Motherhood

BLOCK 3
GENDER AND WORK

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Gender and Work
BLOCK INTRODUCTION BLOCK 3

Gender and Work

Block 3 of the Course “Gender Sensitization: Society and Culture” titled as

“Gender and Work” has two Units. Unit 7 of this Block is “Gendering Work”.
This Unit starts with giving explanation about traditional and contemporary
discourses on gendering work. Traditional discourses how societies and the roles
of women and men have evolved over a period of time. Cotemporary discourses
have brought about women’s contribution in productive and reproductive
activities. The unit stresses the importance of developing appropriate measures
to value women’s work. It also discusses the gaps in measuring women’s
contribution and lack of women’s participation in labour force and economy.
The final Unit of this Block is “Gender issues in Work and Labour Market”.
There are various issues women face in the market. These issues are discussed
elaborately. The issues dealt in this Unit are enumeration of work, decent work,
feminization of labour, marginalization, sexual harassment at workplace, sex
work, informalisation and service, glass ceiling and double burden.

Smita [Link] [Link]

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 Gendering Work
UNIT 7 GENDERING WORK
Structure
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Objectives
7.3 Traditional Discourses
7.4 Contemporary Discourses
7.5 Standards for measurement of Work
7.6 Gender Gaps in Labour Force Participation and Economy
7.7 Gender Discrimination, Violence and Vulnerability at Work
7.8 Summing Up
7.9 Key words
7.10 References
7.11 Unit End Questions

7.1 INTRODUCTION
The first Unit of this Block, you will read both traditional and contemporary
discourses on work focussing on productive, reproductive and unpaid work carried
out by women. After this, you will read about standards for measurement of
work and the reasons for gender gaps in labour force participation. The Unit
ends with a discussion on gender discrimination and its impact on women in
workforce followed by conclusion.
Lets us now look at the objectives of the Unit.

7.2 OBJECTIVES
After reading this Unit, you will be able to:
Define work;
Discuss traditional and contemporary discourses of work;
Describe international standards of measurement of work; and
Analyse the reasons for gender gap in labour force participation and gender
discrimination at workplace.
Let us begin reading traditional discourses in the real world of work.

7.3 TRADITIONAL DISCOURSES

We have read about early human societies which were egalitarian. Men hunted,
fished and provided necessary raw materials for food and made necessary tools
for these tasks. Women cared for the house, prepared food, clothing and looked
after children. Women were the centre of communistic household, and she alone
knew who were fathers of her children. Things changed when human communities
moved from nomadic existence to living in a stable environment. The growing
significance of production changed the nature of communistic society. With
accumulation of wealth, the relationship between men and women changed; for
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Gender and Work all wealth was a result of production which is a male activity. Production was
more valued than household and household labour.

According to traditional economic theories, life is divided into economic realm

and household realm. The economic realm focused on buyers, sellers, market
whereas the household realm positioned itself on the range of unpaid work that
is necessary for the functioning of life. Items that are sold in market are only
counted as production and hence household realm was outside the purview of
economic realm.

In economics, work is any activity or expenditure of energy that produces services

and products of value to other people. Although, work can be performed without
wages, salaries, or income, economically speaking, labor market work is strictly
performed for pay. These terms are then tied to the term production. Work is
productive if and only if profits are produced. 

The capitalist system regarded women merely as a convenient source of cheap

labour and part of the “reserve army of labour” to be drawn on when there is a
shortage of labour in certain areas of production, and discarded again when the
need disappears. We saw this in both world wars, when women were drafted into
the factories to replace men who had been called up into the army and then sent
back to the home when the war ended. Women were again encouraged to enter
the workplaces during the period of capitalist upswing of the 1950s and 1960s,
when their role was analogous to that of the immigrant workers—as a reservoir
of cheap labour(Beneria [Link],1981).

Throughout its history, capitalism has proved adept at causing patterns of labour
supply to change in accordance with demand, and this is particularly so in the
case of female labour. In all societies, and particularly in developing countries,
there remain essential but usually unpaid activities (such as cooking, cleaning
and other housework, provisioning of basic household needs, child care, care of
the sick and the elderly, as well as community-based activities), which are largely
seen as the responsibility of the women. This pattern of unpaid work tends to
exist even when women are engaged in outside work for an income, whether as
wage workers or self-employed workers. Women from poor families who are
engaged in outside work as well usually cannot afford to hire others to perform
these tasks, so most often these are passed on to young girls and elderly women
within the household, or become a “double burden” of work for such women.
These processes are also integral to capitalism… and have become even more
marked in recent years (Ghosh).
Let us now read some of the contemporary discourses on women and work.

7.4 CONTEMPORARY DISCOURSES

The assumptions of traditional economics had devastating consequences on
women. Feminist economics grew in response to the restricted and inadequate
view of “the economy” offered by mainstream economic thinking. In this context
one of the key challenges for feminist economics was to make visible the so-
called invisible or unpaid economy.

86
Productive and Reproductive Work Gendering Work

The tendency of highlighting the unpaid economic work has a long-standing

history within the debates on gender and development. Danish economist Ester
Boserup in her work Women’s Role in Economic Development (1970) has
highlighted women’s importance to the agricultural economy. Sub-Saharan Africa,
in particular, was singled out as the great global area of “female farming systems”
in which women using traditional hoe technology assumed a substantial
responsibility for food production. Moreover, Boserup posited a positive
correlation between the role women played in agricultural production and their
status vis-à-vis men. Instead of needy beneficiaries, her work represented
women as productive members of society.

One of the most pervasive themes of the present feminist movement is the
emphasis placed on the role of reproduction. Women do globe’s unpaid second
and third shift work of households tasks. Unpaid work includes housework, such
as preparing meals for the family, cleaning the house and gathering water and
fuel, as well as work caring for children, older people and family members who
are sick—over both the short and long term. Women in India do almost ten
times the amount of unpaid care work that men do. Three-quarters of unpaid
work is routine household chores exacerbated by poor access to basic services
such as sanitation, clean water, and clean sources of cooking fuel. In China and
Bangladesh—to consider two other Asian countries for comparative purposes—
women do about three and four times, respectively, the amount of unpaid care
work as men (MGI, 2015).

Fig 7.1
[Link]
lightbox/

Human Development Report (2015) states that women are estimated to contribute
52 percent of global work, men 48 percent. But even if women carry more than
half the burden, they are disadvantaged in both realms of work— paid as well as
unpaid work— in patterns that reinforce each other. In 2015, the global labour 87
Gender and Work force participation rate was 50 percent for women but 77 percent for men. Female
participation in the labour force and employment rates are affected heavily by
economic, social and cultural issues and care work distributions in the home. Of
the 59 percent of work that is paid, mostly outside the home, men’s share is
nearly twice that of women—38 percent versus 21 percent. The picture is reversed
for unpaid work, mostly within the home and encompassing a range of care
responsibilities: of the 41 percent of work that is unpaid, women perform three
times more than men— 31 percent versus 10 percent.

Hence the imbalance— men dominate the world of paid work, women that of
unpaid work. Unpaid work in the home is indispensable to the functioning of
society and human well-being: yet when it falls primarily to women, it limits
their choices and opportunities for other activities that could be more fulfilling
to them. Even when women are in paid work, theyface disadvantages and
discrimination. The evidence of the glass ceiling is just one ofthem. Women are
underrepresented in senior business management globally: They hold only 22
percent of senior leadership positions, and 32 percent of businesses do not have
any female senior managers, with regional variations. Occupational segregation
has been pervasive over time and across levels of economic prosperity— in both
advanced and developing countries men are over-represented in crafts, trades,
plant and machine operations, and managerial and legislative occupations; and
women in mid-skill occupations such as clerks, service workers and shop and
sales workers. Even when doing similar work, women can earn less— with the
wage gaps generally greatest for the highest paid professionals. Globally, women
earn 24 percent less than men. Due to their disproportionate share of care work,
women have less time than men for other activities, including paid work and
education. In low human development countries men spend nearly 30 percent
more time on social life and leisure than women. In very high human development
countries the difference is 12 percent. Despite the importance for human
development, care work often goes unrecognized. Among all countries attempting
to measure the value of unpaid care work, estimates range from 20 percent to 60
percent of GDP. In India unpaid care is estimated at 39 percent of GDP, in South
Africa 15 percent.

When women have no choice but to give priority to unpaid work and stay out of
the labour force, they make large sacrifices, perhaps missing the chance to expand
their capabilities in the workplace. They also lose opportunities for economic
independence.

In order to understand dynamics of gender and work, the nature of sex

discrimination, wages, participation in the development process, and implications
for political action, analysts must examine the two areas of production and
reproduction as well as the interaction between them.

A variety of recent studies on women in Third World countries have focused on

the interaction between production and reproduction to analyze women’s work.
Maria Mies’s (1981) study of Indian women lace makers in Narsapur, Andhra
Pradesh, for example, shows how the seclusion of women has conditioned their
participation in non-household production. Although lace making is a producing
industry geared toward the international market, it is highly compatible with
seclusion and domestic work. Women are engaged in lace making as much as six
to eight hours a day, in addition to their household chores. Their average daily
88 earnings amount to less than a third of the official minimum wage for female
agricultural laborers. This situation persists even though the industry has grown Gendering Work
considerably since 1970 and represents a very high proportion of the foreign
exchange earnings from handicrafts in the region. Many of the women are the
actual breadwinners in their families. Mies argues that this highly exploitative
system has in fact led to greater class differentiation within local communities as
well as greater polarization between the sexes. The system is made possible by
the ideology of seclusion that rigidly confines women to the home, eliminates
their opportunities for outside work, and makes them willing to accept extremely
low wages.

For lace makers, caste and gender work to transform beliefs about women’s
unequal status and power in a private sphere into hierarchical ordering in which
women’s work in production of lace is conceptualised as a ‘leisure activity’ with
little pay and where the products and proceeds of this industry are controlled by
men. Expansion of lace industry into the global market led not only to class
differentiation within particular communities but also to the masculinization of
all non-production jobs.

Paid Care Work

Globally an estimated53 million people ages 15 and older are in paid domestic
work. Of these, 83 percent are women—some, migrant workers (UNDP, 2015).
And so a global care work chain has emerged where migrant domestic workers
undertake housework and provide care to children and others in households
abroad. But they often leave their own children and parents behind in their
homeland; creating care gap often filled by grandparents, other relatives or hired
local helpers. Despite the possible abuse in domestic work—low wages, poor
working conditions, no access to medical care, and physical or sexual abuse—
many workers feel obliged to remain with abusive employers because they need
the work.

Check Your Progress Exercise 1

1) Define what is understood by work.

......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................

2) Who is reserved army of women? Why?

......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................

3) What do you understand by productive and reproductive work?

......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
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Gender and Work
7.5 STANDARDS FOR MEASUREMENT OF WORK
Attempts were made to include subsistence production in the national accounts
of some countries in the 1950s and 1960s, but it was the push by the women’s
movement in the 1970s which really focused on the importance of non-market
production. Esther Boserup’s foundational 1970 work, Women’s Role in
Economic Development clearly showed the key role of subsistence production
in Third World economies and the pivotal role of women in those economies.
Yet her case for counting many of these women’s activities was that they were
part of subsistence production, not that women’s household labour was productive.
However, this latter argument was taken up by the feminist movement. Ann
Oakley’s foundational work in the early 1970s was followed by a series of studies
which clearly saw housework as work, as productive and as done mainly by
women.

According to the United Nations System of National Accounts of 1993 (SNA),

which provides the conceptual framework that sets the international statistical
standard for the measurement and classification of economic activities, some
unpaid work activities are deemed “economic work” and, much like paid work,
are considered to belong within the “SNA production boundary.” Other unpaid
work activities are classified as “non- economic.”

Box No. 7.1

Government Employment Guarantee Programmes and Time Allocation
of Women

Newly created employment opportunities can serve as a vehicle for

transforming women’s lives by reducing the unpaid work burden and, thus,
altering the paid-unpaid gender division of labour. In some cases this will
translate to prioritizing public investment in infrastructure that reduces unpaid
work, such as rural water projects, feeder roads etc.

The importance of employment guarantee programs in our context is that, if

well designed, they can reduce unpaid work while redistributing the cost of
reproduction by creating jobs for both women and men instead of reinforcing
the existing gender-based division of unpaid labour. If such projects are not
gender-informed, the danger is that they may create a typical “double” day
effect for women (Chakraborthy, 2008).

7.6 GENDER GAPS IN LABOUR FORCE

PARTICIPATION AND ECONOMY
Gender inequality is a pressing human issue but also has huge ramifications for
jobs, productivity, GDP growth, and inequality. The economic potential of India’s
women is not achievable without gender gaps in society being addressed. India
has a lower share of women’s contribution to GDP than the global average of 37
percent, and the lowest among all regions in the world. India’s economy would
have the highest relative boost among all regions of the world if its women
participated in paid work in the market economy on a similar basis to men, erasing
the current gaps in labour-force participation rates, hours worked, and
representation within each sector (which affects their productivity). The barriers
90
hindering women from participating in the labour market on par with men are Gendering Work
unlikely to be fully addressed within that time frame and because, ultimately,
such participation is a matter of personal choice. The role of women in the
workplace cannot be viewed in isolation from their role in society. ( Pl, explain
this text. ) Achieving the economic potential of women requires gender gaps in
both work and in society to be narrowed—equality in one goes hand-in-hand
with equality in the other.

Data from India’s National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) surveys indicates
that women’s labour-force participation is significantly lower than that of men
in both urban and rural areas. Based on data for the population aged 15 and over,
India’s female labour-force participation rate is just 21 percent in urban areas
and 36 percent in rural areas compared with 76 percent and 81 percent,
respectively, in the case of men (Chaudhary and Verick, 2014).

About 75 percent of female employment is in rural areas esp. agriculture compared

with 59 percent for men. In the unorganized sector, men are more likely to be
employers; women are more likely to be wage workers or unpaid family workers.
Men are more likely to own large enterprises, women to own small ones. Women’s
work is generally manual and unskilled. A majority of self-employed women are
home based workers – producing for the market in their own homes. There is a
hierarchy of poverty risk associated with the segmentation of the labour force
with women concentrated in forms of employment with high risks of poverty
(Chen [Link], 2005). 

Figure 7.2 Segmentation of the Unorganized Sector Workers

Source: Progress of the World’s Women, United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) 2005.

[Link]

The Global Gender Gap Report (2014) reveals a widespread perception that
women are paid lower wages compared with men for the same work. Analysing
68th Round National Sample Survey’s (NSSO) wage data by occupation for India
appears to support this trend; irrespective of the professional level, women on
average get paid 30 percent less than their male counterparts.

91
Gender and Work Drawing on NSSO data, MC Kinsey Global Institute (MGI, 2015) identified a
gender gap in leadership among Indian women. Only 7 percent of tertiary-
educated women have jobs as senior officials compared with 14 percent of men.
Similarly, women account for only 38 percent of all professional technical jobs.
Women constitute just 5% of the boards of companies in India. This means that
at the 9,000 listed firms in the country, there are only 400 women board members.
These figures may not present a complete picture as 200 of them belong to family-
owned firms. So, the number of women who have actually climbed the ladder is
just a sad fraction (Economic Times, 2010).

[Link]
In 2014, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had directed the
companies listed on National Stock Exchange to appoint at least one woman
director on their boards by the month of October in the same year. The presence
of a compulsory female member on the board would ensure the implementation
of more women-oriented policies. However, more than 200 companies have failed
to comply with the directive as of April 2015 resulting in imposition of fines.
This shows the general attitude towards the potential of women work (Ruchira
Singh, 2015).

Underlying social attitudes about the role of women are, arguably, some of the
biggest barriers India’s women face. MGI (2015) found a strong link between
attitudes that limit women’s potential and actual gender equality outcomes in a
given region. For instance, the survey asked respondents, both men and women,
whether they agreed with the following statements: “When jobs are scarce, men
should have more right to a job than women” and “When a mother works for
pay, the children suffer.” MGI examined the responses against outcomes related
to work equality and found strong correlations with both. Half or more of the
respondents in India agreed with both statements—and India has some of the
world’s lowest rates of women’s labour-force participation.

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 Gendering Work
7.7 GENDER DISCRIMINATION, VIOLENCE AND
VULNERABILITY AT WORK
Workplace or occupational violence— in the form of threats and physical or
verbal and nonverbal abuse—is also a concern for many workers. Sexual
harassment can be perpetrated by and directed at a range of people including
employers, employees, contractors, and clients. It can be subtle or overt and
could be deliberate or unintended. The types of harassment vary from the abuse
of authority or position to relations among co-workers and affiliated personnel
to inappropriate behavior towards consultants, clients,and members of [Link]
situations where there are a large number of young women and limited job
opportunities, sexual harassment can be common during hiring and recruitment
processes. Other particularly vulnerable populations of women include those
working in educational and training institutions, domestic workers, migrant
workers, workers with little job security, and workers in occupations where large
numbers of women are supervised by small numbers of men.

Human trafficking is another form of violence against women and girls - which
is the most lucrative illicit business worldwide. Between 2007 and 2010 trafficked
victims of 136 nationalities were detected in 118 countries. Some 55–60 percent
of the victims were women. Most were trafficked for sexual exploitation or for
working as forced labour. Exploitation is common in paid domestic work,
particularly for female migrant workers in developing countries. In people’s homes
exploitation often remains outside the scope of labour law. Employers use threats
and coercion to pay low or even no wages. They can force domestic workers to
work long hours— up to 18 hours a day without days off— limiting their
movements and potential for social interaction. Working conditions are often
poor, with little food and no access to medical care. Domestic workers may also
be subject to physical or sexual abuse. Even so, many domestic workers feel
obliged to remain with abusive employers because they need to work to support
their own families.
In the following box is some reflection from work scenario of women.
Box No. 7.2
Seizing Every Opportunity- Sizing Every Situation
Some of the issues faced by Women in Employment
Poverty and limited education push women into labour markets at an early
age, but the sheer economic reason of getting better incomes pushes them out
of other labour markets and into sex work. This was revealed by a path breaking
pan India survey of sex workers conducted in 2009.

When men move for work, it is taken for granted that their wives would follow
them, even at the cost of disrupting their own careers. Defying this age old
norm is a small but increasing number of women.

From the field of journalism, we hear that some prominent women journalists
have made their way into highest echlenons of new television, where most
women in the field face the glass ceiling and remain content with modest
profiles performing drudge work.

93
Gender and Work
For many construction workers in the metro cities is a choice between starvation
in their villages and exploitation and unhealthy environment in the cities. There
is no social protection for workers in the informal sector.

About a quarter of total workforce in the Indian BPO sector comprise women
and they confine to lower echelons of this USD 40 billion industry. But the
real life of women details severe health issues due to constantly tiring eye
muscles, depression and digestive issues and moreover the fear of darkness
due to the odd work timings (Philipose and Bishnoi, 2013)

Recommendations
In the present scenario, deep rooted social norms and practices underpinning
gender inequalities leaves the women and girls with limited choices and
opportunities. To overcome the situation, there is a need to close gender gaps in
secondary and tertiary education in India’s large states; lower barriers to job
creation; expand skills training for women in key sectors; expand the reach of
financial and digital services to enable women entrepreneurs; step up gender
diversity policies and practices in organizations; strengthen legal provisions for
women and the enforcement of laws; improve infrastructure and services to
address the high burden of routine domestic work, childcare and elder care;
reshape deep-rooted attitudes about the role of women in work and in society.
Many societies are experiencing a generational shift, particularly in educated
middle-class households, towards greater sharing of care work between men and
women. Much remains to be done, and action needs to happen quickly to address
deep gender inequalities in the realm of work.

7.8 SUMMING UP
In this Unit we have read traditional and contemporary discourses on women
and work. The learners are also introduced the concepts and detailed descriptions
with appropriate statistical example of productive and reproductive work, paid
and unpaid work. They have also introduced the existing studies related to gender
and work. We have also discussed standards for measurement of work. Along
with that, we have introduced the concept “United Nations System of National
Account of 1993 (SNA). We have also discussed the violence related to work
place, gender discrimination at work and women’s vulnerability.

7.9 KEY WORDS

United Nations: The United Nations is an interenational organization founded in
1945. It is currently made up of 193 members states.

7.10 REFERENCES
Beneria, Lourdes and Gita Sen (1981) “Accumulation, Reproduction and
“Women’s Role in Economic Development”:

Boserup Revisited”, Signs, Vol. 7, No. 2, Development and the Sexual Division
of Labor (Winter, 1981), pp.279-298

94
Chakraborthy, Lekha. 2008. Public Investment and Unpaid Work in India: Gendering Work
Selectiive Evidence from Time Use Data. Conference Paper, Levy Economics
Institute, NewYork.

Chaudhary Ruchika and Verick Sher. 2014. Female Labour Force Participation
in India and Beyond. Asia Pacific Working Paper Series. ILO.

Martha Chen [Link]. 2005. Women Work and Poverty. Progress of World’s Women.
UNIFEM. NewYork.

The Economic Times.2010. Powerful move fair deal for the fair sex, at last:
Firms welcoming more women at the top.

Hirway, Indira. 2005. Measurements based on Time use Statistics, Conference

Paper, Levy Economics Institute, NewYork.

Jayati. Women’s Work in India in early 21stcentuary. [Link]

sites/default/files/papers/[Link]

MCKinsey Global Institute. 2015. The Power of Parity- Advancing Women’s

Equality in India. MCKinsey& Company

Mies. 1981. Dynamics of Sexual Division of Labour and Capital Accumulation.

Economic and Political [Link] 487-500.

Philipose Pamela and Bishnoi Aditi. 2013. Women’s Employment- Work in

Progress. Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung. New Delhi.

Razvi. 2007. Political and Social Economy of Care in Development Context,

Gender and Development.

Singh Ruchira, 2015. 247 NSE firms miss Sebi deadline for appointing women
directors. [Link]
[Link]

UNDP. 2015. Work for Human Development. Human Development Report 2015.
United Nations Development Programme. New York.

World Economic Forum. 2014. The Global Gender Gap Report. World Economic
Forum. Geneva.

7.11 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Explain contemporary discourses reflected to women and work with suitable
examples.

2) Discuss the issues related to gender based violence at work.

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Gender and Work
UNIT 8 GENDER ISSUES IN WORK AND
LABOUR MARKET
Structure
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Objectives
8.3 Enumeration of Work
8.4 What Constitutes a Women’s Work?
8.5 Under Enumeration and Under Valuation of Women’s Work
8.6 Decent Work
8.7 Globalisation and Women’s Employment
8.8 Feminization of Employment and Labour Force
8.9 Marginalization and Informalization
8.10 Sexual Harassment at Workplace
8.11 Sex Work
8.12 Servicisation
8.13 Glass ceiling
8.14 Double Burden
8.15 Summing Up
8.16 Key Words
8.17 References
8.18 Questions for Reflection and Practice

8.1 INTRODUCTION
We read about the concepts related to employment, implications of gendered
division of labour and current employment scenario in India in the previous
Unit. Learners must have got clarity about the concepts of labour and employment.
Along with understanding concepts related to labour and employment, we also
need to discuss issues related to gender and employment. So, we will read about
the issues related to gender and employment in this Unit namely, under-
enumeration of women’s work, norms of decent work, feminization,
marginalization, informalization of women workforce, sexual harassment of
women at workplace, glass ceiling and double burden shouldered by women
workers. We have explained each of these issue to make the learners recognize
the implications of these issues on the employment scenario.

8.2 OBJECTIVES
After studying this Unit, you would be able to
List the issues related to women’s labour and employment;
Describe the issues related to labour and employment of women; and
Examine implications of gender on labour and employment of women.

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 Gender Issues in Work and
8.3 ENUMERATION OF WORK Labour Market

An enumeration is a collection of items. The collected items have to be listed

completely in an order. The term is commonly used in mathematics, theoretical
computer science and applied computer science. With regard to enumeration of
work, the Government of India officially attempts to obtain an estimate of the
total number of economically active population in the country for the past hundred
years. This is done through Census of India by categorizing total population
into those with income earning activities and those without. These attempts were
further refined by the 1961 census. The concept of the worker was introduced
first time in the 1961 census i.e. a person engaged in a socially productive activity,
whether income yielding or not. Since 1950 the Indian National Sample Survey
(NSS) has also been collecting similar information about participation in work
or economic activity (whether gainful or not) through repeated sample surveys.
Apart from other official data collection systems, the population census and the
NSS continue to be important and regular sources of the information by sex,
region and age for the Indian population.

In this process, the feminists have worked to develop frameworks to include

contribution of women’s work in the exiting surveys by looking at the inadequacy
in that. This process started by studying the existing conceptual frameworks and
procedures adopted by the data collection agencies to collect information about
the extent of womens contribution in economic activities. We have already read
about the contribution of women’s work by categories in Unit 1 of this Course.
i.e. productive, reproductive and community works. Now we read about the
issues related to non inclusion of women’s contribution in the official statistical
system.

Official Indian statistics indicate that women continue to lag behind men in all
spheres of life – socio, political and economic life. The economic activities of
women appear to be less important than that of men. In recent years, women’s
participation in the labour force has never been more than 28 percent of the total
female population. However feminist authors argue that these figures do not
reflect the full extent of Indian women’s involvement in productive activities,
both within the household and outside. This is because of the concepts, measures
and techniques used by these data collection systems are not appropriate for
Indian situation. We have also read about sexual division of labour in the Unit1.
The sexual division of labour place women in unfavorable situation. The existing
perceptions in the society due to patriarchy value women’s work less. This
perception is also reflected in the design of data collection machinery. It fails to
reflect the value and contribution of women’s work.

After studying Indian data collection system, feminists raised questions in various
national and international forums to the faults of the Indian data collection systems
with regard to women’s work repeatedly. Indian data collection system is slightly
better than other developing country’s data collection system. Socio, cultural
practices restrict women to disclose their participation in productive work done
both for household and for society in many developing countries. Efforts were
put to restructure the existing data collection system to include women’s work in
both public and private spaces in all developing countries internationally.

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Gender and Work
8.4 WHAT CONSTITUTES A WOMEN’S WORK?
We need to analysis the pattern and conditions of women’s and men’s work to
know the differences. A basic difference observes in the work style practiced by
women and men are that, while women predominantly work in indoors, men
spend the major time in outdoor work. In other words, women work is essentially
restricted in the private sphere of “households”. Men work outside the
“household” boundary i.e public sphere. This is not to say that women do not
perform any outdoor work or men do not perform any indoor work within the
private sphere of household. But women spend considerable percentage of time
in household works and men spend considerable percentage of time in outside
activities. The choice of the domain of work for men and women are not based
on their freewill. It is primarily the result of delegation of responsibilities by
traditional norms and cultures. Traditional norms allocate house making or house
keeping work (often termed “house work” or “domestic work”) to women in
almost all societies.

Moreover, all developed countries including India registered large percentage of

agriculture and household based production units. In these agriculture and
household based production units, family members work as non-wage employer.
These non-wage employment activities are part of the subsistence or non market
production. In these household economic units, work and income are divided
between men and women according to some set patterns. While these patterns
of divisions of labour between men and women are not identical in all regions
within India. There is a general tendency to assign work for women combining
with their house hold tasks. The household tasks are regarded as their primary
responsibility for women. Therefore their productive task tends to be mainly
confined to the private, indoor domain of the household. Also their participation
in the household productive activities is likely to be intermittent, casual and
often marginal. This is generally true. But, women are required to involve major
part of the day in productive work along with or some sacrifice of their regular
household tasks including care of children and the aged during busy agriculture
seasons.

Let us examine the reasons for under-enumeration of women’s work which is

not duly valued.

8.5 UNDER ENUMERATION AND UNDER

VALUATION OF WOMEN’S WORK
We have seen women’s involvement in household as well as productive activities
in section 8.4. Most of the time, the contribution of women’s productive activities
are not recognized. It is invisible most of the time. When the statistical enumerator
approaches family members to note the contribution of work of the each family
member, they tend contact male members of the family to take note of the family
member’s contribution. Due to the non recognition of women’s contribution
combined with socialization process, male members value less on women’s work.
So they fail to inform enumerators on women’s contribution.

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Check Your Progress Exercise 1: Gender Issues in Work and
Labour Market
Note: i) Use the space given below to answer the questions.
ii) Compare your answer with the Course material of this unit.
1) What is ‘Enumeration?
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2) What are the roles of NSSO and Census of India?

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8.6 DECENT WORK

The concept of ‘ decent work for all’ was put forth by the International Labour
Organization (ILO) to promote opportunities for both male and female , to obtain
decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equality, security and human
dignity. The four pillars decent work concept is:
Employment and enterprise
Rights at work
Social protection and
Dialogue
These pillars constitute an important point of reference that aims to make societies
more just, sustainable and equitable, while focusing on empowerment of
marginalized groups in society. Women’s access to decent work is particularly
affected by the burden of combining reproductive and productive work. This
stress of double burden of work is not accounted for in traditional
conceptualization of work which focuses on paid work and do not examine the
implications of reproductive labour.

8.7 GLOBALISATION AND WOMEN’S

EMPLOYMENT
Globalization, the word coined by American management schools, is the
phenomenon related to survival of companies that promptly and ruthlessly adjust
to global completion for market and production. It means free-trade, unfettered
markets and integration of economies of nation in the world. Globlisation is 99
Gender and Work driven by self-interest of trans-national and multinational corporations.
Globlisation of products has led to feminization of labout force and feminisation
of poverty. Economic activity of women has increased over the past three decades
but they concentrated in low paid jobs, at the lowest rung of occupational
hierarchy. Forces of globlisation in developing countries have enhanced the burden
of poor and tribal women due to commercialization of natural resources thus
depriving their options of sustainable livelihood. In agriculture sector, the
international players have created price fluations resulting into distress among
female farmers and cultivators. Thus, it can be seen that globlisation has changed
labour market context for women in the economy.

In the following sections we will look into how globlisation has changed the
face of women’s employment.

8.8 FEMINIZATION OF EMPLOYMENT AND

LABOUR FORCE
World over, more and more women are joining the workforce. Global employment
has given rise to two new developments; first crowding of employment market
by women and secondly, conditions for employment of women have become
precarious and flexible. The United Nations termed these patterns of women’s
employment as ‘ feminization of employment’ .Most of the women have a
‘patchwork career’ because of interruptions in employment as a result of child
bearing, child/elderly care or unemployment/ occasional/ part time employment
available to them. A life long full time employment with security has become
exceptional in a globalised market driven economy across the world.

Trans-national companies have created new avenues of employment for women

in their domestic units or through subcontracting. Cheap, flexible and unorganized
female employment is regarded as the ‘diving board ‘of the world’s economy.
Feminization of labour is used to describe in following ways:
1) Increase in Female Labour Participation Rate
2) Fall or stagnation in Male Labour Participation Rate
3) labour option of employment of women for work in informal/part time/
contractual/ home based work as needed by the employer.
Let us now read how women workers are marginalized through informalization
of their labour.

8.9 MARGINALIZATION AND

INFORMALIZATION
Women’s advantage as workers is because of their lower wages and their inability
to oppose poor work conditions. In a globalised market this ensures the country
remains attractive and competitive for foreign investments. Globalization has
created new possibilities for exploitation of women workers through low wages,
denial of rights to organize, migration to urban centres of production and restricted
or poor living conditions for migrant workers. Thus, globalization has led to
social and economic marginalization of women workforce. Women are found to
be over represented in informal sector because of the flexibilities of work involved
100
in such occupations and activities. These are advantageous for women also, given Gender Issues in Work and
Labour Market
their reproductive and care giving roles in the form of unpaid labour. These societal
expectations from the women are exploited by the employers to maximize their
profit. Thus, women workers form the backbone of informal economies in
countries across the world.

8.10 SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT WORKPLACE

Sexual harassment at the workplace is an important issue related to the safety
and dignity of women at workplaces. It is an expression of male power over
women due to patriarchy. It is often an extension of violence against women in
everyday life, targeting and exploiting the vulnerability of women at the
workplace.

The land mark Vishaka judgment by Supreme Court 1997 defined sexual
harassment as “any unwelcome sexually determined behaviour such as physical
contact, a demand or request for sexual favours, sexually-coloured remarks,
showing pornography and any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal
conduct of a sexual nature.” The Supreme Court also noted that the sexual
harassment is the violation of basic human rights of women. The judgment also
provided guidelines for employers to redress and prevent sexual harassment at
workplace. It also provided guidelines for the employers to make a discrimination-
free working environment for women employees. The judgment said that it was
the duty of the employer or other responsible persons in work places to provide
women with a safe working atmosphere, to prevent sexual harassment as well as
provide mechanisms for resolution of complaints through the establishment of
complaints committees.

The court further directed that every workplace must constitute a committee for
receiving and inquiring into complaints of sexual harassment. As per the directives
of the court, every such committee should consist of members of whom at least
50% are women. A chairperson of the committee should be a woman. An external
member from a social work / non-profit organization has to be appointed in the
committee. Along with above said steps, the following preventive steps need to
be taken by the employer. These are
discussing the issue affirmatively in workers’ meetings and employer-
employee meetings;
prominent display of guidelines to create awareness of the right of women
employees;
prominent display of members of the complaints committee and their contact
details;
The employers are also responsible for formulating an anti-sexual harassment
policy; and
Constitution of a complaints committee to investigate, mediate, counsel
and resolve cases of sexual harassment.
The following case study gives clarity about the sexual harassment at workplace.
Case of S.
S is a post graduate in commerce. She joined in a multinational company as a
trainee. She was appointed as a purchase officer within few years. After 101
Gender and Work confirmation on the job, S started reporting to G. G is a Senior Vice President.
Initially G requested sexual favours from S. Upon her refusal, he demanded
sexual favours from S. When S refused to succumb his pressure, she relieved
from the position and given much lower position. She needs to do only filing and
photocopying work in office. G telephoned S at her residence number late in the
night. S registered a police complaint. She also put in a verbal complaint of
harassment to one of the Directors of the company. The Director along with the
Human Resource (HR) department investigated the complaint. The complaint
was closed after giving a verbal warning to G. Following this action, reporting of
S was changed. However, sexual harassment resumed when that particular
Director resigned from the company. G was now the senior most in the company.
During this period, S complained to the HR manager several times orally about
severe harassment. However he did not take any action. S complained in writing
to the Vice President (Human Resources) based at the head office. As result of
her complaint to the head office there was escalation of harassment to S from G.
S was isolated at workplace. S once again complained in writing about the sexual
harassment and hostile working conditions to the HR department both at the
local and head office. In response to the complaint, S was served with a suspension
letter and a charge sheet for not performing her duty properly. The company
terminated S from the job on the basis of findings of the department enquiry
against her. In the meantime due to mounting pressure from the State Commission
for Women and the High Court, two enquiries were carried out by the company
to look into the complaint of sexual harassment i.e. one by the overseas
management and other by a sexual harassment complaints committee. However
the S was not informed about the findings of the enquiries. S continued to struggle
both in the labour and the industrial court for reinstatement of employment.
Ref: [Link]
downloaded on 8th June, 2016.
Check Your Progress Exercise 2
Note: i) Use the space given below to answer the questions.
ii) Compare your answer with the Course material of this unit.
1) What is meant by “Decent Work”
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2) Write a note on informalization and feminization of women’s employment

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102
 Gender Issues in Work and
8.11 SEX WORK Labour Market

Ministry of Women and Child Development (2007) reported the presence of 2.8
million sex workers in India, with approximately 35% of them entering the trade
before the age of 18.

Other sources, such as Human Rights Watch, put the figure at 15 million, with
Mumbai alone having more than 100,000 sex workers. In addition to sex workers
in brothels, devadasi, jogini and such other traditional systems force girls into
prostitution, particularly those from lower castes and classes. (http://
[Link]/Forced%20to%[Link])There are three
approaches to sex work – legalization, decriminalization and sex work as a human
right. Decriminalization refers to removing the application of criminal law on
sex work. Legalization refers to an official recognition of sex work as a form of
work (like all others) by the state, and issuing licenses and regulating conditions
of work. The human rights approach, advanced by sex workers themselves,
argues that sex workers are entitled to basic and fundamental human rights as
every other woman is, in addition to the right to solicit for sex work. The most
contentious debate around sex work is whether women can consent to engage in
sex work or whether all sex work is the result of force, coercion, threat and
duress.

8.12 SERVICISATION
The prominence of service sector in women’s employment can not be ignored
because of its growing importance in women’s employment and their
concentration in certain sections of service economy namely, education, health
services and domestic work.

Service sector accounts for a large number of occupations and activities ranging
from highly skilled and well paid jobs to unskilled and poorly paid activities.
Within this sector community, social and personal services account for the largest
chunk of women workers with an ever increasing concentration over the years.
Though education and that too primary education accounts for the largest segment,
the number of women engaged in services rendered under domestic work
(cleaning, washing, cooking, child/elderly care services) shows a phenomenal
increase. The sector of paid domestic work has become one of the most important
sectors of women’s work as unskilled workers in urban areas.

The discussion here reflects that women’s employment is seen as a natural link
to their care work and such engagements leave ample time with the woman worker
to carry out her own domestic responsibilities namely, the unpaid care provided
to the family.

8.13 GLASS CEILING

Women face two types of obstacles to enter into employment. Due to socialization
process and patriarchy, society prefers women to choose traditional occupation.
Women have to achieve work place equality in the chosen occupation. Secondly
women face obstacles to move upward position in the chosen field. This is what
is known as the ‘glass-ceiling1". Organizations prefer to hire women in lower
position. The occupation of lower position in the organizations by women results 103
Gender and Work less control over their work environment. Due to this, women have less decision
making powers. Organization discriminates women on the basis of sex for
promotions. They prefer to keep women in lower wages. They get very less
opportunities for promotion and upward mobility.

8.14 DOUBLE BURDEN

The entry of women into the labour market has not meant any lessening of
domestic chores. Most women are still solely or mostly in charge of housework
and child care. In order to fulfil all their responsibilities at the workplace and at
home, women end up working longer hours. This phenomenon is called ‘double
shift’ or ‘double burden’.
Let us read about more issues affecting women’s employment.
Migration
Women constitute a growing population of the workers who migrate to urban
centres or to other countries where their work is better paid. Most commonly
they work as domestic helps, nursing personnel or in leisure industry.
There is a close relationship between informalization of employment and
migration. Various reasons contribute for migration. We can list the reasons for
migration as following:
1) Decline of primary sector economic activities contributes for rural urban
migration.
2) Workers migrate from one nation to other on short and long term contracts
in search of better opportunities.
3) Internal conflict and war contribute for international migration.
Migrant workers face lots of problems. Among migrant population, women and
children are worst affected. The place of stay of migrant workers may be in bad
conditions due to low capacity of the migrant to pay rent for accommodation.
Migrant workers tend to join in informal employment. These workers face many
of the same problems as other workers in similar segments of the informal
economy, but they also have the additional problems associated with their
ambiguous legal status. They generally fall outside the laws of their own countries
but are not included in the laws of the receiving countries. As a result, they fall
into the category of people who do not have ‘the right to have rights’ (Kabeer,
2007).

Like other migrant workers, women join in informal employment due low
education and skill. These employments include domestic work, vending, caring
of children and elders and others. Lack of awareness on rights of the migrant
workers in the informal employment, they may get exploited. Children may find
difficulties in joining in formal school. Women find difficulties in providing care
to their own children due to long hours of work and low payment. Women and
children may face sexual exploitation. Lack of infrastructure like sanitation and
water, migrant workers faces severe health hazards. They may lack social security
due to migration. Accessing health and education facilities by the migrant workers
especially for women and children are challenge. Female migrant workers who
often don’t possess legal papers are forced to work under worst conditions and
are often victims of sexual violence.
104
Social Protection Gender Issues in Work and
Labour Market
Increasingly ‘flexible ‘labour markets have reduced workers rights to unionize
and thus has led to worker’s weakened bargaining power. As a result of
globlisation work has become more in secured as jobs have shifted from formal,
legally regulated large firms to smaller and informal establishments and home
based work. These jobs are often more accessible to women but lie outside of the
protection of labour laws and social benefits. Part-time workers in the formal
sector too face these insecurities.

The lack of support system for unpaid family care responsibilities aggravate
problems and hit poor and vulnerable women the hardest. Women workers end
up being ‘time-poor’ and ‘ money poor’ which contributes their high morbidity
and low well-being.

Social protection means interventions and initiatives that support individual,

household and communities in their efforts to prevent and overcome social and
economic risks like gender discrimination and exclusion, retirement,
retrenchment, maternity benefits, old age death etc.

Gender related concerns and constraints not only limits women’s access to labour
market but also confine women workers to more poorly remunerated, more casual
and insecure forms of waged and self- employments without access to social
protection.

8.15 SUMMING UP
We have read issues related to gender and employment so far in this Unit. Women
face issues related to their employment before entering into work. The most and
significant issues related to their work are non recognization of their work. This
was discussed elaborately in the section enumeration of work. After entering
into employment they face many issues like sexual harassment, double burden,
informalization and glass ceiling. We have discussed elaborately in this Unit.

8.16 KEYWORDS
Human Resources: Human Resources are the people who make up the workforce
of an organization.

8.17 REFERENCES
IGNOU. 2014. Gender Issues in Work. Unit 1. Block 1. MGSE 009 Pg. 12-13
IGNOU. .2014. Gender Issues in Work. Unit 13. Block 3. MGSE-009. pg. 76-77
and 81-82.
IGNOU 2015. Women in the Economy, MWG 011 Block 1, unit 1&2, Block 6
units123
IGNOU 2012. Gender and Power, MWG 002 , Block 4, unit 4
Kimmel Michael S .2008. The Gendered society 3rd edition. New York: Oxford
University Press.
[Link]
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Gender and Work [Link] accessed on 27-
06-2016

8.18 QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND

PRACTICE
1) What are the reasons for not including the contribution of women’s work in
enumeration?
2) List the Visakha Judgment suggestions.
3) What are ‘Glass Ceiling’ and ‘Double Burden’?

106