Growing up as Boys and Girls
Chapter 4
1. Are the statements given below true or false? Support your answer with the use of an example :
(a) All societies do not think similarly about the roles that boys and girls play.
(b) Our society does not make distinctions between boys and girls when they are growing up.
(c) Women who stay at home do not work.
(d) The work that women do is less valued than that of men.
2. Housework is invisible and unpaid work.
Housework is physically demanding.
Housework is time-consuming.
Write in your own words what is meant by the terms ‘invisible’, ‘physically demanding’ and ‘time-consuming’? Give one example of each based on the household tasks undertaken by women in your home.
3. Make a list of toys and games that boys typically play and another for girls. If there is a difference between the two lists, can you think of some reasons why this is so? Does this have any relationship to the roles children have to play as adults?
4. If you have someone working as a domestic help in your house or locality talk to her and find out a little bit more about her life – Who are her family members? Where is her home? How many hours does she work? How much does she get paid? Write a small story based on these details.
VERY SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
2. How was the girls’ school in Madhya Pradesh in the 1960s designed differently from the boys’ school?
3. As these girls walked on the streets, they looked so purposeful’. What does the word ‘purposeful’ refer to?
4. Why do we give boys and girls different toys to play with? [V. Imp.]
5. What do we teach boys and girls in their early childhood? [Imp.]
6. Why did Harmeet develop a notion that her mother did not work?
7. Why are the wages of domestic workers usually low? [V. Imp.]
8. What is the daily schedule of a domestic worker?
9. How are domestic workers treated by their employers? [V. Imp.]
10. What do you mean by the term ‘double burden’? [Imp.]
11. Housework commonly involves many different tasks. Name some of them.
12. Why do girls like to go to school together in groups?
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
1. What did boys do every evening, once the school was over?
2. Why does our society devalue the work women do inside the home? [V. Imp.]
3. Our constitution does not discriminate between male and female. But the inequality between the sexes exists. What does the government do to remedy the situation? [Imp.]
LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
