Title: From The Margins: Revisiting The Concept Of `Marginalized Women’ By Shalu Nigam
Headings: 
From The Margins: Revisiting The Concept Of `Marginalized Women’
By Shalu Nigam
03 September, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Relooking at the Term `Marginalized’
Women are `Marginalized’ in the World Dominated by Men
The Social Complexities that further Accentuate Inequalities
Inequalities that are Relegating Women to Margins
State’s Perception of Marginality
Marginality as a Space for Contestation, Resistance, Negotiation and Struggle
Conclusions
Comment (1)

Content: Women as a `category’ or as a `group’ in comparison to `men’ have been relegated to margins due to systemic and structural discrimination within the society. Women, irrespective of their hierarchical status, ranking or background, face violence within public and private spaces, they are being doubly discriminated and denied of the basic rights and are often oppressed by norms, culture and customs in a male dominated world where capitalism and globalization commodifies and objectifies women. Considering this aspect, the term `marginalized women’ needs rethinking as to which of the subgroup of category `women’ may be classified as `marginalized women’ and whether these marginalized women can use marginality as a site to contest for their rights and entitlements. Relooking at the Term `Marginalized’
Marginalization is often described as a social process where people are relegated to the fringes or `margins’ of the society. It is defined as a process, in which individuals or communities are socially excluded, systematically blocked from, or are denied access to participate in social and political processes which are basic to integrate with the society. Marginalization inhibits a person, a group, a section or a community to enjoy rights, privileges, opportunities and resources that are normally available to members of a society. It may therefore be considered as a discordant relationship between those who marginalize as compared to those who are being marginalized. Then possibly the term `marginalized’ may be used synonymously with the term `oppressed’ in comparison to an `oppressor’ as Paolo Freire used in his famous `Pedagogy of Oppressed’, `proletariat’ as used by Karl Marx, `subaltern’ used by Gramsci, `powerless’ as elaborated by Michel Foucault, or exploited, vulnerable, discriminated, disadvantaged, subjugated, socially excluded, alienated or downtrodden as used elsewhere in the available literature. However, there are theorists have warned that some of these words cannot be equated with each other. For example, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is of the view that . . . “