By Zubeida Mustafa
WOMEN’S STUDIES WOMEN’S LIVES:THEORY AND PRACTICE IN ASIA edited by Committee on Women’s Studies in Asia. 208 pp. Rs 260. Published by OxfordUniversity Press, Karachi.
This is a book on Women’s Studies. But it is publication with a difference. It does not adopt the conventional format to define this newly emerged discipline in the academia. Jt seeks to look into the subject through the lives of thirteen women who are teaching/researching Woman’s Studies.
Coming from Asian countries as diverse as Pakistan, China, Korea and Indonesia, the writers give an account of how they became aware of gender inequalities and what led them into taking up Women’s Studies as a subject of investigation.
The accounts are naturally as diverse as are the backgrounds of the writers. Thus Fanny M. Cheung of Hong Kong became aware of the burden women carry when she worked with rape victims as a psychologist. For Li Xiaojiang of China the hour of awakening came early. Her reaction to her sexuality was one of contempt which drove her on to emulate men. When she encountered obstacles in her drive to succeed in her career she turned to research to analyse the factors which made professional life such a challenge for a woman. Nora Lan-hung Chiang learnt of her secondary status when she went to Taiwan with her husband to live in an extended family. Continue reading Women and gender inequalities