The second episode of the series ‘(Un)learning with Professors’ was conducted on September 18, 2021 with Dr Madhurima Das, a professor of ‘Gender Studies’ and ‘Conflict Management’ from Pilani campus. She has been a part of various research projects and scholarship grants centred around the topics of paid domestic work, global inequality, transnational gender politics, and feminist issues, receiving numerous awards for the same. The discussion was hosted by student members of Anchor, the Gender and Sexuality cell of BITS Pilani. It delved into the topics of intersectionality and unseen factors of gender oppression in our society.

The discussion began with Prof. Das talking about feminism and the misconceptions associated with it. She elaborated on several stereotypes associated with feminists that need to be decoded in order to understand why people dislike associating themselves with the label despite supporting the ideals of feminism. She also went on to mention that while feminism started with giving equal rights to women, the movement has now moved past that restriction. It now deals with gender-based issues involving both masculinity and femininity that don’t just exist in a vacuum but are intertwined with constructs like race and socio-economic class.

The next topic discussed was the concept of privilege and how one can acknowledge their own privilege. Prof. Das used Peggy McIntosh’s “Invisible Knapsack” analogy to explain this concept. She said that it is similar to a set of essentials one carries that helps them in many situations, but they are entirely unaware of it, hence the term invisible. People have many advantages by virtue of their identities that they are oblivious to and so privilege significantly impacts people’s social location. For example, a wealthy person who gets into a premier higher education institution abroad has to attribute a portion of their success to the fact that they gained many advantages and opportunities simply because of their wealth. 

Moving on to the concept of intersectionality, Prof. Das described it as less of a theory and more of a lens or a prism through which one can analyse the world around them. It is the overlap or simultaneity of the various identities that one can possess, such as, gender, sexuality, race, or class. She stated that ‘the fact that you cannot be holistically called privileged or holistically called oppressed on certain counts, is the whole paradigm of intersectionality’. She explained that people have different advantages and disadvantages based on the various aspects of their identities that all cumulatively define one’s social location. 

Speaking specifically in the context of brown women living in the ‘Global North’—economically developed countries—Prof. Das cited a theory posited by a prominent scholar named Chandra Talpade Mohanty. Mohanty is an Indian woman who migrated to the US, where she noticed a new label of race being attached to her identity with the various stereotypes that come with it. Using this example, Prof. Das said that intersectionality is a way to understand the ‘granularity of individual positions [on the social ladder]’. 

While discussing diversity in the workplace, Prof. Das explained how supporting diversity is more than just blind inclusivity, arguing that while women and minorities are being hired more, ‘they aren’t being heard’. Their needs and demands are not catered to and there are no attempts to make them more comfortable in a workplace that has been designed around the needs of the majority group (straight males). Referencing a scholar named Joan Acker, she said that in our current capitalist society, the qualities of an ideal worker—working for long hours, socialising after work hours, having few non-work obligations—can be satisfied predominantly by straight men. This is why, according to her, absolute gender neutrality—or equality—is not enough and we need to strive towards equity. ‘We must give more to communities that are historically deprived as opposed to an equal distribution of resources’.

Speaking further about the minimal female representation in industries like STEM, Prof. Das talked about sex-segregated professions. She claimed that because we have associated certain human traits such as ambition, leadership, and technical skill with masculinity and other traits like being nurturing and caring with femininity, we have categorised certain professions as being ‘for men’ and others as being ‘for women’. In addition, she mentioned several individual factors such as lack of maternity concessions and lack of safe transportation for women that cumulatively tend to push women out of the workplace.

The final point of discussion was about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of working women. Prof. Das cited the 2021 McKinsey ‘Women in the Workplace’ report, stating that the rate at which women are losing jobs during the pandemic is 1.8 times higher than that of men. She used the theory of the ‘Second Shift’, which says that working women work two shifts—paid work in the workplace and unpaid work in the household—to elaborate on this. With the advent of work from home, she says, women have to do both shifts within the same space while still having the same productivity expectations as their male colleagues. In addition, women of lower socio-economic classes, such as domestic workers, are now losing their jobs because people are at home all the time and choose not to employ them anymore. 

She concluded the discussion with the hope that after this pandemic, we evolve into a better society that acknowledges these issues and is equitable to all people irrespective of their identities.