Key talking points
A) Gender differences often precipitate through gatekeeping equations.
a. Take the case of leading managment institutes, the proportion of girl students has hovered around ten or fifteen per cent for over three decades, with some exceptional years. There is no evidence that boys necessarily make better managers or boys with high quantitative scores make better innovators, or entrepreneurs or managers. There is even less evidence available that when society or a firm faces moral crisis. Those with high quantitative skills are able to compute the relative merit of right and wrong better. But there is some evidence that those imbued with intuitive judgments, empathetic perceptions and greater assimilation of the problems of The Other can take a better call in many stressful situations-personal or professional. Such attributes can be found in men as well as women. Do we have gatekeeping equations that will permit entry of such perceptions in our institutional portals in larger numbers, same thing may apply to any other firm or service or scheme.
b. Gatekeeping also influences the way establishment defines the desirable attributes of a successful manager or member of a community. Simon is reported to have said in his concept of organizational man- one whose edges are blunted. Is that the only way engendered relationships to evolve, by succumbing, by adjusting, adapting, the attributes Indian women have heard umpteen times since their childhood?
c. Gatekeeping also intervenes when leadership positions are assigned, committees are constituted, interview panels are constituted, one bias perpetuates another. Lesser encounters, lesser guilt of having discriminated. One can easily laminate the judgments born out of cracked rules of gatekeeping.
B) More Opportunities that build upon relative strengths without stereotyping the same :
a) Who do we expand the opportunities for home based work in a legitimate and formal manner—in internet age, homes have become an extended office and thus the need to explore such opportunities
b) Distributed knowledge and networking infrastructure: in many countries, there is wide network of public libraries which also have free queue based open access net service so that budding entrepreneurs or scholars or activists can self –empower themselves, whenever open access resources are situated in inner cities, or slums or where majority of people are self employed, the chances of women getting access increase without screening access on gender basis ( though there can still be some dedicated counters which can match cultural content of every location till these factors don’t impede the access of women)
c) The number of polytechnics and ITI s which work in the evening or night are very few. Merely by changing timing and making curriculum flexible, we can have higher inclusion of different social groups who have constraints in the day time to enrich themselves. The Fab labs network with tools which enable valorization of design and other skills in which different gender based roles can specialize, can help bridge the social gaps.
C) From artisans to artists: deploying different canvasses for expression of talent
a) Given the differential access to various platforms for expression of talent, engendered art gets expressed wherever it can and in ways that can baffle the most rigourous art critic. But then is there a policy vent for expression of such talent? What kind of ICT infrastructure will create markets for such artists and create equal opportunities, first in the mind and later in the markets.
b) Cultural space provides most scope for mining the mind and pulverizing the stereotypes and thus modern tools of communication and assertion and manifestation can be sued to transcend the boundaries, which have acted as ‘laksman’ rekhas or chakravyuhs for certain sections of society.
D) How do gender differences amplify gradually from childhood?
a) Studies have shown that girls outperformed boys in the primary classes and so did scheduled caste and OBC children outperformed the rest in biodiversity competitions organised by SRISTI in different parts of the country. Quite understandable in view of the larger dependence of such communities on nature. But once the girls started taking care of their younger siblings and their going out alone became less frequent, in higher classes they started losing out in their knowledge advantage of biodiversity compared to boys.
b) Similar is the experience in general education, higher share of merit positions in school exams and then they lose out, why?
E) do women moneylenders show greater compassion than male money lenders: NO, gender differences do not transcend certain market rules
F) Building upon unique engendered knowledge, skills and perceptions
Anil K Gupta
