Possible reasons
for this shift in
the nature of the women’s movement
Possible reasons for the women's movement becoming increasingly based
on individual rights and personal liberties may firstly be that the
women's movement till the 1970’s served as a grounder to bring
women out in to the public sphere and achieve reforms in areas like
sati, widow re-marriage, anti liquor movement’s, women's
representation in political parties and institutions of governance,
after which only more specific and seemingly drastic demands could be
made. It can be said that a minimum level of rights or atleast
recognition of this demand had been recognized; hence movements could
now afford to move beyond these basic issues of participation and
mobilization.
Another possible reason could be that with the
numerical growth of
communities there is an increase in anonymity and hence demands
obviously begin to be centered more on the individual and less on the
community as “communitarian” interests as such cease to exist.
Another reason for this “shift” I feel may be purely
coincidental as women’s organisations have in most cases responded to
incidents like a rape or cases of sati, or dowry death and
rallied around the same. However even though it may seem like these
organisations are dealing with the issues as and when they come up
these organisations themselves derive their legitimacy from the base
created by the early women's movement.
The growth of feminism as a theory due to the influence of western
feminism also lead to a shift in the women's movement as it caused
women in activism to question issues of patriarchy, gender
stereotyping etc and initiate movement’s around these issues.
This transformation has also lead to the present women's movement
working together with queer rights groups and child rights groups,
whereas before the women's movement primarily worked with the Dalit
movement. This again shows a shift influenced by western feminism as
compared to working with the Dalit movement which is India specific.
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