Women's work

About: Women's work is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1625 publications have been published within this topic receiving 33754 citations. The topic is also known as: woman's work.

Ghanaian Females, Rural Economy, and National Stability

Abstract: Most discussions of African women as rural producers have either underscored African women's traditional roles in production, focused on female exclusion from the development process and the need for female inclusion, or they have documented the failure of agricultural development projects because of oversight of the female dimension (Hafkin and Bay, 1976; Etienne and Leacock, 1980; Bay, 1982; Burfisher and Horenstein, 1985). Observation of the intense involvement of Ghanaian women in both cocoa and food production, as well as their plight during the more recent crises in the Ghanaian economy, leads one to new insights into African economic relationships. This case raises some interesting questions about the exploitation of women in agricultural production, the relationship between declining cash crop and food production and the national economy, as well as the national consequences which flow from the failure to give women a proper role in the rural economy. The present analysis uses historical, ethnographic case-study, survey, statistical, and political data from cocoa farming areas of Ghana (especially the Sunyani area) to examine the changing relationship of rural women to economic and national stability. It is argued that in the recent difficult political and economic climate in some African countries, pressures exerted on rural areas have contributed to a heavy reliance upon female producers. Over time these pressures further contribute to an unstable rural economy, because this exploitation of the female labor force, while itself a reaction to socioeconomic trauma, further discourages male involvement in agricultural production.

Women Doing Men's Work and Women Doing Women's Work: Female Work and Pay in British Wartime Engineering

Abstract: Extreme demand pressures coupled with acute skill shortages in the run up to World War II caused British engineering companies to break down existing production processes into smaller constituent parts. This allowed the employment of persons trained over narrower ranges of skills and helped to create an exponential growth of female jobs, from 10.5% of total engineering employment in 1939 to 35.2% by 1943. Women were officially classified into those doing men's work and those doing women's work. Using a unique data set provided by the Engineering Employers Federation, this paper examines female work and pay from 1935 (the first year of rearmament) to 1942 (the peak of production activity) in more detail than has been previously undertaken. It features the pay and hours of piece- and time-rated women, female-male wage ratios, and an assessment of the war's longer term impact on the female labor market.

Women's Work In Homestead Gardens: Subsistence, Patriarchy, And Status In Northwest Bangladesh

Abstract: Women's status and economic contributions in rural Bangladesh have been the focus of considerable debate. The present study, based on fieldwork in Chuchuli, a village in northwestern Bangladesh, illustrates how the success of women in managing home- stead gardens may not positively affect their socio-economic status vis-a-vis males in their households. The income generated by the sale of garden produce typically is handled by the men of the household rather than by the women, especially in the circumstances in which both Muslim and Hindu women are restricted in their participation in the local marketplace. The consequences of these male-dominated arrange- ments for development programs focused on homestead gardens and women's roles are also discussed.

Unequal Reward for Equal Work? Understanding Women’s Work and Wage Discrimination in India Through the Meniscus of Social Hierarchy:

Abstract: The Indian society is one of the most unequal societies of the world and divided into different social hierarchies of caste, class, religion, etc. Caste is a determinant of power, economic inequali...