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Title: 

The slow transition from womanhood to personhood: can education help?

Authors: Karlekar, Malavika
Keywords: Women's studies;Women -- Education -- India;Women -- India -- Social conditions;Women -- Education;Women -- Social conditions;Women's role;Women's status;Aims of education;Education of women;Education
Issue Date: 1989
Publisher: Centre for Women's Development Studies
Citation: http://www.cwds.ac.in/OCPaper/SlowTransitionMK.pdf
Description: "This paper will look at how difference as inequality has led to gender differences in the use of education. I will then present a case study of one of the first Bengali women to write her autobiography; if Kailashbashini’s life appears incongruous at the end of a litany of injustices it is only to prove that difference as a value can-and did-put down early roots in a hostile environment. Acknowledging her subordinate position in a male dominated society. Kailashbashini used the skills of literacy effectively. The wife of a Bengali official with reformist tendencies was taught to read and write by her husband. In time, she described in great detail her life; her powerfully reasoned arguments only proved that those regarded as unequal and subordinate could in fact match many in their logic and rationality. Here, the informal, self-taught skills of literacy equipped Kailashbashini to express herself, her pain and her hopes through a long life. The therapeutic value of such an exercise can not be underestimated in a highly segregated, hierarchical society. However, before going further into the role of literacy in facilitating individual self-expression, it is necessary to explore further the relationship between difference and inequality. For it is against this backdrop that the former acquires a particular significance and relevance."
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2451/34263
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Appears in Collections:South Asian Born-Digital NGO Reports Collection Project

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