Centre for Women’s Studies | PSGR Krishnammal College for Women

About the Centre

Centre for Women’s Studies is to make the “invisible” women “visible”. The Centre identifies and focuses on the socio-economic, cultural and political conditions of women in the society not only by data collection but also by evaluation studies. Women and legislative measures, social stereotypes and historical analysis of women, women and democracy, gender issues, gender relations in current society – a panoramic view etc., are the major themes on which the Centre concentrates.

The Centre focused on real case studies, to mould the individual’s pattern of emotions, thoughts and behaviours, to effectively face adverse situations and make life happy. Simple coping strategies were adopted by sensitizing, providing training, awareness programs and counseling. The students were sensitized and provided knowledge on women issues and challenges by incorporating women’s studies subject in the curriculum as foundation course and they were also field exposures. The activities were documented and disseminated to other institutions and centers to widespread the knowledge on women studies.

The Centre functions to improve the quality of women and to work with individuals and organizations to encourage policies, practices and structures in services which ensure protection of women’s rights. To have a society in which, women are recognized as valued, active and contributing participants and where women are responsive to the rights and needs. Centre conducts research, teaching, skill trainings and extension programs for the women in collaboration with various government and non government bodies. Every year more than 500 women used to be benefitted through the activities of the Centre.

The specific objectives of the Centre are:

To introduce gender perspective in the curriculum of all possible disciplines offered by the college.
To give the much – needed awareness to students on women’s rights and responsibilities.
To strengthen the data base on women’s issues through research by the students and faculty members.
To disseminate the findings of research to the community to facilitate development.
To network with other universities and institutions interested in similar work.
To undertake advocacy and outreach programs concerning women in the rural and urban areas.
To serve as a centre for capacity building of trainers dealing with women’s issues and publish/produce literature, audio, video cassettes etc., and relevant issues.
To offer consultancy to NGOs and special interested groups.

Inaugaration of the Centre

The Centre was established in the year 2005with the support of University Grants Commission and inaugurated by. R. K. Chauhan, Joint Secretary, University Grants Commission, New Delhi University Grants Commission, New Delhi recognized and appreciated the Centres activities in terms of teaching, research and extension on 6th January 2016 and has elevated from Phase I to Phase II from April 2016 onwards, To start up the phase II activities of the Centre, an inauguration was celebrated on 28th January 2016 in the college. The honorable guest Prof. M.C. Madhavan, from San Diego State University, USA inaugurated the programme.

Vision

Envisage the society with gender equity in which women are recognized as valued, active, empowered and equal contributors in all the fields and responsive to the rights and needs.

Mission

Improve the quality of life of women and work with individual and organizations to encourage practices and structures in services which ensure protection of women’s rights, policies, and empowerment.

Gender Champion Club

In order to promote gender equality, guaranteed by Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, we need to change the mode of interaction at all levels – home, school, and workplace and so on. To increase the outreach for creating an environment that fosters equal treatment, Government of India envisages engagement of Gender Champions in all schools and colleges across the Country.

Gender Champions can be both boys and girls above 16 years of age enrolled in educational institutions. To support and takeover the joint initiative of the Ministry of women and Child Development and Ministry of Human Resource Development, PSGR Krishnammal College for Women formed Gender Champion Club in 2016 Coordinated by Centre for Women’s Studies.

Vision

Gender Champions are envisaged as responsible leaders who will facilitate an enabling environment within their schools/colleges and/academic institutions where girls are treated with dignity and respect. They will strengthen the potential of young girls and boys to advocate for gender equality and monitor progress towards gender justice.

Objective

The broad mandate of a Gender Champion is to provide an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to understanding the social and cultural constructions of gender that shape the experiences of women and men in society. The aim is to make the young boys and girls gender sensitive and create positive social norms that value the girls and their rights.

Roles and Responsibilities of a Gender Champion

The responsibilities of the Gender Champion will include the following:

Provide overall guidance to the peer group in integrating /mainstreaming gender in all activities of the Institution in the form of focused group discussions, debates, poster competitions etc.
Engage a variety of stakeholders from the school, college, civil society organizations, women’s groups and media in gender mainstreaming activities.
Identify gaps in school college’s activities vis-a-vis gender, and make recommendations on how to address these gaps, e.g., observe classrooms to detect bias in interactions Promote Gender Champion Club in their educational institutions and undertake innovative activities, like creating a website or blog on gender equity and regularly writing an equity column on issues on, e.g. untold stories of extraordinary men and women who changed lives of women and girls, about enabling legislations, government schemes or about finding a new Gender Champion in his/her educational institution, or competitions to analyze greeting cards from gender perspective, organize film fest on gender equity etc.
Organize awareness programmes on various gender issues including legislations to influence behaviour change. This could be facilitated through workshops’ theme based plays, films, painting competition, etc.
Organize the school annual function or the college fest on theme of gender equality and women’s empowerment and encourage students to sign up and express their support for gender justice and equality in attractively designed Gender Champion booths.
Organize exposure visits to various public service institutions at the village, block, district and city level (public health centres, hospitals, post offices, banks, police stations, block office, SDM/DM office to facilitateknowledge about gender issues as they affect diverse populations.
Popularize phone numbers of such services as police helpline, women helpline, hospitals among students.
Arrange for providing necessary life skill education and information/guidance about existing public services to their fellow students.
Demonstrate knowledge of important Government schemes, events, legislation, and court rulings which has a major impact on the treatment and experiences of diverse groups.

Document best practices to measure the extent of behavior change and display the same through exhibitions, fests, annual magazines etc.

Teaching

The Centre has introduced foundation course for the I year under graduate students and prescribed the text book – ‘PAAVAI – An Introduction to Women’s Studies’

Research & Publications

The Centre conducts funded Research on Women’s perspective, issues, challenges, development, skills and legal laws for women and strengthens the curriculum.

Faculty