Chapter 5: Women Change the World

Intext Questions:

Question 1 : See what images your class drew by filling in the table below. Add up the number of male and female images separately for each occupation.

Answer:

Question 2 : Are there more images of men than women?

Answer:Yes. There are 158 images of men and 82 images of women.

Question 3 : In what kinds of jobs were there more images of men than women?

Answer:There are more images of men in farming, factory work, scientist, and pilot than women.

Question 4 : Have all the nurses been drawn as females? Why?

Answer:Yes, all the nurses have been drawn as females. Because we always see the nurses are women in a particular white uniform. This is also because women have caring nature great.

Question 5 : Are there fewer images of female farmers? If so, why?

Answer:Yes, there is only one image of the female farmer. The reason is that whenever the word farmer comes either in book, news, T.V. the image shown is of a male.

Question 6 : How does your class exercise compare with Rosie Ma’am’s class exercise?

Answer:In my class exercise and Rosie Ma’am’s class exercise the ratio of male and female images are more or less the same with a very small number of variations.

Question 7 : Read the story below and answer the questions –

A).If you were Xavier, what subject would you choose and why?

Answer:If I were Xavier, I would choose science. Because I want to be a scientist and to discover how the water can be used as fuel to drive any engine.

B).In your experience, what are some of the other pressures that boys experience?

Answer:

• The boys experience some other pressures from the parent that they are boys so they have to choose those subjects which can be more job-oriented.
• They have to carry the responsibility of the family. They are also reminded that their neighbour boys are doing very well in a particular subject.

Question 8 :

A).What percentage of children leave school at the upper primary level?

Answer:4.03 percent of children leave school at the elementary level.

B).At which level of education do you see the highest percentage of children leaving?

Answer:At secondary (classes 9-10) level of education, the highest percentage (17.06 percent) of children are leaving schools.

c).Why do you think that the percentage of Adivasi girls and boys leaving school is higher than that of any other group?

Answer:The reason for a higher percentage of Adivasi girls and boys leaving school than that of any other group is as under:

• In the Adivasis social system, every one of the family rights from children who can move freely to women has to do some activity of his/ her share to survive. So, children look after the goats, sheep, etc. in the grazing field. For this purpose, they leave school in a higher percentage.
• The Adivasis have a very rigid culture of their economic activity. They can’t come out of this long chain of livelihood very easily. This is the other reason for their leaving school in a higher percentage than any other group.

Question 9 : From the table given on page 62 of the textbook, convert the figures of primary class children who leave school into a bar diagram. The first two percentages have already been converted for you in the bar diagram on page 63.

Answer:

Exercises

Question 1 : How do you think stereotypes, about what women can or cannot do, affect women’s right to equality?

Answer:Stereotypes about what women can or cannot do affect women’s right to equality:

• They do not get the same support that boys get.
• They are considered inferior to men.
• They are not sent to educational institutions.
• They are promoted to see marriage as their future instead of higher studies.
• They are not paid equally to men for the same work.
• They are assigned household works as their priority job.

Question 2 : List one reason why learning the alphabet was so important to women like Rashsundari Devi, Ramabai and Rokeya.

Answer: Rashsundari Devi, Ramabai and Rokeya are able to achieve their goal only by education. they were able to put an impact on the society by writing their ideas or stories or setting up schools through which can never be achieved without learning. Thus, learning the alphabet was so important because it will not only help them in their day to day social life but also help them in pursuing their education and dream.

Question 3 : “Poor girls drop out of school because they are not interested in getting an education.” Re-read the last paragraph on page 62 and explain why this statement is not true.

Answer:The statement “Poor girls drop out of school because they are not interested in getting an education.” is not true because:

• In many parts of the country, especially in rural and poor areas, neither there are proper schools nor teachers who teach on a regular basis.
• Parents are not willing to send their girl child to distant schools due to lack of transportation.
• Unable to bear the cost of education.
• Boys get preference over girls for seeking education.
• Sometimes, their teacher and classmates discriminate against them.

Question 4 : Can you describe two methods of struggle that the women’s movement used to raise issues? If you had to organise a struggle against stereotypes, about what women can or cannot do, what method would you employ from the ones that you have read about? Why would you choose this particular method?

Answer:Two methods of struggle that the women’s movement used to raise issues:
Campaigning: It is an important part of the women’s movement which is used to fight discrimination and violence against women. Women work in a organized and collective manner to achieve their certain and specific goal.
Protesting : Women use public rallies and demonstrations as a very powerful weapon for drawing attention to injustices by the method of protesting. The women’s movement raises its voice when violations against women take place. I would choose campaigning as a method to struggle against stereotypes. In this method, we use to get clear idea about the thought of people about what they want to seek justice for the discrimination against women. We got to familiar with their opinion about stereotypes and their method of eradication right from the society level. It is also a peaceful and organised method