Are women luddites?

Though girls repeatedly fare better than boys in school-leaving exams, images of masculine superiority are fed into children at school, with stereotypes sneaking into text books from the early primary level of education upwards. Dr Jayshree Ramdas of the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education lays open a stack of text books, pointing out boys involved in strenuous exercises and girls in the home science. "Why can’t one have pictures of girls at play, swinging from branches as well?" questions Ramdas.

Science text books, she feels, are particularly guilty in perpetuating the myth that boys have a scientific bent of mind while girls are passive observers. Many publishers in the West have guidelines for non-sexist writing, which include instructions for providing role models for both sexes, acknowledging the contributions of women and avoiding sexist language. She points out that in a co-ed class boys and girls are seated in separate blocks, while an inhibited male teacher is found turning his attentions towards the boys’ section.

Dr Sugra Chunawala, who has done exhaustive work on gender studies, says teachers, more often than students, are bound by stereotypes. "Ask them about sorting occupations and they will invariably come up with the categorical teaching and nursing for women and the traditionally tough’ jobs demarcated for men," she says.

When a young Chitra Natrajan opted to study instrumental physics to work on building spectrometers, elders in her department asked how a "frail little girl" could lift the heavy tools necessary for the purpose. She responded that installation of pulleys "would be beneficial for both men and women." Amused at the marginalisation of women from innovative technologies having a direct impact on their lives, she says, "As sole beneficiaries to technology, they are also empowered to use, adapt and change them as and when required," however, "while several companies have attempted to make a housewife’s life more comfortable through the range of kitchenware, most manufacturers ignore the fact that several of these tools’ were first brought into function by women in both rural and urban households."

A good manager is inevitably personified by all the qualities there are in a man, and expected to fit into his role. While a uniquely feminine perspective is ignored. "Science and technology can also gain from the women’s perspective," she believes. "As we have seen that development has sometimes been violent to nature. Had this area of growth fallen on the woman’s lot, she would have brought in a fresh perspective. For the woman cares and takes on the responsibility of the next three generations upon herself before committing to drastic change."

Dr Shobhona Sharma, a reader at the molecular biology unit at the TIFR, accounts gender stereotyping to consumerism. "With more and more images of women-as-beauty and men out-to-prove-themselves being bombarded by the media, a mass awareness seems to have come through whereby children want to live up to and conform to exactly those very ideas thrown up," says she. "Hence, the many distractions for teenagers. While girls are out to make themselves more attractive, boys are out to make a life for themselves." Her colleague, Dr Sujatha of the Department of Maths, would rather put the awareness of popular scientific applications down to attitudinal rather than aptitudinal differences. "Today I may not be comfortable with a mobile phone or handling the VCR, or the rotimaker and microwave, but that has nothing to do with the fact that I am a woman. I might prefer simpler methods. Between watching a video and reading a book, I prefer the latter. It is all part of a social conditioning," she says. Even as the conflict over a woman’s comfort levels with technology remains, the feminist movement in India is still the largest in the world — perhaps a reflection of the fact that there is much work yet to be done.