Author: Andre Coleman

Afghanistan is one of the toughest regions for women to survive. Although the country has a highest number of school-going populations, gender disparities in education remain high. Women discrimination in the education system is a pervasive practice, which the political systems have not considered it seriously. Many girls opt to attend to their domestic duties because of the fear they have about insurgents and other group, which usually attack them in various learning institutions. Compared to boys, the societal norms and practices do not favor the girl because they hold “minor roles” in the building of the society and culture.

Research question

What are the reasons of gender discrimination in the education in Afghanistan?

Proposed claims

During the Taliban rule, women oppression and denial to access education has been evident by several attacks insurgent have orchestrated in schools. It is good to note that, this political system exercised male dominance and hegemonic practices against the women because of their position in the society. Socio-cultural norms and practices within the Afghans contribute largely to the discriminative way of sharing resources like education in the community. At the primary school level, the literacy level of girls for aged 15-24 stands at 18%, while the literacy level for bay at the same age bracket remains at 50%. More than half the boys have a chance of completing education compared to girls (Brodsky, Portnoy, Scheibler, & Carrilo, 2012). Cultural practices and traditions encouraged boys to further their studies because of the leadership positions they occupied in the society.

According to a report filed by the Human Rights Commission in Afghanistan, parents elucidate that major challenges affecting their daughters is insecurity and accessibility of education. Others stated that a girl child ought to attend to domestic duties, engage in productive activities to enable her family earn a living and children marriages (Whitsel & Mehran, 2010 p. 504). The Islamic the Islamic rule under the Taliban government did not allow women in public areas. For this reason, other girls opt to remain indoors for fear of execution of assault by law enforcers. This situation influenced the way girls attended schools as opposed to boys who had the time to acquire knowledge.

Factors contributing to gender discrimination in education in Afghanistan

The Brutal Taliban Rule

The Taliban became prominent in 1994 after they took power and ruled the Afghanistan in a dictatorial way. The group targeted women in such a way that many succumbed to health complications, others lost their lives, and the majority lacked the power to acquire knowledge at institutions of learning. Since most of the schools in Afghanistan are gender-segregated, the insurgent group conducted several attacks on girls in order to deprive them from acquiring basic education. It was a rule that girls ought to stay away from public places; the school was a public place where they socialized. According to the Taliban rule, oppressing women was a show of winning despite losing the victory at the battlefields. In Takhar province, the Taliban group poisoned 40 girls student, some of which succumbed to severe health complication (Facar, 2006 p. 31). This group burnt girls’ schools because they wanted to get rid of the enlightened generation of women, which could challenge their political ideologies and power.

Before the Taliban assumed power, Afghanistan was a peaceful place, which ensured equality between boys and girls with regard to knowledge acquisition. Thereafter, when the Taliban ruled, they perpetrated egregious acts of violence against young girls. Such actions induced fear in girls who were at learning institutions because they knew anytime they face attackers (Spink, 2005 p. 197). In a certain incidence, In Tukhar province insurgents attached a girl’s school at night, raped students, assaulted and kidnapped others. For this reason, many abandoned learning as they moved to Iran and Pakistan for refuge. In 1999, Talibans jailed and deported a female worker who was helping Afghanistan women in engaging in home-based work. In Kabul, female teachers lost their jobs, a move that crippled learning in some institutions. Since these teachers attended mainly elementary classes in girls’ schools, children missed fundamental of education making some to record poor marks in examinations. The Taliban also restricted female from enrolling at the Kabul University. The rationale behind it was the facility was full to capacity and that women should wait for the government to construct another facility.

Society norms and practices

According to norms and practices of the Afghans, women had no authority over certain traditional practices like marriage. In the video, it was stated that many parents married off their young daughters without their consent because the parents wanted to raise resources, which could sustain the rest of the family (men). Following this initiative, many girls were pulled out of schools or deprived the right to education because they will get married. Some families forced their girl children to stay indoors because they were afraid of fines and penalties, which societal leaders could charge upon exposing their siblings. Brodsky, Portnoy, Scheibler & Carrilo, (2012) asserts that the culture has a requirement, which states that girls should not compete with men in any way; going to school as boys do was a form of competition, which the society did not allow. Moreover, culture also required that girls and boys should be segregated in any gathering or event. This doctrine was also exercised at government institutions, which had a mandate of building schools and allocating other resources. Such an environment does not promote healthy competition during learning. There is a possibility that girls will perform poorly. In the Video, Parish Will of World Edition state that, the society has had a perception that girls should only acquire basic primary education, which sometimes is not essential. With this in mind, many parents had not until recently realized the importance of supporting their daughters education.

How working knowledge influenced topic selection

In my relationship with female colleagues, i interviewed a few who stated that the major problem, which they face in their pursuit of education, was discrimination and oppression from men. Many asserted that male dominated societies could not favor them or support their educational needs. Apart from that, I noted that the number of female teachers and other workers at various places of work was low. I wanted to establish the rationale behind the situation. I considered that the topic was important for research because I wanted to explore the problem and establish some of the problems, which have led to the situation.

Misunderstandings about the topic

During the time women were oppressed and discriminated, I do not understand the reason why insurgent and the Taliban targeted women. The explanation given does not give a clear reason for the brutal activities women went through. I consider that Afghanistan men could have been target of Taliban because they can challenge their rule of law. The Islamic rules and practices have given women an equal opportunity as men to pursue various sectors and acquire knowledge in order to develop the society. The Taliban were also Islam, but did not adhere to this requirement. There has been no evidence showing or explaining why women were denied the right of education.

Conclusion

Indeed women in Afghanistan were denied the right of education. The Taliban used their authority to oppress and deprive women from learning because they wanted to eliminate the likelihood of having enlightened future leaders, who could challenge some of their political ideologies. Although the society still holds that women should remain passive to societal practices and activities, I will carry out sensitization campaigns, which will enlighten women and teach some fundamental rights that they need to demand from the authority. In addition, religious leaders will also be used in teaching the society against the practices, which discriminate against the women.

Annotated Reference list

Brodsky, A., Portnoy, G., Scheibler, J., & Carrilo, A. (2012). Beyond (ABC’s) Education, community and feminism in Afghanistan. Journal of Community Psychology, 40(1), 159-181.

This journal highlights how Socio-cultural norms and practices within the Afghans has contributed in the oppressive way through which resources and services like education have been shared in the community. The author cites evidence stating that, at the primary school level, the literacy level of girls for aged 15-24 stands at 18%, while the literacy level for bay at the same age bracket remains at 50%. More than half the boys have a chance of completing education compared to girls.

Facar, M. (2006). The pendulum of gender politics in Afghanistan. Central Asia Survey, 25(1), 27-59.

This source gives a historical perspective of how the Afghanistan society lived during the time before and after the Taliban. The author observes that because most of the schools in Afghanistan are gender-segregated, the insurgent groups have always conducted several attacks on girls in order to restrict them from acquiring basic education. It was a rule that girls ought to stay away from public places; the school was a public place where they socialized. The author adds that oppressing women was a show of winning despite losing the victory at the battlefields. He cites an example in Takhar province, where Taliban group poisoned 40 girls student, some of which succumbed to severe health complication

.

Spink, J. (2005). Education and politics in Afghanistan: the importance of an education system in peace building and reconstruction. Journal of Peace Education, 2(2), 195-207.

In this source, the author gives the picture of the situation after the Taliban assumed power. He explains and demonstrates how women underwent difficult situations in their pursuit of education. He observes that men were favored unlike women who suffered perpetration and egregious acts of violence from the insurgents.

Whitsel, C., & Mehran, W. (2010). School, work and community-level differences in Afghanistan and Tajikistan: divergence in secondary school enrolment of youth. Central Asia Survey, 29(4), 501-519.

In this source the author, identify various problems that lead to the low number of women registration in secondary schools. He observes that traditional norms and practices also deprived women from accessing education by forcing them to stay at home while boys went to school.

Gender discrimination refers to the level of ranking through a person’s sex which will cause inferior to another. This Report highlights the gender discrimination on women which causes numerous effects and consequences to the world. It will show how women are treated differently from men and the impact causes to the society. Last but not least, the report will also highlights the solution which helps people in changing the stereotype of women and reduces discrimination problems.

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With reference: ( http://www.newyorkemploymentlawyerblog.com/2007/06/employee_awarded_2m_for_gender.html)

Section II

In all over the world, women usually are the factor of gender discrimination that people tends to have a stereotype about them. Women are commonly seen as being emotional, frail, submissive, futile and worthless whereas the stereotypes of men are significant, smart, tough and useful which causes people to think that men are vital and more proficient than women. The biasness against women creates unremitting cycles which enhances the prejudice against them and hindering them from getting stronger than the men. Thus, discrimination should be minimized as we move towards globalization.

In Singapore’s context, it’s largely belief that women have equal opportunities as men in excelling in their studies and have equal social status as men. The understanding about this issue will help us widen our perspectives on the taboo against women in different countries which is still as bad as compared to the early days. It also creates greater awareness to our society so that people will reduce or stop the discrimination and reflect on their actions made against women.

It is important to state the issue of gender discrimination on women as it helps the society to change the stereotypes and mindset of people such as women are more competent in completing certain task as compared to men, for example, giving birth to babies etc. It can also help the society to reduce the stigma of women and to make them realize that we are living in a democratic world thus both genders are equivalent and discrimination towards women should end.

Many might not know that, in developing countries such as India and china, women are not allowed to carry out things that they want to bring around. This is because women are known as a burden to the family as they are known as being weak and useless. As a result, they are only bound to be a homemaker with no exposure to the world and what is happening around. On the other hand, men will be treasured and given a chance to expose outside the hometown to earn a source of income for the family. Thus, in this instance, there is a gender discrimination against women and they are called the servant of household.

Such example can be seen even in Singapore too. For example, when there is a woman driver driving on the road, men tends to have such stereotype that they are weak, not skilful enough and inexperience that result in them being unsure of what to do when encounter an accident. On the other hand, men are known to be street-smart and more skilful and seasoned in driving. Thus, men tends to look down on women when it comes to driving,

Section III

Gender discrimination had affected our society by causing others to despise on women and even women themselves. It had also cause lots of innocent death and unfairness towards human beings. It is actually important for gender discrimination to take place and send a message to people that they should cherish one another. As if, the ratio of women is lesser than men birth rate will decrease and will leads to a lesser number of babies born and brain-drained of the society

Based on research, ending the life of baby girls by parents is a common practice in India and it is taken lightly as the mothers of those babies belief that they are helping the babies by preventing them from suffering in the future. This practice is known as sex-selective abortion.

India Gender Ratios.jpg

From references: (http://southasiainvestor.blogspot.com/2009/07/indias-disappearing-daughters.html)

From the statistic evidence as shown above, the ratio of males as compared to the females are increasing as the years goes by. The sex-selective abortion had also leads to the decrease of birth rates. From the above mention, it will leads to an increase of violent crime and sexual exploitation etc.

Gender discrimination had also affects our society by causing lots of individual tragedies and loss of innocent life which such activities are sex trafficking for women and abuse and the health of women etc.

Section IV

In many places, discrimination towards women is also involved in the family law, education, physical abuse and workplace too. For example, women are will be given less wages as compared to men, on the other hand, men will be also given more privileges than women in making decisions in work place. This is a form of bias and unfair treatment. In addition, women will also be sexually harassed or gets a mediocre treatment than the men.

If you have taken a more in depth view on the whole society, you will realise that in most of the places or religion, they will give more control or power to the men instead of women. For example, in many of the places, men will be given freedom such as marrying more than one woman at the same time while women will be forbidden to. This is how discrimination takes place and shows that women are not given leadership at prayer, family and many other aspect of life.

To diminish discrimination towards women, we have to find solution such as promoting education to women; reduce the financial needs by needy families and giving a helping hand from the country.

We can reduce the financial needs by needy families so that they can provide and promote education to women so that with those highly educated women, they can achieve excellent jobs with high income and a higher position in the workplace whereby they have the rights and say. It will help to change the view of how people will look at women and will not be look down on as they will have the rights and says in the society when they become useful.

We can also diminish gender discrimination by having helping hands from the country such as government, who can take action into it. They can help to forbid activities such as sex-selective abortion and can organise speeches on gender discrimination so that people will reflect and stop discrimination. They can also help to promote and encourage education for both genders especially on women.

The present study aimed to identify the gender images depicted in riddles posed by women and men of the rural areas. It was assumed that stereotypical images are depicted through riddles and gender images of riddles reveal a great deal about the societal attitudes toward gender and toward structuring the individual’s identity and identification of the gender role. And by these riddles, gender roles has been analyzed in which women are seen as submissive, obedient and caregivers whereas the men are considered to be the breadwinners, prominent and strong. The study consisted of collection and documentation of riddles.

The present study also intends to identify the contribution of women and men in the formulation of gender specific dimensions through riddles which articulated and reinforce the masculine and feminine images, prevalent in rural society of Punjab.

Culture is the way of people’s life, which is consisting of both material as well as ideological components. Culture consist straight patterns of thought and behavior, including values, norm, belief, rules of political organization and economic activity etc. Culture isn’t biological inheritance, it passed-on from one generation to the next by learning and oral transmition (Decorse & Raymond, 1992).

Every culture is different from other and has different cultural values. It is not a creation of single man but emerge through different people who lived there and share land and emotions (Maswan, 1977).

Culture is mixture of norms, belief, and values, which are orally transmitted to one generation to another generation. Oral tradition is one of the oldest forms of art in any society that transmitted their values, belief and norms through communication. In world two third of it population are preferred to orally communicate (Kalim, 1978).

Every culture has its own values and traditions, Pakistan as a culture contains multi-cultural values and traditions. It has lots of influence by their neighboring cultural areas like Central Asia, Iran, the Arab World and India. Pakistan has strong cultural and historical roots. Modern Pakistan was the land of Indus civilization which was mixture of Persian, Indo-Greek and Islamic cultures. Pakistan has been arranged by the Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, Afghans, Mongols and the British. Pakistani folklore contains elements of all of these cultures. In Pakistan first phase of folklore was collected and started by British rural (Report of SARRC Tourism of Pakistan, 2010).

In Pakistan, because of different culture, the different languages are spoken. Each of the language spoken in Pakistan has unique quality of poems, songs, stories and proverbs which are associated with its cultural norms and values (Ultey, 1968).

According to Agarwal, Punjab is a vast plain dotted with thousands of villages that are of great importance to be studied. Like other societies, the rural society of Punjab is a patriarchal society. Patriarchy is a phenomenon which is prevailing in most of the cultures in the world. It is a form of social organization that structures the dominance of men over women where social institutions construct gender differences in the society and women are considered as private or communal property and men as the natural heirs of all power (Agarwal, 1994).

Quddus discussed in his research that, Punjabi is traditional language of Pakistan (Punjab) which is spoken since Middle age. The first written Punjabi sample was found in 13th century, which was short verse of Baba Farid Shakar Ganj. By the 16th century; Peeloo, a poet has notable contribution in Punjabi literature, who was also the writer of Mirza Sahiban. In Pakistan, mostly the folklores are prevailing in Punjab (Quddus, 1992).

“Folklore” is a complex meaning of “folk,” which mean common people, and “lore” means the knowledge or traditions. Hence folklore is the tradition of common people and it is also a source to express the culture (Ultey, 1968).

In oral tradition Folklore is considered as main source of information which moves in multiple generations. In Folklore and folk life, include the all way of living in that particular cultural through which people can become a member of that culture (Hassan, 1995).

Research done by Quddus (1992) concluded that folklore plays the significant role to express the culture, through folklores the norms tradition and values are shared form one area to another or one generation to another. In Folklores basically the characteristic of that culture are shown, that also help to expose any culture within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group (Quddus, 1992).

According to Ultey (1968), folklore helps to understand the past and also often help to shape the present. Folklore is then, is an important oral tradition, transmitted by word of mouth, source of learning in specific culture that starts from lullaby which used to sing when children are very little. Through lullabies, folk stories, proverbs, riddles, actually the roles and norms of that specific culture are transmitted and internalized by the person that how life can spend. These norms and tradition supports person through out the whole life. These folklores are dominating on whole part of man’s life like folk song sing at the time of happiness, riddles proverb indirectly give the message of norm and belief (Ultey, 1968).

Folklores are the oral literature and are also a form of socialization. Gender roles, in particular, are reflected in legends, tales, and myths etc traditionally shared in oral traditions of particular interest. Folklore oral literature provides a rich source of cultural history and socialization, transmitting and reinforcing messages associated with central values (Allen etal, 2006).

Folklores work as vehicle, through which tradition circulate, like tool to transform values from one culture to another culture. Folklores serve both as entertainment as well as socialization, where gender roles and images are depicted. Through folklores the man and women socially accepted role is explained. These roles and duties are slowly changed with passage of time but still practices in any shape in world. Gender images created by folksongs can therefore reveal a great deal about the societal attitudes toward gender (Mahan, 1978).

Tempest stated in her research that folklores are the most important tool of socialization as these are sometimes used as stereotype. Different kinds of stereotype roles are being presented through folklores (Tempest, 2001).

Munir (1990) described in his research that, in Pakistan large number of unwritten folklores passes orally from generation to generation. The crafts, rituals, legends, epics, ballads, folk tales, songs dances and riddles are still alive today and there main characteristic are the mixture of different culture and region which makes the culture as unique and specific. But fusion of different culture doesn’t become the cause of removal of originality of Pakistani culture. The patterns of culture clearly move on its own right way. This diversity and dynamic of cultural make our heritage powerful and alive (Munir, 1990).

Shahed said that folk literature is changed and diminished due to urbanization. He stated that in older times folk literature was related to land, peasantry and traditional things but now knowledge is transformed because of urbanization (Shahed, 1993).

Folklores have broad ranges of expression. It can be oral, material, and behavioral. folklores include; ballad which is traditional poem or folksong, fairy tales which are traditional stories, conveying stereotypical messages, folk dance are also called ethnic dance that are originated with the common people of the cultural group, folk song is a traditional song that is collected for different occasion and handed down orally, joke is a technique in which game of word play, in humorous way that provoke laughter, legends are traditional historical tales usually containing a mixture of fact and fiction but regarded as true, superstition is an irrational belief usually involving supernatural forces and associated with rituals, folk tales popular tales, which are love stories and mostly tragically ended, Folk games are those games which are traditionally very famous; these are practice and passed from generation to generation and riddles are linguistic puzzle in the form of a question which also containing clues to its solution (Bruchac etal, 2004).

Riddle is one of the aspects of folklore which is important medium for transmitting of culture, education, knowledge and skills to children. Riddles play important roles as a means of socialization and social learning. Riddles are actually puzzle, games of words, it can be comprised of one or two sentences or more than that, which can be solved through interaction and symbolic activities (Eastman & Kallen, 1979).

A riddle is a mysterious statement and description that contains a hidden meaning to be guessed by to whom it is addressed. Riddles also involve analogy of meaning, sound, Rhythm, or tone (Fant, 1985).

Mostly riddles are taken as a game and structure of those riddle are like question, through its analyses and definition other people assume the answer. Riddles have binary relation, which has question and answer of it. Riddles are formulated in special sitting, in which two or more then two people sit in one place, one asks the riddle’s question and other person or persons guess its answer. Mostly these sitting are arranging in some occasion like harvesting, in evening, leisure time, in homes, in field and any other social meeting, where group of people assembled, belong to same culture; know about tradition, belief, etc (Burns, 1976).

The riddling can be played in different ages of people. In some tradition only children engage in riddling. In some tradition adults can participate in the riddling of children, in some traditions riddling is mostly an adult hobby. In some traditions, riddling is mostly an activity associated with only males. But in the majority of cultures it is leisure-time activity or traditions, both male and female participate in this activity and they also participate in mixed groups including both women and men while elsewhere females are said to specialize in formulation of riddles. It is general belief that females are more intelligent than man and riddles require intelligence. Riddles mainly based on common household items, crops names, animals names, daily activities, heavenly objects, cultural artifacts, parts of the body, etc. (Green & Pepicello, 1984)

There are no proper and strict rules and regulations for riddling, that has to follow. But mostly two or three things are arranged before to start riddling, that is to have people who ask question or guess answer, and the event or scenario from which riddle asked. Nevertheless these rules are important, whether it is verbal activity. Riddles functions as umbrella categories, of socialization, entertainment, and education (Burns, 1976).

According to Messengers (1960), Riddles are part of folklore so through folklores, culture and tradition are transferred from one generation to another. Riddle inculcates the culture and proper behavior of life in a child. Interesting sessions and repetition of asking riddles mostly memorize the children who repeat it with their friends, or other people and learn them (Messenger, 1960).

Research done by Tempest (2001) found that riddles are type of folklores that are used to convey the stereotype messages. These stereotypes are also gender related and these riddles are mostly categorized between boys and girls, sons and daughters (Tempest, 2001).

Another function of riddling is entertainment that plays in leisure time which is called leisure-time riddling. Riddling is also play in greeting occasion like marriage ceremony where people are gathered and enjoy their gathering (Burns, 1976).

Riddle is usually played by people to entertain themselves during long winter nights. Of course it also helps to measure the intelligence of the people. Another time at which riddles are also played when people busy in field with harvesting they also play riddling for time pass and entertainment etc (Green & Pepicello, 1984).

According to Ishengoma (2005), riddles have important educational value because they develop critical thinking and memory among young children. It is meant for entertainment and education as well, especially for child’s learning. In addition to enjoyment, riddles help in memory training for children as they are expected and encouraged to remember the correct answer to the riddles. They play important role in socialization and social learning of children. But riddles are still prevailing to use for education purpose as device to learn about cultural value, attitudes, and to teach dominant and submissive roles (Ishengoma, 2005).

Green & Pepicello (1984) discussed in the research that the main role of riddle is socialization of younger generation, that know about the items of daily routine like name of crops help to know about it, then their season of harvesting and using of that crops, these information are internalize through riddle. Riddles helped children to learn about gender roles and duties, their characteristic, culture and tradition according to which they spend their life (Green & Pepicello, 1984).

On the other side is also criticize that riddle has lacking the capacity to improve the mind, because riddle has stereotype question and answer and mostly answer is already known to the audience (Awedoba, 2000).

Riddles have been a rich oral tradition, without doubt, throughout the world. Some societies play it in present times also. Now the concept of riddling is less in urban and rural population, but still play in rural population. Because in rural population has less source of entertainment like video, television, cinema and many others are not available. So people enjoy through riddles (Green & Pepicello, 1984).

Gender Roles are assigned by different folklores which gives identity. It means these biological and social characteristics become social-identity. These identities are internalizing in every person, and motivated to play these roles which actually culture associated with them, because those roles are socially and culturally accepted (Hassan, 1995).

Culture also constructs the gender specific socio-economic differences in roles, responsibilities, constraints, opportunities and needs of men and women. These are set up in opposition to biological sex.

“Gender is a process of allocation of differences that is varied according to time and space, it needs to be historicized and situated geo-politically but also in terms of other structural variables such as social class, age, race, ethnicity, religion and sexuality.”

(Eagly, 1987)

Gender roles are socially and culturally constructed and are a dynamic term that can be changed over time. Gender roles refer to the rights, responsibilities, expectations, and relationships of men and women. Gender is a logical concept for examining the status of women and men in a culture. Social Construction of gender is an end result of the process of socialization where the values, norms, beliefs, wisdom, philosophy, customs, skills and practices of the society are learned, acknowledged and internalized. (Njau, 1994)

Through the process of socialization, values and behavior patterns associated with maleness and femaleness, are learned, acquired and assimilated. Gender roles are affected by socio-cultural expectations, qualities and behaviors that are expected from a male or a female by their society. These expectations originate in the pre-conception that certain qualities and roles are ‘natural’ for women and ‘unnatural’ for men. Males and females are socialized through social pressure, learning condition and act according to the different traits that society considers ‘suitable’ for them. Socialization aims at preparing individuals for their respective roles in society, installing principles, forming individuals and making them practical members of society.

“Socialization means that people are taught to accept and perform the roles and functions fixed by society for them. Men and women are socialized to accept different gender roles from birth till death. Establishing different roles and expectations for men and women is a key feature of socialization in most societies. While men and women differ on account of their biological and anatomical constitution, gender differences are a product of socio-cultural traditions, which are created and perpetuated through cultural forms such as belief systems and rites as well as through proverbs and tales.”

(Kabira, 1994)

Society is an enduring and cooperating social group, whose members have developed organized patterns of relationships through interaction with each other. It is also a broad grouping of people having common traditions, collective activities and interests. Social groups develop society. Every society has its own norms, customs and traditions, which depend on its geographical and social culture also. Through socialization individuals, are prepared for their respective roles in society to make them useful members of society (Edgar, 1987).

Male family members are considered the breadwinner and head of the household and make decisions for family members. The sexual division of labor is hierarchical with men on top and women on bottom.

“In Punjabi culture, it is society, who ascribes various roles for men and women in a fixed location and family life is determined by the men folk alone due to the customs of patrilineal character in the families that is found there. Customs and property generally flow from the male persons of the previous generation to the next generation and women of the family have no articulation in family matters.”

(Quduss, 1992)

The study aims to look the functionality and importance of riddles in Punjabi society. The significance of the present study can be used as a source in reviewing the riddles that had been posed in past by village people and will present gender images depicted in riddles. It will also explain how gender is portrayed in these riddles and how this folklore play important role in socialization process. The present study also had a unique dimension as a very few researches had mainly focused on riddles. The purpose to conduct this research is to preserve our cultural-lore which was diminishing with the passage of time. The study would be focused towards collection and analysis of riddles. It was an attempt to capture and understand the feelings of people of the rural society of Punjab.

Heteronormativity is the cultural bias or the view that puts clear boundary between male and female, which emphasizes normal sexual and romantic relationship between two genders. As freshmen in college, I have a friend name Joe whom I did not expect him to be gay. At first, I thought it was impossible him to be gay. But as he began to have boyfriend, I began to see people around them and the society viewed him as abnormal and weird. For example, his parents told him to be straight in order to emphasize about being normal. There are social boundaries to people who are not straight and the society encourages people to be Heteronormative. Therefore, Heteronormativity is a fixed view about living and having normal thoughts about sexuality and gender role.

Prompt 1: Gender Construction in our society

Gender Identity can be defined by the way people act as a male and female, which males have different sets of mind about something that females do not. Even though man and woman have difference in physical part, People learn more about their gender identity through experiences since their childhoods to until they get old. There are many biological differences in both men and women, but it does not have impact on how gender shapes in people’s lives. If gender did not exist in our society, I am pretty sure there would be gender confusion where many females would be considered as “male”, and many males would be considered as “females.” There are many sociocultural factors that have influenced on gender role. Since the social construction of gender is mainly formed by the gender rule and stereotype in our society, gender identity is constructed by the representation of gender norms in mass media productions, parental expectations about gender identity, and the beliefs of different religious traditions about gender. In today’s society, Mass Media Production like movie, video games, and magazines influenced so many young males and females and also some older people. For example in the movie clips ” Miss Representation(2010) ,” clearly portrays how women should act around people and in society. In the movie Miss Representation, the women are shown as sexually explicit figure toward the audiences and also emphasize how women should look like in order to satisfy gender role. Because many women are shown in negative way for most of time, people actually think that women are exactly like in the movie or magazines, which is not true. This movie was trying to say that people are heavily influenced by media. All of people watch TV every single day, and many of them enjoy watching movie. By watching them, they unconsciously think about the actors or models and form their gender roles. In the reading ” Breaking the Model,” the author said ” I wanted to be popular, like the typical girl on TV. I wanted to be thin- to fit in.” (Rodriguez, CP 54). Due to the fact that many of women want to look sexy, beautiful, and thin, they see the model as their dream and it motivates them to be like them, which could cause in eating disorder and depression. They desire to fit into certain group of the society in order to feel good and superior about themselves. On the other hand, the producers of media know what teens like and purposefully make media productions that appeal to them. Finally, the media gradually forms people’s thoughts about their genders by emphasizing that they should look like them. The social construction of gender is caused by the expectation of people and the way society view people. Since the childhood, everyone received certain expectations from their parents and relatives to be either grown up as normal masculine male and feminine female. In the reading from “Night to His Day,” it said that “In social interaction throughout their lives, individuals learn what is expected, see what is expected, act and react in expected way, and thus simultaneously construct and maintain the gender order.” (Lorber, CP 14). Unlike media effect on gender identity, children learn their behaviors and form their minds by listening to their parents and other people. For example, some boys learn to be male by playing tough sports like football. Additionally, girls learn to be female by imitating the way their mothers dress and act. It would be weird for people to act in unexpected way and might result in isolation from the family and the society. In the reading “Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls,” it said that ” a girl with a doll and a boy with truck “explain” why men are from Mars and women are from Venus, why wives do housework and husbands just don’t understand” (Pollitt, CP 18). Since childhood, we modeled our parents and acted according to what they told us to do. There are gender rules which states that male has to act in certain way and female has to act in another way. Because gender stereotype and expectations existed and people kept acting in expected way for long period of time, people were able to form gender identity by modeling and following their ancestors. All of these would demonstrate how our social norms have big impact on gender expectations for people. Lastly, religious view toward gender would form the social construction of gender and could lead to discrimination about gender, especially toward female. As right now, there are few countries where sexism is still going on against women due to the cultural and religious view among people. In many countries, Women are treated differently than men in various ways. For example in the reading “Night to His Day,” the author wrote that ” In societies that create the greatest gender difference, such as Saudi Arabia, women are kept out of sight behind walls or veils, have no civil rights, and often create a cultural and emotional world of their own (Bernard 1981) ( Lorber CP, 15). Because Saudi Arabia had this belief for long time, the people just think this as religious belief that came from their parents or ancestors. In most of countries, women are seen as weak and emotional through religious belief that was viewed by the society, which lead to certain type of gender identity. Many of religious belief like Catholic and Muslim emphasized about transgender and homosexuality. According to religious belief of Catholic, it emphasizes people not to change their gender through surgical treatment and marrying a same gender. If they disobey the rule of religion, they would lose respect from other people and feel they are not worthy enough to believe in that religion by the fact they did not follow the gender rule in society. It is important to understand that people have high tendency to conform among groups, and it would result in following normal cultural and religious belief toward gender identity and role. Gender is mainly formed by our social construction and each individual is impacted by people and objects they encounter every day in their lives. It is not possible to just form our gender based on body difference between men and women because it does not do anything to our mind and habits. As people grow up from childhood, they begin to actually see how it feels to be fit into the right gender identity group through media production they encounter, expectations from other people that caused from gender stereotype, and religious value of each country. Therefore, I strongly agree that the sociocultural experiences have huge impact on individual’s gender identity through the gender rule and gender stereotype.

Gender bias in the workplace. Why are women paid less for comparable jobs performed by men?

In this essay, a brief history of women in the workplace as well as gender stereotyping with gender specific jobs are discussed. There is a belief that men are paid more than women for the same tasks. Is this notion true in the 21st century? An examination on literature and recent research shows that women are gaining more and more but still have not reached what men are being paid for a comparable job. The reasons this is still happening are thoroughly examined and proposals for changing this are suggested. For this essay, western and industrialized societies are only examined. Studying other cultures and societies would help answer questions raised about universality of this issue, but due to insufficient space this aspect is not included.

In traditional societies the division of labor has always been based on gender roles. We have grown up by learning what traits are suited to our gender and the roles each gender has in a family. Men were always considered to work outside the household being the ones that brought the bread home, thus called the ‘breadwinners’. Women were working in the house taking care of everyone and everything relating to the daily life and were (and still are) called the ‘caretakers’ (Koskina, 2009). It is only that women have actively participated in the career oriented jobs since around the middle of the 20th century and have actually studied in the fields of their work at equally high demanding standards as men who might be seeking to be employed at a job of comparable worth. In contemporary societies, the notion of the traditional family has changed. We also see various forms of ‘family’ with quite a growing number of single parent families where the main caregiver as well as breadwinner/provider is often the woman. Women nowadays almost all work outside the households while still having to find time to engage in childcare activities playing a dual role. This double role women have might lead them to work fewer hours outside the home thus having to accept lower-pay jobs. The human capital approach agrees with the above as it states that women invest less in the jobs, thus ‘harvest fewer rewards’ (Lips &Lawson, 2009).

The feminist argument views the same thing from a different perspective. They highlight women’s different needs and experiences within the workplace through motherhood and the importance of maternity rights (Bryson, 1992; Hare-Mustin and Marecek, 1994) Women still have primary responsibility of their children and their household as they did ‘traditionally’ during the past century. However there are approaches that criticize biological determinism and equating roles of caring and mothering and for over-generalizing women’s experiences. (Evans, 1994; Guerrina, 2001)

Robbins (1999) said that the informal slogan of the decade for women was “Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, receive ten percent of the world’s income and own one percent of the means of production.” There are still in the Western World some societies that have not adapted into a gender-free job compensation system. UNICEF noticed that women who work outside the household earn on average far less than men. They get low earnings, little financial security and no social benefits. (UNICEF, 2007) Gender discrimination affects girls and women throughout their lifetime thus women suffer the most poverty.

From the Daughters of Liberty in 1765 to the first Brazilian woman president in 2010 a lot has changed. During the World War I women’s role in society was expanded as they entered the workforce. In 1963 the Equal Pay Act makes it illegal for companies to make inequities between men and women for the same job. But to what extent did that happen? Do they have equal opportunities for jobs that until recently were thought only to be open for men? In 1968 the Supreme Court decided that women with the abilities can work in jobs that have previously been considered typically suitable only for men. In the 70s, women begin to study more and more at University level entering professions like medicine, law, dentistry and business. An amazing statistic is that during the 80s 17% of total doctors in the USA were women!

Although history has shown that women progressed in the workplace quite fast, unfortunately we still live in patriarchal societies and men seem to be able to further in their careers than women. Rees and Brewster (1995) suggest that ‘where women are segregated into professions and working patterns that are characterized by low pay, we have examples of capitalism and patriarchy working hand in hand’.(Koskina,2009) The notion of the family in capitalist societies plays a vital factor in the gender pay gap. Having children has a positive impact on men’s wages and negative ones on women’s. According to Glauber (2007) having 2 to 4 children can decrease a women’s wages from 4-8%. Budig and England (2001) found a 7% reduction in wages per child. This decrease does not happen for men with children. Glauber (2008) suggested the ‘fatherhood premium’ which means that when men have children wages increase (Lips &Lawson, 2009). In 1967 Blalock hypothesized that the sudden increase of members of underrepresented groups into work environments would be perceived by members of majority groups as an intrusion and as a result would increase bias (Ambady &Richeson, 2001).

The estimates show that women are only paid about 70% of the wages paid to men for comparable work (Sorensen, 1994). Unfortunately, sex stereotyping in the workplace still occurs and men get the higher paying jobs. Men have access to higher paid jobs probably because they have been working far longer than women, who only started to work outside the household in the past 30 or so years and another reason may be motherhood. It still happens to date, when a man and woman with the same experience and academic qualifications are interviewed for a job position, the man has many more chances to get the job because the human resources person knows that the woman might soon start a family and that work will become her second priority and family the first.

Organizations are afraid that accepting a woman to work for them, means that someday they will have to outweigh business with family responsibilities. There have been studies looking into women’s and men’s work related values. In three separate studies, women rated ‘achievement, work environment, co-workers, supervision, prestige, lifestyle values, work hygiene, and social values as more important than men did, whereas men rated creativity, independence, income, and extrinsic values as more important than women did’ (Duffy & Sedlacek 2007; Rottinghaus & Zytowski 2006; Sinisalo 2004). Frieze et al. (2006) suggests that men and women already working have similar work values in their careers. Their research found no gender differences in ratings of work values relating to recognition, helping people, and earning a lot of money. However, women in this study rated “doing an excellent job” as more important than men did. Most studies of work related values have not included values specifically related to accommodation to family responsibilities (Lips & Lawson, 2009). According to Blau and Kahn, two important factors in explaining the pay gap and its decline are occupational distributions of men and women and differences in their age experience profiles (Renner & Rives & Bowlin, 2002).

There is a lot of research on the issue of pay inequities between men and women and researchers have been debating about the reasons that this occurs. As already mentioned men have access to higher paid jobs and get paid more than women for performing equivalent tasks. In the 1980s this gender based disparity raised the concept of comparable worth, or equal pay for equal work. It seems that despite the legal actions, men continue to get paid more than women and it might be because of exceptioning. Exceptioning is ‘the practice of ignoring pay discrepancies between particular jobs possessing equivalent duties and responsibilities’ (Riggio, 2008).

Limitations placed on women like motherhood or lower level jobs are referred to as glass ceiling. This glass ceiling prevents them from advancing to better paid positions. In fact, ‘very few women have managed to break through the “glass ceiling” to occupy top jobs’ and where they have succeeded, this is usually in the public sector (Vinnicombe and Colwill, 1995). As ‘women are confined both to lower-grade jobs and to different jobs’ (Abercrombie and Warde, 2002), the gender pay gap remains a familiar and persistent feature of all European economies.

Research indicates various factors affect women’s ability to get past the glass ceiling. Traditional organizational cultures often reflect continuing gender stereotypes (Bible & Hill, 2007; Boselovich, 2006). For example, the difference between men and women was that ‘women take care and men take charge and that women are not as good at problem solving as their male counterparts’. (Bible & Hill, 2007). Another study by Hymowitz (2005) reported that men felt that they were superior to women in problem solving, inspiring, delegating, and influencing superiors. (Sipe & Fisher& Johnson, 2009) Unfortunately, despite the success of a lot of women worldwide in the workforce, stereotypes of women and of what job they should do, still prevail.

Women are still confined to certain roles based on societies, cultures and religion and limit their participation in economic life on an equal basis with men. Traditional gender roles such as, women are responsible for their family and for their children and elderly, makes it difficult for them to fully participate in the workforce. This unfortunately works both ways. Even if women were able to participate fully in the workforce, discrimination against them persists. Another explanation is related to the lack of information that employers may have about their women employees, resulting in their tending to underestimate the productive potential of women, and, therefore, paying them less and confining them to lower grade occupations.

Patriarchal societies construct women as belonging in the home, better suited for raising children and performing housework. Feminists have argued that this notion keeps women in their homes reproducing privileges towards men. Women have the same rights and privileges and have the opportunity to choose not to marry, not to have children and to have a career. Female gender identities are changing with aspirations beyond marriage producing changes in social practices and in the workforce. ‘Part of the social constructionist task is to identify the conditions of possibility for the emergence and take up of any given discourse, often attributed to large-scale material shifts in power bases’ (Foucault, 1977). Any individual woman can take up the positions offered by discourses to construct a particular identity at a given time (Dick & Nadin, 2006).

O’Neill (2003) argues ‘that since the gender gap can largely be explained by non-discriminatory factors, it is unlikely the gender wage gap will decrease further, even in the absence of labor market discrimination, unless what she terms women’s household responsibilities decrease'(Green & Ferber,2005). The study showed that the main reasons for the above are that, compared with men, women spend more time and energy caring for their families, they are more likely less on-the job training, they are less stable workers who often quit their jobs for family reasons, causing their employers concern about discontinuity and they expect their labor force participation to be intermittent, and therefore choose occupations with wages that are higher early on although they increase less over time.(Green & Ferber, 2005)

Women often work more than men yet are paid less. In 1984, Major et al. suggested that women work longer, do more work, and complete more correct work and work more efficiently than men for the same amount of pay. There is research that shows that there may be a difference between men and women in their sense of personal entitlement for pay. Women and men allocate rewards differently between themselves and others as when they were asked to ‘divide a joint reward between themselves and a co-worker, men tend to take more of the reward for themselves, and give correspondingly less to the co-worker, than do women having the same performance level'( Major, 1989). These factors as well as difficulty to access resources and other basic services, contribute to weakening women’s capacity to earn their own income.

Discrimination against women that are also mothers is another factor. For example, between 2001 and 2003, just under 40% of U.S. women who were pregnant with their first child had to take unpaid time off of work (Johnson 2008). Inadequate leave policies and lack of childcare resources for mothers in the United States appear to contribute to the wage gap (Sigle-Rushton & Waldfogel 2007); such inadequacies may cause mothers to feel as if they must decide between work and family (Williams& Cohen &Cooper 2004). Working fewer hours, taking time off for children or completely stepping out of the work force for young children comes with an economic cost, resulting in lower earnings for mothers (Lips & Lawson 2009).

An approach grounded in Expectancy-Value theory (e.g., Atkinson 1964; Eccles 1989) would suggest that, given ‘heavy domestic and childcare responsibilities, the constraints they expect to face in the workplace and the consequent low expectancy of success, women may place less value on work and more on family, thus falling neatly into the pattern, predicted by the human capital approach, of investing more in family than in workplace success’ (Lips &Lawson, 2009). In contrary, men would be expected to value work more, given a higher probability of success in that area. Thus, they would tend to value achievement, status, power, and success at work. As Frieze et al. (2006) showed through his study, achievement and power related work values are significant predictors of salary. This shows that gender differences in work values might be a reason for gender pay disparities. Another finding of Frieze et al. (2006) shows that work values and career engagement are related but research is inconsistent as to whether there are gender differences in work values.

It is clear that there is a gender bias toward women in the workplace, but evidence shows that it is because of gender roles in patriarchal societies and biological determinism. Women didn’t start to work outside the household until recently, so in a way it’s logical that men have gained higher positions in organizations. The structure of a family is constantly changing nowadays, were we see allot of single parents struggling between jobs and childcare. There are some women who are career oriented rather than wishing to have a family, who strive on being the best in her job position and some are able to get bigger wages than others and sometimes men. There is some other research that entails the idea of women having to choose to work or have a family. Why should a woman have to leave the dream to create a family in order to be able to have the same benefits with a man? ‘Gender is something people do rather than people have’ (Eveline& Todd, 2009). In light of this quote, anything is possible. There has been plenty of research on the gender gap and other ethnic minorities, concluding that there is a bias toward women with a family or young but as times change maybe stereotypes will alter.

THE DIVISION IN HOUSEHOLD LABOUR BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN
CONTENTS (JUMP TO)

Abstract

Introduction

Literature Review

Household Labour Defined

The Gender Gap

Research Methods

Analysis Methods

Historic Housework Gender Divisions

Global Housework Gender Divisions

Reasons for Gender Gap

Methodology

Findings

Recommendations

Conclusion

References

ABSTRACT

This study considers the gender gap in performance of household labour and its change over time, particularly in the last fifty years. Methods that others have used to research and analyse household labour, historic and multi-cultural gender divisions, reasons for the current and historic gender gap from a sociological perspective. This research then determines the most effective methods of data gathering and analysis and examines several studies over the last fifty years to conclude that the gender gap in household work is actually shrinking, albeit more slightly than some contend due to societal changes. Proposals for overcoming the disparity in household labour performance are assessed from a variety of published literature. Conclusions are drawn regarding the most likely factors affecting changes to the gender gap, namely changes in gender identities from a societal standpoint. Recommendations for further research and actions to further redu ce the housework disparity conclude the study.

INTRODUCTION

Almost all research conducted in the past one hundred years has overwhelmingly and consistently supported a disparity between the household labour performed by women and men, with women typically outperforming men both in terms of more distasteful tasks and number of hours by significant margins. Since the beginning of the women’s movement in the 1960s, however, some inroads have been made regarding closing the gap between male and female performance. These must be weighed in light of overall changes in societal expectations and practise of household labour, but do show a trend towards greater egalitarianism in housework performance.

This research begins with a thorough consideration of published literature regarding gender division of household labour and how such studies have been conducted and analysed, with reference to historic and multi-cultural gender divisions and sociological reasons for the persistent gender gap in housework performance. A survey of secondary research using the most accurate and informative data gathering methods is then conducted to determine whether the gender gap is indeed closing and if so, why, or whether broader societal and technological changes are merely affecting the performance of housework in general.

The study concludes with recommendations for further research and suggestions from both others and the author regarding ways of moving towards a more egalitarian division of household labour performance.

LITERATURE REVIEW

As it applies directly or indirectly to almost everyone, much research and study has been performed regarding housework, the perceptions of those who perform it, and the assignment of household labour tasks within the home or family. This literature review provides a brief survey of some of these studies. An overview of the gender gap will be followed by six broad areas of consideration. First, the various methods by which housework study is conducted will be examined, as claims of inaccuracy are rampant for certain research methods. Similar consideration of different ways of analysing and interpreting this data follows. An overview of historic housework assignment, with particular focus on gender divisions and Britain, includes information stretching back several hundred years but concentrates on the previous century through the present, when statistical analysis and similar data began to be generated. Views of housework and gender division of tasks in other countries allow for a more holistic consideration of the topic. Finally, reasons for the gap between performance of household labour between men and women are from various studies are presented, with a number of researchers assertions of ways to overcome such disparity.

Household Labour Defined

In any study of household labour, also referred to as simply housework in this research, it is first beneficial to define what is meant by or included in the term. Some studies, for example, include only inside household tasks such as cleaning and cooking, excluding outside work such as gardening and exterior home repairs. Some studies include childcare as a household task; others place it in a separate category or do not include it. Lee and Waite (2005) note some research is based on a more restricted definition of housework, limited to physical tasks such as cleaning, cooking and laundry, whilst some include intangible components of household management, such as providing advice or encouragement, or planning and managing household tasks.

For the purpose of this study all non-employment household tasks will be included, grouped broadly into inside and outside tasks, primarily because gender divisions often fall along these categorical divisions. Inside tasks are those performed inside the home, whilst tasks performed outside (yard work, taking out rubbish) fall in the latter category. In addition, based on the work of Coltrane (2000), tasks may be alternatively be considered from the standpoint of routine or occasional as another, and also typical, gender division. Coltrane (2000) defines routine tasks as the most time-consuming and most frequently performed, with little allowance for flexibility in task scheduling. Typical routine tasks include cooking, cleaning, shopping, and laundry. Occasional tasks, in comparison, are not as time-consuming on a daily basis and hence require less frequent performance, allowing more flexibility and discretion in when they are performed. Yard maintenance, home repairs (interior or exterior), and paying bills are typical occasional tasks.

Childcare will be considered in a separate category, although part of the overall household labour workload. This type of grouping is supported by many researchers such as Oakley (1981), Brines (1994), Press and Townsley (1998) and Alenezi and Walden (2004), who include childcare in household labour but place it in a separate category. Child rearing activities, such as bathing, disciplining, and the like may also be separated from recreational activities involving children, such as taking a child to the park or on an outing. In addition, Bianchi et al (2000) note that childcare is also an activity typically done in conjunction with other tasks, such as minding children whilst cooking or cleaning, or helping with homework whilst folding laundry. This is a further consideration when defining time spent and proportional contribution to household functioning.

For the purposes of this study, therefore, all tasks involved in the establishment and maintenance of a household, including care for the persons of the household, are considered household labour or housework. Divisions within this household labour are made when specified, typically due to existing or to highlight gender differences between categories.

The Gender Gap

Current and recent historical culture in Britain and similar Western nations reveals a disparity in the performance of household tasks between women and men. Termed the ‘Gender Gap,’ this difference in housework reflects a much higher proportion of typical tasks performed by women than by men, even in dual-earner situations. Whilst there are other factors contributing to difference in allocation of household work, such as education, culture, and social class, Oakley (1974, 1981), Orbuch and Eyster (1997), Coltrane (2000), Lee (2002), Davis and Greenstein (2004), and Lee and Waite (2005) and many others have determined that gender plays a major role in task and work disparity, and this will be examined more fully under “Reasons for the Gender Gap” later in this literature review. General explanation of the gap itself is provided in this section of this study.

Baxter (2001), after considering a number of studies regarding housework and gender, concludes “women do a much larger proportion of child care and routine indoor housework tasks than men, regardless of marital status” (19). This is supported by similar reviews of literature by Berk (1985), Ross (1987), Becker (1991), Ferree (1991), Brines (1993), Greenstein (1996), Orbuch and Eyster (1997), Coltrane (2000), Lee (2002), Davis and Greenstein (2004), and Lee and Waite (2005). The number of hours women spend has been declining over time, from over sixty hours per week prior to 1970, as reported by Oakley (1974) and others, to less than twenty in current reports such as Lee and Waite (2005), with men’s hours moving from less than three to nearly ten in some research. However, a substantial gap between men and women’s contributions to household labour still exists, as documented by Lee (2002), Rivieres-pigeon, Saurel-Cubi zolles and Romito (2002), Alvarez and Miles (2003), Davis and Greenstein (2004), Alenezi and Walden (2004), Leonard (2004), Lee and Waite (2005). A gender gap between the types of household tasks performed also remains prevalent, with men performing more outdoor housework activities and fewer routine, inside tasks or childcare activities. Men are also more likely to describe their activities as enjoyable, such as playing with children or yard work, whilst women’s participation in activities they describe as enjoyable, such as baking and decorating, have decreased with fewer hours devoted to household work. Baxter (2001) concludes that in all reviewed studies “the differences are quite stark” (19). “Wives spend substantially more time than their husbands on family work, even though women do less and men do slightly more now than 20 years ago” (Bianchi, Milkie, Sayer & Robinson 2000, 192).

It was initially expected that with the growth of the women’s movement the gender gap would disappear. For example, Leonard (2004) reports “a number of UK studies optimistically predicted that women’s entry to paid work outside the household would be accompanied by men’s increased participation in unpaid work within the household” (73). Unfortunately, research in the UK and elsewhere continues to “demonstrate the resilience of traditional gender roles within the household irrespective of women’s labour market status” (Leonard 2004, 73). This research will later examine the narrowing of this gender gap and the reasons behind both its continued existence and gradual lessening.

Research Methods

When comparing secondary data, it is important to consider the methods implemented in data collection. In direct relation to this study, for example, Lee and Waite (2005) amongst others found “conclusions about the size of the gender gap in housework depend substantially on who provides the information about time spent on housework, what information that person is asked to provide, and how housework is defined” (334). Shelton and John (1996) and Coltrane (2000) list typical methods of data collection regarding household labour distribution and performance include interviews, surveys, time-diaries, and most recently electronic recording methods. Lee and Waite (2005) explain that interviews and surveys typically ask respondents to estimate the number of hours and type of tasks they or their spouses spend performing housework tasks. Time-diary studies ask respondents to report all their daily activities, usually within the day be ing tracked or by the next day at the latest.

It is not surprising, therefore, that differences in time of reporting lead to differences in accuracy. Becker (1991), Lee and Waite (2005) and others have all found that interviews and surveys, which require respondents to both recall and estimate contributions and tasks, are highly inaccurate. Time-diaries, which require respondents to document how they spend their time daily or throughout the day, are significantly more accurate, as supported by Becker (1991), Bianchi et al (2000), and Lee and Waite (2005). For example, Bianchi et al (2000) reports a typical difference of fifteen hours per week reported by men and women regarding women’s household labour, and a typical difference of nearly four hours in reporting of men’s contribution. Similarly, Press and Townsley (1998) report that, on average, husbands estimated spending approximately eighteen hours per week on household tasks, whilst wives estimated their husbands contribution at just under thirteen hours per week, a statistically significant difference.

In comparing data from electronic data recording versus data from similar populations collected by survey, Lee and Waite (2005) concluded “wives make accurate estimates of husbands’ time on housework, whereas husbands overestimate their own time” (333). They additionally found some evidence that both wives and husbands may substantially overestimate the amount of time wives spend on housework. For example, Lee and Waite (2005) found wives’ responses to survey questions regarding hours spent on housework estimated twenty-six hours per week of household work, but measurement of the same individuals via an electronic data recording system (ESM) resulted in an average of only fifteen hours per week. In all, the differences between survey measures and ESM [electronic data recording] time-use measures are statistically significant and-for some estimates-quite substantial” (333).

Further, broader consideration of types of tasks within household labour resulted in greater hours of contribution on the part of men, but made little difference in the weekly housework hours of women. For example, Lee (2004) found that whilst in one study both types of childcare activities were counted equally towards housework contribution, husbands’ time “tended to involve recreational activities rather than those tasks that constitute the daily grind of child rearing,” which were left to women (254). Baxter (2001) similarly found that men participated in housework primarily on weekends, and tended to perform occasional tasks such as yard work; women performed housework tasks throughout the week and weekend, being responsible for almost all routine tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry.

Analysis Methods

Research is equally divergent in the methods of analysis employed to interpret data regarding gender divisions in household labour. Some methods , such as commonly used empirical models, focus solely on time allocation and the variables contributing to allocation decisions. Bargaining models, time allocation models, and the household production model are three of the more common of these types of analysis methods.

Mahoney (1995) describes various bargaining theories, which contend that since women earn less, they have less power in the household and are therefore relegated to performing the majority of housework tasks. For example, Alvarez and Miles (2003) found women with university degrees, and hence greater earning power, have reduced housework time. Alenezi & Walden (2004) note, however, that the inverse is true for husbands. The more educated a man is, the more likely he is to contribute a greater number of hours to housework. Bargaining models in general, however, as summarized by Alenezi and Walden (2004) all present consumption and labour supply within the family based on some form of bargaining between family members based on each member’s earning potential and similar characteristics. This type of analysis generally categorises the various attributes, market wage, and similar for family members and uses such categorisation to evaluate gender divisio n of household labour.

Time allocation models, in contrast, contend that individual contribution to household tasks is based on available time. Each family member individually determines contribution to the household based on market wages, leisure activities, and family consumption. Bittman et al (2001) notes that these analysis methods, however, do explain in part the differences in the effects of certain variables, such as education level, on men and women within a household. As Alenezi and Walden (2004) describe, time allocation theories are difficult to use as a basis of empirical research, as they depend on individual decision versus measurable inputs. This form of analysis typically begins with the labour division and works back into variables, rather than documenting variables and then considering activity, as is typical of bargaining theories.

Becker (1991) presents the most often used method of analysis for time allocation of household labour, the household production model. This analysis method divides the household consumption of goods into those that are market-produced and those that are household-produced, and measures household utility and the gender division of household tasks, as described by Alenezi and Walden (2004) as “a function of the consumption of market-produced goods, household-produced goods, and leisure time of the husband and wife”(83). Bryant (1990) describes how households “spend” their two major resources, money and time. In certain circumstances, a household might spend more money to save time, such as by using outside cleaners or eating take out food. In other circumstances, the family may chose to spend time, painting a room themselves rather than hiring the painting out, for example. A lenezi and Walden (2004) conclude “households make decisions about using time working for pay, working on household tasks, like child-rearing and meal preparation, or for enjoyment (leisure)” (81).

Berk (1985) criticises the household production model as making undocumented assumptions about joint production, preferences, and estimation of the shadow price of housework, but it remains one of the few empirical analysis methods that factors in a large number of variables and takes into consideration complexity and diversity within and between households. As Alenezi and Walden (2004) assert, the household production model “still remains the standard for analyzing household time allocation due to its ability to account for many complex relationships in household decision-making” (86).

Some researchers such as Bittman et al (2001) and Alvarez and Miles (2003) contend, however, that empirical analysis methods such as those described above place too much emphasis on economic variables in general, and therefore explain only a limited share of the inequality in housework performance. As Oakley (1981) and Becker (1991) describe, gender division in household labour can also be considered from a more sociological approach. Becker (1991) affords that sociological theoretical models offer a wide and divergent variety of explanations for the unequal division of housework tasks along gender lines, but all provide relevant areas of consideration. For example, Alenezi & Walden (2004) contend, “differences between husbands’ and wives’ housework time, spousal age, educational attainment, and number of children by age should be highlighted” (101).

Given the difficulty in practise of considering the wide number of variables that could play into gender division of household labour, however, many studies choose to concentrate on the societal and sociological implications of one or two of what the individual researchers consider to be the most important or effectual inputs. As such, many studies have considered the impact of education levels, presence of children, age, social class, race, and value beliefs as determinants of household labour allocation.

One of the most often considered variables is gender identity. As Oakley (1981) describes, men and women are instructed in what their particular society considers appropriate gender roles and actions from an early age. As such, women in Britain are typically raised to believe that housework is their responsibility, and therefore perform the bulk of household tasks. In this analysis, which will be described in greater detail later in this study in the section presenting reasons for the gender gap, researchers examine the development of gender identity, then its impact on household labour allocation, and further investigate impacts of changes in gender roles across society on household functioning.

Historic Housework Gender Divisions

Oakley (1974) provides a thorough and insightful study of historic gender divisions of household labour in Europe, concentrating on Britain. Prior to the nineteenth century, women were typically employed in the family business, as were the rest of family members. This business was housed within the home, and all members of the family might perform a given household task. Fathers were considerably more involved in child rearing, and tasks such as cleaning and cooking were not divided along gender lines. Women were often equal partners in business with their husbands, could be afforded guild membership on their own standing, inherited their husband’s trade privileges upon his death (versus them passing to a son), and “were not prevented from entering any occupation by reason of their sex” (31). As such, Oakley (1974) describes women as always occupying the role of productive worker, earning a market wage and enjoying ful l market employment participation.

In the 1800s, Oakley (1974) describes the gradual displacement of vocation from the home to the factory. Women followed their traditional work out of the home and into the factories through the middle of the century. In fact, men, women, and children often worked side-by-side in various factory endeavours, just as they had in home-based vocational activity. However, this societal movement of employment from home to factory meant multiple family members were no longer physically present within the household to perform housework tasks or render childcare for small children. By the 1840s, societal pressure began on women to remain at home to render these services, and a simultaneous and not surprising belief became popular that women were naturally domestic and the appropriate carers for children. Male factory workers also began to ask for limits on child and female labour, ostensibly for the women and children’s own protection. By the end of the 1880s, the traditio nal role of women had shifted to the keeper of the home and rearer of children, whilst men had assumed sole provider role and worker outside the home.

In the early 1900s through the Second World War, women were typically employed outside the home until marriage, at which time they left paid employment and assumed responsibility for housework tasks. Most women lived with their families until their marriage, and assisted their own mothers with work in that household but were not primarily responsible. After the war, women typically worked until their first child was expected, and often returned to paid work after their children left home. However, the notion of housework as a women’s responsibility was already culturally entrenched, and continued regardless of her employment status. This was supported by various legislative measures. For example, both Ireland and Britain had ‘marriage bars,’ which legally excluded married women from working in public service or administration. Leonard (2004) notes that in Ireland, “up until 1973, women had to leave paid employment in the public sector upon getting mar ried” (74).

This sole responsibility for household management was not a light one, either in terms of hours or tasks. Summarising a number of studies conducted in Britain, France, and the United States from the 1920s through the 1970s, Oakley (1974) reports that average hours of housework performed by women consistently ranks over sixty hours per week, with women in urban areas often averaging over seventy hours per week of labour. As of the early 1970s, Oakley (1974) reports a British study found eighty-five per cent of all women between the ages of sixteen and sixty-four were housewives, “they carried the responsibility for running the household in which they lived,” and “nine out of ten women who were not employed were housewives, so were seven out of ten of those with a job outside the home” (6). She concludes that housework is therefore clearly women’s major occupation.

Important conclusions from historical data related to gender division of household tasks are that the notion of housewifery as a “natural” condition of women is a recent one, and not supported in previous centuries. Although various ethological, anthropological, and sociological “proofs” have been offered for a woman’s role as primarily wife and mother, Oakley (1981) demonstrates that these are not supported either historically or cross-culturally. She further contends that both housework allocation and “the impact of childbirth on the roles of parents in clearly a cultural construct,” and as such should be an area given consideration as needing change, rather than held as a biological absolute.

Global Housework Gender Divisions

Indeed, when considering gender division of housework cross-culturally, many assumptions regarding appropriate gender roles breakdown, particularly when considering cultures outside the capitalist Western model. Using data from the International Social Justice Project, Davis and Greenstein (2004) describe the division of housework tasks in married couple households across twelve nations: four Western nations (Great Britain, the United States, Germany, and The Netherlands), seven former Soviet nations (Russia, Slovenia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary), and one Asian nation (Japan). Of note, as some data is historic, it divided East and West Germany, which the researchers took into account in analysis.

Oakley (1974) quotes Lenin as writing, “No nation can be free when half the population is enslaved in the kitchen” (222). Not surprisingly, some of the former Soviet countries in Davis and Greenstein’s (2004) research evidenced the smallest gender gap in household labour. In Russia, for example, sixty-seven per cent of men and sixty per cent of women feel that housework is equally divided, with less than ten per cent of women or men allocating such work always to the wife. Interestingly, research exampled by Davis and Greenstein (2004) in post-Soviet Russia stated that fewer Russians believed they had egalitarian marriages in 1995 than in 1989, a demonstration of perception and practise change accompanying dramatic societal reforms. Such results reinforce the concept of gender divisions in household labour being culturally rather than biologically based.

In a similar example, whilst Estonian households had traditionally divided household labour along gender lines prior to Communism, at the close of the Soviet era Davis and Greenstein (2004) report they had moved significantly toward shared housework, with over forty per cent of households reporting equal contributions. “Estonian women’s attitudes reflected a desire for personal efficacy rather than a complete focus on their husbands’ demands” (Davis and Greenstein 2004, 1263). Considering gender patterns over time, Davis and Greenstein (2004) reported several other research studies found “Czech women’s and men’s time spent on household work is becoming more similar, mainly because of the changing employment patterns of Czech women,” and “Czech households were more egalitarian in their division of labour than were Hungarian and Polish households” (1262). Poland was typical of half the f ormer Soviet nations and all Western nations in the study, with Polish women performing the majority of the housework regardless of their education or employment status, men’s housework contributions increasing with their education levels, and the most egalitarian division of housework responsibly in couples where both spouses are employed and have high levels of education.

British, Dutch, and German women all were substantially more responsible for household labour than their former-Soviet counterparts, with over sixty-five per cent of households reporting household labour as primarily or always a duty of the wife, and twenty-five per cent or less reporting an equal distribution of work. Davis and Greenstein (2004) found Dutch women experienced the greatest disparity, with over seventy per cent of men and eighty per cent of women reporting housework as primarily or always the responsibility of the wife. Gender allocation of housework in the Netherlands is most affected by the presence of young children and the husband’s economic resources, with education also being a relevant variable. For example, the higher the education level of the couple together, the greater the husbands’ contribution to household work; when the wife has slightly more education than her husband, the husband performs more housework; but when she h as a significantly more education than he, there is no increase in his household contributions.

Similar studies in Spain, Ireland and Germany reinforce cultural differences, even amongst European nations. In a study of dual-earner couples in Spain, Alvarez and Miles (2003) found persistent gender inequality of similar per cents to the Davis and Greenstein overview. In addition, education levels of the man were found to effect division of household labour, whilst the woman’s education and earning power had little effect. The researchers concluded, “habitual patterns of gender-differentiated activity at home are mainly the result of gender identities” (240). Alvarez and Miles (2003) find opinion polls demonstrating a clear trend in Spanish attitudes towards egalitarian gender division of labor, more so amongst younger respondents. However, similar to their findings in most developed countries Alvarez and Miles (2003) report that behaviour has changed much less than attitude and as much as two thirds of the total housework is perfo rmed by women, particularly the more repetitive or physically demanding work.

Leonard (2004) reports that in the past two centuries, Irish society “has placed a great deal of emphasis on women’s role as mothers, “ with the 1937 Irish Constitution specifically referencing “the special contribution to Irish society of women ‘within the home’” (74). Cooke (2004) uses the German SocioEconomic Panel to explore the division of domestic labour in Germany, finding “East German men report that they contribute a significantly greater percentage of household time than West German men” (1251). Also of note in the German study, men’s increased share of housework also increases the likelihood of divorce in childless couples, leading Cooke (2004) to conclude that within German society “childless couples with fewer gendered family roles (given the absence of mother and father roles) are more stable when they have more traditional gendered displays in the remaining domestic areas.

Using data from the International Social Justice Project previously mentioned, Davis and Greenstein (2004) found support for bargaining power models in the United States, which had the greatest equality of distribution of household labour of any of the Western nations studied. US households were much more influenced by the wife’s participation in the workforce, with husbands performing at least half the housework twice as often in dual-earner families than in families where only the husband was employed outside the home. The wife’s income level had little effect on divisio

INTRODUCTION

The society is made of numerous individuals who need to co-ordinate their activities so as to ensure a harmonious co-existence for the benefit of each other. We are dependent on others and require a certain degree of co-ordination to ensure the stability of any organization. [1] Production takes place due to the synchronization of the efforts of humans with nature and other humans. The concept of ‘Division of Labour’ flows from this notion. Division of labour can be defined as a method or approach adopted for the completion of a complex task by dividing it into simpler tasks assigned to certain specific individuals, classes, ages, groups etc. [2] This is done for optimizing the resources, increasing productivity and income. It is a kind of virtuous circle, [3] a reciprocatory exchange [4] which increases the wealth-creating capacity of society. [5]

A division of labour by gender within both paid and unpaid work and between them exists in almost all societies, although the nature of the specialized work done by women and men differs substantially by place, time, and in some cases, over the life cycle. Adam Smith’s concept of dividing labour to enhance production in his famous book ‘Wealth of Nations’ is rooted in the economy of the society and is purely an economic concept. The fact that co-ordination or interdependence between members, groups or classes creates a social connection, relating one to another in the society affects the twin structures of society and economy.

It is no denying that the primary aim of using such a method is increasing economic growth but, since people contribute to this growth also, when such a growth affects the society at large, it falls within the realm of sociology and sociological problems. Since division of labour is central to the functioning of such a concept in reality, it is important to understand the basis for such a division or specialization. The basis of such a classification can be age, skill, area, class, gender etc.

This project would essentially deal with gender as the reason for such a division in labour. Such divisions are not new and have been in practice in the society for thousands of years. Society has had and will have certain set notions of what is appropriate work for men and women. [6]

With progress and development such classifications have witnessed change in the society and found expression in the law, but there is a prevalence of prejudice, discrimination and unfair treatment seen in an entire class. The present level of participation of women, their status of employment is pitiful. Esther Boserup [7] emphasizes that the division of labour within the family is assigned by age and sex, and this distribution varies across regions and cultures.

This project tries to understand the concept of gender division of labour, its effect on the society. The present rate of participation of women in India in various labour markets, reasons for the degree of participation, the influence of such unfair division on the law that governs the country. Certain important cases that have benefited women or disadvantaged them also certain remedial measures for greater participation of the supposedly ‘weaker sex’ have also been discussed. In doing so there is equal importance attached to the social and the legal facets of the theory.

2. GENDER DIVISION OF LABOUR IN FEMINIST ECONOMIC SENSE

Gender division of labour, also known as sexual division of labour, refers to the way that people are divided according to what is appropriate work for men and women. [8] The gender division of labour is derived from social perceptions about what is ‘natural’ for a particular sex to do as an occupation. Naturally, such divisions are bound to a particular society such as the gendered division of labour can be seen in the primacy of women engaged in informal employment, and caring for children, or in the numbers of men who sit on the boards of the world’s largest corporations.

In the early days only 50% of white women were employed. 80%-90% of waitering, housekeeping and nursing, and over 50% of music instructors were women. [9] Feminist economics essentially tries to enhance economic analysis by simply removing the science of its unwarranted male biases [10] . Thus its function is two fold, firstly that of countering untruths and secondly to produce truer accounts of data to balance the unfair social relations [11] . This definition is particularly important as it provides a definite context in case of gender division of labour.

Thus, an approach in feminist economic sense adopted to study the concept by enabling justifiable information regarding the power differences between women and men, to understand the influence of such constraints in labour markets, to try and expel certain myths relating to the capacity of women to work and thereby modify social relations between men and women.

2.1 Statement of Problem – Past and the Present

Traditionally, it was never considered appropriate for women to work outside of their homes for wages. One may talk of the society’s progress and development but there has been a disheartening improvement or change of attitude when it comes to women and their right to equal opportunities to work in urban or rural areas. There is a close nexus between the present state of employment of women and the status occupied by them in the past. It is a matter of fact that at the present day, women are exploring working opportunities beyond those of home-based wage work, temporary or part time work [12] , but due to the hostile attitude that the society adopts towards working women, they are forced to do work that is menial as well poorly paid with inhuman conditions of work. Thus, the future is quite debilitated by the conditions and practices of today which is a direct result of the past discriminatory practices and behaviour towards women who aspire to work and be economically independent.

The kind of work that is most likely to be offered to women who enter the labour market could be classified as jobs which are temporary in nature or suffer from a short shelf life, like the construction jobs which are on a contract basis, thereby creating an income that is unstable or irregular. Due to the weak bargaining power of women in the labour market as compared to that of men, working conditions are non-negotiable and are solely dictated by the employers who have no concern for their social or monetary security. Also these jobs are not covered by the labour legislations and at the same time have no familial or societal support. [13] The tragic result is that women are exploited both at work and at home with little or no economic or legal protection.

Essentially the concept of employment encompasses within itself two important elements, that of income and work. Looking at the first aspect, women have forever been accorded the status of a ‘home maker’, more plainly they have been assigned the role of wife and mother [14] , which has no economic benefits attached to it. The reason for this is that there have been water tight compartments for the work that can be done by a man and that which must be done by a woman. Such categorization is based on the notion that women are capable of doing work which is primarily related to the concept of nurturance i.e. to take care, be affectionate and loving which apparently cannot be measured by its monetary value. The other jobs that are taken by women can vary from that of construction work, politics, administration, media etc. Focusing on the unorganized sector which consists of small workshops and petty production which is labour-intensive [15] , we can infer that there is a stark disparity between the incomes of men and women doing the same work.

In India women’s labour force participation rates are comparatively low and according to 1991 census 22.69 % women are in the labour force (organized and unorganized sector) as against 51.52% men. [16]

2.2 Reasons Attributed for the Poor Participation of Female Labour

Economic and Socio-Cultural factors determine the level of female participation especially in an agrarian economy like India [17] . One of the most obvious and important causes for the current level of participation of women in the labour market would be poverty. “Economic status of a household is an important factor that affects the female participation in the economic activity.” [18] If the economic backing of a household is meager or insufficient, the women are forced to seek employment to meet the family needs. [19] Thus the economic deprivation [20] pressures them to accept hazardous jobs, which have long working hours, low pay and no security. An extension to the argument is that when the economic status of the household is sound, then the need for women to work and be economically independent as against relying on the earnings of men are not felt and therefore there is absence of the need to encourage women to work.

The cultural tradition of female seclusion is a major restricting factor on women’s labour force participation. [21] Attitudes of the society changes from one geographical region to another, thus the cultural attitude towards women working naturally affects the status and position given to them. Thus in a region where outdoor participation of women is vehemently discouraged, there is a shockingly low rate of contribution such as in the states of Sikkim and Punjab the participation of women in the former is 52.74% and in the latter an insignificant 6.78%. In reality the wife or mother has to undertake the entire burden of household responsibilities more often than not single handedly. It is only human that her efforts would not be diverted to contributing to production outside the home.

Dr. Radhakrishnan had once observed that by educating a man we educate only one person but while educating a woman we educate an entire family [22] . But the problem lies in the fact that despite innumerable initiatives the literacy rate among women is miserable. In rural India, if we were to study the distribution of female labour force by education the percentage of female labourers who are illiterate is 88.10 and a mere 1.21 percent have passed secondary. The situation is not very different in urban areas as well where there happen to be 58.71 percent who are illiterate and only 17.68 percent who have passed secondary. [23] There is need for technical knowledge in the organized sector, and the lack of education or limited educational qualifications would only lead to the complete sidelining of women in those fields. Apart from the fact that work done by women is marginalized and undervalued in the society it is also underpaid.

According to the Tsuchigane and Dodge [24] index of discrimination, sex discrimination in employment consists of three categories – income, occupational and participation discrimination. [25] So long as women earn less than men for the same work, income discrimination exists. If women primarily are inducted into low paying jobs than in high paying jobs, occupational segregation or occupational discrimination exists. Since the rate of participation of women is much lesser than that of men, participation discrimination exists.

Thus, one can safely infer from the above mentioned causes and conditions of women with respect to work, that the biased division of labour on the basis of gender is a social reality which affects the lives of a large section of the society.

3. GENDER DIVISION OF LABOUR AND ITS EXPRESSION IN THE LAW
3.1 Constitutional Provisions

The framers of the Constitution while drafting the Constitution did realize the need for a society where gender equality prevails. There are various articles in the Constitution of India which aim at achieving an egalitarian society, though the actual implementation is a distinct matter that quite nullifies the aim of the framers. The related provisions can further be divided into rights that are enforceable and objectives which direct the State in its governance. The rights mentioned in the Constitution are as follows:

Article 14

Article 14 or the Right to Equality ensures that the State shall not deny to any person equality or equal protection of the laws within the territory of India. In essence equals would be treated equally and unequal unequally. The principle of gender equality is ingrained in this all Article. [26] Thus, equal pay for the equal work done by either male or female employees has to be remunerated equally. In the case of Uttrakhand Mahila Kalyan Parishad and Others v. State of U.P. [27] the Supreme Court held that under the constitutional arrangement, there can be no situation entertained whereby, there is differential treatment meted out to male and female employee’s in the educational department when they are doing the same job; also there can be no rational explanation given to the preferential treatment given to male employees when promotional avenues are allocated. The Court directed the State to create equal pay scales.

Article 15 (1), 15(3)

Article 15 states that there shall not be any discrimination against any citizen on the grounds of only religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them. While Article 14 ensures equality to everyone, Article 15 concerns itself with citizens alone. But Article 15 (1) does not prohibit the State from making any special provision for women and children as per clause 3 of Article 15. There have been a host of cases that do not get reported, where discrimination was done solely on the basis of gender. In most of such cases the action of the State was violative of Article 15 and was asked to be struck down. An appropriate example would be the case of Omana Oomen v. Fact Ltd [28] , the petitioners, who were post-graduates in Chemistry were selected as attendant operators in a chemical plant to undergo training. The male trainees were also simultaneously appointed, some of whom left the training. The remaining male employees were absorbed as technicians before the completion of the training period, on the basis of an internal examination. The Kerala High Court held that the denial of opportunity to the female employees merely due to their sex is in contravention to Article 15 and therefore struck down the unfavourable recruitment.

Article 16 (1), (2), (4)

This is by far the most important provision with respect to this project since it talks of rights of employment of the people. Article 16(1) ensures that there shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State. Clause 2 explains that no citizen shall be discriminated in respect to any employment or office under the State on grounds of sex, religion, place of birth etc. Clause 4 also states that there can be positive provisions made by the State to accommodate the interests of the weaker sections of the society. Therefore, this Article does not create a right to employment but the right to equal treatment in State employment. In the case of State of Kerala v. K. Kunihipacky [29] , the promotion of a female teacher had been questioned by the male professor who claimed he was more senior in experience. Despite the fact that the college was a women’s college, the Court directed the Government to reconsider the promotion stating that once an appointment has been made, seniority must be given preference. Such a decision by the Court was much criticized simply because the Court appeared to have upheld convention, the existing social preferences and thereby discrimination. The judiciary cannot choose professional qualifications and efficiency at its convenience. If the same claim would have been made by a female teacher, the entire case would suddenly seem different.

Article 39

Apart from other things, it embodies three important directives for the State with regard to wage and employment policies in India. It states that the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood. It guarantees equal pay for equal work for both men and women and the health and safety of the employees.

3.2 Labour Legislations

The labour legislation for women in India is rooted in the Indian Constitution and is guided by the International Labour Organisation conventions such as the convention on Discrimination (employment and occupation), workers with family responsibility and the convention on equal remuneration. [30] The basic objective is to prevent the exploitation of women.

The present Director-General of the International Labour Organization, Juan Somavia stated that, “the primary goal of the ILO today is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work together, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.” [31] In working towards this goal, the organization in its conventions seeks to promote employment creation, strengthen fundamental principles and rights at work – worker’s rights, improve social protection, and promote social dialogue as well as provide relevant information, training and technical assistance [32] .

At present, the ILO’s work is organized into four sectors or groups: (1) Standards and fundamental principles and rights at work; (2) Employment; (3) Social Protection; and (4) Social Dialogue. The labour legislations can be divided into three categories.

Firstly, there are those legislations that have been drafted exclusively for women such as the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 or the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.

Secondly, the Acts that is sex-neutral [33] but contain certain special provisions for women, for example the Factories Act of 1948, the Plantation Labour (Amendment) Act, 1981 and The Mines Act of 1952.

The third and the final category are legislations which are neither meant especially for women nor do they have any clauses in them for women. Examples of these would be the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Contract Labour Act 1972 and the Beedi and Cigar workers Act, 1966.

All these legislations make claims to achieve gender equality and put women at the same level as men, but there are inherent flaws in them which defeat their original purpose. The most obvious example of this would be the:

Equal Remuneration Act, 1976

This Act provides for prevention of discrimination on the ground of sex by ensuring their contributions are valued equally. Section 2(h) of the Act defines the term work of either being ‘same’ or ‘of similar nature’. This is the deciding factor for the successful pursuit of the claim to equal wages. According to this there have been certain views made whereby a lower grade women employee gets paid lesser. In the field of agriculture there are certain women specific tasks and these get termed as ‘light work’ which naturally gets paid a lower amount of remuneration. In essence the law first makes certain categories of work knowingly that those in the lower rung would mostly be performed by women.

A landmark judgment under this controversial provision that highlights the weakness of the clause ‘equal pay’ for ‘same or similar work’ was the case of Air India v. Nargish Meerza [34] . The air hostesses of Air India claimed that they were being discriminated against assistant flight pursers who did the same kind of work on the flight. But these men had better service conditions for retirement, better recruitment facilities etc. The air hostesses complained that the practices were in contravention to the Equal Remuneration Act. Sadly the Supreme Court, the apex body which claims to administer justice while granting some marginal concessions like raising the age of retirement for the air hostesses and few pregnancy related issues, upheld other discriminatory conditions of service.

4. CONCLUSION

After having understood the importance of the theory of division of labour and its expression in the law, the researcher feels that there is a low female participation rate in the country. The orthodox attitude of the society towards women is the primary cause for such pathetic levels of participation. Married women are forced to stay at home, the set notions of ‘women’s work’ is narrowly defined and does not have any monetary value.

It is essential to realize that women’s economic empowerment is absolutely essential for raising their status in society since the two concepts that of women empowerment and economic independence are so closely interwoven. When work done by women is uncounted for, it is unpaid. [35] When the society thinks and undervalues her work she has no option but to bow down to the pressures. Sometimes due to economic hardships she is forced to work. Factors such as job-security, working conditions etc are not given any importance. Though the law has certain provisions to ensure safety from exploitation, women in the unorganized sector are regularly denied their salaries, sexually harassed, improperly laid off etc.

In conclusion the researcher has some suggestions that could possibly increase the level of participation of women. Firstly, society must respect women and the fact that they can work. Every woman must get paid wages for the work she does. If she chooses to do the same work as fellow men, then she must get paid equally. Due consideration must be given to the already existing status of women and therefore there must be special accommodations to induce more and more women to work, pregnancy leave being a suitable example.

This paper provides a review on ‘Review Paper: Erikson, R (2005) why emotion work matters: Gender and the division of household labour’. The paper is examined in the light of recent academic discussions about the social scientific problems that emotions pose when examined in specific context. Erikson explains why biological sex remains the primary predictor of behavioural emotional patterns between men and women. Empirical research was conducted over 335 men and women sample base.

Erikson considers that socio-emotional behaviour has been an essential characteristic of married life since the mid twentieth century. Furthermore, those women have had the bulk of the burden of performing the household work even when working full-time and looking after the family. This relationship between household labour allocations has helped in identifying gender identity. Despite advances in social science theory it is considered that little research has been accomplished in understanding the emotional behaviour in the gender division of household labour. Erikson put forward the view that ‘the division of household labour varies according to culturally based contradictions of gender’ (Erikson 2005)

Recent research in the area of stress has demonstrated different emotional responses from the parents. Particular focus has been placed upon the emotions of depression and anxiety. Anger is considered to be a highly social emotion and can manifest itself between those individuals who do not have enough personal space or share limited resources. As the division of household labour is mostly unequal i.e. the women perform most of the household duties and look after the children; women as such are more prone to emotions of frustration and anger. This in turn can lead towards depression where there is a feeling of injustice, lack of support and a sense of isolation. The emotions increase where the male partner does not assume an equitable share of the burden of responsibility. (Jan E. Stets 2007)

Socioemotional behaviour in marriage

Erikson pointed out that the duties of women, in performing household tasks and looking after the children, was historically looked at as a female obligation in looking after and loving their husbands. It was Daniels in 1987 that made the first claim that women were not recognized for these additional duties and performance of domestic chores and as such reduced both their status in society and sense of personal identity. This in turn leads to invalidation of the female contribution and perpetuates the concept of gender inequality.

Erikson stated that ‘the idea that husbands and wives may have to work at caring and intimacy, contradicts what many believe about love and marriage’. The concept of expressing empathy, caring and listening to another’s point of view represents emotional response of the greatest magnitude. The relationships between spouses behaviour is a complex one. This is particularly so in the formative years of marital partnerships. The husband’s socio-emotive behaviour has a powerful impact on the working of a marital relationship. Research has indicated that a negative response from the husband produces dissatisfaction from the wife; this in turn increases the negativity of the husband and creates a sort of vicious circle. Hence early in the marriage the emotional behavioural characteristics of each partner have to be re-examined in order to sustain a longer term marital relationship. Very often the marital well-being of wives was linked to the wives understanding of their husbands. (Hinde 1997)

ALLOCATION OF FAMILY WORK

Although historically the female has remained the primary allocator of family work performance; reflecting the way in which the tasks are allocated and the conceptualisation of self-identity. Times are changing and a far more relative resource model is becoming adopted. This looking much more towards satisfaction of economic conditions. The spouse who brings more resources to the marital relationship has increased bargaining power and as such is able to ‘buy out’ of the marital household responsibilities. As women are now taking on more influential and dominant roles at work this no longer always skews in the favour of the male. Hence more people who are performing external paid work roles have less time to spend on domestic chores. Recent studies have shown that women tend to have greater resilience than men and continue to perform the majority of the household tasks. In some regards this empowers women feeling a greater sense of responsibility towards their family.

Erikson commented that those ‘Researchers using gender construction theory propose that the gendered allocation of household labour persists because it signals the extent to which husbands and wives have constructed gender appropriately..’ (Erikson 2005). Construction theory really examines gender in terms of social relations and not as the characteristics of individuals. As such it does not rest upon a stable biological platform but rather produced through social construction. Gender construction is therefore built into every aspect of social life in society i.e. family, politics, religion etc. This generates certain expectations in both male and female roles; this in turn has created role reversals that have reflected a change of values in society. (Potuchek 1997)

MALE DOMINANCE IN GENDER RELATIONS – WOMEN IN RESEARCH

Within the general claims to male dominance in social theory, three challenges have emerged (i) the criticism against that of female knowledge and its’ inability to demonstrate adequate work that illustrates scientific or unbiased knowledge. This resulted in feminists coming under scrutiny in order to demonstrate abilities to rationalise knowledge, perform verification, subjectivity and freedom from political bias. Secondly, how different influences shaped women’s lives. Examples cited included that of “cultural divisions, social divisions and power relations” (Caroline RamazanoClu 2002). The danger here is one of stereotyping and simply branding women as one gender that provides a uniform result. The third challenge intertwines that of knowledge and gender whereby in essence women are taken for granted. Since 1993 this has caused feminists to re-evaluate the position and rewrite much of the subject matter.

In 1993 Sandra Harding provided insight into the difference between that of Method, Methodology and Epistemology. She equated Epistemology to that of a theory of knowledge with the objective of answering specific questions. Further, that there are two distinct epistemologies namely that of a ‘Feminist empiricism’ and a ‘Feminist Standpoint’. The empirical part is that where a response is provided to bias and traditional responses. Whereas, standpoint refers to a specific feminist opinion founded upon an explanation of knowledge. In order to understand and complete a feminist standpoint the reader needs to become more involved with the “intellectual and political struggles that a women’s experience is built upon.” (Stanley 1990).

Historically the most common expression of female action has been associated with that of liberation and the emancipation of women. This has ranged from the concept of radical insistence, to clarifying the purpose of research and ultimately to transformation in terms of political action. It was Maria Mies that proposed feminist research should be consistent with the overall political goals and aspirations of women. Hence, there needs to be a full integration of social and political; action appropriate to the emancipation of women. (Mary Margaret Fonow 1991).

MODERN REFLECTIONS ON MARITAL RELATIONSHIPS

Marriage is considered a social contract, primarily because the issues that are involved extend beyond the concerns of purely the particular individuals. The children of the married couples are the future generations of which the whole society depends. In essence, the termination of the marriage contract is either a legal consideration or by death. In more modern marriages parties often seek legal contract terms that protect their financial assets i.e. in the event of separation or divorce. These are often referred to as ‘premarital or prenuptial agreements’. This type of arrangement is it’s often more common amongst wealthy or affluent couples, and second marriages. (Sheridan, 2010)

Modern society poses numerous challenges upon a successful marriage. One of the most demanding is that of financial hardship. That might be brought on by a job loss or physical illness, leaving one’s spouse to cope with the problem. This is often the situation where marital communications breakdown, when in fact it is the most important time for working as a team and communicating with one another. Another important issue is the loss of self-image, where either weight gain or loss occurs. [The concept of obesity or anorexic] this can lead to bouts of depression and subsequent illness. Another factor is dealing with family relationships, and this is particularly trying in new marriages. The concept of dealing with intervention and demands by in-laws, and having to deal with expectations that posed a strain on the marriage. The concept of long-term illness, disability or major illness can impose a tremendous strain on the spouse who is working and equally having to look after their partner. (Long, 2007)

CONCLUSIONS

In general terms the challenges in marriage relate to living and existing. The most import and aspect on survival in marriage is the ability to work as a team and communicate with one another. In this way, you’re able to support one another and cope with most situations. There is also the concept of trust and care between partners and betrayal of such can be very hard to recover.

1555

Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar and came into being on November 15, 2000. The new state Jharkhand stands for – the land of forest, the name given to the forest highland of Chotanagpur plateau. The land comprises eastern corner of Vindhya mountain series and has distinct cultural identity and abundant natural resources. The state also envelops significant social and political history in its lap. Jharkhand is a medium-sized state in terms of population. The state has three distinct geographical and cultural regions namely- Chotanagpur, Santhal Pargana, Singhbhum.

According to 2001 census the total population of the state is 2.69 crore, with an average annual exponential growth rate of 2.1%. About 28% of the state population is tribal and 12% belongs to schedule caste. At the beginning of the century 60% of the total population of the region was tribal. Jharkhand is possibly India’s richest state in mineral resources. The state is quite rich in natural resources including forest that cover about 30% of the total land area. Jharkhand has the potential to develop as the most financially viable State in the whole country owing to its mineral-based resources and the available industrial infrastructure. The estimated rural population is 2,09,22,731 i.e. about 77.75% and urban population is 59,86,697 i.e. 22.25%. Thus, the state continues to be predominantly rural. Population density per sq. km is 338. The state’s economy is poorly developed, irrigation network is poor and therefore drought is a periodic threat. The state of Jharkhand has an area of 79,714 sq. km. and a population of 26.9 million. There are 24 districts, 211 blocks and 32615 villages.

Gender inequity is a major human right concern in India. It cuts across all other forms of discrimination and represents an added bias denying women the freedom to choose the means for their development and growth. Despite Government’s increasing concern and endeavour to promote gender equity, the disparities have grown vast and a resulting outcome in the poor socio-economic condition of women. In the context of Jharkhand there exists a major difference in the child sex ratio and life expectancy at birth of the state. An analysis of the census data also reflects the fact that the mortality rates are higher which is indicative of poor health services available to the masses in general.

Social status of Jharkhand women like any other community of India is realized on the traditional patriarchal form which since ages has succeeded in having a control over different areas of women lives. Their role is exclusively defined in terms of household management and matrimonial duties. They are subjected to expectation that they replenish the race by bearing children. For majority of them, life itself has been a long hurdle race, both within and outside the family. Women in Jharkhand are not very different from women elsewhere in the country in terms of discrimination and disadvantages. There are a number of common characteristics, which the women of Jharkhand share with their counterparts, mainly their level of literacy and education, doing unpaid work, low participation in the work force, very little property rights and even discrimination within the family. The Gender Profile for the state of Jharkhand is aimed at presenting a holistic picture of the socio economic condition of the women in this tribal state. It is an attempt to bring into focus various issues affecting the lives of women, their social standing, their economic condition and the inhibiting factors.

In this section, the status of women in the state of Jharkhand is assessed based on a selected set of gender development indicators. The variables considered for the analysis are indicative of demographic, educational, health-related, socio-cultural and economic status of women.

Sex Ratio

The sex ratio of the state is 941. Comparatively better sex ratio has been in the district of Koderma where sex ratio has been registered as 1001. The sex ratio is declining in an alarming rate. But the sex ratio among tribals is higher as compared to general population. The rural area’s sex ratio is better than in the urban areas. The sex ratio is tilted in favour of men perhaps due to poor health and nutritional status of women, lack of awareness, low social/economic status rural to urban male migration due to economic motive.

Figure 1.1: Sex ratio comparison between Jharkhand & India

Source: Census of India 2001

Infant Mortality Rate

The state ranks 8th in Infant Mortality and 14th in child mortality ranked 14th according to NFHS 2. Jharkhand shows high infant and child (under 5) mortality, which is strongly associated with high fertility of women and specifically frequent pregnancy. There are substantial variations in the infant and child mortality locationally. Children born to women of rural low income, illiterate adolescent mother are at a disadvantage than the privileged one.

During the five years preceding the survey, the infant mortality rate was 54 (deaths of infants per 1,000 live births), much lower than the infant mortality rate of 78 in Bihar. The child mortality rate in Jharkhand was 25.In all, among 1,000 children born, 78 die before reaching age five. 1 in 19 children die in the first year of life, and 1 in 13 die before reaching age five.

Fertility Rates

Total fertility rate (for the past 3 years): 2.76

Mean number of children ever born to women 40-49: 4.83

Median age at first birth among women age 20-49: 19.0

Percent of births of order 3 and above 53: 7

Mean ideal number of children 4: 3.1

Percent of women with 2 living children wanting another child: 48.4

At current fertility levels, NFHS-2 estimated that women in Jharkhand will have an average of 2.8 children each throughout their childbearing years. One-quarter of births in both Jharkhand and Bihar take place within 24 months of the previous birth. Efforts to lower fertility might usefully focus on groups within the population that have higher fertility than average. In Jharkhand, illiterate women, women from households with a low or medium standard of living, women from scheduled castes or other backward classes (OBC), and Muslim women have much higher fertility than other women. A more striking feature is the substantial level of childbearing among young women. The median age at first childbirth is 19 years, which is the same as in Bihar. Women age 15-19 account for 17 percent of total fertility. Family planning programmes focusing on women in this age group could make a significant impact on maternal and child health as well as reducing overall fertility in the state.

Maternal Health

Reproductive health of women is another matter of concern, which impacts their condition. Her role of replenishing the race by child bearing puts her health at risk.

43.1 % of tribal women did not receive any antenatal check-up.

38.7 % did not receive tetanus toxoid injections.

Only 48.6% were given iron and folic acid tablets.

90.2% of tribal pregnant women delivered at home.

65.7% of all deliveries were attended by traditional birth attendants

Haemorrhage and Anaemia together constitute almost 50% of maternal mortality cases and are of serious health concern. Particularly in the state of Jharkhand anaemia is of serious concern due to poor food intake and absence of dietary diversification. Dependence on seasonal cropping pattern and inadequate food intake by women especially during pregnancy causes anaemia and it is a major concern in this tribal state.

Table 1.1: Anaemia in Jharkhand
Malnutrition

Based on international standards, 54 percent of children under age three years are underweight, 49 percent are stunted, and 25 percent are wasted. In Bihar, the percentages of underweight, stunted, and wasted children are 54, 55 and 20, respectively. In Jharkhand, under-nutrition is higher in rural areas than in urban areas and is particularly high among children from disadvantaged socioeconomic groups such as children from schedule tribes, children of less educated mothers, and children from households with a low standard of living. The percentage of underweight children is about the same for girls as for boys, but girls are somewhat more likely to be stunted while boys are somewhat more likely to be wasted. More than four out of five children age 6.35 months are anaemic, including a large majority of children in every subgroup of the population.

AIDS/HIV

Although the spread of HIV/AIDS is a major concern in India, nearly 9 out of 10 women in Jharkhand (85 percent) have not heard of AIDS, compared with 60 percent for India as a whole. In fact, knowledge of AIDS is lower in Jharkhand than in any other state except Bihar. Awareness of AIDS is particularly low among women in rural areas and among women who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Among women who have heard of AIDS, 83 percent received information about the disease from television and 49 percent from radio. Among women who have heard of AIDS, however, one-half (49 percent) do not know of any way to avoid infection.

Education

Education is one of the important factors that influences the health status is education (especially women education). Education is one of the important factors for the growth and development of the country. It has been observed that education to some extent compensates the effects of poverty on health irrespective of the availability of the health facilities. Moreover, In India, conspicuous gender disparities exist in education, especially with regard to enrolment at the primary, upper-primary and higher levels of school education. From the preliminary field survey it is observed that literacy rate especially among women is very poor in the surveyed areas. Social attitudes, poor access to school, and family-oriented roles and responsibilities of the females are responsible for this disparity.

Table 1.2: Literacy Rates
Literacy rates as per 2001 census

Rank

Persons

Male literacy rate

State

Literacy rate

34

Jharkhand

53.56

63.83

Source: 2001 Census

Jharkhand along with Bihar has the lowest female literacy rate of 39.98 %. More males are literate than women (67.94% compared with 39.38%). Variation in literacy of male and female is evident. Girls are still deprived of primary education, due to several factors such as inaccessibility of primary education, household duties, early marriage, early child bearing, gender bias associated drudgery, other socio-cultural factors such as parents perception, that education is more beneficial for sons. A large proportion of school age girls remain outside the school system due to important factors explained largely by low access of females to education system in the traditional value system play a greater premium on male than the female. Since resources are scarce, parents decide to send male children to school in preference to female. Acute poverty has proved to be a barrier to girl’s education.

Table 1.3: Literacy rate of women
Female Literacy and Gender Gaps

Literacy is the first step towards formal education. It refers to the ability to read and write. Female literacy has been improving over the years. The proportion of women who are literate has increased by 15 per cent over the last decade from 39 per cent in 1991 to 54 per cent in 2001. Jharkhand remain one of the worst states in terms of women’s literacy, despite some improvements over the decade. While the low literacy rate may be explained by a range of factors such as non-availability of schools, teachers, equipment and infrastructure, which affect both sexes, it is social attitudes and perceptions that attach lower preference to girls.

Table 1.4: No. & percentage of Literates

Particulars

No. of literates

% of literates

Male

7,759,966

67.94%

Female

4,291,211

39.38%

Total

11,970,177

54.03%

Source: Survey data/District reports
Table 1.5: Educational Profile in the context of gender

Total population of boys (6-14 age group)

29,23,544

Total population of girls (6-14 age group)

27,57,304

Total Boys Enrolment (6-14) in Govt and aided schools

19,96,156

Total Girls Enrolment (6-14) in Govt and aided schools

15,95,947

Total Boys Enrolment (6-11) in EGS centre

3,04,494

Total Girls Enrolment (6-14) in EGS centre

2,90,271

Index of gender equity (State average)

91.51

Source: Survey data/District reports
Female Work Participation Rate and the Gender Gap in participation

Women are still at the lower end of the labour market in pay and authority. They typically occupy lower-paid and lower status jobs. Women’s unemployment rate is higher than that of men and far more women than men work in the informal sector. In organized sector the number of women is significantly small even if they have the benefit of education and skills. The total % of workers (main and marginal) is 37.64% where the representation of women being 26.40% and that of males being 48.21%.These figures indicate a comparatively lower work participation of women with regard to men.

The female work participation rate (FWPR) is measured by calculating the proportion of female main plus marginal workers among the female population. Standard definitions of economic activity indicate low rates of FWPR. At the all-India level, only 30 per cent of women are defined as workers, main or marginal. Jharkhand occupies 14th position in FWPR with a score of 35.1 and 11th rank in Gender gap in participation with a score of 30.1 among 28 states. This shows that there is a medium level of women’s labour participation in community-based organisation of subsistence production as the values are close to the Indian average. Only 31.7% of the women have been employed in any form in past 12 months. More than 90% of this employment has been in the unorganized sector mainly comprising of agriculture and daily wages.

Table 1.6: Statistics on working status of women
Source : Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2128,dated on 08.12.2009.
Table 1.7: Average Daily Earnings
Average Daily Earnings of Men, Women and Children belonging to
Rural Labour Households in Agricultural Occupations
(Other Backward Classes) in Jharkhand
(1999-2000 and 2004-2005)
(In Rs.)
State
Men
Women
Children
1999-
2004-05 (P)
1999-
2004-05 (P)
1999-
2004-05 (P)
2000
Total
Cash
Kind
2000
Total
Cash
Kind
2000
Total
Cash

Jharkhand

34.61

41.48

35.97

5.51

30.82

34.77

30.87

3.9

34.4

11.57

7.08

India
40.93
49.64
44.03
5.61
28.42
33.63
29.7
3.93
22.72
31.7
29.19
Source : Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2128,dated on 08.12.2009.

7.1% of seats are held by women in Parliament as per the data of Ministry of Panchayati raj, 2008. 34.8% of women in the age group of 15-49 years have experienced physical or sexual violence in Jharkhand. Till now no assembly elections had taken place in the state.

Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)

The GEM scores for India estimated by UNDP are a very low 0.228 (UNDP HDR 1998). Using the indicators listed above is more relevant for India and although it yields GEM scores that are more than double (0.497) of those estimated by UNDP, the values attained still reflect the existence of sharp disparities in gender empowerment. GEM scores are formed of three composite indices, Index of ‘Political Participation & Decision-making Power’ (PI), Index of ‘Economic Participation and Decision-making Power’ (EI) and Index of ‘Power over Economic Resources’ (PoERI). The state has a GEM index value of 0.435 in 2006 which rose from a value of 0.278 in 1996. Based on this it has been ranked 26 out of all states and union territories. The state achieved large gains on GEM scores by 0.132 and improved their ranks on GEM by 6 positions each over the decade.

Table 1.8: HDI, GDI and GEM Scores and Ranks for Jharkhand in 2006

Particulars

HDI Score

HDI Rank

GDI Score

GDI Rank

GEM Score

GEM Rank

Jharkhand

0.574

29

0.558

29

0.535

26

India

0.605

–

0.590

–

0.497

–
Source: wcd.nic.in
Violence against women

Marital cruelty, dowry murders, child abuse, incest and battering are some of the common forms of violence that women face in the family. The community metes out rape, sexual harassment, eve-teasing, trafficking and sexual discrimination to the women. Custodial violence and institutional deprivations are two forms of violence meted out by the state.

Witchcraft: – In the tribal belt of Jharkhand the incidence of witchcraft is very common. In a majority of the cases, it is found the real motive of the killers was to grab property or to settle personal scores with the victim family. In order to garner support for their nefarious activities, villagers particularly influential people brand female member of a particular family as a witch so that they could get the support of their co-villagers in hounding out or killing the victim’s family. The villagers believe that the women branded as witch are responsible for the illness, death and drought.

SECTION II

“Indigenous societies in India are showing an increasing tendency towards growing inequality in gender relations. This is more pronounced in societies that have integrated with mainstream Indian society.”

Women’s land rights have been on the policy agenda in India for at least the last 20 years. Yet not much has happened on the ground. Why have not women mobilised to claim rights to land? What have been the limits to collective action by women around land rights? Firstly, the socially embedded nature of land as a resource and the mutuality and interdependence between men and women in the productive use of land needs to be recognised. Consequently, more than gender identities, it is other cross-cutting identities of ethnicity, education, kinship relations and marital status that both motivate women to stake their claims to land as well as oppose the claims of other women and men. Secondly, women’s land claims seem to have a chance of becoming effective only if they have some male support, hence rather than aligning with other women, those who are serious in their claims seek to build alliances with men, particularly those able to influence the argument in their favour. Just as amongst women, there is considerable evidence to show that men also adopt different subject-positions depending on their own experience and context. Finally, by attempting to present women’s land claims as a gender issue, not only is it found that women are unwilling to mobilise around this issue, but there is also an enhanced resistance from men.

Women without independent resources are highly vulnerable to poverty and destitution in case of desertion, divorce, or widowhood. Women’s access to even a small plot can be a critical element in a diversified livelihood system, and can significantly improve women’s and the family’s welfare, even if the plot is not large enough to provide full family subsistence. Endowing women with land would empower them economically as well as strengthen their ability to challenge social and political gender inequities.

Current Scenario in Jharkhand

The good traditional practices like Tabenjom which was practiced in past has now evaporated from the society. The traditional practices gave some benefits to married as well as unmarried women in behaviour but had no rights to the women but now due to changing factors these practices have vanished leaving women badly affected and turned to destitute Tribal women now demand for joint pattas in their husband’s property. At many places the last settlement was done in 1911, then in 1935 and lastly in 1964-65. Since then the settlement has not taken place but now groups demand for settlement in the name of both men and women.

Women are the most badly affected due to displacement, mining, migration and development leaving the women having no right over land and resource rights. Now women have been raising voices for their rights over land and resources.

Historical perspective

In Jharkhand, historically tribal society was a collective society residing in the proximity of woods and forest. They had their own periphery within which their social, cultural and political system ran smoothly. Men and women had equal responsibility towards the family and society and played equal roles.

The land was then into a collective system, where a territory was defined and the control over the territory by the village self governance system such as Manki Munda of Ho tribes, Majhi parha of santhal and Parha panchayats of Munda. Not only these but other tribes like Oraon, Birhor and Paharia have their own administrative system which was unique in nature. This was the oral tradition and was functional on certain believes and myths. The women enjoyed equal opportunity and played role of village head in the administrative system.

Through Permanent Settlement Act of 1793, tectonic changes were brought into this traditional administrative system by the British. This Act heavily undermined the traditions and customs of the tribal’s communities. It introduced fixed land revenue independent of local terrain and climatic conditions (contrary to the Mughal land revenue system); introduced Zamindars to collect it and “ghatwals” to maintain law and order. The peasant tribals were turned into tenant farmers and deprived of the land title including other rights and privileges enjoyed during the Mughal period.

But, on contrary Britishers introduce patta system or “Khatiyans” (land title deed) in Jharkhand. The communalism is replaces by individualism. Common property became private. Here, came the introduction of the strong patriarchy by writing the names of the male members in the patta or “Khatiyan”. The entry of the women name was restricted. This was more so done by the Britishers in order to create a dispute within the tribal family. This was the start of disintegration of the women in the traditional governance system. Now days there are hardly any women as village head.

The struggle for the land did not stop in the tribal belt. Migrants from the adjoining states treacherously usurped the local land by using the warm hospitality of the tribals to their advantage. The tribals had welcomed them as the guest but they were ignorant of their motives, consequently many lands were taken illegally by these migrants who came to settle in the new area. Some of the early migrants got land from the Zamindars.

The motives of the migrants were so intense that they lured the tribal girls to get married with them. Many tribals girls got married which had resulted in wide spread torture for land. This created anger among the tribal communities and strengthen them towards being more patriarch. Newly, infested thought just ignored the women entitlement to land. This also had its repercussions in the traditional system and participation of women in administrative system almost stopped. Though there were other factors for the loss of traditional system in tribal belt but presence of women became negligible. Even the traditional practice of “Tamenjom” in Santhal tribe where a daughter is given the share of family land, did not practiced in large. The tribal communities like Munda, Ho and Oraon totally ignored the right of women over the family land.

The role of the women was reduced to “care taker” of ancestral land but there was no entitlement with their names. The single unmarried women got the land of their father as the caretaker but not as owner. Similarly, the role of the widower became more prominent as caretaker until only her sons got through the land rights. Still today the practice is same and tribal women’s right to land is not in mindset of tribal men or even women.

There was lot of resistance from the tribal men when asked about giving land to women. This is more so because there have being much of struggle of land by the tribals in past and still it is present today. The term ‘Dikus” has being attached to all the invaders whether to be outsiders or multinational companies who are reaching to grab the tribal land for their profit. In such a situation how can tribal men think to give a share to women? This issue of land struggle of tribals with corporate or multinational companies was attached with women being betrayed through marriage for land in the past.

One thing that was ignorant from the past happening was that men were also being part in the loosing of land to outsiders which was never narrated in large. They through their easy going and wrong habits gave many lands to others. They even encourage having marrying a non tribals but they could not tolerate a tribal women marrying a non tribal.

The land for the urban tribal women also emerged from same history which restricted the share to daughter creating differences as land right to women does not exist for tribal girls. Even the property right to daughter by the Indian law did not fit to the traditional laws in tribal society.

The land reforms under the Forest Department had also resulted in loss of the tribal lands. Neither the recent Forest Right Act of 2006 was introduced properly at grass root. This Act was functional on in 2008 but there was no distribution of patta. This Act had benefited the women by joint names in patta in neighboring states like Orissa and Chattisgarh. Unfortunately, in Jharkhand it is still in the struggling phase to implement properly but joint names in patta is still a long way.

This was not at all in the mindset of tribal men that women are strong enough to deal with all situations. They have seen the women participating strongly for land struggle right from the colonial days to present day against the multinational companies. But, when comes land right to women they are silent and narrates traditional values and norms.

Some advocacy was done on right to land to women by many organization and activists but due to the reluctance by the tribal political leaders it did not worked. The other alternative are being worked such as introduction of names of the wives in the “Khatian” (land deed) but still the organization and activists are struggling in this matter.

There are changing patterns in the tribal society were the acceptance of the daughter are getting reduce this will more so weakens the right to land to women. Hence, mass awareness is needed among the tribal society starting from the traditional groups to urban habitats. Only then can right to land for tribal women be accepted.

Factors influencing gender differentiated land rights

The lack of enforcement of land laws and regulations hampers women’s rights to land.

The land holdings of both spouses are summed together for the purposes of land ceilings. In case of surplus, officers have considerable discretion in deciding the area to be forfeited. This is usually done in consultation with the husband, and often leads to forfeiture of the wife’s land.

Although the wording of legislation is usually gender neutral as to allocation of forfeited land, land redistribution programmes mainly targeted male household heads as recipients.

Women are excluded from decision-making processes. Women do not attend meeting of gram panchayats because cultural and social factors such as female seclusion and low consideration of women’s ideas, hinder their meaningful participation in these local institutions.

Rural people and even more so rural women are often isolated from media sources and rely on information supplied by local officials and gram panchayat. However, officials are often not informed about changes in legislation or policies and, consequently, they might not provide people with the right information or the support needed to protect their interests.

Women often renounce to their statutory rights in favour of male family members due to the economic and social dependence on their kin. Furthermore, in some parts of the country, it is considered socially shameful for a woman to claim her rights before courts, vis-a-vis with her male family members. Unequal education status and restrictions on mobility further exacerbate the situation for women.

Women’s seclusion limits their mobility and participation in activities outside the home and knowledge of the physical environment, hampering their access to information on new agricultural technologies and practices, to purchasing inputs and selling the products.

Impact of land rights on women

Providing land to women will empower them economically and also strengthen their capability to tackle social and political gender discrimination.

Access to land has helped in getting credit and is likely to make a important difference to bargaining power within the home and community, enhanced their confidence level increasing will power, enabled them to bargain better deals in the wage labour market, facilitate their participation in decision making bodies, speak for their rights, giving property to their daughter, greater mobility and secure future.

Land entitlement with skills will make women to come out of the four walls of the house, confident that their land will not be misused by their husbands and it cannot be sold without their consent, minimize domestic violence, participate in decision making within the household for example, they can have the right to decide whether to sell the land or not.

Consequences of Denying Ho Women Their Rights in the Land

A much larger proportion of Ho women remain unmarried than is the case for women in other non-tribal communities-in order not to lose their rights in their parental land. As wives, their rights in the land are much less secure as they may be abandoned, forced or otherwise forced to leave the marital home without being assured of maintenance.

In the tribal community, an unmarried or widowed woman exercising her usufructuary rights over land becomes very vulnerable the rapacity and landhunger of unscrupulous male relatives who think they can grab the land if they can only get her out of the way. Thus, she is often either forced to surrender her lifetime usufructuary right or she becomes a target of violent attacks of various kinds.

The loss of usufructuary rights of tribal women due to rape by dikus (outsiders; non-tribals) has been increasing as the tribal society becomes increasingly invaded by the outsiders and the immiserization of the tribal peasantry forces the tribals to seek outside employment in order to survive. Women constitute the bulk

After more than 30 years of equal opportunities legislation, how can we explain why inequalities between women and men persist in the labour market, both in the UK and elsewhere in the EU?

Each one of us has gender identity that influenced by biological and social factors. Gender difference caused kinds of other differences among social activities or family roles. In a labor market, the gender difference is presented as gender inequality where women and men are treated differently in their jobs. Those inequalities are showed in many different ways such as pay gap and the importance of the job allocated to women and men. Since women spent most of their time in childcare, men have to become the breadwinner in the family. Thirty years after the equal opportunities legislation has been implemented, inequality is still exist and worldwide validity. Legislations that developed in the UK and EU are already more inclusive than other developing countries but it is not as comprehensive as people expected. They are still on the process of developing new legislations such as current legislation of non-standard job. By looking back at the history, women are with high expectation in taking responsibility in family rather than in work. Myriad people believe women are less productive than men and that is why women and men are treated in two different ways. Many professionals suggest plenty other reasons that may explain this historical gender inequality. In order to provide a critical investigation, different reasons of gender inequality is still persist and some inequality examples will be analyzed in the rest of this essay.

To begin with, gender segregation has been found in almost every country and contains two different forms: horizontal segregation and vertical segregation. In terms of gender segregation in workplace, occupational gender segregation is known as the unequal distribution of men and women in their jobs. Horizontal segregation stand for the segregation of the work types that women and men dominated. For example, women are more likely to be a nurse by comparing to engineer and men are preferred to be in construction industry rather than to be a nursery maid. This kind of segregation involves the gender inequality that women are expected to be the person gives care and men are expected to be a breadwinner in the family with stable wages (Tomlinson 2010). Vertical segregation refers to the order or level of the job such as managerial position and staff. This type of segregation does not necessarily involve with inequality since it concerns more to the difference of status of occupations. Occupational gender segregation is simply means employers tending to offer different occupations to women and men. In the consideration of gender issue, gender segregation may be is the beginning of widening the difference between women and men in labour market. People believe women are more suitable in the kind of jobs that men are not supposed to participate in or vice versa.

Secondly, series of new legislation were introduced in the UK and EU aimed at creating a gender equality society for women in 1970s. The equal pay for equal work principle was clarified by developing series of directives that aims at ensuring equal treatment of men and women in the workplace. Key gender equality legislations in the UK are prohibiting discrimination in pay and employment based on sex which mentioned on Equal Pay Act 1970, Sex Discrimination Act 1975. Similarly, in EU, Article 119 Founding Treaty of Rome 1957, Equal Pay Directive prohibits unequal pay with equal work and Employment Protection Act 1978 concerns maternity leave in the EU (Tomlinson 2010). Rice (1999) pointed out that in most EU countries, court and tribunal are the main agent dealing with complaints and UK has a high awareness of equality issues since its legislation are predates the EU’s. After these new laws came into force, people are expecting considerable change in women’s lives. Based on the European Commission’s report concerns gender equal opportunity at 2002, more women get the chance to participate in decision making. According to Rodgers (1999), gender-related legislations focus on making armor for women to own their right and to be in a more neutral position. However, some may dispute whether those legislations are performed well and question how many achievements have been made after they came in force. Rubenstein (1996) argues that “whether the aim of the legislation is to treat women like men when they are like men, i.e. challenge inaccurate stereotypes and labels, or to revalue and accommodate gender difference. Thus the legislation as it stands does little to challenge the ‘male’ norm against which women are rated, or to bring pressure on male lifestyles.” As she stated the legislation may not sufficient to prohibit discrimination in gender inequality and therefore does not lead to an effective prohibition. In addition, Rubery et al., (2004) claims that legislation has been long contradictory and it is breakable. He thinks those gender-related legislation are implemented in the surface of trying to build an equal gender society. There is no clear dividing line of whether company obeys the legislation or not and the unequal situation barely changes. Bellamy et al., (2006) said the reason that gender inequality is persistent in Britain is because the inadequacy of protection that current equality legislation. Besides, although the participation rate of women in labour market is much higher than before, major inequality still remains in working conditions and the pay gap may be considered as the most distinct unequal between women and men in the UK. “Women working full time earn 17% less per hour than men, and women working part time 39% less per hour than men working full timeaˆ¦ Mothers of young children face the widest pay gap, earning on average just 67% of the male hourly wage. And despite the Labour Government’s focus on improving work-life balance for parents of young children, 30,000 pregnant women are still unlawfully dismissed from their jobs each year” (Bellamy & Cameron 2006). The evidence indicates that mothers still face inequality in terms of losing jobs even legislation is there for protection. However, women who do full-time jobs are getting more and more equal with men since they may have same level of education and occupation level . For women chose part-time jobs are paid in lower wages and lower occupation level. Gender discrimination has been found as the major contributor to the pay gap and ineffective gender equality legislation can be seen as one reason of this gap. Moreover, some arguments are raised about legislation itself on how it implement. Other than dealing with the causes of discrimination, the existing legislation concentrates too much on fixing the consequences of gender inequality. The idea that those legislations are patchy is widely known by people and their ineffectiveness is not only for individuals but also for organizations. Another support idea is all the legislations focus on how to improve women’s role in labour market but none of them mention what men need to do. For example, if both men and women highly participated in labour market, there will be no carer in family. Without challenging the model of men are breadwinners, women are unable to gain stable employment. One possibility is that no matter how much time women spend on their work, men are still considered as more suitable to make decisions. Emphasizing on women goes out working without concern about men’s role may cause other problems such as children are left without guardian. Patriarchy may occur in the absence of women making economic contribution to the family as men do and then, next generations are more likely build the same sort family for their own in the future. Thus, men and women are continued to be breadwinner and housekeeper respectively. Everything remains the same even legislations are seem so protective to women. In addition, as the lack of knowledge of the law, workers and employers did not associate with the government to enhance equality legislation. Also, women tend not to make a tribunal claim because she knows there will be only a financial compensation which benefits her for a short time. In order to gain the equality of gender participations of both organizations and individuals are needed in terms of ensuring the effectiveness of legislation. Furthermore, women working in both temporary employment and part-time worker are not protected until recent legislations have developed 1998 Working-Time Directive and 2000 Part-time Workers’ Directive. In some EU countries such as Italy and France, gender pay gap are mainly caused by high involvement in non-standard jobs because workers were be paid at a much lower level of wage. Finally, the current legislation places the onus on individuals but not on employers. Employers should aware of the vital role of various changes of legislation. Tomlinson (2006) said that legislation is too soft to be diffused into organizational spheres such as policies and practices. To some extent, legislation does not integrate sufficient to protect individuals. Particularly insufficient to support mothers and thus result in women quit jobs when they start to have a big family.

Inequality problems may also rise by good implement of legislations as well. Under the employment condition, women face another difficulty of finding a job or get equal pay for equal work. Due to legislative policies protect women from work overtime or night time working; a much higher cost is needed to employ a female worker than a male worker. All firms are willing to earn additional profit and those women right protections are kind of pushing away the extra profit. “On the supply side, if the regulations are binding, women will most likely supply fewer working hours for a given wage. A night-work prohibition reduces women’s flexibility in determining the time of day at which they work and, when binding, leads to fewer working hours” (Rodgers 1999). Company may keep female employee in a lower wage level as a consequence to the low expectation of their productivity. Also, it is not surprise that corporation consider maternity leaves as a taxation of hiring female employees in terms of financial matters. European maternity leave is longer and compensation is high and this would encourage employers to hire more male employees. However, legislation does not provides the absolute protection of women from being treated unequal and ineffective policy make the situation even worse for women. In fact, it is difficult to measure the productivity of women or men and sometimes it becomes empirical issue that women usually do less by comparing to men. As the examples illustrated above, legislation is developed to protect women right and prevent unequal treatment but somehow it breaks the commitment it original sets for. Finally, among the UK and other countries in the EU, Sweden has been seen as more gender equality than others. Take the maternity leave as an example. According to Rice (1999) a minimum level of provision has set by EU legislation and relatively Germany, France, Italy and Belgium provide lower amount of provision to parental leaves than Denmark and Sweden. Also, Sweden and Denmark government expenditure on childcare are at a much higher level than other EU member states and Rice said these countries are less male dominated and hence “weak breadwinner states” (Rice 1999).

Other than the legislations’ problem, plenty other reasons could cause gender inequalities such as economic circumstances, cultural influences, reconciliation of work and family, and so on. First of all, regarding to the influence of economic circumstances inequality between women and men may be easy to explain. In high developed countries, women are more motivated to participate in labour market in order to become financial independent. However, women in developed country are expected to take more responsibility on housework because people believe women are unable to earn much money and can distract by children or housework (Lippe 2010). He said that income will be used in domestic tasks and women are not expected to earn much money so that they are expected to do chores instead of working outside. Another economic factor affect gender inequality is economic crisis when people lose their jobs. During the economic recovery period, organizations would hire employees that are expecting to be more productive. However, women usually recover slower than men and they are considered as less productive. Moreover, all kinds of social awareness are influenced by different cultures and the stereotype of women and men exists in every sphere in our life. For example, women spend most of their time at work in Denmark but the normal situation in Spain is men have less involvement in household chores. These kinds of culture themselves are against gender equality and weakening the legislation effect on sex discrimination. Culture influence could illustrated by human capital theory that women on average are less productive by compare to men in physical and abilities in certain aspects (Anderson et al., 2001). People may have a preconceived idea that woman is more suitable to do domestic tasks taught from their culture. However, this theory criticized by Bradley (1989:30) that “claiming that the link between genes, hormones, instincts, physique and sex differences and behavioral patterns has never been satisfactorily proved and that reliance on biology ignores the extent to which all forms of human behaviour are cultural and variable.” Bradley believes no sufficient evidence indicate female gene can cause worse performance of women than men in labour market. Also, women’s participation in jobs has long been affected by their carer role in family. Europe Commission shows the statistic evidence “In 2008, the employment rate for women aged 25-49 was 67% when they had children under 12, compared to 78.5% when they did not in EU” (Report On Equality Between Women And Men 2010). However, men are in the totally opposite situation, they participate more in the labour market when with children than without. This has a negative 11.5 percentage differences of the parenthood impact on women employment. In the United Kingdom, the negative impact is higher than 15 percent. Once the women give birth to baby they tend to spend more time at home rather than at work. Due to the high family responsibility of female, they may find it is hard to strike a balance between work and family. In addition, pay gap between men and women is a direct result of the allocation of jobs. Head of company prefer to allocate men in managerial position rather than women and thus the pay is different. Another reason is low wage rate are dispensed to women because they need flexible working time to take care of domestic tasks. Employer believes women have difficulties to reach top managerial positions in the result of choosing part-time jobs that can reconcile work and family in a better way. Normally, women are unavailable to work in unplanned time that company requires such as business trip and overtime working (Ponzellini et al., 2010). However, it is notable that pay of women in full-time work is clearly an increase trend and those work in part-time are not gaining same trend. Even new developed part-time legislation is implemented in the UK and other member states in EU, the deep-rooted diversity between men’s and women’s position in the labour market still exist. Nevertheless, some social policies are developed to help women spend more time out of house. For instance, government spending on child care facilitates working condition for women in the labour market. However, it is an arguable issue that household tasks are private and public policies may not be able to make a comfortable working condition for women. Hence, this diversity of gender cultures may still continue to exist in next hundred years.

To sum up, thirty years ineffective implement of legislation lead to gender inequality still existing in both UK and elsewhere EU. Legislations tend to provide a safe ground for women work outside but lack of mentioning the men’s duty in both UK and other parts in EU. To illustrate, higher involvement in domestic task when women go out for working. Another similar omit of legislation is no specific requirements to organizations and only put obligation on individuals. Based on certain statistic evidence women are in the situation of unequal pay for equal work. Women that take non-standard jobs even gain fewer wage than men on the same condition. One unintended situation is the development of legislation itself causes low employment of women since legal protection for women restrict business profit earning. Firms are having difficulty to consistent with those protective legislations for women. They tend to lower women wage or participating in company to reduce the cost input of hiring women employees. Apart from legislative policies, there are many other reasons why women and men are treated differently such as economic circumstance, and cultural influence. Women spend different length of time on work in different economies and have different thoughts of working outside as an independent individual. Organization claims there are a huge difference of recovery rate of men and women that women are less willing to work than men after economic crisis. Social expectation of genders probably is the strongest determination in gender roles. Women and men are labeled with different strengths and weaknesses by expectations from tradition. Many traditional social values and norms are still exists and whether women work outside is a good change depends on the background of the country. Also, as always there is the difficulty for women to strike a balance between work and family. Finally, in terms of promoting women in workplace men and organizations are necessarily to be associated with legislations.