Ishan BhatnagarAIR 5 · CSE 2025 · 326 wordsTheir whole copy
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Feminization of labour force, as seen in growing Labour Force Participation Rate (>40% in India) indicates growing gender emancipation. However, its transformative impact is limited by structural inequities underlying gender -
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Challenging Patriarchal Structures
1.> Enhanced labour force participation contradicts ideal typical understanding of women as carer-housewife, as pointed out by Oakley.
2.> Women entering male-dominated domains like tech., academia, bureaucracy dismantles the socially constructed position of women as the "second sex" (Beauvoir).
Financial Emancipation brings autonomy, allowing women to make crucial life decision such as reproductive decision, further career choice (Nussbaum).
Questions traditional patriarchal role of docile, home-bound, "pativrata" wife (Leela Dube), changing the status of women.
Fosters greater choice in marriage, sexual decisions, as seen in increasing prevalence of "live in" relationship (Patricia Uberoi).
However, there is persistence of new forms of exploitation
- Feminization of agriculture :- Bina Agarwal points out that women constitute 48% of agricultural labour but earn very low wages.
2> Double shift | Hochschild talks about dual oppression of women-
(i) in the work world, pink collarization, wage gap keep them subordinated.
(ii) at home, less income creates economic dependency, leading to care burden on women.
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3> Unfair housework distribution | Giddens points out that entry of women in workforce has not been accompanied by fair distribution of housework with a gap of 70% in countries like Moldova, Turkey etc.
4> Globalization driven informalization in the third world → precarity, women in most unreliable sectors such as sweatshops, artisanal toys → most impacted (Utsa Patnaik).
5> Workplace related harassment and indignity as a means to disincentivize work force participation (Kate Millett) - as highlighted by #MeToo movement.
6> Role conflict and associated stress of seeking to balance "domestic duties" and "professional lives" (M.S. Gore).
Hence, position of women in workforce mirrors Veena Das' "Devi-Dasi" dichotomy. On the one hand, society lauds their workforce participation, on the other, it puts them in least paying, most precarious jobs.