Gender and Institutions

UNIT 4 WOMEN AND WORK

P. Neetha
Structure

4.1 Introduction
4.2 Objectives
4.3 Exclusion of Women’s Work in Mainstream Definitions
4.4 Sexual Division Between Work and Employment
4.5 Unpaid Work
4.6 The Debate on “Sex Work”
4.7 Women and Work: Theoretical Framework
4.7.1 Theory of Patriarchy
4.7.2 Domestic Labour and Sexual Division of Labour
4.7.3 Women’s Work in Neo Classical Theory
4.7.4 Women’s Work in Marxian Framework

4.8 Women and Work in India

4.9 Recent Developments on Women and Work in India
4.9.1 Discourse on Feminisation
4.9.2 Women as Self Employed Workers
4.9.3 Informalisation of Female Employment
4.9.4 Servicisation of Women’s Employment
4.9.5 Women as Unpaid Care Workers

4.10 Let Us Sum Up

4.11 Unit End Questions
4.12 References
4.13 Suggested readings

4.1 INTRODUCTION

In the earlier unit you read about how the institution of law relates to
gender and the proactive measures that the state has taken to improve the
situation of women in Indian society. This unit introduces learners to the
various distinctions that exist in understanding of work and its gendered
implications. The close association between the terms work, labour and
employment are elaborated, using some of the main strands of theoretical
discussions that have contributed to the ongoing debate around women and
work. The unit also highlights women’s work in the context of India and
international platform as well as some of the other important discussions
related to the theme.

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Women of all ages, marital status, class or position have always worked. Women and Work

However, much of the work that women have done or continue to do is

invisible or assumed to be natural or of little value. These assumptions exist
partly because of the way work is defined and understood as a social
science concept. There has been substantial debate in recent decades on
women and work and the relationship between women’s subordination and
work. In this unit, you will learn about some of these issues in greater
details.

4.2 OBJECTIVES

After completing this unit, you will be able to:

• Situate women’s work in the broader social context by highlighting the

major components of women’s work and debates involved;

• Discuss major theoretical approaches to the study of women’s work and

its limitations; and

• Highlight recent debates on women’s work in the context of India and

its social and developmental linkages.

4.3 EXCLUSION OF WOMEN’S WORK IN MAINSTREAM

DEFINITIONS

Debates around the concept ‘work’ have a long history which is almost as
old as the history of women’s movement. However, systematic and focused
attention to women’s economic role and economic differences based on
gender started only in the 1960s. Work, or for that matter labour as a social
science concept, evolved largely within the disciplinary boundaries of
Economics. The mainstream economic definitions of terms such as ‘work’,
‘labour’ and ‘economic activity’ show how gendered these terms are, and
how women are being excluded.

In common parlance work is defined as physical or mental effort or activity

directed toward the production or accomplishment of something. However,
societal definitions of ‘work’ are often associated with market oriented
activity which is guided largely by the measurability of the concept. Here,
work does not convey anything more than the fact that a monetary return
is often associated with it and that the output which is the result of labour
could be easily marketed and thus valued.

With the monetisation of the economy, the categories of work for which
valuation is possible also increased, alongside a large section of the population
entering into paid work outside home. This monetisation of the economy
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Gender and Institutions has not only marginalized the work that was not carried out for reward or
for the market but also those who performed these activities. Given the
social division of work in many societies this meant that most of the work
that women perform is not acknowledged as work within the popular coverage
of the term. Most of the work that women do, take place within the
households and the goods and services so produced do not reach the market.

Work, labour and economic activity are all used interchangeably in

mainstream economics which implies a market exchange of labour for wages.
This in turn renders unpaid work largely performed by women in the
households invisible. Another hierarchical dualism within the concept of
work is the conventional economic distinction between productive and
‘unproductive’ work. Activities that are performed within the household or
for subsistence (and not for market) are considered to be ‘unproductive’ (i.
e. they do not contribute to Gross Domestic Product). Women work mostly
without wages in the household enterprise or by taking care of their
children. By the mainstream definition, these activities are done ‘at leisure’
because there is no monetary transaction involved. Such conceptualisations
lead to a narrow definition of the work force which excludes many women.
Thus, devaluing of women’s work is woven into the very fabric of
contemporary economic theory and practice. Against this backdrop, feminist
economists have challenged and exposed the rhetorical approach of
mainstream economics. One prominent issue in this context is how the
concept of work does not adequately measure unpaid labour predominantly
performed by women. This issue is related to the distinction between
‘work’ and ‘employment’ which we will turn to in the next section.

4.4 SEXUAL DISTINCTION BETWEEN WORK AND

EMPLOYMENT

As discussed not all ‘work’ is counted or considered productive. Economic

theories often make a distinction between ‘gainful’/ ‘productive’ and ‘not
gainful’ and ‘unproductive’ work. Generally, it is assumed that work under
capitalist conditions is identical to employment, i. e. gainful employment
or work for a salary or a wage. It is further assumed that without such
employment, people cannot survive- as employment gives them the income
to buy their basic necessities. Only the labour spent in such gainful
employment is counted as contributing to the Gross National Product. Feminist
economists have pointed out the contradiction between work and
employment. They have pointed out a clear cut sexual division between
“work”, (which is often understood as unpaid subsistence work), and
employment. Employment is a typically male dominated sphere. Work,
particularly housework, is done primarily by women. Even when women are
also engaged in gainful employment, the responsibility for the unpaid
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housework is still attached to them. Feminists have shown that such Women and Work

‘productive’ labour would not even exist, without the so-called ‘non-
productive’ unpaid work of women in the household. The reproduction and
domestic labour of women form the foundation of economic survival of
households. Given this, the mainstream economics models that do not
reflect the value of non-marketised work lead to policies that reinforce
devaluation of women’s work, which inter alia has negative consequences
for women’s socio-economic status. Let us now look more closely at the
issue of unpaid work and its implications for women.

4.5 UNPAID WORK

Unpaid work denotes all work that takes place outside the monetised
economy. This includes:

• unpaid work in family farm or household enterprise;

• processing of agricultural products for self consumption such as pickle

making;

• activities such as collection of water and firewood for self consumption;

• care of children, elderly or disabled or any person

• cooking, cleaning and other routine household work.

Further, unpaid work, which is largely performed by women, is not evenly

distributed amongst women irrespective of their class categorisations. The
burdens of unpaid labour fall heavier on poorer households, where as the
more affluent households are able to access market based substitutes for
domestic labour.

The above categories of unpaid work are broadly divided into two:

• unpaid work within the production boundary and

• unpaid work outside the production boundary (social reproduction).

Both these categories where women are disproportionately concentrated

have always fallen out of the monetized mainstream economics. Within
feminist thinking, however, there is some dissonance between those who
highlight and seek to make visible the unpaid economic work of women and
those who lay emphasis on the unpaid care aspects of social reproduction.
The former has a long history within the debates on gender and development
going back to Women in Development (WID) debate and the work of Boserup
(Boserup, 1970). After many years of struggle, unpaid work within the
production has made some progress in terms of its visibility and acceptability.
Some elements of unpaid work are captured by the data collection systems
and thus broadly covered by the term work. Example of such unpaid are
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Gender and Institutions work in family farm or household enterprise and primary processing of
agricultural products for self consumption. Activities such as water and fuel
collection and care services are yet to enter into the official definition of
work in many countries, though water and fuel collection is now broadly
agreed to be productive work.

Care services, however, are still classified under ‘unproductive’ activities

and thus outside the realm of ‘work’ and continue to be dismissed as ‘non-
economic’ within the mainstream economic thinking. The exclusion of this
`non productive’ work from the production boundary in mainstream discourse
has been often rationalised on the grounds of the difficulty in measuring or
valuing such services.

Though there has been broad consensus on what constitutes care work
following the United National Statistics Division (UNSD, 1993) classification
of activities, the term unpaid work, care work and unpaid care work are
often used interchangeably.

• Unpaid work includes a range of activities that take place outside the
monetised segment, which include activities which are counted as
‘economic work’ as well as ‘non- economic’ work. Care work involves
care of persons, which could be either paid or unpaid.

• Unpaid care work on the other hand is care of persons for no explicit
monetary reward.

However, some have followed a narrow approach to care work. The first
limitation in this regard is on account of the common meaning of the word,
where unpaid care work can be interpreted to relate only to ‘care’ of
people. This interpretation would therefore focus on care of children, elderly,
disabled and ill members of the household. However, in this approach, the
other related activities such as cooking, cleaning etc. are ignored which are
preconditions for direct care work. Another complication in respect of care
work is that it is sometimes understood narrowly as the time spent physically
feeding the child or aged person. This excludes, on the one hand, time
during which one is supervising or responsible for the other person. It also
might exclude the time spent on activities such as travelling connected
with care. An alternative constricted interpretation and one which is
commonly found is to focus only on ‘domestic work’. This framing of the
activity can implicitly or explicitly exclude activities such as child care or
care of other persons, and also exclude activities such as shopping, or
taking an ill household member to get medical attention. In countries like
India, domestic work (cooking, cleaning etc.) and direct care work (care for
children, adults etc.) are often not easily distinguishable. Besides the debates
discussed above, specific types of paid work are also contested categories.
In the next section, let us look at the debate surrounding one such category.

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 Women and Work
4.6 THE DEBATE ON “SEX WORK”

Whether sex work constitutes work and thus should be included within
feminist discussions on work is a debate. Within feminist thinking there are
opposed views on sex work. While one group of feminists campaign for the
abolition of prostitution others demand recognition of sex work as work.
According to the one school of thought, economic necessity drives women
into sex work and is a source of women’s oppression. Thus it is argued that
that all commercial sex is violence against women. However, the other
school argues for granting legitimacy to commercial sex work.

Box no. 4.1

The notion of “sex work”, that selling sex is a job like any other,
emerged in the 1970s through prostitution advocacy groups in the
US. It is predicated on the idea that, as all sex is commodified
under capitalism, what can broadly be termed erotic labour is
another service that can be bought or sold like any other. Some
contemporary campaigners go beyond arguing that “sex work” is
a job like any other and argue that “sex work” is actually superior
to other jobs that are available for women. They point to benefits
in terms of working hours, autonomy, self-direction and even job
satisfaction.

Between these polar ends of the spectrum socialists and feminists take a
range of views. Many argue that urbanisation, poverty and large scale
migration which characterised 19th century capitalism produced conditions
which resulted in large scale spread of prostitution compared to previous
societies. The most recent period of globalisation and restructuring of
capitalist production (from the 1970s onwards), have again reshaped the
sex industry as it has led to massive dislocation and migration of many,
women in particular. In developing countries structural adjustment
programmes have increased displacement in rural areas, increased
unemployment in urban areas and led to wage cuts and increase in poverty.
The booming sex industry fills the gap left by wages paid below subsistence
levels or the lack of any secure, paid employment. Thus, many argue that
while the long-term aim should be to eliminate the conditions that breed
prostitution which oppresses women, in the short term recognising it as
work would help in protecting the interest and rights of women who are
already in sex work.

Check Your Progress:

1) Define ‘work’ and how women’s work is assessed as nonmonetised.

2) What do you understand by unpaid work?

3) Do you think ‘sex work’ is also work? Explain.

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Gender and Institutions
4.7 WOMEN AND WORK: THEORETICAL
FOUNDATIONS

As it is clear from the earlier section that women’s work in the early years
of analysis is confined to that of economic work analyzed under the concept
‘women’s labour’. Even the concept of women’s labour as an important
and influential variable in the study of labour markets, is of recent origin.
The interest in gender analysis of work can be traced back to the late
1960s, which arose as an academic response to the second wave of feminism.
Women’s role as economic agents attracted much attention during this
period and studies were taken up not only in the field of economics but
also in disciplines like sociology, anthropology, history and so on. There
have been a number of attempts to incorporate or integrate ‘women’s
labour’ by modifying or extending existing theories. Some of the important
analytical approaches to the studies on women and labour are discussed in
the following sections.

4.7.1 Theory of Patriarchy

You have already read about patriarchy in unit 1 of this course. Here, we
will briefly summarize some significant aspects of this theory in relation to
work.

The theory of patriarchy, based on male dominance was the first in realising
and exposing the gender biased theories of social sciences. Patriarchy came
up as a strong analytical response to the wave of feminism in 1960s by
highlighting the neglect of women and the prominence of male oriented
models in all social sciences. In the sphere of labour and employment,
gender neutral concepts such as capital and labour were criticised for
covering up female oppression and excluding women from the analysis
altogether. In addition to the exposing of existing theories, the theory of
patriarchy maintains that the position of women in the labour market is
governed by the forces of patriarchy, the theory of male dominance.

Consequently, the theory of patriarchy became central to the study of

women and labour market, not only in sociology but also in economics and
political economy models. In economics and political economy models, the
theory of patriarchy was used mainly as a ceiling or link to fill the gender
vacuum of the existing models in social sciences. Models or analyses of
women were added to the existing gender neutral models through the
theory of patriarchy which resulted in dual systems theory, one theory
dealing with labour market and the theory of patriarchy explaining women’s
position within that. Much of the developments in the dual systems theory
were based on the Marxian concepts and frameworks. The theory of capitalist
patriarchy assumes that patriarchy exists side by side with capitalism with
one conditioning the other.
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The theory of patriarchy was successful in exposing the male bias of the Women and Work

existing theories and also in bringing out the primacy of gender relations.
It was used widely as a mode of investigation and framework for analysis
by both, economists and political economists in dealing with gender aspects
in the labour market.

4.7.2 Domestic Labour and Sexual Division of Labour

Almost during the same period when the theory of patriarchy received
attention, domestic labour and the sexual division of labour emerged as a
separate analytical framework for dealing with women’s oppression in the
labour market. This approach assumes that domestic labour, work within
the household, is the source of oppression of women in the labour market
and that women are exploited by men.

Like the theory of patriarchy, many of the developments within this theory
were based on the Marxist framework. By drawing an analogy between
class-conflict and man-woman relationship, the theory argues that women
are exploited by men in the household as capitalists exploit labour
(predominantly male). Housework is thus seen as the major source of
exploitation of women. The sexual division of labour within the household
is assumed to extend beyond, to the market, leading to discrimination in
the workplace too. This results in the double exploitation of women both
within the household and in the market place.

4.7.2 Women’s Work in Neo Classical Theory

Market forms the conceptual basis of economics and is based on the premise
of rationality and similarity. Neo-classical theory presupposes that the fair
or impersonal working of the market will bring about an efficient allocation
of resources. Labour is just a factor of production in the neo classical
model and the concept of gender was largely outside the realm of their
theory. Economics, thus, has little or nothing to deal conceptually and
methodologically with the issues of gender. As a result, the theoretical and
empirical studies on labour market in Economics largely focused on male
full time labour in the capitalist manufacturing sectors and were silent on
the gender implications.

Implicit in the neo classical theory is the assumption of division of labour,

where women work inside the household and men in the labour market.
This is on the basis of an exogenously given biological difference. The
participation of women in the labour market is viewed as a rational choice
or decision of the household in its attempt to maximise utility. It is thus
taken as an outcome of how family balances leisure and income. Occupational
segmentation in the labour market is viewed in the neo classical theory as
an extension of the biological division of labour. A strand of neo-classical
theorists argues that as women’s primary commitment is to the home and
because of long and hard work at the home, women are less committed to
work outside home, and hence they are less rewarded.
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Gender and Institutions Many models or changes were incorporated into the neo classical model to
accommodate women. However, these models restricted the analysis entirely
in terms of economic criteria and were always left with ‘residual gap’
which was left unexplained attributing it to the other than market forces.
The unit of analysis of the neo classical theory is the individual unit or firm
and household decisions on labour market are seen as the summation of
individual’s decisions determined by market forces. Gendered power relations
within the household are taken as given in this framework, and thus largely
ignored from the analysis. However, in reality, power relations and gender
divisions are not given, but are fast changing and are determined and
influenced by market outcomes and vice versa.

4.7.4 Women’s Work in Marxian Framework

Marxist thought views women’s economic status as a direct result of the
capitalist family structure. Since the primary concern of Marxian framework
is class relations, the production relations, the social, economic and historical
bearing of class relations to some extent reflect gender considerations. In the
Marxist perspective gender issues are considered as a part of class problems.

With the rise of the feminist movement, a number of studies have come
up on women’s labour using a Marxist feminist perspective . Accordingly,
the perspectives of both feminism and Marxism are combined to build a
theoretical framework, where the theory of patriarchy and the evolution of
capitalism are harmonized.

Box No 4.2

The major studies on women and labour market are mainly based on
this fusion of the theory of patriarchy and Marxist ideology. The
concept of women as a ‘reserve army of labour’ and the theory of
labour market segmentation are important developments in this
regard. In the Marxist framework, ‘reserve army of labour’ is the
precondition and is the resultant of capitalist development, which is
mainly due to the replacement of labour by machines. The
disadvantaged position of women in the labour market (patriarchal
theory) has led to the identification of women as ‘reserve army of
labour’ automatically. Women labour, thus, were identified as the
most volatile part of the labour force that would be thrown out or
absorbed depending upon the conditions of the business cycle. The
theory of patriarchy assigned lower or subordinate positions in the
segmented labour market to women. These studies were successful
in opening up the issue of gendering of work and women’s subordinate
position within the labour market. However, the conditions under
which women enter the labour market were ignored. The importance
of household as a unit and the role of women in the household were
also not addressed due to over emphasis on labour process and
capitalist production.
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Yet another development in synthesizing the theory of patriarchy and Marxism Women and Work

during the 1970s and 1980s was the domestic labour debate. Contrary to
the traditional Marxist position about the unproductive nature of domestic
labour, the debate emphasised that domestic labour involves production of
simple use values for direct consumption, and more importantly the
production and reproduction of special commodity, labour power. The central
argument was that domestic labour produced surplus values, which were
then transferred from the domestic to the capitalist sphere. The concept
ignores the distinct nature of domestic work and the rationality that governs
it. However, the debate had played a crucial role in opening up the
importance of domestic labour as the source of discrimination of women.
The debate on the prominence of housework and its importance in household
economy has exposed the role of domestic work in the sexual division of
labour and women’s employment.

These theoretical paradigms and frameworks continue to provide certain

broad perspectives within which women’s work is analysed and debated.
This explains the marginal status and inadequate attention attached to
women’ work within studies on employment or work in general. Accordingly,
unpaid work, both economic and care work, has largely remained outside
the realm of major theoretical developments. This has resulted in the poor
representation of issues of women workers in policy debates and thus in
policy formulations across the globe. So far, you have read about some
broad theoretical ideas and debates related to women work. Below, we
turn to the specific context of India to further our analysis of the relationship
between women and work.

4.8 WOMEN AND WORK IN INDIA

In India, too, the understanding and analysis of women and work are largely
biased to that of economic work. The interest in women and work in India
can be traced back to late 1970s, which was more or less a response to the
Census Report of 1971 and the report of the Committee on the Status of
Women in India in 1975. The debate around women’s work was largely
towards making visible ‘unpaid economic work’. By highlighting women’s
contribution towards unpaid economic work a number of scholars challenged
both the definition of work (and labour) and the methods of data collection
used for collecting official statistics.

A review of the economic roles played by women in India reveals certain

clearly distinct trends. In the traditional village community, women played
a distinct and accepted role in the process of earning a livelihood for the
family. Among poor households, in most parts of the country and particularly
among marginal farmers and landless workers, earning a livelihood is often
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Gender and Institutions a family endeavour with or without division of labour between men, women
and children. However, the pattern of women’s participation in economic
activities varies according to regional and cultural norms.

In the initial phase of industrial development, most industries continued the

traditional pattern of family participation and employed a considerable
number of women. While they confined them to certain unskilled and
semi-skilled types of work at lower rates of wages, in terms of proportion
of total labour employed, women constituted an important segment of the
labour force in these industries. However, technological changes and
modernisation have affected the employment of women. While for few this
has opened up new opportunities, a majority of women lost employment or
were segregated towards the lower rungs of employment. Thus, now, most
women work in semi-marketised, semi- monetised, non-contractual
subsistence activities either in agriculture, petty production and services.
Apart from their contribution to production for the market a large proportion
of women are also involved in production activities largely for self
consumption such as family farming, processing of primary products etc.
The National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the
Informal Sector (1988), underlined this critical contribution of marginalized
poor women to the growth of the economy. Enlarging the definition of
women’s work and inclusion of women’s work to include both paid and
unpaid work and recognition of women’s unpaid work were some of the
recommendations made.

The definition of work and data collection methods has undergone many
changes following criticisms and interventions during the last few decades.
Thus, much of the economic work that women undertake is now included
under the definition of work, though the actual collection of data is still
poor. The two important sources of information on participation in economic
activity are the Census and the NSSO, of which the second is the most
accepted source with regard to female employment. Unpaid care work still
remains a neglected area with no concrete and sustained efforts to capture
this dimension. Let us now look at some recent development in this area.

4.9 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ON WOMEN AND WORK

IN INDIA

In many countries, a major goal of the process of liberalisation has been

either towards encouraging poor women to stay at home or pushing them
to take up paid employment. In India, although there has been no explicit
state intervention, economic reforms have tremendous impact on the
livelihood of a large section of the population. The easiest prey of the
overall changes in the development policy is poor women, with their labour
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market participation becoming critical for the survival of families. The Women and Work

burden of supporting the family is increasingly falling on women as men

become involuntarily or voluntarily unemployed or their incomes are
insufficient for the survival of the families.

4.9.1 Discourse on Feminisation

Work Participation Rate is the most important variable that mirrors the
labour market. There has been a considerable concern about the proper
measurement of female participation in economic activity since 1970s which
has resulted in some revisions in methods and definitions. An important
debate in the context of women and work, especially during the period of
globalisation has been that of feminisation vs. marginalisation of women.
The concept of feminisation of work is based on assumption of rational
individuals and perfect markets. Within this framework, the deregulation of
labor markets (informalisation) necessitated by global production systems is
argued to favour women in terms of cost effectiveness resulting in increased
absorption of women popularly termed as feminisation of jobs. Feminsation
of work would imply either higher work participation for women or an
increase in female share in total employment. In India, work participation
rate for women has always been less compared to many other developing
countries. Women’s work participation rate in 2004-05 was only 28.7 per
cent compared to 54.7 per cent for males, which is indicative of the lower
participation of women in economic activities. The urban work participation
rates for women are particularly low across the years. Not only is female
work participation rate less compared to men but it has almost stagnated
across various years with fluctuations. The data, thus, does not show any
trend towards feminization of work, which has been one of the most
contentious discussions during the period.

Table 4.1: Work force participation rate in NSSO Rounds (Usual Status)

Rural Urban Total

1993- 1999- 2004- 1993- 1999- 2004- 1993- 1999- 2004-

1994 2000 05 94 2000 2005 1994 2000 2005

Male 55.3 53.1 54.6 52.1 51.8 54.9 54.5 52.7 54.7

Female 32.8 29.9 32.7 15.5 13.9 16.6 28.6 25.9 28.7

Total 44.4 41.7 43.9 34.7 33.7 36.5 42.0 39.7 42.0

Source: Various Rounds of NSSO

The stagnation and fluctuation in participation rate to some extent could

be related to the social attitudes to women’s work outside home. Though
there have been some changes over the period, these are limited to only
a small section of the population. In some sections, economic pressure has
led to a decline of the traditional prejudice against women working outside
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Gender and Institutions the home. In a small subsection of others, exposure to education is enabling
women to take up employment. But for a larger group, social restriction on
women working outside homes still continue to limit their participation in
economic activities undertaken outside home. Even in the event of economic
pressure, the social pressure on women to remain within the boundaries of
households and the pressure of house work is evident from the proportion
of women who showed willingness to take up economic work, provided such
work is done at home, during the 2004-05 employment –unemployment
survey. Of the 56.8 per cent of women reporting domestic work, 35.7 per
cent of the women in rural areas and 29.4 per cent of women in urban
areas showed willingness to do other work if this work could be done at
home. After learning why women are not able to take up work outside
home, let us now have a look at another dimension of women as workers
that is as self employed workers.

4.9.2 Women as Self Employed Workers

In India, self employment has been central to women’s work. One of the
major discourses during the period of liberalisation has been directed at
women as self employed workers originating from the perception that
beneficial effects of liberalisation lay in expanding the relationship between
women ‘entrepreneurs’ in informal sector and wider markets. Accordingly,
the importance and future possibilities of the sector has been among the
highlights of many of the major policy documents on women during the
period of globalisation. Employment is often divided broadly under three
categories – regular, self employed and casual work.

Table 4.2: Percentage Distribution of Employment by Status- Usual Status

Employment Status Rural Urban Total

and Year Male Female Male Female Male Female

Self-Employed

1993-94 57.7 58.6 41.7 45.8 53.6 56.8

1999-2000 55.0 57.3 41.5 45.3 51.2 55.5

2004 -05 58.1 63.7 44.8 47.7 54.2 61.0

Regular Workers

1993-94 8.5 2.7 42.0 28.4 17.1 6.3

1999-2000 8.8 3.1 41.7 33.3 18.1 7.8

2004 -05 9.0 3.7 40.6 35.6 18.3 9.0

Casual Workers

1993-94 33.8 38.7 16.3 25.8 29.3 36.9

1999-2000 36.2 39.6 16.8 21.4 30.7 36.8

2004 -05 32.9 32.6 14.6 16.7 27.5 30.0

Source: Employment and Unemployment Reports, Various Rounds of NSSO
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Self employment has of course always predominated over wage employment Women and Work
as far as women are concerned because of the predominance of peasant
agriculture. Self employment represents the largest chunk of female
employment accounting for 61 per cent of all female workers in 2004-05.
The shares of other regular and casual wage workers among women are 9
per cent and 30 per cent respectively.

Self employment is not a homogenous category and hence increase in self

employment is not indicative of any improvement in the working conditions.
One of the most striking features of female self employment is the extremely
high share of unpaid work by women in both rural and urban areas (76 per
cent and 49 per cent of the total self employed respectively). Self employed
unpaid workers work in family enterprises or farms as helpers and hence
do not receive any wage or cash benefit in return.

Yet another concept often used in the discussion on work is that of home
based workers, which are at times used interchangeably with self employed
workers. Location of production and employee- employer relations are the
central variables which distinguish home based workers from self employed
workers. As per the definition followed by the Ministry of Labour and
Employment, Government of India, home based workers are those who are
engaged in the production of goods or services for an employer or contractor
in an arrangement whereby the work is carried out at the place of the
workers’ own choice, often the workers own home. Many women engaged
in beedi making, and also those who are engaged at the lower end of the
production chains in many domestic as well as export industries such as
garment and electronics are home based workers. The discussion here on
self employed women workers takes us to yet another practice where
women workers are not covered against occupational hazards or social
security measures provided by employment in formal sector.

4.9.3 Informalisation of Female Employment

Another distinction which is often drawn in the discussion on employment
is that of organised and unorganised/informal sector. Labour relations
form the key to informal work, which are based mostly on casual employment,
kinship or personal or social relations rather than contractual arrangements
with formal guarantees. The informal sector has typically been categorised as
a residual, catch-all sector, of all economic activities outside the “formal”,
“organised” or “registered” sectors. Work in the informal sector is less remunerative
and conditions are inferior to organised sector work. Much of what is the
“formal” sector today relies on informal activities, through sub-contracting and
related arrangements where women are engaged on a large scale.

It is frequently argued that women are found to be over-represented in the

informal sector because the flexibilities of work involved in such activities,
especially in home-based work, are advantageous to women workers given
their other needs and the other demands upon their time in the form of
unpaid labour. This is certainly the case to a significant extent, because
much employment in the formal sector is based on the “male breadwinner” 269
Gender and Institutions model that does not give adequate space or freedom to women who are
also faced with substantial domestic responsibilities given the gender
construction of societies and the division of labour within households.
However, these constraints upon women’s time and freedom to choose –
which are imposed by society rather than self-created – are exploited by
employers to ensure much more work for less pay being performed by
women. The gender gap in wages is still significant, with women workers
across all categories of work receiving much less than their male counterparts.

4.9.4 Servicisation of Women’s Employment

Agriculture and other primary activities still remain central to women’s
work in India with close to 73 per cent of all women employed in the
primary sector. Manufacturing accounts, for the second largest sector -
beedi making, textiles and garments, account for the largest chunk of
women workers. However, the prominence of service sector in women’s
employment cannot be ignored, not only because of its growing importance
in women’s employment but also because of the growing concentration of
women in certain sections. Service sector accounts for a large number of
occupations and activities ranging from the highly skilled and remunerative
jobs to that of unskilled and poorly paid jobs. Within service sector,
community, social and personal services account for the largest chunk of
women workers with female share in the industry increasing over the years.
A sub-categorisation of these sectors shows signs of segmentation, with
education, health services and domestic work accounting for the maximum
number of women in the sector.

Table 4.3: Distribution of female workers across various industrial categories-

Usual Status

Industrial Category 1999-00 2004-05

1 2 3 1 2 3
Agriculture, forestry and fishing 912023 74.88 38.74 1079652 72.42 41.63
Mining and quarrying 3842 0.32 17.14 4221 0.28 16.52
Mfrg & repair services 123355 10.13 28.24 174039 11.67 31.05
Electricity, gas and water 375 0.03 3.61 494 0.03 4.07
Construction 20343 1.67 11.66 28024 1.88 10.75
Trade, hotels and restaurants 52325 4.30 12.78 61208 4.11 12.31
Transport, storage and 4408 0.36 3.01 5945 0.40 3.19
communication
Finance, insurance, real estate 4692 0.39 9.61 9152 0.61 11.72
and business services
Community, social and 96587 7.93 28.94 128026 8.59 33.93
personal services
Estimated Workers (‘00) 1217950 100.00 30.94 1490759 100.00 32.47

Source: NSSO Employment and Unemployment Data, Various Rounds

Notes: 1- Absolute number of workers (‘00): 2- Sectoral share in total female
employment; 3 – Female share in total employment
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As you can see from the table on page 270, education, which is often seen Women and Work

as the most acceptable profession for women, accounts for the largest
share of female employment within this sector. In education, female teachers
at the primary level have increased slowly to about 40 per cent in 2004-
05. Though education accounts for the largest segment (accounting for 38
per cent of women workers within services) and also in terms of growth in
this category, domestic workers assume special significance. The number
of women engaged in domestic work shows a phenomenal increase with the
share of this category increasing from 11.8 per cent to 27.1 per cent in a
span of 5 years. This phenomenal increase means that paid domestic work
has become one of the most important sectors of women’s work.

Thus, the growing areas of paid employment are those which appear to
have a ‘natural’ link to women’s care work and the timings of which are
seen to enable them to fulfil their domestic ‘responsibilities’. Further,
female employment continues to concentrate in areas akin to their care
responsibilities or where they can easily combine both care work and
‘employment’.

4.9.5 Women as Unpaid Care Workers

The fact that a large section of women remain outside the official work
force definition, suggests the invisibility of women’s unpaid care work. As
discussed earlier, unpaid care work does limit women’s ability to take up
paid work. Further, it also affects women’s choices within given employment
possibilities. Though women’s engagement in reproductive and unpaid care
work is known, the magnitude and nature of unpaid care work and the
gender difference are revealing. The only data available to look at the
reproductive or household work assumes particular significance in any
discussion on women’s work is the time use data collected by Central
Statistical Organisation. The data distinguishes three broad categories of
activity based on the standard international system of accounting - SNA,
Extended SNA and Non SNA.

• The SNA activities include primary production activities like agriculture,

animal husbandry, fishing, forestry, processing and storage, mining and
quarrying; secondary activities like construction and manufacturing;
and tertiary activities such as trade, business and other services.

• Extended SNA activities include household maintenance, care for

children, the sick and the elderly, and community and voluntary work.

• Learning, personal care and self maintenance, and social and cultural
activities are categorized as Non-SNA activities.

Activities covered under SNA are much broader than the definition followed
in the labour force definition and hence there will be a difference in
workforce estimates. Despite these limitations, analysis across these broad
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Gender and Institutions categories of SNA and extended SNA would give important insights into the
division between ‘economic’ work and unpaid care work.

An overview of the distribution of participants (those from whom time

disposition data was collected) in terms of their participation in a day in
only SNA, only Extended SNA (care work) or in both is given below. The
pattern is important from a gender perspective as women generally
participate in both SNA and care work in larger numbers than men. Let us
examine this table:

Table 4.4: Percentage distribution of participants in only SNA, in extended SNA

and in both SNA and extended SNA

Rural Only SNA Only ESNA SNA & ESNA No SNA or ESNA

Combined Male 43.8 5.1 40.6 10.5

states Female 2.6 19.1 73.5 4.7

Urban

Combined Male 32.3 9.0 41.7 17.0

States Female 1.7 49.7 41.5 7.1

Source: Time Use Statistics, Unit level data, 1999

As you can see from the above table, the gender difference is striking.
While a large proportion of men did only SNA, very few women belonged
to this category. For rural females, while ‘both SNA and extended SNA’
accounted for the largest proportion, in urban areas women engaged in
‘only extended SNA’ constituted the largest share.

What is to be noted specifically is that a large proportion of women were

active in both SNA and extended SNA, unlike men, and that the female-
male difference in SNA was much smaller than that in extended SNA. Apart
from whether an individual participated in SNA / ESNA or both what is more
important for the issue under study is the time spent on these activities.

Table 4.5: Average daily spent on SNA and unpaid care work – age 10 and above

Categories Rural Urban

Male Female Male Female

Hour/ Parti. Hour/ Parti. Hour/ Parti. Hour/ Parti.

minutes rate minutes rate minutes rate minutes rate

SNA 7.6 84.4 4.4 76.1 8.1 74.0 3.2 43.2

ESNA 1.2 47.7 5.5 92.6 1.1 50.7 6.1 91.2

Source: Time Use Statistics, Unit level data, 1999

Women spent a significantly larger proportion of the day in unpaid care

work and the male-female difference was very sharp, irrespective of rural/
urban difference. In rural areas, women spent about 5.5 hours of the day
272
on unpaid care work while men spent only 1.2 hours of their day on such Women and Work

work. The male –female difference in care work was slightly more in urban
areas with women spending about 6.1 hours of their day on unpaid care
work and men spending almost the same time as their rural counterparts.
Women who participated in SNA work alongside unpaid care work are
burdened with ‘double shifts’, an aspect repeatedly described in feminist
writings on women, work, and family.

Public policies are largely silent on care giving and care givers and families
are assumed to find ways and means of addressing these aspects. Care
giving is regarded primarily as a private matter, where women are assumed
to take up care responsibilities. Given this social policy understanding of
care work, the survival needs of the family often take a toll on women,
making them doubly disadvantaged both within the labour market as well
as homes. Policies forcing women to take up employment regardless of the
conditions of work, assume that any job is more beneficial to families of
these women, than care work they provide at home. This comes from the
notion that household work is not work and that reproductive work is a
private responsibility which has lead to the devaluation of care work and
that of women who perform such work - whether paid or unpaid. The
assumption, often implicit, that women seeking care work are motivated by
emotional rewards of work is also central to the under remuneration of care
work and its poor terms and conditions. The lack of recognition of the
public value of care workforces are evident from the lack of any labour
laws to protect the interest of paid domestic workers or in the categorisation
of women involved in the social welfare programmes of the state as ‘non-
workers’.

4.10 LET US SUM UP

As you have seen in this unit how women’s work generally receive marginal
treatment because much of it is “invisible” in terms of market criteria or
even in terms of socially dominant perceptions of what constitutes “work”.
You know now that many of the activities associated with household
maintenance, provisioning and reproduction largely performed by women
are not subject to explicit market relations. Also, there is an inherent
tendency to ignore the actual productive contribution of these activities.
Similarly, social norms, values and perceptions also operate which makes
many household-based activities “invisible”. The empirical data on various
aspects of women’s work are also inadequate, unreliable and biased,
reflecting the poor understanding of the various dimensions of work. Women,
as an analytical category in the study of work within productive sphere,
have undergone significant changes over the years. However, the issues
addressed still remain more or less same. The discrimination against women
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Gender and Institutions in the labour market in terms of participation, occupational segregation;
and differential wages are still looming large as issues. The inseparability
of women’s role as economic agents in the labour market and the
reproductive role in the household, though is widely acknowledged is yet
to receive attention in wider analysis and policies.

4.11 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Discuss how women’s work has been excluded in mainstream definitions

of ‘work’?

2) Illustrate underlying theoretical assumptions for women and work.

3) Discuss contemporary concept of women and work in India.

4.12 REFERENCES

Ben, fine (1992). Women’s Employment and the Capitalist Family: Towards
a political economy of gender and labour markets. London: Routledge.

Beneria, Lourdes (2003). Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics

as if All People Mattered. London: Routledge.

Beneria, Lourdes & Feldman, Shelley (1992). (Eds.). Unequal Burden:

Economic Crises, Persistent Poverty, and Women’s Work. Westview Press.

Boserup, Ester (1970). Women’s Role in Economic Development. St. Martin’s

Press.

Ghosh, Jyati (2009). Never done and poorly paid: Women’s work in Globalising
India. New Delhi: Women Unlimited.

Government of India (1974). Towards equality, Report of the Committee

on the Status of Women in India. New Delhi: Ministry of Education & Social
Welfare, Govt. of India.

Government of India (1988). Shramsakthi Report – National Commission on

Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector. New Delhi:
Ministry of Women and Child Development, Govt. of India.

Kalpagam, Uma (1994). Labour and Gender: Survival in Urban India. New
Delhi: Sage Publications.

Mazumdar, Indrani (2006). Women Workers and Globalization: Emergent

Contradictions in India. Calcutta: Stree.

Prugl, Elisabeth (1999). The Global Construction of Gender: Home-based

Work in the Political Economy of the 20th Century. Columbia University
Press.
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Razavi, Shahra (2007). The Political and Social Economy of Care in a Women and Work

Development Context: Conceptual Issues, Research Questions and Policy

Options, Gender and Development, Political and Social Economy of Care.
Paper No. 3, UNRISD, Geneva.

Waring, Marilyn (1990). If Women Counted: a New Feminist Economics.

Harper Collins

4.13 SUGGESTED READINGS

Boserup, Ester (1970). Women’s Role in Economic Development. St. Martin’s

Press.

Ghosh, Jyati (2009). Never done and poorly paid: Women’s work in Globalising
India. New Delhi: Women Unlimited.

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