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The Battle against Gender Bias: A Qualitative Case Study on UNFPA's Efforts to Frame Female Feticide in India

Olsson, Fiona LU (2024) STVK12 20241
Department of Political Science
Abstract
India’s battle with gender bias against girls is deeply rooted within its patriarchal society. Since the 1980’s, a substantial rise of sex-selective abortions on female fetuses has resulted in a significant decline of girls in India. This phenomenon reinforces practices that violate women’s rights and bodily autonomy, and is also referred to as ‘female feticide’. Despite various efforts to target the alarming sex ratio imbalance, policies and research remain insufficient in various ways. Since the UNFPA introduced female feticide as a human rights violation, this thesis aims to examine how it, as an international authority, frames challenges and solutions regarding female feticide in the national context of India. Through a feminist... (More)
India’s battle with gender bias against girls is deeply rooted within its patriarchal society. Since the 1980’s, a substantial rise of sex-selective abortions on female fetuses has resulted in a significant decline of girls in India. This phenomenon reinforces practices that violate women’s rights and bodily autonomy, and is also referred to as ‘female feticide’. Despite various efforts to target the alarming sex ratio imbalance, policies and research remain insufficient in various ways. Since the UNFPA introduced female feticide as a human rights violation, this thesis aims to examine how it, as an international authority, frames challenges and solutions regarding female feticide in the national context of India. Through a feminist institutional lens, it examines gender norms within structural inequalities that are otherwise ignored by stakeholder incentives. The data consist of UNFPA published documents, and employ the ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be’ method. The findings identify three overarching categories regarding female feticide, as son preference, growth of prenatal diagnosis technologies and low fertility, and reveal a complex interplay between various factors that reinforce the UNFPA’s understanding of female feticide, but also shortcomings within its policy framework. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Olsson, Fiona LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK12 20241
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
female feticide, gender bias, son preference, India, feminist institutionalism
language
English
id
9154239
date added to LUP
2024-07-18 13:53:37
date last changed
2024-07-18 13:53:37
@misc{9154239,
  abstract     = {{India’s battle with gender bias against girls is deeply rooted within its patriarchal society. Since the 1980’s, a substantial rise of sex-selective abortions on female fetuses has resulted in a significant decline of girls in India. This phenomenon reinforces practices that violate women’s rights and bodily autonomy, and is also referred to as ‘female feticide’. Despite various efforts to target the alarming sex ratio imbalance, policies and research remain insufficient in various ways. Since the UNFPA introduced female feticide as a human rights violation, this thesis aims to examine how it, as an international authority, frames challenges and solutions regarding female feticide in the national context of India. Through a feminist institutional lens, it examines gender norms within structural inequalities that are otherwise ignored by stakeholder incentives. The data consist of UNFPA published documents, and employ the ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be’ method. The findings identify three overarching categories regarding female feticide, as son preference, growth of prenatal diagnosis technologies and low fertility, and reveal a complex interplay between various factors that reinforce the UNFPA’s understanding of female feticide, but also shortcomings within its policy framework.}},
  author       = {{Olsson, Fiona}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Battle against Gender Bias: A Qualitative Case Study on UNFPA's Efforts to Frame Female Feticide in India}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}