Emergent Gender Relations in Female Employment Within the Social Stratification in Rural India (original) (raw)
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2023
Based on unit-level data of three rounds of the Employment-Unemployment Surveys (68 th , 61 st and 50 th) and two rounds of the Periodic Labour Force (2017-18 and 2018-19) Surveys of the NSS, this paper examines trends in women's labour force and work force in the two Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal since 1993-94. A comparative analysis of women's participation in the labour markets of the two Indian states shows the significance of occupational diversification in explaining the varying trends in the pattern of female employment. It explores the relevance of the nature of female employment in understanding the sustainability of such employment pattern as exists over time. Our paper highlights the extreme vulnerability attached to the self-employed status of women, be it in farm or non-farm work that women in rural U.P. and W.B. engage in and urges on the importance of publicly sponsored employment generation programmes like MNREGA as a viable alternative employment option, especially for women in rural areas. Given the abysmally low levels of participation of women in the labour markets of both U.P. and W.B., does the explanation lie in economic factors such as lack of jobs alone or do gender biased cultural norms also play a role? Our analysis suggests that it is a combination of both these factors to which a low and declining women's participation in labour markets must be attributed to.
Women, work, and employment outcomes in rural India
Economic & Political Weekly, 2010
An earlier version of this paper was presented at a workshop on Gaps, Trends and Current Research in Gender Dimensions of Agricultural and Rural Employment, organised by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Food and Agriculture Organisation ...
Gender Discrimination and Rural Wage Employment in India: An Empirical Analysis
This paper examined that the gender based rural wage employment and it is various dimensions focus on rural wage employment covering various dimensions including the organized and unorganized employment, skilled and unskilled employment and increasing casulization of labour. The researcher looked at non-farm livelihoods in general in the rural areas. The evaluated results lead to conclude the informal economy represents the main source of employment creation and income generation for the labour force in rural areas.
Female Labour Participation in Rural and Urban India: Does Housewives’ Work Count?
Labour force participation in India responds to economic, social, cultural and demographic mechanisms. Employment, unemployment, and unpaid labour were all measured in the 1999/2000 Indian National Sample Survey. Men’s official labour-force participation stood at 85% and women’s at 35%. The overall rate of labour force participation among women had fallen since 1989. Furthermore, measurement issues create doubt about the real rates of change of women’s self-employment. Women’s domestic and farming work can sometimes arguably be classified as self-employment. However many women instead report themselves as housewives. The statistics reveal a U curve of female employment by education levels. A detailed measurement of both domestic work and other unpaid work is provided. Women in the Muslim cultural group do more extra-domestic work (and are more likely to be ‘inactive’) than women in other cultural groups. Economic poverty causes employment to be more likely. We provide a number of reasons which help explain both the work patterns and the housewifisation pattern. These include both subjective factors as well as economic and demographic factors.
Increasing Trend of Employment among Rural Women
Globally, about half of all women work, and recent increases in rates of female labor force participation have contributed to enrich economy and falling gender gap in employment in many countries. Yet, in India, trends in women's participation in the market economy are remarkable. Rural women's educational attainment and substantial economic growth over the past two decades have brought drastic change in rural and urban both areas. Present study is focused on finding of participation of rural women in govt., private, self employment and labor ship.
The Puzzling Decline in Rural Women's Labor Force Participation in India: A Reexamination
The Indian journal of labour economics, 2012
GIGA Working Papers serve to disseminate the research results of work in progress prior to publicaton to encourage the exchange of ideas and academic debate. Inclusion of a paper in the Working Papers series does not constitute publication and should not limit publication in any other venue. Copyright remains with the authors.
Women work participation in rural Uttar Pradesh: a regional analysis
International Journal Of Social Sciences & Interdisciplinary Research, 2013
Women are vital and productive agent in Indian economy but their employment status is critical because their participation in different economic activities is very low as compared to male. Women face various types of discrimination in different walks of life, including education and consequently land up in low paying job. The basic aim of this study is to understand the variations in the growth process of the participation of women in gainful activity at state level in general and at district level in particular. For this purpose, data has been collected from four economic regions such as Western U.P., Eastern U.P., Central U.P. and Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. A multistage Sampling method has been used to select districts and villages. The results of this study demonstrate that in Uttar Pradesh, women in general have lower participation in work as compared to males. WPR for women is lower in eastern and western regions. The WPR for women is associated with caste structure also. It is generally high for Hindu SC/ST and Muslim OBC women. Education plays an important role in work participation only after more than 12 years of schooling. WPR for women declines after primary education and picks up only after 12 years of schooling as work options other than agriculture open up only after this. The quality of employment is generally bad for Hindu SC/ST and Muslim OBC women as most of them are working as casual labour. The growth of rural non farm sector has affected women workers in an indirect way. While percentage of women is higher than men in employer, helper and casual labour category in agriculture sector, this pattern is altered in non agriculture sector. Here the percentage is higher in own account worker and casual labour category. It seems that the growth of rural non farm sector has not benefitted women as much as men. Within non farm sector tailoring, manufacture, grocery shops and other retail trade are most common activities of women. However, one third of women are reporting to be doing wage work in nonfarm sector.
Gender disparity prevails through various attributes, including gender specificity of agricultural operations, discriminating women in terms of wages, and system of wage payments. This paper employed a t-test to investigate the degree of gender disparity in the rural labour market in Cuttack district of Odisha, covering one irrigated village, Bahalpada, and a non-irrigated village Erancha with a sample of 50 female labourers, 20 male labourers, and ten employers from each village, where irrigation was used as the indicator of agricultural development. The results indicated no significant difference in the days of work available to males and females in farm activities in the irrigated village Bahalpada; however, there was a significant positive difference in male-female labour days in agricultural work non-irrigated village Erancha. Despite non-significant differences in days of employment in farm activities, the gender-based wage differentials persisted and were more pronounced in the non-irrigated village than in irrigated village.