IGNOU Announces Two New Courses For Women's Studies

Celebrating the centenary of the International Women's Day, the Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) has announced new programmes in gender and women's studies.

The university had organized a day-long function at the IGNOU campus on March 8 to celebrate International Women's Day.

Other new programmes in design and development stage include Certificate/Diploma programmes inGender, Gender & Science and Gende agriculture and develo

The occasion was hosted by the schools of Gender and Development Studies (SOGDS), in association with the IGNOU Committee Against Sexual Harassment (ICASH), School of Humanities (SOH), School of Translation Studies and Training (SOTST) and School of Performing and visual arts(SOPVA).

The celebrations included a painting exhibition, a musical prelude, a street play (by the students of SOPVA) and a seminar on 'Feminist Writings In Indian Literature' eulogizing the importance of women in the society.

SOTST Director Prof K. Satchidanandan elucidated his thoughts on 'Women's Writing in Malayalam' by remembering renowned English author Virginia Woolf's famous work 'A Room of One's Own'.

Quoting the author, Prof Satchidanandan said, "Had Shakespeare been a woman, he wouldn't have become Shakespeare. It is because he wouldn't have traveled London, as traveling was very difficult for women during those times; he wouldn't have got acquainted with people and thus would have never acted."

Further, there were similar discussions by Prof Satyakam and Dr Malti Mathur from SOH, which were followed by paper presentations by the Research and Training Assistants (RTAs) of the University.