Which of the following best illustrates how poverty and gender discrimination…
2026
Which of the following best illustrates how poverty and gender discrimination can intersect to create barriers for women in India?
Answer: D. Limited access to education for girls from low-income families — Concept: Social disadvantages do not act in isolation. When economic deprivation and gender bias fall on the same person, their effects compound — scarcity…
- A.
Growth of technology industries in metropolitan cities
- B.
High rates of male unemployment in urban areas
- C.
Increased political participation among men
- D.
Limited access to education for girls from low-income families
Attempted by 14 students.
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Correct answer: D
Concept: Social disadvantages do not act in isolation. When economic deprivation and gender bias fall on the same person, their effects compound — scarcity decides that some need must go unmet, and the bias decides whose need that will be. A situation illustrates such an intersection only when both axes, economic position and gender, operate together on the same group.
Application: The stem asks for the case in which poverty and gender discrimination jointly raise a barrier for women in India. Limited access to education for girls from low-income families carries both axes at once: “low-income” is the economic axis and “girls” is the gender axis. Each disadvantage can restrict schooling on its own — poverty can curtail the education of every child in a household, and son-preference can curtail a daughter’s education even where money is not short. Where the two meet, they compound: the household that can finance schooling for only some of its children faces the scarcity created by poverty, and the prevailing preference for sons decides that the daughter is the one withdrawn, so the girl carries the combined weight of both disadvantages.
Cross-check: Testing each situation against the two axes:
Growth of technology industries in metropolitan cities — an industrial-expansion trend; it names neither an economic disadvantage nor a gender-based one.
High rates of male unemployment in urban areas — an economic hardship, but the group carrying it is male, so no barrier for women is described.
Increased political participation among men — a gain in one group's civic activity rather than two disadvantages compounding.
Limited access to education for girls from low-income families — economic position and gender are both present and act on the same group.
Result: limited access to education for girls from low-income families is the situation that illustrates how poverty and gender discrimination intersect to create a barrier for women in India.