Hegemony of Women: A Myth or Pragmatic Reality
Analysis of the status of women in self help group depends on an understanding of gender relations in a specific context. Examining gender relations as power relations makes clear that these are sustained by the institutions within which gender relations occur. For women in rural area, absence of power results in the lack of access to and control over resources, coercive gender division of labour, devaluation of their work, and a lack of control over their own labour and mobility. Here the study tries to show the real position of women working in Self Help Groups in surrounding places of Raniganj coal field. An attempt has been made to see the access and control over private assets and resources, access to public resources, control over their labour and income, control over their bodies control over physical mobility. The entry of women into political spaces has the potential to reorder gender power relations in the public arena. Women’s access to knowledge, information and skills have to be made central not just to promote their ‘participation in development, but so that they become tools to challenge subordination. Moreover, sustainable changes require women’s entry not only to formal economic spaces but also community-level spaces, which means eliminating obstacles that impede their effective participation. In order to make the rural women more effective in decision making process unnecessary interference in their matter need to be minimized. Empowerment of women, requiring conditions that enable women to exercise their autonomy; it also envisages a process of self-empowerment, in which women begin to re-examine their lives critically and collectively. While the former involves the facilitation of women’s access to and control over resources, the latter emphasizes women’s agency in seeking greater access and control. There is a need to support of capacity building initiatives by highlighting women entrepreneurs’ successes and profiling role models. All SHG’s
