Important Questions: Growing up as Boys and Girls | Social Studies (SST) Class 7 PDF Download

Q1: Why Harmeet think that her mother did not work?
Ans: The main responsibility for housework and care-giving tasks, like looking after the family, especially children, the elderly and sick members, lies with women. The work that women do within the home is not recognised as work. It is also assumed that this is something that comes naturally to women. It, therefore, does not have to be paid for. And that is why Harmeet think that her mother did not work.

Q2: Critically evaluate life of domestic workers.
or
Discuss the hardships faced by the domestic workers.
Ans: Many homes, particularly in towns and cities, employ domestic workers. They do a lot of work – sweeping and cleaning, washing clothes and dishes, cooking, looking after young children or the elderly. Most domestic workers are women. Sometimes, even young boys or girls are employed to do this work. Wages are low, as domestic work does not have much value. A domestic worker’s day can begin as early as five in the morning and end as late as twelve at night! Despite of the hard work they do, their employers often do not show them much respect.

Q3: Discuss the initiatives taken by the government to promote equality between the male or female.
Ans: Government recognises that burden of child-care and housework falls on women and girls. This naturally has an impact on whether girls can attend school. It determines whether women can work outside the house and what kind of jobs and careers they can have. The government has set up anganwadis or child-care centres in several villages in the country. The government has passed laws that make it mandatory for organisations that have more than 30 women employees to provide crèche facilities. The provision of crèches helps many women to take up employment outside the home. It also makes it possible for more girls to attend schools.

Q4: Explain the term Identity, Care-giving and De-valued.
Ans:

• Identity: Identity is a sense of self-awareness of who one is. Typically, a person can have several identities. For example, a person can be a girl, a sister and a musician.
• Care-giving: Care-giving refers to a range of tasks related to looking after and nurturing. Besides physical tasks, they also involve a strong emotional aspect.
• De-valued: When someone is not given due recognition for a task or job they have done, they can feel de-valued. For example, if a boy has put in a lot of effort into making a special birthday gift for his friend and this friend does not say anything about this, then the boy may feel de-valued.

Q5: How was the girls’ school in Madhya Pradesh in the 1960s designed differently from boys’ school?
Ans: The girls’ school was designed very differently from the boys’ school. They had a central courtyard where they played in total seclusion and safety from the outside world. The boys’ school had no such courtyard and our playground was just a big space attached to the school.

Q6: 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.
Ans: A woman named Kalawati, hailing from West Bengal is my housemaid. She lives here with her husband. The couple works hard and sends the money to the hometown for her children. Her children reside in Kolkata only with their grandparents. She works round the clock from 8.am in the morning to 8.pm at night. She earns 6000 per month and takes care of all the household chores.

Q7: Does society bias affect the roles girls and boys play when they grow up to be adults?
Ans: Yes, the biasness prevailing in the society affects the roles of boys and girls, which they would play after becoming adults. The clothes they wear, subjects that they choose etc are all based on the differentiation between the boys and girls.

Q8: Housework is time consuming. Explain.
Ans: Those works which require a lot of time to be completed are known as time-consuming.
The household work requires a lot of time like cooking, washing, cleaning, taking care of the family members etc.

Q9: Why does our society devalue the housework women do?
Ans: The main responsibility for housework and care-giving tasks, like looking after the family, especially children, the elderly and sick members, lies with women. But, the work that women do within the home is not recognised as work. It is also assumed that this is something that comes naturally to women. It, therefore, does not have to be paid for. And society devalues this work.

Q10: 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.
Ans:  Sima has been working in my house for several years. She belongs to Jharkhand. She lives here in Noida with her husband and 5 yrs. old son. She daily comes for work early in the morning at 6 a.m. and leaves in the night at 8 p.m. She is very good at her work. We treat her as our family member. We pay her good salary. Her husband runs a small shop near his house.

Q11: What role was assigned to young boys and girls in the Samoan islands?
Ans: Roles of boys and girls in the Samoan islands

• Both boys and girls looked after their younger siblings.
• But by the time a boy was about nine years old, he joined the older boys in learning outdoor jobs like fishing and planting coconuts.
• After the age of fourteen or so girls also went on fishing trips, worked in the plantations and learnt how to weave baskets.
• Cooking was done in special cooking houses where boys were supposed to do most of the work while girls helped with the preparations.

Q12: 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?
Ans:  List of toys and games that boys typically play includes cricket, kabaddi, cars, football etc.
List of toys and games that girls typically play includes doll, kitchen game, indoor games, hide and seek etc.
From the above list we realize that societies make clear distinctions between boys and girls from a very young age. Boys are taught to be tough whereas girls are taught to be soft. All these are ways of telling children that they have specific roles to play when they grow up to be men and women.

Q13: How growing up in Samoa was different from other societies in the 1920s?
Ans: 

• In the 1920s, according to research reports on Samoan society, children did not go to school.
• They learnt many things, such as how to take care of children or do household work from older children and from adults.
• Fishing was a very important activity on the islands. Young people, therefore, learnt to undertake long fishing expeditions. But they learnt these things at different points in their childhood.
• Both boys and girls looked after their younger siblings. But, by the time a boy was about nine years old, he joined the older boys in learning outdoor jobs like fishing and planting coconuts.
• Girls had to continue looking after small children or do errands for adults till they were teenagers. But, once they became teenagers they had much more freedom.
• After the age of fourteen or so, girls also went on fishing trips, worked in the plantations, and learnt how to weave baskets.
• Cooking was done in special cooking-houses, where boys were supposed to do most of the work while girls helped with the preparations.

Q14: Is there any difference between the list of toys and games that boys and girls typically play?
Ans: As society is gender biased that’s why the list of games and toys also differs for boys and girls. Girls are supposed to be very polite, gentle and mild. Girls are instructed to show interest in the work which they are going to do in the future. On the other hand, boys are advised to be tough.

Q15: House work is invisible and unpaid. Explain?
Ans: House work is invisible because it is not seen and hence, not paid. For example: the time the mother cooks food is always unnoticed by the family members. No one cares about the time invested in cooking the food.