Women Industrial Workers: Perception and Dynamics

Work is the basis of a civilisation’s development. For human being it may be an obsession or a passion, it is engagement or occupation, it may be a symbol of identity or a mere means of survival. According to Gilligan, the psychology of work looks at the male motivation of work as "patriarchy" manifested in oppression and the female organisation of work as ‘Liberation’. By now it is well understood that both men and women have strived in equal measure for social sustainance. But unfortunately there is a striking gap between the role performance and role recognition in case of a woman. Woman’s life style, level of opportunities and the social conditioning she is subject to, all confirm to the fact of what is submitted long back by the great champion of humanism, Simone de Beauvoir ‘Woman–The Second Sex’. The wide contrast and variation, women exhibit in the world of labour and occupation confirm to their level in social stratification. A significant majority of them work in informal sector of economy. The diversified expanse of informal sector and the magnitude of female labour force in it draw the attention of scholars towards the economic divergence ‘Formal-Informal’. The fact inherent is ‘Labour Market Segregation’ and women being the worst sufferers in the set-up. Woman’s biology being used, utilized and exploited is revealed in the sex differentiation that begins at home and extends to the labour market. This book is the result of the author’s intensive study of the multiple issues related with women’s work. It is a combination of both theoretical analysis and empirical research conducted by the author to get into comprehensive opinion in the area. The theoretical part explores the basic idea of sex dichotomy being reflected in the world of labour through the two key concepts of "Labour" and "Sexual Division of Labour". The empirical work is based on the study of a considerable group of women workers in industries representing women in informal sector. The book in general proposes a holistic approach in understanding the status, problems and issues of women workers. The micro level reality presented through the empirical work motivates feminist scholarship towards macro-level objectivity. Conclusions given by the author are open to critical constructs for refined academic discourse.