Chapter IV WOMEN AND WORK Introduction Working Women in India (a) Background (b) Problems and Issues about

Women and Work (c) The Ideology of Mahatma Gandhi towards Women and Work (d) Ground Reality Conclusion Introduction Women have been a part of the workforce in every society. Since primitive times, the nature of jobs they have held from time to time have been female oriented. Also, these jobs have been less paying than those held by men. Studies across the world through time have revealed that female-oriented jobs are less paying. Till the 1990s, the percentage of women opting for male-dominated jobs was meager. In primitive, subsistence and agricultural economies, women have been working on the farm gathering wood, carrying head loads, rearing sheep and cattle, weaving, stitching and midwifery. With industrialization, there was a shift in labour and both men and women from primary and secondary occupations culminated in migration from rural to urban areas and absorption into the tertiary sector with some skill and some education. This led to an increase in exposure to a distinct bifurcation of occupations for men and occupations for women. Interestingly, the socio-economic status of the working woman is largely determined by the kind of job she holds rather than by her being a woman per se and even lesser by the fact that she actually holds a job and is capable of economic self-reliance. In the history of the international womens movement, the year 1931 provides a landmark, which again seems to have missed the attention of most historians. The Chinese Communist Party, already in the throes of its revolutionary struggle, adopted a resolution on gender equality at its Party congress in the same year. The immediate effort that was initiated to translate this intention into reality was in land reform, recognizing peasant womens right to own agricultural land.i Two international conferences on womens equality were also held at Lahore, and immediately afterwards at Geneva.ii With employment, women cease to remain objects of social change because they become agents of social change. They do not remain confined to being consumers of economic goods and services but extend their role to become producers of economic goods and services in exchange. They participate in social and economic production and also reproduce labour for the next generation. In this sense, they are both labour and reproducers of labour. Jawaharlal Nehru has said, The habit of looking upon marriage as a profession almost as the sole economic refuge for women will have to go before we can have any freedom. Freedom depends on economic conditions even more than political ones and if a woman is not economically free and selfearning, she will have to depend on her husband or on someone else and dependents are never

2 free. The association of man and woman should be of perfect freedom and perfect comradeship with no dependence of one on the other. Time has shown however, that across the world, paid employment of women does not necessarily lead to the economic independence of women. Structural changes in the economy have caused the displacement of many women into occupational sectors that are gender-specific, low-wage, and low-benefit employment opportunities. Moreover, the shift into a knowledgebased economy has meant that those females with the least educational attainment and the least work skills will be least likely to experience work opportunities that can effectively and permanently move them and their families out of poverty. Men find these occupations less attractive and leave the field open to women. The downward pressure on wages in occupations invaded by women would not happen if women stopped flocking a few occupations and were trained for an entire range of economic activities open to men, writes Esther Boserup.iii With strides made in economic development in any country, women move into the industrial and tertiary sectors for employment. To begin with, they enter jobs that were previously manned by men but are equally fit for women. But as these jobs cannot absorb all women wishing to enter, surplus women go into other occupations that may or may not be in keeping with their traditional job expectations. As soon as women enter these occupations, Boserupiv adds that economic considerations resulting from a suddenly increased supply of labour for a given occupation exerts a downward pressure on wages. Rapid increase in industrialization and urbanization on the one hand and rise in poverty and unemployment on the other has changed the work and family demographics of most of the worlds economies. In the wake of socio-economic changes sweeping through LDCs, the women in these countries divorced, abandoned, widowed, unmarried are struggling against overwhelming odds to earn a subsistence living and to bring up their children. The gendered character of poverty, known as the feminization of poverty represents a global phenomenon. With the exception of only a few nations, women experience the burden of poverty disproportionately. Though the problem has been identified and named, understanding the complex socio-economic causes of this pauperization of women and the ways in which public policy can address the fundamental basis for such inequality proves much more challenging. The implications of feminized poverty go beyond the economic status of women. The feminization of poverty is a term given to the phenomenon in which women experience poverty as far higher rates than men. Most governments have lagged behind in using social and economic policies to combat the tendency for women and their children to find themselves among the ranks of the poor. v In her seminal essay introducing the concept, Diane Pearce pronounced that the feminization of poverty represented a fundamental paradox. Although the 1960s and 1970s were characterized by the womens liberation movement, fostering remarkable achievements in gender equality, affirmative action, and increased participation in the paid labor force, this era also represented a time during which poverty was identified as a female problem. vi Despite all of the potential for the improvement of womens economic stability, women nonetheless accounted for a strikingly larger proportion of the poverty population. These factors underscore the fact that paid employment for women does not necessarily lead to their economic

3 independence and the freedom of choice, indicators for their empowerment in economic, social and filial terms. If this be true, then why do women need to get into paid employment at all? Working Women in India Background Article 14 of the Indian Constitution states that all persons, male and female, are equal before the law and shall get equal protection before the law. Article 15 states that there shall be no discrimination against any person on grounds of sex. Article 16 guarantees equality of opportunity in matters of public employment irrespective of sex. But reality shows that all these constitutional rights are more in theory than in practice. The Hindu Code, passed as separate Acts between 1950 and 1955 rewrote for Hindus, the laws of marriage and divorce, marriage and adoption. Adult suffrage added women to electoral roles and political parties pledged their commitment to womens issues. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act enacted in 1971 sought to legalize abortions provided they are carried out under conditions specified in the MTP Act. But illegal abortions have not stopped at all because of unmarried pregnancies and the fear of social stigma they carry. The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. Within the framework of a democratic polity, our laws, development policies, Plans and programmes have aimed at womens advancement in different spheres. From the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78) onwards, there has been a marked shift in the approach to womens issues from welfare to development. In recent years, the empowerment of women has been recognised as the central issue in determining the status of women. The National Commission for Women was set up by an Act of Parliament (1990) to safeguard the rights and legal entitlements of women. The 73 rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Constitution of India have provided for reservation of seats in the local bodies of the Panchayats and Municipalities for women, laying a strong foundation for their participation in decision making at local levels. India has also ratified various international conventions and human rights instruments committing to secure equal rights of women. Key among them is the ratification of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1993. The womens movement and a wide-spread network of non-Governmental Organizations that have strong grass-roots presence and offer deep insight into womens concerns have contributied in inspiring initiatives for the empowerment of women. However, there still exists a wide gap between the goals enunciated in the Constitution, legislation, policies, plans, programmes and related mechanisms on the one hand and the situational reality of the status of women in India on the other. This has been analysed extensively in the Report on the Committee on the Status of Women in India, Towards Equality (1974) and highlighted in the National Perspective Plan for Women 1988-2000, the Shramshakti Report, 1988 and the Platform of Action, Five Years After An Assessment.

4 The underlying causes of gender inequality are related to social and economic structures that are based on informal and formal norms and practices. Consequently, the access of women, particularly those belonging to weaker sections including Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and minorities, majority of whom are in the rural areas and in the informal, unorganized sector to education, health and productive resources, among others, is inadequate. They remain largely marginalised, poor and socially excluded. Problems and Issues about Women and Work The ever-increasing phenomenon of women in employment has been caused by any one of more of the following factors: (a) Economic necessity created by poverty towards creating and/or sustaining a need-based upkeep of the family unit; (b) Absence of financial, infra-structural support in the form of income from other members of the family such as husband, father, brothers, son, etc; (c) Break-up of the extended family system in urban societies specially in India where nuclear families place pressure on basic living costs on space and survival needs of each nuclear family, forcing the female partner to get into employment even if she is unwilling to do so; (d) The rise in the number of female-headed families by virtue of widowhood, single, unmarried state, desertion by the male head of the family, divorce, separation and so on; (e) Education and training of women that invests them with skills and training to enter into the job market of their choice; (f) Career ambitions of educated women who continue with their jobs and stay on in their careers with aspirations towards vertical and horizontal mobility on the job. (g) The maternal deprivation syndrome originated in the West and spread across South Asian cultures later on. This element was introduced in a WHO Report more than 50 years ago. It was based on the premise that mother-love in infancy is as essential for normal psychological development of the child as vitamins are for its normal physical development. Modern-day psychologists however, state that the WHO Report exaggerated the effects of the mothers absence because (i) it was based on incomplete information; (ii) it was strongly influenced by studies of children brought up in institutions where the quality of child care left much room for improvement. In India, the mother, whether she knows about the WHO Report or not, is socially conditioned to believe that without the mothers presence for period of time, the child suffers both physically and mentally. The first block against the successful working of womens empowerment through employment is their struggle against poverty for basic survival. The oppression of Indian women is structural and explicit. Indian women are socially attuned to their oppression and have high levels of tolerance. These two form the second and third impending blocks to their liberation from socio-economic and patriarchal bondage. The endemic oppression of women in our country results from the social structure that reinforced the oppression and makes it visible in practices and accepted incidents like child-marriage, dowry, domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment at work, female foeticide and female infanticide, and so on. The main tenets of the oppression are economic oppression, sexual exploitation and psychological deprivation. Ironically however, Indian women never had to fight for their right to vote as it was structured into the Indian Constitution during the formation of the Indian Democratic Republic in 1950. The

5 constitutional right to equality on grounds of sex acknowledges that the family should basically be an egalitarian unit founded on equal rights and the willing choice of both partners who enter marriage to shape it. For the majority of women in this country, equality of status with the men in the family makes sense only if it translates to their equal participation in the improvement in the material condition of the family to the level of human dignity. Equality should mean freedom from bonded labour from the landlords house. Equality should translate into freedom from having to walk long distances to fetch water and fuel; freedom from having to go hungry to feed the children and the labouring men; freedom from lack of medical care and rest before, during and after childbirth. For working class women in small towns and cities, it should mean freedom from hours of queuing up for rations and kerosene; freedom from endless vigils for filling water; freedom from crippling and long hours of work; freedom from the anxiety linked to their childrens welfare and illness; freedom from the constant worry over childrens education and jobs that are difficult to come by. Educated and urban women in a slightly higher position in the job market, also suffer from invisible inequalities with their men on all fronts. There is the constant pressure of working under duress to make both ends meet; they suffer from the insecurity of being the first ones to be thrown out in case of retrenchments; they must daily put up with the barbaric conditions of public transport while going to and coming back from their work place; they are constantly in fear of being sexually harassed by the male boss or colleague they can do little about despite legal provisions that are only on paper. The ability to share these crippling factors with their men might help lighten the emotional oppressiveness of their situation. But sharing alone will not offer them material and real equality with their men. This is precisely why many womens organizations of the country linked to the womens movement say that womens struggle for equality is inextricably linked with the struggle of all people for a better life. When women actively step in to participate in democratic struggles, they create both the material as well as the social conditions for their fight for equal status with their men. The Ideology of Mahatma Gandhi towards Women and Work With Gandhi, for the first time, a distinct approach to the role of women in society began to make itself felt. The leadership realized that women were condemned to slavery. vii Thus, the leadership sought to liberalize the family so that womens activities in the public domain "within politically acceptable limits", could expand.viii What exactly did the phrase politically acceptable limits imply? Politically acceptable to whom? Who determined the limits of this so-called political acceptance? The leaders themselves who were men? It is thus clear that the motives for bringing women out to participate in the public sphere were largely in the interests of men and were also determined and decided by men. So, what kind of liberation was this from domestic slavery?ix Women were urged to give up the purdah, and to liberate themselves from their familycentered roles to participate in the countrys struggle for freedom. Gandhi viewed womens oppression as historic and nearly universal.xHe lamented (a) their non-participation in social and political affairs, (b) their sexual subjugation to their role as mans plaything, (c) their lack of autonomy in the use of their bodies, and (d) their backward consciousness which made them

6 accept their low social position. But he also believed that women had the courage, the endurance and the moral strength to deal with these oppressions. In his view, these qualities made women natural leaders of a non-violent struggle against an unjust socio-political system. He wanted to feminize politics because women had the potential to give a blow to the established sociopolitical power structure and they could be the vanguards of a non-violent struggle for a just and non-exploitative socio-political order."xi Though this seemed a radical stance, the kernel of womens oppression - the sexual division of labour resulting in the subordination of the woman in the structure of material production was neither questioned nor altered. It is interesting to note the views of the same Gandhi when he speaks of the education of women. In framing any scheme of womens education, this cardinal truth must be constantly kept in mind: man is supreme in the outward activities of a married world, and therefore, it is in the fitness of things that he should have a greater knowledge thereof. On the other hand, home life is entirely the sphere of women, and therefore, in domestic affairs, in the upbringing of children and in their education, women ought to have more knowledge.xii This shows that Gandhi reinforced the sexual division of labour, which led, according to Karl Marx, to inequality between the sexes. Instead of decrying it, Gandhi supported the division. Men were not opposed to Gandhi drawing their women out onto the streets to participate in the nationalist movement because Gandhi did not really challenge the established patriarchal order. He did not disturb the status quo of the conventional Indian family. He did not ask women to break their fetters. He held that woman was not inferior to man but that her role was different. Political participation was not to be at the cost of domestic duties. Service to her husband, family and country was a womans primary duty. Gandhi advised women who wished to dedicate themselves totally to the cause of freedom to remain unmarried. Dr. Susheela Nayar and Ushabehn Thakkar are examples of this Gandhian rule. For couples who were similarly dedicated, he advised celibacy and no children. Acharya J.B.Kripalani and his wife Sucheta followed this ideal to the letter. Men, therefore, did not find Gandhis appeal to women threatening their own dominant position within the family. The power-equation within the home remained undisturbed. Gandhi still spoke of Sita as the ideal wife. His aim was to use the traditional role of the Indian woman to extend these to the wider political sphere. The logic was simple if not simplistic: she was used to sacrificing for her husband, her children, her family; therefore, she was now being asked to sacrifice for her countrys freedom.xiii Legally speaking, Gandhi made it clear that he was uncompromising in the matter of womens rights. Yet, he also believed that since legal reform would not solve the problem, it should not be accorded greater attention or effort than it deserved. According to him, since relationships between the sexes were not unlike those between other groups unequal in power, the liberation of women was inextricably tied to the liberation of India, the removal of untouchability and the amelioration of the economic condition of the masses. xiv Gandhi deplored the fact that women who belonged to womens organizations were out of touch with their rural sisters. He preferred them to spend more time to find out about the lives of women in villages.xv Gandhi critiqued women leaders for 'foolishly' thinking that any law or code could solve the problems of rural women. Many elite women seemed to agree. Yet, they continued to work

7 for the reform of the legal system. They were neither foolish nor selfish. They did not agree with Gandhi about the direction of social change. They aimed at gaining legal measures to grant women some degree of equality. Measures were designed to (a) equalize womens right to divorce, (b) systematize marriage, (c) give protection in the case of desertion, (d) grant them guardianship over their children, and (e) make it possible for females to obtain a share in the family property. Though the gains were less than originally hoped for, there was victory in terms of organization and systematization of the law.xvi Gandhi was certainly a catalyst in bringing women into the nationalist movement on a mass scale. His approach appealed to women whose long experience in passive resistance and silent suffering he acknowledged, and to men who were willing to entrust women into his guardianship.xvii Gandhi needed women to convert the campaign into a mass movement. But he liked to be in control of the womens actions and got angry when they stepped out of line. One must grant Gandhi his skill in holding womens discontents within the overall nationalist cause. He effectively mediated these discontents so that they remained targeted exclusively at imperialism. He did this not only with the masses of women who came out onto the streets to campaign but also with the mass of peasants and working class men whose caste and class grievances he kept in check.xviii Gandhi recognized the power of the women and the lower castes and contained it for the cause of Independence, uniting the nation behind the freedom struggle at the expense of injustices within caste, class and gender relations.xix All this sums up Gandhis ambivalence on the political role of women in preIndependence India. The leadership was against the excessive subordination of women by men. But not to the fact that women generally played a socially subordinate role . Both liberals and radicals in the nationalist movement regarded womens political participation as an extension of their filial roles within the home. Women were mobilized to participate in the freedom movement because they were ideally suited to carry on non-violent, passive resistance, which the hierarchical structure of the traditional family had moulded them into. The Gandhian leadership urged women to function in the order of husband, family and country. If there were a conflict between family and country, filial responsibilities would come first. xx Womens political participation was not to be at the cost of their domestic duties. Govind Kelkar aptly sums this up when she writes: The contradiction in Gandhi is related to the entire Gandhian world-view and idealism of mutual cooperation and profound outlook for the development of all, including the powerful class of rich landlords and the social structure of the hierarchical, patriarchal family. Womens political participation was essential to their liberation. But, in the Gandhian context, it has a restricted meaning in a stratified society. It emphasizes the social construct of gender based on disparities and hierarchies in the family and in the community.xxi Ground Reality The concept of working women in India is a reality today. But this does not mean that what they have gained, they have completely digested. This was a new element for them. They wished it since a long time, but when they actually came under its spell, they were a bit confused. Today when they find themselves standing shoulder to shoulder with men in all the occupations, do they find their problems solved? Has this given them the economic

8 independence employment was expected to give? Has it raised their social and economic status within the family? In spite of the employment of women growing against a strong womens movement, the gains for women have been selective, biased and caste and class-ridden. They are burdened with extra pressure of work and dual responsibility. They are faced with the problems of sexual harassment at the work place, of resisting out-station transfers, field-centered jobs for household responsibilities and promotional transfers. The tide began to turn decisively in the mid-nineteenth century when such practices as polygamy, child -marriage, enforced widowhood and Sati were vigorously attacked by social reformists. The 20 th century saw the birth of a strong womens movement, which became a spearhead in the struggle against irrational orthodoxy and discrimination. Nineteenth century reformers, being primarily concerned with the problems of the newly emerging urban middle class, had concentrated all their concerns for women with the problems experienced by women of this class.xxii The image of the suppressed, subjugated and secluded Indian woman - Hindu or Muslim that preoccupied the Indian literati and its counterparts in the west took no note of the millions of Indian women who formed the back-bone of the Indian economy, and who were far greater victims of the colonial transformation of the economy than even the men in their family.xxiii Just in the province of Bengal, 30 lakh women, who formed 1/5th of the women population of the province, earned their livelihood from hand spinning of cotton yarn in late 18th century. By the end of the 19th century, their numbers had dwindled. A similar process hit women in the silk textile industry, and other village industries in different regions of India. As early as 1920, a local womens organisation in Surat was identifying the disappearance of village industries as the basic reason for decline in womens economic and general status. The women who formed nearly 50% of the work force in the jute industry at the turn of the century were rejected from rural society - single women who had to come into town in search of a livelihood. The tribal women who provided the major section of plantation labour and in the coal mines had all been uprooted from agriculture or rural industries. In all the peasant movements that erupted in different parts of the country during the 19th and 20th centuries, women played militant roles. It is surprising that their problems remained outside the concern of most reformers. It is even more surprising that historians who have applauded womens participation in the freedom movement as one of the achievements of Mahatma Gandhi have never gone beyond his charisma to provide an explanation for womens participation. It is still more surprising that chroniclers of peasant and labour movements of this period have paid so little and sometimes no attention to the role of women in these struggles.xxiv The power relations that helped to perpetuate monopolistic control of political, economic and knowledge power by a small minority, thereby making the hierarchy of Indian society virtually impregnable,xxv also perpetuated certain role models, myths and mystification about womens social, economic and political roles that created many false notions about Indian womens roles and exploitations by an intellectual purdah, influencing most national leaders social reformers or nationalist political leaders. As Towards Equality commented: The inequalities inherent in our traditional social structure, based on caste, community, and class have a very significant influence on the status of women in

9 different spheres. Socially accepted rights and expected roles of women, norms governing their behaviour and of others towards them vary among different groups and regions. They are closely affected by the stage and methods of development, and the position held by the group in the social hierarchy. All this makes broad generalisations regarding womens status unrealistic.xxvi The report further pointed that traditional India had seen a woman only as a member of the family or a group - as daughters, wives and mothers - and not as an individual with an identity or right of her own. The radicalism of the Constitution and its deliberate departure from the inherited social system lay in its implicit assumption that every adult woman, whatever her social position or accomplishments, will function as citizen and as an individual partner in the task of nation building.xxvii The Committee on the Status of women in India, which included only highly educated women, in despair had to state that education had become an instrument of inequality between different groups of women, and accused the educational system of strengthening and perpetuating gender inequality, instead of promoting the new value of equality. xxviii The Committee was outraged by the overwhelming evidence of marginalisation and even decimation of the large majority of women demonstrated by demographic indicators. A declining sex ratio in the population and in economic participation, widening gender gap in life expectancy, mortality and illiteracy, and a phenomenal rise in female internal migration provided statistical ballast to what the Commission had learnt from nearly 10,000 women of different classes across the country. All trends had begun long before independence, but what shook the Committees faith was their acceleration in the decades of planned development. Increasing population alone could not explain the fact that Indian Society was treating its women as dispensable assets, economically and demographically.xxix Could it explain the regression from the norms evolved during the freedom struggle demonstrated by escalation of institutions like dowry, domestic oppression, prostitution and commercial use of women as sex objects in business promotion. Though employment generation had been a major objective in all the plans, apparently no one had pointed out that women, too, needed employment. Policies for industrialization and the adoption of new technology, had displaced large numbers of women from the old organised industries (jute, textiles, coal mining), while the attempted revival of village industry had done little to benefit women. Since agriculture could not provide adequate employment to the swelling ranks of the rural poor women, distress migration had increased, to other districts and cities, where the ranks of prostitutes had swollen. Admission of women to public services through competitive examinations, and adopting ILO Conventions in labour laws - that really affected a small sector of the national economy were no substitutes for a consistent and well articulated policy for womens employment and economic equality. Since 85% of women lived in rural areas, the complete absence of their actual economic roles and needs in formulation of policies for agriculture and rural development was inexcusable. Some of the Congress ministries in 1937 had recognised womens right to inherit agricultural land, by extending the personal laws of succession (pre-reform) to agricultural land also. But during the first decade after independence, these laws were changed, replaced by others which discriminated blatantly against women - widows, daughters and

10 mothers.xxx They were enacted by the States. Yet, womens rights were ignored in Zamindari abolition brought across by a Constitutional amendment. Land reforms could not be pushed due to resistance within and outside the party. Women were completely ignored while designing Community Development Programme. This programme and the national extension service designed as its supportive infrastructure were expected to form the base for the national edifice of a socialistic pattern of society.xxxi Development within the framework of economic reforms is often equated to growth rates highlighted as the only solution to all problems be it poverty, unemployment or inequalities based on gender, class and caste. Higher economic growth, apart from having its trickle down effect, is expected to bring in synergies that would finally shake the earlier structures and relationships. Accordingly, it is assumed that a simple correlation exist between womens work and womens status. Thus, an important aspect that is often highlighted in the context of economic reforms is the translation of labour market changes into defining or redefining gender relations and empowerment of women. The supporters of this theory see current development as one that has opened up new and increased opportunities for women. Women are entering into new forms and sectors of work that are highly market oriented and remunerative. In India too, in the aura that has been created around liberalization, a sense of a benign and socially progressive influence of free markets has been projected, reflected in a widespread understanding that new opportunities of employment for women are opening up. While some focus on the high-end sectors of IT services, others stress on export manufacturing, both considered favouring the hiring of women and both linked to processes associated with globalization. Thus, the characteristic features of the structure of the female workforce in the 1990s is often highlighted as an increasing feminization of the urban workforce on account of an increased work participation for urban women, a feminization of agriculture on account of an increased share of women workers in the primary sector, rigidities and a declining share for women in rural non-farm employment, decrease in secondary sector employment, and an increase in tertiary sector employment. The main difference between womens struggles during the freedom movement and today is that earlier, the struggle was for the democratic and political rights of women. This included the right to education and employment and the right to own property. In other words, earlier feminists fought for legal reforms to gain legal equality in society. xxxii Today, women have moved beyond the framework of legal reforms to work towards emancipation of women. This includes the fight against womens subordination to men within the home, against their exploitation by the family, against their continuing low status at work, in society and within cultural and religious practices. Feminism also challenges the very notions of femininity and masculinity as mutually exclusive and biologically determined categories. Feminism may be a foreign term but the concept of feminism is universal, standing for a transformational process. It is a foreign term but not a foreign ideology. Feminism and feminist struggles arose in Asia when women developed a consciousness about democratic rights and about the injustice of depriving half the population of its basic rights. Conclusion Growing social and economic crisis is sending vast sections of women workers into a downward spiral resulting in a deepening of gender based inequality in employment. The

11 downward spiral has expressed itself in several ways. The drastic increase in the number of female subsidiary workers in certain sectors alongside betterment in the participation rates by all status suggests the possibility of many women being unable to find employment throughout the year. This thus points to the lack of adequate employment opportunities for female labour force. The growth of self employment among women, especially during a period of rural crisis points to the lack of opportunities for other sources of paid employment. The sectoral distribution shows a stagnant and highly segregated picture with women concentrated mainly in the primary sector as against the trends in other liberalized economies. Though the manufacturing sector showed apparent improvement in its absorption of women, the concentration of women in few sectors with a growing number of subsidiary workers cannot be seen as a positive process. The degree of concentration visible in the sector, especially in personal services in the urban areas and in education, points to broad contours of change. Unlike other countries, the growth of the service sector in India has not been substantial enough to absorb a large proportion of the female population. The phenomenal increase in the number of workers in the category of private households with employed persons further reveals distress driven employment growth. The findings also question assumptions concerning self employment and its prospects for generating large scale employment. The current pattern of increase in selfemployment on account of the increase in unpaid work is a matter of serious concern.xxxiii There are tendencies towards higher concentration of women workers in low productivity and declining industries, belying the impression that with economic reforms, employment opportunities in more modern sectors would grow. Further, the question of employment choices for women needs to be seen in the context of alternatives or in the absence of such alternatives. The burden of supporting the family is increasingly falling on women as men become involuntarily or voluntarily unemployed. The survival needs of the family often has its toll on women with household work and reproductive responsibilities still entirely seen as womens work outside the sphere of production. This, given the asymmetrical power the question of employment choices for women needs to be seen in the context of alternatives or in the absence of such alternatives. The burden of supporting the family is increasingly falling on women as men become involuntarily or voluntarily unemployed. The survival needs of the family often has its toll on women with household work and reproductive responsibilities still entirely seen as womens work outside the sphere of production. This, given the asymmetrical power relations and division of labour in the private sphere, women are doubly disadvantaged. Moreover, womens employment needs to be seen in terms of its potential for challenging and destabilizing social inequalities. Thus though one could argue that there have been changes in the economic roles of women leading to their increased visibility as workers, in the context of gender segregation and unfair production relations the ultimate impact of these changes are complex. At the macro level, the directions of these changes as revealed by sectoral and sub-sectoral trends and patterns show that the rise in the participation rate of women is more an outcome of the search for livelihood options than an actual labour market expansion.xxxiv *************************** 10 May 2010
th

12

Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World, ISS, The Hague, 1982.

ii

This was reported to me by an 80 year old Burmese lady, who participated in both. I have not, so far, found any documentation about the Conferences. Irene Greenwood, of Perth, Western Australia, also mentioned the Geneva Conference, and visiting India on her return journey when she met Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Pandit and some other women leaders.
iii iv

Boserup, Esther: Womens Role in Economic Development, London. Geroge Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1975.

Ibid.
empowering women, ywca, www. th ew il li am si ns ti tu te .or g, , May 2007.

vi

Pearce, Diana. 1978. The feminizati on of poverty: Women, work, and welfare. Urban and Social Change Review 11:28-36.
vii

Gandhi, M.K.:Young India, February 26, 1918. Kelkar, Govind: Structural Violence against Women in India, Research publication from Centre for Womens Development Studies, New Delhi. ix Chatterji, Shoma A.: Beginning of the Women's Movement in India in The Indian Woman in Perspective, Ajanta Books International, New Delhi, 1993, page 116. x Kelkar, Govind: Women's Movement Studies: A Critique of the Historiography , in Samya Shakti, Vol.I, No.2, 1984, page 127. xi Ibid. xii Quoted by Madhu Kishwar from The Arya Samaj and The Womens Reform Movement, Mimeographed, 1978. xiii Ibid. Page14. xiv Gandhi, M.K.: The Position of Women, Young India, Oct.17, 1929, page 340; Liberate the Women, Indian Social Reformer, Vol.37, May 25, 1929, page 615-616. xv Southard, Barbara: The Feminism of Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi Marg, 1980, pages 404-422 xvi Forbes, Geraldine: In Pursuit of Justice: Women's Organisations and Legal reform in Samya Shakti, Vol.I No.2, 1984, page 50. xvii Basu, Aparna: The Role of Women in the Indian Struggle for Freedom in B.R. Nanda (ed)Indian Women,1976, page 37, . Also, Manmohan Kaur: Role of Women in the Freedom Movement (1857-1947) Delhi, Sterling, 1968. xviii Liddle, Joanna and and Rama Joshi : Daughters of Independence, page 35. xix Omvedt, Gail: Caste, Class and Women's Liberation in India, Bulletin of Concerned Indian Scholars, 7,1, JanMarch, 1973 page 47. Also Gail Omvedt: Gandhi and the Pacification of the Indian Nationalist Movement , Bulletin of Concerned Indian Scholars, 5, July, 1973. xx Ahmed, Karuna Chanana: Gandhi, Women's Roles and Political Participation , paper presented at the Second National Conference on Women's Studies, Trivandrum, April, 1984. xxi Kelkar, Govind: Women's Movement Studies, Samya Shakti, Vol.I No.2, 1984, Page 127.
viii

xxii

Mazumdar, Vina: An Unfulfilled or Blurred Vision? Jawaharlal Nehru and Indian Women; (paper presented at an international seminar during the NehruCentenary, at the University of Sydney in 1989)
xxiii

There has been an explosion of research on this theme since the Seventies from different regions of the World. Mazumdar cites only a few pioneers - Ester Boserups classic Role of Women in Economic Development, 1970; - based on Indian and African data - a direct fallout of her association and difference with Gunnar Myrdals Asian Drama; Towards Equality : Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India, Government of India, 1975. Chapter 5; Irene Tinker (ed.) Persistent Inequalities, New York, OUP, 1990, Washington; Asok Mitra, Indias Population : Aspects of Quality and Control, New Delhi, Abhinav Publications, 1978, Vol. I.
xxiv

Vina Mazumdar, Emergence of the Womens Question in India and Role of Womens Studies. Lecture at Banaras Hindu University, 1984, CWDS Occasional Paper, 7, 1985. For a critique of the social reform movement, see by the same author - Social Reform from Ranade to Nehru in B.R. Nanda (ed.), Indian Women : From Purdah to Modernity, New Delhi, Vikas, 1976.
xxv

J.P Naik, Convocation Address, University of Pune, 1977 Towards Equality, op.cit. p.3. Ibid, p. 7

xxvi

xxvii

xxviii

Towards Equality, Chapter 6.

xxix

ICSSR Committee on Womens Studies : Critical Issues in the Status of Women - Employment, Health, Education, Priorities for Action, 1977.
xxx

Lotika Sarkar and Smita Tewari Jassal - Womens Right to Land, in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives - CWDS, 1990
xxxi

Nehru to Chief Ministers, 2.10. 1952.

xxxii

Bhasin, Kamla and Nighat Said Khan: Some questions on Feminism and its Relevance in Southeast Asia, Kali for Women, 1986. xxxiii Neetha, N. Womens Work in the post reform Period An Exploration of Micro-Data, Occasional Paper No. 52, 2009, Centre for Womens Development Studies, Delhi. xxxiv Ibid.