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Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2026/Paper I/Marriage & Family
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper I 2026 10 Marks Model Answer Available

Feminist Movement and Family — 2026 Paper I

Question · 2026 · Paper I · 10 Marks

Feminist movement and family.

Model Answer

VAID ICS
Approach

  • Demand of Question: Link feminist movements and feminist anthropology to transformations in family, labour, authority, reproduction and property.
  • Structuring the Response: Family as a site of power → unpaid labour/rights → kinship and gender → changing family forms → continuing inequalities → conclusion.
  • Key Dimensions to Cover: Ann Oakley, Leela Dube, domestic labour, reproductive/property rights, bargaining power, double burden, family diversity.

 

Model Answer

Introduction: Feminist movements transformed both family life and its anthropological study by challenging the assumption that domestic roles, authority and the sexual division of labour are naturally given. The household came to be examined as a site of both care and power.

Major changes:

  • Domestic labour: feminist scholarship made unpaid cooking, cleaning, childcare and emotional work visible as labour rather than an automatic female duty. Ann Oakley was important in this critique.
  • Authority and rights: campaigns for education, paid employment, property and inheritance rights, reproductive autonomy and protection from domestic violence strengthened women’s bargaining position within marriage.
  • Kinship and gender: Leela Dube showed how patriliny, virilocal residence, marriage and gendered socialisation reproduce inequalities in South Asia. Feminist movements have challenged these arrangements, though change remains uneven.
  • Family diversity: dual-earner, single-parent, transnational and other negotiated households challenge the idea of one “natural” family form.

Anthropology also demonstrated cross-cultural variation in gender roles, undermining simple biological determinism. Yet paid employment may produce a “double burden” when domestic work remains unequally distributed; caste, class, region and religion also shape change.

Conclusion: Feminism has not simply weakened the family; it has transformed it into a more openly negotiated arena of labour, consent, authority, inheritance and reproductive rights.

2025 How the study of variation in forms of marriage led to rethinking on the concepts of social reproduction, kinship and family? 2024 Define urbanization and discuss its impact on family in India with examples. 2023 Discuss the role of marriage regulations in traditional societies in India for strengthening social solidarity. 2022 Household and domestic group.

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UPSC Anthropology Optional 2026 — Paper I

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