The Question of Gender Equality

Abstract

The feminist perspective reshapes the categories through which gender is performed. Gender explores a dimension of human life that has proven to be troublesome in understanding oneself and causing disturbances in social relationships and structures. Though critics feel that gender loyalties will deprive the chances of redressing distortions and omissions, the fact is that in real ‘lived in experience', gender neutrality is a mirage. Hence ‘gender' matters. Gender justice is a desirable social goal. Feminism is a thought trend that refuses to identify human experience with male experience. The feminist perspective challenges the partial and biased account of knowledge. The attempt is to acknowledge feminine ways of knowledge and accommodate them in such a way that more appropriate and impartial ways of knowing the world are explored. This chapter explores the possibility and relevance of the feminist perspective in attaining gender equality.