represented the police as heroes defending women's safety. The analysis contributes a novel way of locating anchors and objectifications by a focus on narrative actions and goals. Additionally, the discussion of the findings broadens conceptions of hegemonic and polemic representations, arguing for a more power‐centric approach that conceives of hegemony in terms of access to media channels and material resources. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

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Women on the margins and the role of NGOs in India

Cited by 5 publications

References 9 publications

Empowered but endangered? An analysis of hegemonic womanhood in Indian gender advocacy campaigns

Empowered but endangered? An analysis of hegemonic womanhood in Indian gender advocacy campaigns

Not to blame, but still responsible: Negotiating social representations of neoliberal feminism amongst urban middle‐class Indians

Same old story of good cop–bad cop? A narrative approach to social representations of the police's role in addressing gender‐based violence in Indian gender advocacy

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