Journal of Women's Studies: University of North Bengal, Vol. 10

EDITORIAL

We are happy to announce that the 2021 issue of Journal of Women’s Studies is now published.

Women’s Studies Journal has focused on women's concerns, gender, sexuality, caste, literature, and media since its first publication. Feminism may appear to be an area where there has been extensive research and studies and perhaps nothing more remains to be said, but on the contrary, there endure areas untouched or unexplored enough in feminist studies with new areas of emerging concerns. Feminism is crucial to understanding the sites of sex, gender, and subjectivity. A common theme in feminist studies remains the investigation of gender inequality.

The research papers presented in this issue have as their key concerns discrimination against women, men, and the non-binary, objectification (sexual), inequality, sexism, stereotyping and representations in literature which is fundamental to feminist criticism.

Feminism(s) opens up inquiries into the unequal distribution of power under the heteronormative model, under the hegemonic gender norms structured and normalized in a society that has consistently maintained the male dominance, opens up inquiries that help to disrupt the assumptions of sex and its designations into the rigid categories of sex/ gender.

While feminism is an area that has engaged many researchers, Women’s Studies as an academic discipline is relatively young and is looked at as an unconventional discipline as far as Indian universities are concerned, although there is NET examination in it and quite a number of Universities in India offer a full credit post –graduation course in Women’s Studies.

It is important to remember that the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), funded by the government of India recognized the status of women in India as its “priority area” in the early 1970s and ordered studies for the CSWI that would seek to improve social investigations into the status of women in India through initiative in women's studies. It is important to recognize the pioneering role of the S.N.D.T Women's University Research Unit on Women's Studies, which was founded in 1974. Another pioneering organization is IWAS. The decision to form the Indian Association of Women's Studies was announced at the 1980 National Conference on Women's Studies (Mazumdar, 1981). According to Desai et al. (1984: 5), the Indian Association of Women's Studies (IAWS) adopted objectives to break the isolation between academic and social activities by welcoming all involved in teaching, research, and action for women's development as its members in order to develop and disseminate information, organize specific action programmes, and assist institutions in developing programmes related to teaching, research, and action. It aimed at establishing a stable base for starting and supporting the advancement of Women's Studies. The decision of the authorities of NBU to introduce Post graduation in Women’s Studies in University of North Bengal from 2021 has been greatly appreciated by NAAC peer team. They have recognized and appreciated the space within the academia devoted to discussions of gender inequalities (and other related inequalities) that exist in society as a significant addition to the broader spectrum of education in the area. Being multidisciplinary in approach Women’s Studies allows its students to engage in critical discussion with other academic disciplines. The interdisciplinarity of Women's Studies can be understood through its collaborative programmes that incorporate gender issues and viewpoints from a wide range of disciplines. Women's Studies attempts to disseminate knowledge of gender discrimination, understand the reasons for such discrepancies and find out ways to combat the conditions of inequality in order to identify strategies to eradicate them.

The essays in this volume are multidisciplinary; they present a slew of issues that call into question some of our conventional thinking and interpretations. The essays critique the social constructivist assessments that the politics of gender hegemony instruct and promote by using the feminist theoretical frameworks. The writings raise questions regarding the ‘personal’ and the 'political', investigate the matrices of men’s public visibility in relation to certain prevalent codes in order to get a better understanding of the pressures that men face in societies that have strong gender norms, endeavor to explore into the realms of the human psyche, discuss women’s representations in literature, research into films and the constructed ‘gazes’, attempt to redefine Fourth Wave feminism’s inclusion and intersectionality through the Digital Platforms.

The editorial board of Women’s Studies, University of North Bengal, extends its sincere thanks to the authorities of the University of North Bengal for their support and encouragement, to the members of the Advisory Committee, and the Academic Board of Women’s Studies for their valuable inputs and support. We take this opportunity to thank all the contributors for their essays. We thank NBU Press team for their patience and support. The authors reserve the responsibility of answering any future queries about methodology or citations and referencing.

I express my gratitude to the entire editorial team whose commitment and perseverance has made this issue possible.

With best wishes.

Dr. Zinia Mitra
Professor, Department of English & Director, Centre for Women’s Studies