Women Change the World Class 7 Social Science Chapter 5 CBSE Notes - 2025-26

CBSE Chapter 5 of Class 7 Social Science (Political Science) is a continuation of previous chapter. We also read in the previous chapter about how there are differences in the life of a girl child & a male child. The gap between a female and a male continues even in the adulthood. This chapter also talks about the discrimination faced by female students & female professionals. Furthermore, this chapter discuss the inequalities faced by the women and how they try to rise up against these injustices by means of protests and social movements.

• The Stereotypes

• Many parents generally give their girl-children dolls to play with but they give their male-children toy cars to play with. Why? Because women roles in society has been predetermined by society. These predetermined beliefs are what we call as stereotypes.

• Your book presents some of the roles that you can see in our society. When we think about these roles, we can imagine the person performing the role. It is from this idea that stereotypes take birth. For example, when we imagine a farmer, we generally think of a someone ploughing his field. But when we think about a nurse, we, 100 out of 100 times, imagine a female tending to sick person.

• Funnily enough, sometimes we also imagine a female when we think about a work done in the household, but when we think about same work in the professional setting, we might imagine worker as male. The most poignant example of this is the role of a cook. At home, society expects female to cook. But in the hotels, we imagine a cook to be male!

• Expectations: The Birthplace of Stereotypes

• It is expectations of the society which forces the children to follow the set path. This is not just detrimental to the girls but of boys as well. In the case of girls, they are stopped each time they try to tread a path that is not meant for the girls as per the societal standards. There may be football or cricket tournaments where girls take part but have you seen your female classmates play cricket or football? Then again, from the childhood, male children are made fun of when they cry. Their well-wishers urge them to “be a man.”

• The Breakers of Stereotypes

Your book talks about the story of Laxmi Lakra who became first female engine driver. Laxmi was fortunate enough to get the support of the family.

There are also many Indian women who did not get the support from their families & yet they rose to the height of success. One such woman was Bachendri Pal. She was first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest. Bachendri Pal decided to become a professional mountaineer, but her family members were not happy with her decision and tried to stop her from chasing her dreams. But She pressed on and soon became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Bachendri Pal’s success was not just in becoming the first woman to achieve such a feat - At a time when the society always wanted to segregate the females from their male counterparts in any activity, Pal was part of the first mixed-gender mountaineering team.

• Women and Education

• In olden days, a girl child was not allowed to learn alphabets. They were required to learn cooking, cleaning and other household chores. So most often if they wanted to read something they had to either rebel or read without getting noticed by anyone.

• As the 19th century emerged, doors of the schools for the female children gradually started opening. Visionaries like Raja Rammohan Roy or Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar did lot of work for women’s education. However, the struggle of women to learn to read and write did not stop. Your book tells the story of Rashsundari Devi who was a housewife of rich landlord. She wrote a book called Amar Jiban where she revealed to what extent she had to go just to learn to read & write. She had to tear off the pages from the alphabet books and from Chaitanya Bhagwat. Her sheer willpower resulted in her learning the alphabets - she had to keep those pages hidden, she had to perform the household duties from the dawn to the dusk. And yet she took out time to learn.

• Your book also tells the story of the founder of Sakhawat Memorial school in Kolkata - Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. She was not allowed to learn English - it was considered that learning English will introduce the girls to new ideas. These ideas might not be appropriate for girls ( the question is who propagated these backdated ideals?). Yet she persevered & with the help of her brother and elder sister she succeeded in learning English. She wrote a book called ‘Ladyland.’ In this book, women are presented as the leaders of the society & the men were sent to seclusion. The intelligence of the women defeated the guns of the men. This Ladyland was the utopia of the scientific advancements - from flying cars to controlling rain, everything was possible. After learning english, progressive idea apporached in mind of Rokeya - this is referred as power of learning. And that’s exactly the reason why patriarchal society prevents women from learning - an educated woman is hard to be remote-controlled.

• Schooling of the Girl Child in the Present Day

It is true that women, today, do not have to face the opposition as they used in bygone era. Today the government also takes proactive measures to send the girl child to the school. Schemes like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ have made a tremendous contribution towards educating a female children. However, the ratio of girls to boys in the schools paints a sorry picture. 

• In 1961 ratio of literate boys to literate girls was 40:15. In 2011, that ratio became 82:65. So the gap remains.

• Women in the backward classes like the SC, ST or Muslims are more likely to remain uneducated. The reason for this is that they do not get easy access to education - the schools are far away and the parents belonging to these classes play a spoilsport when it comes to educating the female children.

• Women Supporting Women

Women also have come a long way from the dark ages of the past. Women, today, protest, revolt, take part in the Women's Movement to put forth the idea that it is also birthright of women to be educated. They also protest against the crimes that are committed against the women - like female infanticide, workplace sexual harassment etc. They relentlessly campaign against evils of the society that try to clip their wings. One such campaign was done in the 1980s when hundreds of women came out to speak against the dowry system in India. They protested, they criticised the failure of the justice system to bring the perpetrators of the dowry-related crime to justice. Ultimately, government had to amend the law to punish the in-laws and family members who harass brides for dowry. Then there are solidarity movements to show the female victims that they are not alone.

Women Change The World Class 7 Notes

When do you think about the following what comes into your mind? Whether that is a female or male?

1. Farmer

2. Nurse

3. Teacher

4. Pilot

5. Scientist

6. Engineer

Most people when thinking about a farmer, a male picture comes into their minds but surprisingly. According to data of NSS 61st Round (2004-05 ), 83.6% of working women are in the agricultural sector. Women's works include planting, weeding, harvesting, and threshing etc. But still, whenever we think about a farmer, we only think of a male farmer.

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Fewer Oppurtunities and Rigid Expectations

Our society is having principles of stereotypes and sets of certain roles done by men and women. For example, the following Work roles and their stereotypes:

It is always said that job technical jobs are not for women and they're always expected to think of marriage after a certain age. Similarly, boys and men are also expected to behave in a certain way. They're pushed to do work or get a job. Sometimes they're also bullied at some places. This is what stereotypes are.

Learning for Change

Nowadays we can't imagine our world without education. Everyone is supposed to be educated because it's normal and a vital part of our lives. Earlier, it was not that simple. Education was limited. In the case of women, the situation was worse. Women were not allowed to get an education. Their contribution to family skilled work was also supportive only. In the nineteenth-century, the new role of education has emerged. People started sending their children to schools. It was very difficult in the case of girls. But the beginning has done. Many people struggled to open schools for girls so that girls can also read and write.

Schooling and Education Today

In the 21st century, a large number of children attend schools including girls. But still, the difference is there. Census is done in India after every 10 years which helps us to measure various things. For example:

• As per the 1961 census, 40% were literate out of all boys and men of 7 years or above whereas only 15% were literate out of all women and girls.

• It has increased over the years. As per the 2011 census, 82% of boys and men are literate whereas 65% of girls and women are literate.

No doubt the number of literates among males and females has increased but there is a huge gap between the proportion of both.

Reasons Why Children Leave School

Following are the reasons why Adivasis, Dalit or Muslim community children leave school:

• Schools are not close to their homes.

• Lack of transport Facility.

• Poor families are unable to bear the Education cost.

• Boys get preference because of lack of money.

• They face discrimination in schools.

Women's Movement

Everyone has the right to study including women. Now women are getting equal space in all the fields like education, employment in the public or private sector, legal sphere etc. Women sometimes individually or sometimes came together to bring out these changes. These efforts are known as the Women's Movement. Various efforts have been put or strategies have been applied to seek justice and to make these changes. It can be clearly understood with the following points:

Campaigning

Campaigns played a great role in fighting discrimination, spreading awareness for women's rights or for seeking justice. It should be noted that men also took part in these campaigns as well.

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• Campaigning helped in getting legal protection against domestic violence in 2006.

• It helped in pushing the supreme court to frame the guidelines to protect women against sexual harassment at the workplace in 1997.

• Women also came together to raise their voices against deaths for dowry.

Raising Awareness

Street plays, public meetings, songs, or posters were used for raising awareness for women's rights during these movements.

Protesting

Women also protested against any law or something which works against the welfare or rights of women. Public rallies or speeches have been used to spread awareness and fight against injustice together.

Solidarity

The women's movement also shows solidarity with other women as well. They stood with all the women whether they're from any region or community or country.

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Conclusion

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