Women Studies Questions and Answers

Answer: B

i, ii, iii & iv

The question asks: "The subordination of women has been an advancing process historically" cannot be understood by the terms likei. Gender Gapii. Gender Disparitiesiii. Gender ... The passage says that terms like gender gap, disparities and mainstreaming do not capture that subordination is an advancing process, and the key adds gender revolution, so all four. The other options leave some of the terms out.

The other options, iii & iv only; i & ii only; ii, iii only, are not the answer to this question.

Answer: B

The passage says that the couple is a social unit, defined by the family, the class, the circle and the race to which it belongs, and that it is attached by bonds of a mechanical solidarity to groups of corresponding social situation. The organic solidarity, based on the division of labour, is the bond that joins the man to the community as producer and citizen. So the family as a social unit is marked by mechanical solidarity, option (B).

Answer: C

The passage says that the man is joined to the community, as producer and citizen, by bonds of an organic solidarity based upon the division of labour. So the solidarity based on the division of labour is organic solidarity, option (C). Mechanical solidarity, in the passage, is the bond between groups in corresponding social situations, and professional solidarity is not a term in the passage, so option (D), all of the above, is also wrong.

Answer: B

The passage says that the wife has the leisure to keep up, by paying calls and having at-homes, relations that are of no practical use and are important only in classes whose members intend to hold their rank in the social scale, so (A) is true. The reason says that the wives gain occupational benefit, and that is not so: the passage says these relations are of no practical use and that the wife has no occupational demands. So (A) is true and (R) is false, and (R) is not an explanation, option (B).

Answer: A

The passage opens by saying that the family is not a closed community, so (A) is true. Its isolation is qualified by communications set up with other social units, and the reason, which says that isolation is approved and that the members of the family live independently, goes against this, so (R) is false. So (A) is true and (R) is false and does not explain it, option (A). Option (B) and option (C) accept the reason, and option (D) rejects the assertion.

Answer: C

The correct statement is that the category woman assumes commonality between all women, option C: the passage says this directly ('the use of the category woman assumes commonality between all women'). Option A reverses the passage, since it is the category woman, not gender, that universalises and homogenises the experiences of white, middle-class and upper-caste women. Option B also reverses it, since it is gender that allows the analysis of differences of race, class, caste, nation and sexual orientation, while woman allows it only in an additive manner. Because A and B are wrong, option D is wrong too.

Answer: A

According to the passage, the use of the category gender allows for an analysis of the interlocking structures of oppression, so option A is correct. The passage goes on to say that it also goes beyond the analysis of differences among women by underlining the gendered nature of caste and class oppression, but the phrase that names the usefulness is the interlocking structures. Options B, C and D are narrower statements, and option D, in particular, mentions only caste and class women.

Answer: B

The danger perceived by the feminists who favour the category woman is that gender diverts the focus from specific issues concerning women, both in the political and the academic sphere, which is option B. The passage says that the category gender is seen as diverting the focus in this way. Option A states the opposite of what the passage says is the danger of the category woman, and options C and D speak of victimhood and patriarchy in ways that the passage does not link with the danger of gender.

Answer: A

The passage says that the shift from women to gender has been viewed by some as a replacement of the study of sexual inequality with the study of the differences between the sexes, so the shift implies the study of differences between the sexes, option A. Option B names the study that is being replaced, and option C joins both, which the passage does not say, while option D refers to the focus on women's issues, which is what those who prefer the term woman want to keep.

Answer: B

The keyed answer is that both statements are correct and (R) is not the explanation of (A). The reason is a fact from the passage: some feminists make a case for the continuing usefulness of the term 'woman' for analysis against the category of gender. The assertion restates the shift as a replacement, which the passage reports as a view held by some. The continuing usefulness of the term woman is a counter-position and not the cause of that shift, so (R) does not explain (A), which makes option B correct.