Voice, silence and privilege in the neoliberal university: The ‘irresponsibility’ of Gender and Women's Studies pedagogies in higher education in India

Abstract

In this paper we focus on the Indian higher education context, where expansion of Gender and Women's Studies (GWS), as well as institutional and national gender equality policies have not resulted in unsettling intersectional injustices in educational participation and practice. We draw on qualitative data (interviews with staff and focus groups with students) from a mixed-methods study aiming to advance gender equality. Gender and Women's Studies pedagogies were imbued with professionalizing gender, depoliticising criticality and individualising gender equality. Gender sensitising rather than engaging with the affective dimensions of hegemonic power and knowledge, and silencing mechanisms against marginalized groups, implicated in classroom and institutional politics, affirmed privileged subjectivities and diverted from a pedagogical ethic of speaking, listening and participating responsibly in education and society. A shift to pedagogies of discomfort and for democratic citizenship might facilitate intellectual and political activism and alleviate some of the ‘irresponsibility’ of neo-liberalised Gender and Women's Studies in India.