"Gloria Steinem's Legacy: Feminist Organising, Reproductive Rights, and India Connection"
Second-wave feminism
The feminist movement of the 1960s–70s that expanded women's rights advocacy to include reproductive rights, workplace equality, and domestic violence.
Reproductive freedom
The principle that women have the right to make autonomous decisions about their own bodies, including decisions about pregnancy and abortion.
Feminist movements across the world have evolved through distinct waves, each responding to the social and political conditions of its time. The first wave focused primarily on legal rights, especially voting rights. The second wave, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, broadened the agenda to include reproductive rights, workplace equality, and domestic violence. A defining slogan of this wave was the personal is political, which argued that private experiences of women, in the home, in relationships, in healthcare, are shaped by public power structures and must therefore be addressed through political action.
In India, feminist organising has a long history rooted in both the independence movement and post-independence social reform. The Constitution of India provides a strong normative foundation: Article 14 guarantees equality before law, Article 15(3) permits the state to make special provisions for women and children, and Article 21 protects the right to life and personal liberty, which courts have interpreted to include bodily autonomy. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 are legislative expressions of feminist advocacy translated into law.
Civil society organisations have played a central role in bridging the gap between constitutional promise and lived reality. Non-profits working on issues such as sex trafficking, reproductive health, and gender-based violence have often operated at the grassroots level, reaching communities that formal state institutions do not.
The concept of movement building in feminist organising refers to the sustained, collective effort to shift social norms, not just win individual legal battles. This involves community-level practices such as Talking Circles, structured spaces where participants share experiences and build solidarity. Such practices draw on the idea that personal testimony is a form of political knowledge. When women speak about their own experiences with abortion, violence, or discrimination, they are not merely sharing private stories; they are producing a collective understanding of systemic injustice.
The framing of abortion as reproductive freedom rather than a medical or moral issue was a significant conceptual contribution of second-wave feminism. It shifted the debate from what doctors or the state permit to what women have a right to decide. In India, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (amended in 2021) governs access to abortion. …
'Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action', often seen in the news, is
'Though women in post-Independent India have excelled in various fields, the social attitude towards women and feminist movement has been patriarchal.' Apart from women education and women empowerment schemes, what interventions can help change this milieu?
Women's social capital complements in advancing empowerment and gender equity. Explain.
In the context of any country, which one of the following would be considered as part of its social capital?
With reference to the 'Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action', consider the following statements:
1.It was adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women convened by the United Nations.
2.It was adopted in the year 1995.
3.It is primarily an agenda for sustainable economic development in the Asia-Pacific region.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Which of the following constitutional provisions specifically permits the State to make special provisions for women and children?
With reference to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021, consider the following statements:
1.It extended the upper gestational limit to 24 weeks for certain categories of women, including survivors of sexual assault.
2.The original Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act was enacted in 1971.
3.The 2021 Amendment removed all gestational limits for women with foetal abnormalities.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
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