Cotton University

Inauguration of Women's Studies Center, Cotton University, Guwahati

If democracy is about inclusion and participatory decision-making it also means that half of the population which is female also has a view and that view must be respected. Gender is essentially a socio-cultural norm of assigning roles to people of different genders. Earlier the gender construct could only envisage male and female roles for members of society based on their biology. Today we have the challenge of facing up to a world where there are different sexual and gender orientations that need to be included in our daily discourses on politics, economics, society and religion. The denial that there is this third, fourth of even a fifth gender group can be intimidating but that’s what democracy has to deal with in this rapidly changing environment.

                  Patricia Mukhim, excerpt from Making Sense of Democracy: Gender, State Ethnicityinaugural address for Women's Studies Centre 

 

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