Growing divide between gender fluidity and women's reality

Hindustan Times

3 days ago

We live in peculiar times. There is a conscious attempt to dismantle gender binaries, celebrate fluidity, and challenge traditional norms. Yet, the lived experiences of gender are becoming more pronounced, particularly for women. The contributions they make and the sacrifices they endure are intensifying, revealing a stark contrast between theoretical frameworks and ground realities. Gender Equality.(Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The global economic landscape is grim, inflation is soaring, and real wages have failed to keep pace with rising prices. A 2024 Oxfam report reveals that women earn only 51 cents for every dollar a man earns—nearly half the income for the same work. This reflects the systemic inequality that forces women into cycles of poverty and dependence.
The World Bank's Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024 paints an even bleaker picture. Nearly 864.1 million people were affected by severe food insecurity in 2023, and nearly 60% of them are women and girls.
In India as in many other countries, the economic crisis has reduced access to nutritious foods like meat and vegetables. The result is a rise in anaemia among women, as their iron intake from essential foods declines.
On the other hand, the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) highlights rising rates of overweight and obesity, particularly among women. In Tamil Nadu, for instance, 40.4% of women are overweight or obese, up from 30.9% a decade ago. Among men, the figures stand at 37% and 28.2%, respectively. This trend is partly attributed to the public distribution system (PDS), which provides five kg of rice per person but fails to address the need for balanced diets. While the PDS ensures that hunger is alleviated, exhausting workloads leave little room for self-care, exacerbating health challenges.
Research from IIM Ahmedabad, two years ago, underscores the immense burden of unpaid domestic work shouldered by Indian women. On average, they spend 7.2 hours daily on household chores—amounting to nearly 50 hours a week. For women who also work outside the home, this dual burden stretches their days. A 2023-24 SBI survey estimates that if women's unpaid work were monetized, it would contribute a staggering ₹ 22 lakh crore annually—roughly 7% of India's GDP. This invisible labour of women, among the highest in the world, remains unrecognised and unrewarded.
The climate crisis further exacerbates gender inequalities. During droughts, women and girls are often forced to walk longer distances, sometimes in the dark, to fetch water. This not only increases their risk of sexual violence but also limits their ability to maintain menstrual hygiene or attend school. In many societies, women are not taught to swim, leaving them disproportionately vulnerable to rising sea levels and floods. These examples highlight how systemic inequalities amplify the risks women face in times of crisis.
The ongoing conflict in Gaza is a grim reminder of how war indiscriminately affects women and children. Around 60% of those who have lost their lives are women and children, underscoring the gendered dimensions of violence and displacement.
In a world where gender experiences are becoming starker, how can we disengage from these realities and claim that gender is merely a performance? While academic discourses on dismantling binaries and deconstructing norms are valuable, they must be grounded in the concrete conditions of people's lives. For millions of women, gender is not an abstract concept, but a lived reality shaped by economic hardship, unpaid labour, health disparities, and climate vulnerability. To address these challenges, we need more than theoretical deconstruction.
This article is authored by Sruti MD, assistant professor, department of English, Shiv Nadar University, Chennai.