Going 'Bahar' (Outside) for Higher Education: Gendered Symbolic Boundaries of Higher Education Access and Choice in Haryana, India
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| Title: | Going 'Bahar' (Outside) for Higher Education: Gendered Symbolic Boundaries of Higher Education Access and Choice in Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Emily F. Henderson (ORCID |
| Source: | Gender and Education. 2025 37(2):156-173. |
| Availability: | Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 18 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Education Level: | Higher Education Postsecondary Education |
| Descriptors: | Foreign Countries, Higher Education, Females, Place of Residence, Access to Education, Gender Issues, Undergraduate Students, College Choice, Educational Attitudes, Social Influences, Family Influence, Commuting Students, On Campus Students |
| Geographic Terms: | India |
| DOI: | 10.1080/09540253.2024.2430188 |
| ISSN: | 0954-0253 1360-0516 |
| Abstract: | While the gendered nature of spatial decision-making about higher education (HE) access is somewhat neglected in the international literature, these discussions are prevalent in India, where commuting to a higher education institution or staying in student accommodation may be considered risky for young women's honour. This paper focuses specifically on the notion of going "bahar" ('outside' in Hindi) for HE. A particular feature of "bahar" is that it demarcates a boundary. The paper focuses on a corpus of references to "bahar" from the qualitative data gathered via interviews, focus group discussions and surveys for an empirical study of gender and access to HE in Haryana, India, and deploys [Butler, J. 1997. "Excitable speech: A politics of the performative." Routledge] to theorize "bahar" as a performative construct which both describes and enacts constraint. The paper maps the spatial and symbolic dimensions of the "bahar" construct, and then explores the discursive construction of women's HE access/choice, revealing the use of "bahar" as the demarcation of acceptable HE access for women. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2025 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1488179 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwHGPtMk2W8xYo0DdNnVq_9GAAAA4zCB4AYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHSMIHPAgEAMIHJBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDILM78FnmYr1s9V8OQIBEICBm9Z9TfbIaLZ8gzm82eDSeSOIZR1vNTzSyShAp8hEqFDJ9p0uJBTrjIH_69WPWX3RaQzNztRdAno5o8Loy2MhufYJilxMh27QDRYexSp5UYvPr5GaYwjy5glQpkt8paivgdFQ99HSCKINW5I5DHQ-IzDAWLsY_C7Sm6Y1yS6kGwO3Y70xFBgiiFaEM7Dg3uKYtz9jQVV05WDPMft0 Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0183347039;gae01mar.25;2025Mar03.05:03;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0183347039-1">Going bahar (outside) for higher education: gendered symbolic boundaries of higher education access and choice in Haryana, India </title> <p>While the gendered nature of spatial decision-making about higher education (HE) access is somewhat neglected in the international literature, these discussions are prevalent in India, where commuting to a higher education institution or staying in student accommodation may be considered risky for young women's honour. This paper focuses specifically on the notion of going bahar ('outside' in Hindi) for HE. A particular feature of bahar is that it demarcates a boundary. The paper focuses on a corpus of references to bahar from the qualitative data gathered via interviews, focus group discussions and surveys for an empirical study of gender and access to HE in Haryana, India, and deploys [Butler, J. 1997. Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. Routledge] to theorize bahar as a performative construct which both describes and enacts constraint. The paper maps the spatial and symbolic dimensions of the bahar construct, and then explores the discursive construction of women's HE access/choice, revealing the use of bahar as the demarcation of acceptable HE access for women.</p> <p>Keywords: Access to higher education; higher education choice; higher education decision-making; gender; India</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-2">Introduction</hd> <p>In the longstanding pursuit of redressing inequalities of access to higher education (HE), researchers have recognized the importance of understanding the decision-making processes that underpin and shape students' post-schooling trajectories (Reay, David, and Ball [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref1">33</reflink>]; Walker [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref2">45</reflink>]). Decision-making processes reveal individuals' rationales for undertaking further study or seeking employment, and in particular can be explored for how structural inequalities of HE access play out in students' lives (Guerrero and Rojas [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref3">13</reflink>]; Wadhwa [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref4">44</reflink>]). Within research on HE decision-making, it is commonly recognized that post-schooling choices include a spatial dimension, with distance of a higher education institution (HEI) from home often constructed as potential constraint (Donnelly and Gamsu [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref5">10</reflink>]; Henderson [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref6">15</reflink>]; Turner [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref7">40</reflink>]). This paper makes two contributions to this established stream of work in the HE literature. Firstly, it explicitly unpacks the gendered spatial framing of HE access, which, although frequently evoked in the Indian context (e.g. Borker [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref8">5</reflink>]; Gautam [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref9">12</reflink>]; Marmath [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref10">23</reflink>]), has not been explored to the same extent in international literature. Secondly, drawing on Butler ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref11">6</reflink>]), this paper deploys a poststructuralist theorization of discourse as constitutive to explore the performative construction of distance in discursive framings of HE access.</p> <p>The particular discursive focus of this paper is the notion of going 'outside' for HE, expressed as <emph>bahar</emph>[<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref12">1</reflink>] in Hindi. The term <emph>bahar</emph> is used in common parlance to delineate spatial zones, and is frequently used in discussions of educational decision-making, as this paper goes on to show. Rather like expressing that a HEI is 'too far', <emph>bahar</emph> may be used to indicate geographical constraints pertaining to HE access (Henderson et al. [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref13">19</reflink>]). Unlike 'too far', however, inherent to <emph>bahar</emph> is a seemingly fixed border or boundary between proximity and beyond. This boundary is a spatial boundary, in that it refers to the limits of an area demarcated as 'inside' versus 'outside'. At the same time, it is a symbolic boundary, in that 'outside' is imbued with value-laden connotations, as this paper goes on to explore. This paper argues that the specific construct of <emph>bahar</emph> is worthy of in-depth exploration, as this term operates as a powerful yet subtly inflected discursive marker, that both describes and shapes spatial mobility for the purpose of HE. As such, the paper unpacks the <emph>bahar</emph> construct and situates this analysis within wider debates of gendered HE access and choice in India and beyond.</p> <p>Based on mixed-methods empirical research conducted in the North-Indian state of Haryana, India, this paper specifically explores the corpus of references to <emph>bahar</emph> in statements referring to education and HE decision-making within the data set (N = 33). During our data analysis process, the recurrent use of the term <emph>bahar</emph> inspired us to explore the concept further and conduct new analysis for the purposes of this paper. The research project was a five-year study of gender and access to HE in Haryana (Stewart et al. [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref14">37</reflink>]), and this paper draws on data collected during Phase 1, which was the exploratory research phase (Henderson et al. [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref15">20</reflink>]). The corpus of references to <emph>bahar</emph> has been compiled from across interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) with undergraduate students, interviews with faculty members and responses to text-based survey questions (see Study section). This paper deploys Butler's ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref16">6</reflink>]) work on linguistic vulnerability and performativity to map the dimensions of the <emph>bahar</emph> construct and analyse its implications for a more nuanced understanding of gendered HE choice. As such, the key questions posed in this paper are: (i) What are the spatial, symbolic and gendered dimensions of going <emph>bahar</emph> for HE in Haryana, India? (ii) How does exploring the construct of <emph>bahar</emph> further our understanding of enduring gendered inequalities in HE access/choice? The paper unfolds through a section exploring how the spatial framing of HE access features in the literature, and how gender has been analysed previously in this respect. A section ensues delineating core theoretical concepts which are then mobilized in the analysis; following this section, the empirical study is discussed. The findings are then presented according to the two questions above, with the second question underpinning the discussion section, followed by a conclusion. Overall, the paper argues that gendered spatial constructions of HE choice should be seen as discursive manoeuvres that both describe and shape practices, and therefore are powerful and enduring, yet potentially open to transformation.</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-3">Gendered spatial framings of HE access</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0183347039-4">(Gendered) spatial framings of HE access</hd> <p>In literature on HE access which explores post-schooling decision-making processes, particularly pertaining to socio-economic disadvantage, it is common to include a discussion of the spatial framing of HE access. Participants are frequently quoted explaining that particular decisions were taken based on distance-related constraints, often in studies of students hailing from so-called socially disadvantaged communities. For instance, in Henderson's ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref17">15</reflink>]) study of UK-based students who are enrolled in degree courses at further education colleges, a participant states: 'all my family's in [home town]. Nobody's ever moved out' (Henderson [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref18">15</reflink>], 6). In another UK-based study, this time about the spatial rationale for HE choices, a participant justified their choice as follows: 'I dunno, just I'm from the north [region of the UK]! Yeah, I just, I dunno, I've just always wanted to stay north' (Donnelly and Gamsu [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref19">10</reflink>], 6). Similarly, in O'Shea et al.'s ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref20">30</reflink>]) study based in Australia, a participant discussing future educational choices stated: 'something that gets in the way would probably end up being moving away' (<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref21">4</reflink>).</p> <p>Spatial constraint framings are associated with particular features, which are set out in Ball, Reay, and David's ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref22">4</reflink>]) account of 'contingent choosers' (<reflink idref="bib338" id="ref23">338</reflink>) in their study of HE choice in the UK. One feature pertains to the relationship between distance and financial constraints: 'spatial horizons of action are limited, partly for reasons of cost' (ibid.); this constraint refers to the fact that living in the family home while studying imposes less of a financial burden than staying in rented accommodation (see also Henderson [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref24">17</reflink>]). Another feature is a heightened connection with a particular place, in this case, related to diasporic identities: 'family and community relationships are positively valued and local choices also reflect this' (Ball, Reay, and David [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref25">4</reflink>], 338; see also Walker [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref26">45</reflink>]). It is clear from these features that verbalized post-schooling decision-making processes may be framed in spatial terms, but that the notions of local, of near and far, and so on, are imbued with symbolic connotations of unattainable cost, or of the familiar, home, community (see also Henderson [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref27">15</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref28">17</reflink>]). Forsberg ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref29">11</reflink>]) echoes this in a study of post-schooling choices in a forest community of Northern Sweden, noting that the 'sense of place' differs depending on students' and families' composition of assets, such as education, social contacts, money and job position' (<reflink idref="bib329" id="ref30">329</reflink>). As such, the spatial framing may be seen as a subjective construction of the (im)possibility and (un)desirability of educational and social mobility.</p> <p>In the international literature on HE access, several studies have discussed HE decision-making from a gendered angle. However, these studies do not tend to combine the gender angle with a spatial analysis. For instance, in studies on gender and parental involvement in HE decision-making in the UK (David et al. [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref31">8</reflink>]), and Saudi Arabia and the UK (Al-Yousef, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref32">1</reflink>]), there is reference in data excerpts to mothers preferring their children to study closer to home, but these references are not picked up for spatial analysis. Vryonides' ([<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref33">43</reflink>]) study of gender and parental views on HE choice in Cyprus presents an intricate analysis of gender and HE choice, but does not discuss spatial terms; likewise Guerrero and Rojas' ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref34">13</reflink>]) study of gender and HE choice in Peru. A noteworthy exception where gender and HE decision-making is discussed in more depth is the above-mentioned study of post-schooling decision-making in Sweden (Forsberg [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref35">11</reflink>]). Forsberg ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref36">11</reflink>]) discusses that remaining in the local community and not accessing HE is the 'expression of a masculine power position' because 'young men are recognized as contributors to the local community where they are well-integrated, possessing a symbolic capital that is difficult to transfer to an urban setting' (<reflink idref="bib332" id="ref37">332</reflink>). On the other hand, young women 'to a greater degree than boys, continue to higher education straight after graduation' (<reflink idref="bib328" id="ref38">328</reflink>) because they 'perceive a wider range of possibilities in the city' (<reflink idref="bib332" id="ref39">332</reflink>). The nuances explored in Forsberg's (ibid.) study reveal that there is an opportunity to explore the gendered spatial dimension of HE choice further. A second study exploring gendered spatial decision-making about HE choice by Bagguley and Hussain ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref40">3</reflink>]), focusing on women of South Asian origin in the UK, discusses that the gendered notions of honour pervading South Asian societies such as India (see next section for more discussion) enter into UK-based young women's decisions to enroll in HEIs where they can live at home.</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-5">Gendered spatial framings of HE access in India</hd> <p>In India, access to HE is also framed in spatial terms. This framing exists at the policy level, where it is recognized that a more even distribution of HEIs is necessary to increase access to HE. Previous policy regimes have included setting up and providing additional funding to HEIs in underserved areas (Sabharwal [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref41">34</reflink>]); the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 (MHRD [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref42">25</reflink>]) set a target of one HEI per district. Districts vary hugely in size, but, for context, the distance from one of the most southerly to one of the most northerly villages of Sirsa district in Haryana is 100 km; in our study, we found that the majority of students were travelling 30-70 km to reach their college (Henderson, Sabharwal, et al. [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref43">19</reflink>]). A study of the concentration of HEIs across India (Varghese, Panigrahi, and Rohatgi [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref44">41</reflink>]) revealed that there are concerning disparities in the distribution of HEIs across certain regions; there is a higher concentration of HEIs, in particular more elite institutions, in urban areas. Moreover, there may be discrepancies between policymakers' and communities' conceptualizations of spatial constraint (Henderson [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref45">16</reflink>]): we have discussed elsewhere (Henderson et al. [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref46">19</reflink>]) that many rural communities operate for the majority of their activities at a sub-district level, meaning that one HEI per district would still be unreachable for many prospective students (as discussed above), both in terms of commuting and imaginable 'spatial horizons' (Ball, Reay, and David [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref47">4</reflink>], 338). Accessing each new level of education may involve navigating new spatial boundaries, especially in rural areas where higher levels of secondary education may not be available within a given village or its vicinity (Narwana [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref48">29</reflink>]). However, in general, accessing HE involves a greater degree of spatial mobility than is within the normalized purview of many families in rural India.</p> <p>It is noteworthy that the gendered spatial aspect of educational decision-making is foregrounded in literature from India on HE, particularly in relation to constraints placed on women that are associated with dominant norms of femininity. Studies have discussed that young women's educational choices are often made by their parents and other family members, while young men are given more freedom to make their own decisions (Gautam [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref49">12</reflink>]). The decisions taken about women's post-schooling trajectories by their families are steeped in discourses of safety and risk that are associated with unmarried women accessing public space (Phadke [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref50">32</reflink>]). The notion of safety is situated within the prevalence of sexual harassment and concerns about young women being assaulted when travelling to an HEI or within the HEI (Borker [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref51">5</reflink>]). The risks associated with the safety discourse are based on the fact that, in traditional thinking which is still prevalent (Henderson and Sabharwal [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref52">18</reflink>]), a young woman's honour (<emph>izzat</emph>) is also the honour of her family, and if her honour is spoilt this affects the reputation of her family (Chowdhry [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref53">7</reflink>]). Honour may be spoilt via many routes, including engaging in romantic liaisons, eloping, being sexually assaulted, or even being the object of neighbourhood gossip (irrespective of the truth of the gossip) (Phadke [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref54">32</reflink>]). As such, families are seen to be greatly concerned about their daughters accessing HE, particularly where this pushes at previously established boundaries of acceptable spatial mobility, and where there is no history of HE in the family (Marmath [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref55">23</reflink>]; Thomas [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref56">38</reflink>]).</p> <p>Gender parity has been achieved nationally at the undergraduate level in India (MHRD [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref57">24</reflink>]). However, this indicator belies the fact that there are hidden gender inequalities which are persisting in Indian HE access, particularly in the realm of choice. Different choices are being made for daughters and sons within the same families, including based on spatial framings that are imbued with the discourse of safety and risk for young women accessing HE (Borker [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref58">5</reflink>]). As discussed by Sabharwal ([<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref59">34</reflink>]),</p> <p>the gender dimensions intersecting with the locational background of students determine the catchment area of HEIs ... The catchment area is stretched and expansive for the male student, while it is small and narrow for the female students. (<reflink idref="bib362" id="ref60">362</reflink>)</p> <p>In a study of Muslim and Hindu women's access to HE in Bengaluru, Karnataka (Sahu, Jeffery, and Nakkeeran [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref61">36</reflink>]), the element of dangerous rumours and neighbourhood surveillance of a family's reputation emerges in the case of a young woman who wanted to study agriculture, which would entail field visits. She was prevented by her uncle, who influenced her father, saying 'What will you tell others, when your girl is staying away from house?' (<reflink idref="bib188" id="ref62">188</reflink>). Kisana and Arora's ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref63">22</reflink>]) study of women's access to HE in the Mewat district of Haryana found that young women were only allowed to attend HE if they could travel in groups due to safety concerns (see also Marmath [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref64">23</reflink>], re Rajasthan). The potential risks associated with the daily commute to HEIs are known to shape HE choice, based on safety concerns (Borker [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref65">5</reflink>]; Gautam [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref66">12</reflink>]). Alternatively, attending HE where staying in student accommodation (known as 'hostels' in India) is necessary is also associated with risk, due to young women staying away from the family gaze. For instance, in a study of women's safety in public spaces in Rohtak, Haryana (Safetipin [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref67">35</reflink>]), it was revealed that young women who stay in student accommodation for HE may be perceived as freer in their interactions with young men because 'they do not have anyone to stop them' (<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref68">10</reflink>). In the above-mentioned study by Sahu, Jeffery, and Nakkeeran ([<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref69">36</reflink>]), women participants who were studying away from home 'had faced negative remarks about pursuing higher education [away from home] from their parents' social circles' (<reflink idref="bib186" id="ref70">186</reflink>). The concerns about risk and safety for young women accessing HE are thus shown to span social groups, locations and intersecting identity characteristics.</p> <p>In this section, we have shown how spatial framings of HE access are associated with spatial constraints for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds across country contexts including India, and that these framings are not just markers of distance in geographical terms, but serve as symbolic referents pertaining to what is (im)possible, (un)desirable or (un)imaginable. While the gendered aspect of spatial framings of HE access has been less explored in other country contexts, there is recognition of gendered spatial constraints in the literature on HE access in India. This framing is imbued with notions of safety and risk that are intertwined with dominant norms of femininity. This article argues that the <emph>framing itself</emph> is worthy of further exploration, to analyse the potency of discursive constructions of spatial constraint. This framing is discussed in the next section.</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-6">Theorizing bahar as a performative discursive boundary</hd> <p>The notion of linguistic performativity, formulated by Austin ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref71">2</reflink>]) and then widely discussed by post-structuralist theorists including Butler ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref72">6</reflink>]), has been vital in developing theorizations of discourse. While Austin ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref73">2</reflink>]) was interested in the linguistic elements of performativity, post-structuralist developments of performativity have focused on the relationship between the discursive realm and subjectivity (Henderson [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref74">14</reflink>]). Performativity in its most basic form refers to a linguistic event where an utterance does not just refer to an act, but enacts the act in the moment of utterance, thus bringing to bear the eventuality <emph>through the use of language</emph>. This is significant because, through this notion of a performative speech act, language is invested with power. When language is invested with its own power to act through its utterance, this then has implications for subjectivity: we become vulnerable to the power of language; hence the title of Butler's ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref75">6</reflink>]) essay, 'On linguistic vulnerability'. This article draws on the post-structuralist development of the performative that is articulated in the essay to theorize the construct of <emph>bahar</emph> as a performative discursive boundary.</p> <p>We argue that <emph>bahar</emph> is a performative discursive boundary when it is deployed in relation to HE choice because, in uttering the term itself, a spatial-symbolic boundary is constituted between 'inside' and 'outside'. There is no visible, fixed, commonly understood boundary, as we go on to show – there are only utterances that <emph>express</emph> this boundary, and that thereby <emph>create</emph> the boundary in the moment of uttering. In Butler's account of performativity, she notes that a performative speech '"act" is ... the condensation of iterability that exceeds the moment it occasions' (<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref76">14</reflink>). This means that language takes on performative power through repetition of past speech acts which have themselves acquired performative force, meaning that the power of the utterance exceeds the moment it is uttered. Thus, when <emph>bahar</emph> is uttered, other invocations of the construct echo in that moment, bringing with them the force to delineate the boundary, even in the absence of a clear, fixed understanding of what or where that boundary is. Because language inevitably reaches into other usages, we cannot entirely control its effects – including its effects upon our subjectivity, hence our vulnerability to language. In this sense, Butler argues, language can in and of itself have injurious or oppressive effects: 'Oppressive language is not a substitute for the expression of violence. It enacts its own kind of violence' (<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref77">9</reflink>). When analysing the <emph>bahar</emph> construct, we are particularly attentive to the potential for the construct to operate as oppression <emph>in and of itself</emph>, through the discursive articulation of the boundary. At the same time, we also embrace Butler's argument that, because a performative utterance relies on unreliable sources of power, located in past utterances, it 'is finally constrained neither by its specific speaker not its originating context' (<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref78">40</reflink>) and therefore may be open to 'resignification' (<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref79">41</reflink>):</p> <p>The resignification of speech requires opening new contexts, speaking in ways that have never yet been legitimated, and hence producing legitimation in new and future forms. (Ibid.).</p> <p>In this article, we deploy the notion of performative discursive power to explore how the <emph>bahar</emph> construct is mobilized in accounts of HE access and choice, taking the term as <emph>constitutive</emph> as well as <emph>descriptive</emph>, and seeking the ways that the expressed fixity of the boundary may operate to constrain educational mobility along gendered lines.</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-7">The study</hd> <p>This paper is based on an exploratory empirical study of gender and HE access in the North-Indian state of Haryana, 'A Fair Chance for Education: Gendered Pathways to Educational Success in Haryana' (<ulink href="http://www.warwick.ac.uk/haryana">www.warwick.ac.uk/haryana</ulink>) (Stewart et al. [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref80">37</reflink>]). Haryana represents an interesting and important case for the examination of gendered educational choices, because this state has high levels of HE access for young women[<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref81">2</reflink>] (MoE [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref82">27</reflink>]), but is also renowned for its conservative gendered views and gendered violence against women (Devi and Rajeshwari [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref83">9</reflink>]). Haryana is also a state of contrasts due to its proximity to India's capital, New Delhi; a large section of the state lies within the National Capital Region (NCR), a zone of enhanced economic and infrastructural development; at the same time, other areas of the state are classed as rural. The state has a long history of agricultural, military and sporting prowess, which feeds into norms of (particularly upper-caste Jat group) masculinity in the state (Chowdhry [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref84">7</reflink>]; Oza [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref85">31</reflink>]). Although HE enrolment in Haryana is high in comparison with the national average[<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref86">3</reflink>] (MoE [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref87">28</reflink>]), the colonial treatment of the state during British rule as an agricultural powerhouse meant that the founding of HEIs was later and more sparse than in some other states (Chowdhry [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref88">7</reflink>]; Mittal [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref89">26</reflink>]), which means that the tradition of aspiring for HE is not embedded in multi-generational family imaginaries (Henderson et al. [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref90">19</reflink>]). Finally, even though women's access to HE is high, this has not resulted in high levels of women's employment after completing HE, with an acknowledged trend of HE serving the purpose of 'time pass' before marriage and indeed enhancing marriageability, especially for women from more privileged caste groups (Henderson et al. [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref91">19</reflink>]; Himanshi and Rajeshwari [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref92">21</reflink>]). Haryana, then, was the context for our study, representing multiple contradictory angles regarding gender and HE.</p> <p>For the study (Henderson et al. [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref93">20</reflink>]), we selected three districts which were geographically spread across the state: Sonipat, within the NCR and relatively close to Delhi; Mahendargarh, also within the NCR but at a greater distance from Delhi and bordering Rajasthan; Sirsa, not within the NCR and bordering Punjab. Within each district, we selected a co-educational government college. Government colleges are publicly funded colleges, which means they are the most accessible for low-income families (Sabharwal [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref94">34</reflink>]). These colleges mainly deliver undergraduate education and each college is affiliated with a publicly-funded university. The colleges were selected on the basis of being (i) co-educational, (ii) located in or near an urban centre but not the district centre, (iii) accessible via our research partners and contacts. The colleges are pseudonymized as follows: SDC (Sonipat District College), MDC (Mahendargarh District College), SiDC (Sirsa District College). The study involved a case study methodology where each college was explored in depth using multiple methods; the year of data collection was 2018.</p> <p>For all the colleges, a questionnaire survey was conducted with first-year undergraduate students across disciplines, with a total survey sample of 326. At SDC and MDC, the study also included interviews with a senior college representative (one per college, both were men), focus group discussions (FGDs) with five undergraduate students per group, one group of women and one of men per college, individual semi-structured interviews with two women students and two men students per college. The opportunity to add SiDC to the study arose later in the same year, and it was only possible to conduct the survey due to resource constraints. For all of the survey respondents and interview/FGD participants, no genders other than 'woman' and 'man' were recorded. The study was granted ethical approval from the relevant committee at the University of Warwick. We have particularly attended to anonymising to prevent college and participant identification due to the sensitive information shared by participants. Interviews and FGDs were conducted in Hindi by Indian doctoral students, ensuring that the participants were able to communicate comfortably. The College Representative interviews were conducted by research team members. The questionnaire was provided in a Hindi-English bilingual format. Transcripts were transcribed in Hindi (Roman script) and translated in parallel format. Textual responses from the questionnaire survey were also typed up and translated. Excerpts from the dataset are referred to as follows: for FGD data, College.FGD.W/M.P# (W = women, M = men, P = participant); for interview data, College.Int.W/M.1/2; for survey data, College.Sur.RespondentID.</p> <p>For this paper, the transcripts and textual survey responses were specifically analysed for usage of the term <emph>bahar</emph>. This process involved identifying instances of <emph>bahar</emph> and, where data were recorded in English, 'outside', refining the corpus to exclude irrelevant instances, and storing the final set of excerpts in an Excel file (N = 33). The <emph>bahar</emph> references were then analysed collaboratively to develop our understanding of the spatial, symbolic and gendered constructions of the term. As discussed in the previous section, we deployed the notion of discursive performativity as an analytic to explore the constitutive as well as the descriptive qualities of the <emph>bahar</emph> construct.</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-8">Going bahar for higher education</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0183347039-9">Mapping the bahar construct</hd> <p>The term <emph>bahar</emph> is commonly used in Hindi for discussions of educational choice, and it is noteworthy that the interviewers were also complicit in deploying the construct. At times this produced a loop of spatial construction of HE choice, with the interviewer and participant alike deploying the term <emph>bahar</emph> without ever defining the nature of the boundary; this indicates the extent to which the term is familiar in common parlance. With reference to the notion of performative utterances acquiring power through repetition, in many instances the boundary of <emph>bahar</emph> was discursively drawn through familiar channels of definition and supported by unspoken contextual assumptions of what <emph>bahar</emph> would mean for <emph>this person</emph>, in <emph>this place</emph>. For instance, a survey respondent noted, 'some of the students studying with me [at high school] went <emph>outside</emph> to study [for HE]' (MDC.Sur.8026); here, 'outside' refers vaguely to 'not <emph>this</emph> college', but it is unclear whether the respondent is referring to other colleges nearby, elsewhere in Haryana, and so on. To explore the <emph>bahar</emph> construct, we compiled the different meanings of <emph>bahar</emph> that we were able to deduce from the corpus, firstly exploring the spatial boundaries that the term is used to designate, secondly examining the symbolic – gendered – undertones of these references. In this section, we present all excerpts as translations into English; in the following section, where we explore the discursive nuances in more detail, we include Hindi as well as English.</p> <p>The spatial designation of <emph>bahar</emph> covered an extremely varied terrain. The smallest area around which the boundary was drawn was a neighbourhood or small village, and scaled up to indicate outside of India, i.e. international study ('<emph>bahar ki</emph> education', SDC.Int.M.1). Within this spectrum, <emph>bahar</emph> was used to designate:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> a location beyond the town of residence (e.g. 'they have to go <emph>outside</emph> [of the villages and small towns] for higher education', MDC.Int.M.2);</item> <p></p> <item> a location that was not commutable on a daily basis and thus required staying in student accommodation (e.g. 'we should go <emph>outside</emph> but we can't commute daily', SDC.FGD.W.P2);</item> <p></p> <item> a larger city or a university that was away from home (in another district or state) (e.g. 'those who scored a higher percentage [in high school] ... they have enrolled in universities <emph>outside</emph>', MDC.FGD.M.P4).</item> </ulist> <p>In many cases, 'outside' was used to mean 'not the nearest college', and the boundary was situated between the nearest college and any others (see also Henderson [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref95">16</reflink>]). For the majority of students in our study, they were <emph>not</emph> studying 'outside', as the majority had selected the nearest college to home; however, it is noteworthy that, given for some families leaving the village was 'outside', some students <emph>were</emph> studying 'outside' (e.g. 'It was unique [in the family] that I go <emph>outside</emph>', SDC.Int.W.1). Several participants referred to their aims to study 'outside' for a post-graduate course, citing a norm that undergraduate education can or should be undertaken at a nearby college, while further study would necessitate a new spatial boundary (e.g. 'This is the aim, to do undergraduate [here], then go to any university <emph>outside</emph>', MDC.Int.W.1). From this classification of uses of <emph>bahar</emph>, it is clear that the term is highly elastic, and its parameters are often left undefined, meaning that this construct is an unstable signifier, which is therefore powerful both in its capacity to delineate a fixed boundary and to be constantly resignified in each usage (Butler [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref96">6</reflink>]).</p> <p>In terms of the symbolic connotations, there was a tension between positive and negative connotations of <emph>bahar</emph>. The students in our study for the most part deployed positive connotations of <emph>bahar</emph>. Studying 'outside' for most students would have been the preference, and was still the aspiration for the future. The construct was used as a comparator that unfavourably portrayed 'this college' against the opportunities available from 'outside', i.e. higher quality education, more potential for social mobility and future success (e.g. 'There is no benefit from an MBA [Masters of Business Administration] from here, there is a benefit only from an MBA from <emph>outside</emph>'), even if studying 'outside' was also portrayed as expensive and unattainable (e.g. 'I was offered a place <emph>outside</emph> but I did not accept it, because the conditions in my family were not favourable', MDC.FGD.M.P4). A few students associated 'outside' with negative connotations, such as a participant whose brother had encouraged her to study 'outside'; she instead selected the nearest college to home because she 'did not want to be far from the family' (SDC.Int.W.2) (see also Turner [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref97">40</reflink>]). Another participant had visited a college 'outside' and found it was in 'the same bad condition' as the nearest college, so had opted for the more convenient college (SDC.Int.M.1). The more prominent negative construction of <emph>bahar</emph> was situated in participants' accounts of parents' and other relatives' involvement in HE decision-making processes, uniquely in relation to women's HE access. For young men, <emph>bahar</emph> was used as in the above-mentioned Ball, Reay, and David ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref98">4</reflink>]) paper to designate HE options that were aspired for by parents and sons alike, but unattainable for material reasons, and there was no reference to disalignment between parents' and sons' preferences. For young women, there was a more pernicious discursive use of <emph>bahar</emph> at work, which also represented a disalignment between women's aspirations and their parents' decisions (see also Verma [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref99">42</reflink>]). We explore this construction further in the next section.</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-10">Bahar as a gendered constraint for women's HE access (1430)</hd> <p>In this section, we zoom into the subset of our corpus of excerpts (N = 18) which specifically refer to <emph>bahar</emph> as being associated with risk in discussions of young women's HE access. Arguably, all uses of <emph>bahar</emph> have performative properties. However, for this deployment, the performative is of heightened importance because it links into the notions of linguistic vulnerability and oppressive language (Butler [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref100">6</reflink>]). In this section, we present excerpts in both Hindi and English in order to explore the discursive nuances in more depth, and then go on to discuss the common features of this deployment of the <emph>bahar</emph> construct. The six excerpts below have been selected because they clearly illustrate the common features (shown in <bold>bold</bold> type).</p> <p> <emph>Excerpt 1: MDC.FGD.W.P3:</emph>I:[Questions about who encouraged the students to enrol in MDC]P:Koi ladki padhi likhi nahi hai toh <bold>bahar</bold> bhi nahi <bold>bhejna</bold> chah rahe the, <bold>dadi</bold> hai: 'nahi, ladki hai, kya karegi jaake, yaha pe padhlogi padhna hi hai'(P:There is no educated girl [in the family] so [<bold>they</bold>] didn't want to <bold>send</bold> me <bold>outside</bold>; my <bold><emph>dadi</emph></bold> [paternal grandmother] [said]: 'no, she's a girl, what will she do if she goes, she may as well just study here')<emph>Excerpt 2: SDC.FGD.W.P3:</emph>I:[Question about whether there was any issue in accessing HE]P:Jaise college chunne me dikkat hui, Ma'am, konse wala chune; agar hum apni pasand ka chunte toh <bold><emph>parents</emph> mana karte hai</bold> ki <bold>bahar</bold> nahi <bold>bhejenge</bold>.(P:It was difficult to choose a college, Ma'am, which one to choose; if we choose the college of our liking, then <bold>parents refuse to send</bold> us <bold>outside</bold>).<emph>Excerpt 3: MDC.Int.W.2:</emph>I:[Discussion of whether socio-economically disadvantaged families focus more on their sons' education]P:Pehle humare colony me kya hota tha ki ladkiya <bold>bahar</bold> nahi jaati thi, schooling ki, uske baad nahi jaati thi, lekin meri didi jab se gayi toh <bold>logo</bold> me aisa laga ki '<bold>bhai ladkiya jaa sakti hain</bold>', toh uske baad <bold>unhe bheja</bold>, usse pehle kisi ladki ne nahi kiya college.(P:Earlier in our neighbourhood girls did not go <bold>outside</bold>, they would finish their schooling, but after that wouldn't go [to HE], but when my sister went, <bold>people</bold> thought that '<bold>girls can indeed go</bold>', so after that, <bold>they</bold> started sending them; no girl had attended college before that).<emph>Excerpt 4: MDC.Int.M.2:</emph>I:[Discussion of issues relating to women's access to HE]P:Ladkiyo ko safe nahi mante honge; <bold>gharwale</bold> hichakte hain <bold>bahar bhejne</bold> me. Yeh jaha pe chhote gaon hain, chhote shehar hain, waha pe education nahi mil paati unko achchhi, toh higher education ke liye unko <bold>bahar</bold> jana padta hai, toh sabse badi problem toh yeh hoti hai ki '<bold>humari ladkiya <emph>safe</emph> nahi hain</bold>'; is wajah se-(P:Also <bold>people at home</bold> might think that girls are not safe and hesitate to <bold>send</bold> them <bold>outside</bold>. Where the small villages and small cities are, you cannot get good education, so they have to go <bold>outside</bold> for higher education, so the biggest problem is that '<bold>our daughters are not safe</bold>'; because of this-)I:Matlab ladkiya safe nahi hain, toh is wajah se <bold>wo bhejna</bold> nahi chahte-(I:Meaning that, since the girls are not safe, <bold>they</bold> do not want to <bold>send</bold> them-)P:<bold>Bhejna</bold> nahi chahte.(P:Do not want to <bold>send</bold>).<emph>Excerpt 5: SDC.Sur.9086, question about why some young people cannot access HE:</emph></p> <p>Meri soch ke anusar, meri saheliyaan ko dhakila isliye nahi mila kyonki hum gaon se hain aur gaon ke log ab bhi vahi purani soch rakhte hain ki ladkiyaan ko <bold>bahar</bold> padhne bhejna galat hai. Aur ladkiyon ki jaldi shaadi karna hi ve sahi mante hai. Meri sabhi saheliyaan ka man toh bahut tha padhne ka lekin <emph>family pressure</emph> ki vajah se vo <emph>college</emph> tak nahi aa sakti.</p> <p>(According to me, my friends [girls] were not able to get admission because we are from villages, and the <bold>people in the village</bold> are of the old-fashioned thinking that <bold>sending</bold> girls outside for education is wrong. And <bold>they</bold> consider it correct to marry girls off early. My friends were very interested in studying, but due to family pressure they were not able to go up until college.)</p> <p> <emph>Excerpt 6: SiDC.Sur.7075, same question as Excerpt 5:</emph> </p> <p>Kyunki unke <bold>mata-pita</bold><emph>college</emph> ke liye sahmati nahi dete aur unke saath wala koi nahi hai <bold>veh</bold> ladki ko <bold>bahar</bold> akela nahi <bold>bhej</bold> sakte hain.</p> <p>(Because their <bold>parents</bold> do not <bold>agree</bold>, because there is nobody accompanying them and <bold>they</bold> do not want to <bold>send</bold> the girl <bold>outside</bold>.)</p> <p>The six excerpts presented above are all accounts provided by students about their own or others' HE access/choice, where <emph>bahar</emph> is used to designate a boundary of acceptable spatial (and therefore educational) mobility for young women. There are some key common features that accompany this deployment of <emph>bahar</emph>. Firstly, it is clear that prospective students themselves are not drawing this boundary. The involvement of parents and other family members in HE decision-making is palpable in these excerpts (see also Thomas [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref101">38</reflink>]; Thomas and Henderson [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref102">39</reflink>]; Verma [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref103">42</reflink>]), with influential figures including parents (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref104">2</reflink>, 6) and paternal grandmother (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref105">1</reflink>), and other references being more vague such as <emph>gharwale</emph> or 'people at home' (<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref106">4</reflink>) and 'they' (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref107">3</reflink>) or even no subject being articulated, equating to 'they' (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref108">1</reflink>).</p> <p>It is important to note that the term 'choice' can only be used with caution in this context, where, while young women may express preferences, final decisions about HE are often taken by fathers and/or brothers (Gautam [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref109">12</reflink>]; Thomas [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref110">38</reflink>]). The verbs used in this deployment of <emph>bahar</emph> are also salient. There is a predominance of the verb <emph>bhejna</emph>, meaning 'to send' (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref111">1-4</reflink>, 6), which infers the active involvement of these other actors in educational decision-making. <emph>Bhejna</emph> is coupled with a discourse of permission and refusal to go 'outside' which is also present in the excerpts, such as '<emph>mana karte hai</emph>', meaning 'to refuse/forbid' (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref112">2</reflink>), not 'letting' (<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref113">5</reflink>) or 'giving consent' (<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref114">6</reflink>), and of others not 'wanting to send outside' (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref115">1</reflink>, 4, 6) (see also the verb 'instructing' in Gautam [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref116">12</reflink>], 37). These verbs, coupled with the mention of dominant family figures, represent and thereby construct the boundary of <emph>bahar</emph> as being drawn – and defended – by family members, not by prospective students.</p> <p>In addition, there is another force at work in these excerpts, a more vague but salient presence of others who are also implicated in spatial mobility restrictions for young women: namely, members of the community, especially with reference to rural communities, who are depicted as having more 'old-fashioned' thinking (<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref117">5</reflink>) (see also Guerrero and Rojas [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref118">13</reflink>]; Turner [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref119">40</reflink>]). Community thinking is represented through reported direct or indirect speech/thoughts, such as 'our daughters are not safe' (<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref120">4</reflink>), 'They think it's wrong to send girls outside' (<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref121">5</reflink>); this aspect comes through strongly in another excerpt:</p> <p>Ek toh gaon me ye hota hai ki agar koi ladki bahar jaane lag jaati hai, toh usko bolte hai ki 'yeh toh teri ladki waha se padh rahi hai, ab kitna padhaegi, kaam to usko wahi gharwala karna hai', aise aise, matlab usko bahot sare taunt maare jate hai. (MDC. Int. W2)</p> <p>(In the village what happens is that, when a girl starts going outside, they will say, 'look, your daughter is studying over there, how much will you educate her, after all she only has to do housework', like this, meaning they get a lot of taunts.)</p> <p>While parents and family members are portrayed within the <emph>bahar</emph> construction as taking decisions pertaining to the education of young women, as discussed in the literature section, these decisions are taken in the context of close-knit communities with high levels of surveillance, especially for young women from higher caste groups. In this context, a young woman's reputation (along with the family's reputation) can be damaged by nothing more concrete than a rumour. Thus collective views on where the <emph>bahar</emph> boundary lies are influential, in terms of what is considered appropriate and 'safe' spatial mobility for a young woman's education, and what is considered too risky and indeed excessive. We argue that <emph>bahar</emph> in and of itself is imbued with masculine qualities, due to the masculine coding of public space, intersecting with caste privilege (Oza [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref122">31</reflink>]; Phadke [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref123">32</reflink>]). Thus, those who go 'outside' – of any gender – may become layered with masculinity, where educational and spatial mobility is seen as accruing power and agency which may affect a young woman's compliance with the social order, particularly given the concomitant distancing from the household as the traditional arena of women's domestic responsibilities (Henderson et al. [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref124">19</reflink>]). The <emph>bahar</emph> construct is thus multi-layered in terms of exercising gendered constraint on young women's educational trajectories.</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-11">Discussion</hd> <p>In relation to the first question posed in this article, 'What are the spatial, symbolic and gendered dimensions of going <emph>bahar</emph> for HE in Haryana, India?', through mapping the uses of the construct, we have shown that the term is used in a highly elastic and subjective manner to designate a spatial boundary that ranges from a neighbourhood or small village to the national border. Often its usage is not defined or is not specifically defined, meaning that individuals interpret the term in each utterance, according to contextual assumptions. The elasticity of the term taps into Butler's ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref125">6</reflink>]) discussion of the performative as reliant on previous usages to gain performative power. We particularly zoomed in on the use of the construct to delineate spatial restrictions for young women's HE access, due to perceptions of risk and relating to the protection of young women's honour before marriage (and the family reputation) (Borker [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref126">5</reflink>]). We showed that young people recounting these constraints tend to represent the boundary as being drawn and enforced by family members other than the young women concerned; that the construct is accompanied by verbs such as 'to send' or refusal/permission, which show that women are not autonomous in their choices (Gautam [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref127">12</reflink>]; Thomas [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref128">38</reflink>]); that community voices are present in the construction, emphasizing the inappropriateness of women's spatial/educational mobility (Kisana and Arora [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref129">22</reflink>]). <emph>Bahar</emph> gives the illusion of a firm, fixed border because of the way it designates a spatial limit. However, the term is demonstrably malleable, shifting with each utterance, which means that an individual using the term is performatively constituting the boundary.</p> <p>The use of <emph>bahar</emph> in relation to constraining young women's HE access helps us to respond to the second question posed in this article: How does exploring the construct of <emph>bahar</emph> further our understanding of enduring gendered inequalities in HE access/choice? We therefore focus on the performative use of <emph>bahar</emph> to restrict young women's spatial and educational mobility in this part of the discussion.</p> <p>The discursive framings of the <emph>bahar</emph> construct discussed above (family actors, verbs of 'sending' and refusal/permission, community voices) all point to a vital but subtle feature of this specific construction of the <emph>bahar</emph> boundary: the boundary of <emph>bahar</emph> is set and enforced by <emph>others, elsewhere</emph>. The discursive site of negotiation is not refuting the boundary itself, as this boundary is constructed as fixed and immovable. The site of negotiation lies in the question of whether permission can be obtained from family members to <emph>traverse the boundary</emph> (as set by the community and adopted by family members, see also Gautam [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref130">12</reflink>]; Thomas [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref131">38</reflink>]; Verma [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref132">42</reflink>]), not the <emph>existence of the boundary</emph> in and of itself. Returning to the discussion of the performative (Butler [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref133">6</reflink>]), a performative quality of <emph>bahar</emph> is to create a boundary through the utterance of the term. We know from the mapping section that <emph>bahar</emph> is hugely elastic, and open to wildly different signification according to context, and yet the boundary-ness of <emph>bahar</emph> is taken as a given. If the contestation revolves around <emph>crossing</emph> the boundary, this means that the <emph>boundary itself</emph> is left in place, and by discussing women's HE access in these terms, the participants themselves repeat and thereby reproduce the performative constriction of women's spatial mobility.</p> <p>We discussed in the theory section that oppression can occur via performative speech acts; we argue that there is a double oppression occurring in the <emph>bahar</emph> construct. Firstly, the invocation of the term in the first place draws a clear and fixed-seeming (if elastic and figurative) boundary around women's spatial/educational mobility, imbuing that boundary with fear and risk located in the fear surrounding women's honour (Chowdhry [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref134">7</reflink>]; Phadke [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref135">32</reflink>]). Secondly, the way the term <emph>bahar</emph> is mobilized within discourse also enacts oppression through constructing the site of negotiation as the crossing of the boundary, thus naturalising the existence of the boundary, and reinforcing its appearance of being fixed and solid. This in turn has implications for women's subjectivity, returning to the notion of being vulnerable to language (Butler [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref136">6</reflink>]); because there is a boundary in place, a woman who is seen to traverse that boundary is marked by transgression (Henderson et al. [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref137">19</reflink>]), even though that boundary may not lie in the same place for another family and community.</p> <p>We noted that Butler ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref138">6</reflink>]) discusses the potential for resignification. In our study more broadly, and indeed even within the excerpts above (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref139">3</reflink>), we can see evidence of resignification of the <emph>bahar</emph> boundary, where for instance a young woman is seen to traverse previous spatial limits to access HE, and this opens up new opportunities for others (see also Henderson et al. [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref140">19</reflink>]; Gautam, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref141">12</reflink>]; Thomas [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref142">38</reflink>]). Moving the metaphorical spatial line or zone of <emph>bahar</emph> is crucial for opening up educational access for other women. However, there is another discursive possibility, where the existence of this very tenuous boundary is called into question, via revealing the inherent contradiction within the <emph>bahar</emph> construct, which is apparently so fixed and yet so malleable to contextual resignification. Denaturalising the construct in common parlance is an essential step in understanding how spatial mobility is enforced in discursive terms – and therefore is also inherently unstable.</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-12">Conclusion</hd> <p>In this article, we have sought to unpack the ways in which spatial framings of decision-making about HE access unfold in gendered ways, specifically focusing on the <emph>bahar</emph> construct in the context of Haryana, India. We discussed that the gendered spatial framing is rather neglected in the international field of HE access literature, where the spatial dimensions of access are more commonly linked with social disadvantage. India presents an important case of how gender intersects with spatial dimensions of HE access, because the spatial dimensions are commonly discussed in gendered terms (Borker [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref143">5</reflink>]; Gautam [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref144">12</reflink>]). In our study context of Haryana, the gendered dimension was so prevalent as to be unmissable. However, we argue that studies of other contexts could benefit from considering gendered aspects in more detail, which may be present in subtler forms. Moreover, further analysis is required in future studies to explore how gendered spatial constraints intersect with other social identities.</p> <p>We have also shown through this article that discursive framings matter when spatial terms are articulated in relation to HE access (see also Henderson [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref145">16</reflink>]). Using Butler's ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref146">6</reflink>]) work on the performative and linguistic vulnerability, we showed how spatial expressions can create limits as well as just describing them. The <emph>bahar</emph> construct is particularly vivid in this regard, given its inherent boundary, but it would be worth exploring equivalent expressions across other languages that also have the power to enact oppressive constraint upon spatial and educational mobility. Finally, it is not just in common parlance that spatial constructions of HE should be explored – in the words of study participants, for instance – instead, we as researchers could also take a closer look at the ways in which we shape and reinforce boundaries in our articulations of spatial dimensions of HE access and choice. In our analysis, we showed how research team members conducting interviews mobilized the same familiar discourse of <emph>bahar</emph> that participants were using, creating what we could term a loop of discursive constraint. This serves as an important reminder to denaturalize our frames of reference as researchers, so that we contribute to 'producing legitimation in new and future forms' (Butler [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref147">6</reflink>], 41).</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-13">Declaration of interest statement</hd> <p>The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-14">Acknowledgements</hd> <p>The authors would like to thank the Fair Chance Foundation for generously funding the project 'A Fair Chance for Education'; the Phase 1 team members other than the named authors (Ann Stewart, Sharmila Rathee, Renu Yadav), the doctoral researchers who conducted the interviews (Sooraj H. S., Annu Kumari, Sohan Lal, Anjali Thomas), completed transcription (Somak Biswas) and translated the transcripts (Anjali Thomas), with thanks to Nikita Samanta who patiently read through the Hindi transcripts with Emily; Manika Bora for discussion of the early ideas of the paper and review of the draft; Holly Henderson for valuable input on the spatial aspects of HE access and review of the draft; the peer reviewers for their important contributions to the paper.</p> <hd id="AN0183347039-15">Disclosure statement</hd> <p>No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).</p> <ref id="AN0183347039-16"> <title> Notes </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref12" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> The term <emph>bahar</emph> would be accurately transliterated as <emph>baahar</emph> but the more common spelling in Roman alphabet is <emph>bahar</emph>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref71" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> At the approximate time of the study, the GER for women at the national level was 27.3, while in Haryana it was 32.5 (MoE [27]).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref40" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> At the approximate time of the study, the GER at the national level was 27.3, while in Haryana it was 31.1 (MoE [28]).</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0183347039-17"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibtext> Al-Yousef, H. 2009. 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" Unequal Origin, Unequal Treatment, and Unequal Educational Attainment: Does Being First Generation Still a Disadvantage in India? " Higher Education 76 (2): 279 – 300.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Walker, M. 2022. " Student Decision-Making About Accessing University in South Africa." Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 52 (4): 543 – 559.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Emily F. Henderson; S. Arokia Mary; Denisse Lillo; Ragini Khurana; Anjali Thomas and Nidhi S. Sabharwal</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author</p> <p></p> <p>Professor Emily F. Henderson is based in Education Studies and is the Director of the Doctoral Education and Academia Research Centre (DEAR), University of Warwick, UK. She is also a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education (CPRHE), National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi, India. Prof Henderson specializes in researching doctoral education and the academic profession, with current projects focusing on the role of academics in higher education outreach in India, the nature, aims and values of research centres and reasonable adjustments and mitigating circumstances for doctoral education.</p> <p>Ms. S. Arokia Mary is currently an ESRC-funded doctoral student in the Department of Education Studies, University of Warwick, UK. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Education, Central University of Kashmir. Arokia researches gender, doctoral education and higher education processes. She is currently affiliated with the 'Widening Access to Higher Education in India: Institutional Approaches' project, exploring the role of faculty members in higher education choices and decision-making.</p> <p>Denisse Lillo is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Education Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. Her doctoral studies are fully funded by the Chilean National Agency of Research and Development (ANID in Spanish). Her doctoral research explores the transition of prospective first-generation university students from secondary education to higher education in Chile, addressing key issues of access, choice and social justice in higher education. She has contributed to several research projects focused on widening participation, higher education outreach, policy research and loss of funding in UK universities.</p> <p>Ragini Khurana is a PhD candidate in urban sociology at the Department of Sociology, at the University of Warwick. Her research work focuses on sources of social identification in the context of urban super-diversity and lies at the intersection of sociology, human geography and social psychology. Before starting her PhD, she worked with several research centres, think tanks and international organisations on a wide range of research topics, including group bonding in ritual contexts, building inclusive cities and access to sexual education in developing countries.</p> <p>Dr. Anjali Thomas holds a PhD from the Department of Education Studies, University of Warwick, UK (funded by WCPRS and Fair Chance Foundation). She held post-doctoral roles at the University of Warwick on the 'Fair Chance for Education' project and at the University of Liverpool, where she was the Evaluation Researcher for the Prosper Project. She is currently based in the Widening Access and Participation Evidence and Evaluation Team at the University of East Anglia.</p> <p>Dr. Nidhi S. Sabharwal is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education (CPRHE), National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi, India, and an Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of Warwick. Dr Sabharwal has previously been the In-Charge of CPRHE/NIEPA. She has also served as the Director at the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi. Dr Sabharwal's research focuses on access and equity in higher education, the role of academics in higher education outreach, college readiness, student diversity, social inclusion and the academic success of students from disadvantaged groups in India.</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib33" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib45" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref3"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib44" firstref="ref4"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib40" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref9"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref10"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib37" firstref="ref14"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref20"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib338" firstref="ref23"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref24"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref29"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib329" firstref="ref30"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib43" firstref="ref33"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib332" firstref="ref37"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib328" firstref="ref38"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib34" firstref="ref41"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl22" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref42"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl23" bibid="bib41" firstref="ref44"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl24" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref45"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl25" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref48"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl26" bibid="bib32" firstref="ref50"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl27" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref52"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl28" bibid="bib38" firstref="ref56"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl29" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref57"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl30" bibid="bib362" firstref="ref60"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl31" bibid="bib36" firstref="ref61"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl32" bibid="bib188" firstref="ref62"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl33" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref63"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl34" bibid="bib35" firstref="ref67"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl35" bibid="bib186" firstref="ref70"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl36" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref74"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl37" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref82"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl38" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref85"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl39" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref87"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl40" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref89"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl41" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref92"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl42" bibid="bib42" firstref="ref99"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl43" bibid="bib39" firstref="ref102"></nolink> |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Going 'Bahar' (Outside) for Higher Education: Gendered Symbolic Boundaries of Higher Education Access and Choice in Haryana, India – Name: Language Label: Language Group: Lang Data: English – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Emily+F%2E+Henderson%22">Emily F. Henderson</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5723-9560">0000-0002-5723-9560</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22S%2E+Arokia+Mary%22">S. Arokia Mary</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7016-9720">0009-0001-7016-9720</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Denisse+Lillo%22">Denisse Lillo</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3345-9511">0009-0007-3345-9511</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Ragini+Khurana%22">Ragini Khurana</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3714-4982">0009-0006-3714-4982</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Anjali+Thomas%22">Anjali Thomas</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2358-5748">0000-0002-2358-5748</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Nidhi+S%2E+Sabharwal%22">Nidhi S. Sabharwal</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8089-2624">0000-0001-8089-2624</externalLink>) – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Gender+and+Education%22"><i>Gender and Education</i></searchLink>. 2025 37(2):156-173. – Name: Avail Label: Availability Group: Avail Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals – Name: PeerReviewed Label: Peer Reviewed Group: SrcInfo Data: Y – Name: Pages Label: Page Count Group: Src Data: 18 – Name: DatePubCY Label: Publication Date Group: Date Data: 2025 – Name: TypeDocument Label: Document Type Group: TypDoc Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research – Name: Audience Label: Education Level Group: Audnce Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Higher+Education%22">Higher Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Postsecondary+Education%22">Postsecondary Education</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Descriptors Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Foreign+Countries%22">Foreign Countries</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Higher+Education%22">Higher Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Females%22">Females</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Place+of+Residence%22">Place of Residence</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Access+to+Education%22">Access to Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Gender+Issues%22">Gender Issues</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Undergraduate+Students%22">Undergraduate Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22College+Choice%22">College Choice</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Attitudes%22">Educational Attitudes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+Influences%22">Social Influences</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Family+Influence%22">Family Influence</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Commuting+Students%22">Commuting Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22On+Campus+Students%22">On Campus Students</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Geographic Terms Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22India%22">India</searchLink> – Name: DOI Label: DOI Group: ID Data: 10.1080/09540253.2024.2430188 – Name: ISSN Label: ISSN Group: ISSN Data: 0954-0253<br />1360-0516 – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: While the gendered nature of spatial decision-making about higher education (HE) access is somewhat neglected in the international literature, these discussions are prevalent in India, where commuting to a higher education institution or staying in student accommodation may be considered risky for young women's honour. This paper focuses specifically on the notion of going "bahar" ('outside' in Hindi) for HE. A particular feature of "bahar" is that it demarcates a boundary. The paper focuses on a corpus of references to "bahar" from the qualitative data gathered via interviews, focus group discussions and surveys for an empirical study of gender and access to HE in Haryana, India, and deploys [Butler, J. 1997. "Excitable speech: A politics of the performative." Routledge] to theorize "bahar" as a performative construct which both describes and enacts constraint. The paper maps the spatial and symbolic dimensions of the "bahar" construct, and then explores the discursive construction of women's HE access/choice, revealing the use of "bahar" as the demarcation of acceptable HE access for women. – Name: AbstractInfo Label: Abstractor Group: Ab Data: As Provided – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2025 – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: EJ1488179 |
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