REVIEW OF JOURNAL ARTICLES

Domestication of Women

Subject- Sociology-I

Submitted to: -

T. Kannan Sir

Faculty, Sociology

Submitted by: -

Vedika Singh

II Semester, I Year

2019-5LLB-113

NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad

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 Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................2

ANALYSIS................................................................................................................................3

Summary of Journal Articles.................................................................................................3

Comparison and Critique of the articles.................................................................................4

CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................5

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 INTRODUCTION
This project undertakes a comparative and critical review of two articles that have been
published in Economic & Political Weekly over the last few years. Both the articles though
refer to the same topic or rather same social problem yet the approach taken by both the
authors in reaching certain conclusions about such problem is different. The social problem
that they have indirectly referred to is about the domestication of women.

Earlier it was about the liberty and equality of women in a sense to force them to come out of
their homes so as to enter the educational and commercial institutions which can make them
realise their rights and liberalise them. Though the trade liberalisation and growing
globalisation offered new opportunities and various ways for them to represent themselves in
the society yet these were coupled with new challenges and difficulties as well.

In modern world of now, it is not just about tackling the patriarchal notions attached to
women’s liberalisation and their independence in form of getting education and taking up
occupation but also the varied dimensions of this capitalist world around us which pull back
these women back to homes. Some give it the name of “choice” that they themselves choose
to stay at home and perform household activities whereas some call it the force of increasing
demand of labour reproduction by the capitalist economy of our country which when merged
with such patriarchal ideas tend to make them change the gears from being part of the labour
force phase to the leaving it and coming back to the homes to perform the domestic activities
phase which is the most unnoticed and unrecognised phase and deserves no resources or pay
in return as per our economy.

This project discusses further on what stances do both the authors take and what is the
commonality as well as what are the differences that both represent and thus, the further
critical analysis which results into a comprehensible conclusion.

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 ANALYSIS
Summary of Journal Articles
1) Measuring Gender Disparity Using Time Use Statistics1
This article was first published in Economic & Political Weekly in 2002, written by Rajesh
Bhatia, DDG, Social Statistics Division, Ministry of Statistics and Programmes
Implementation. Data from the report of time use survey conducted by Central Statistics
Organisation (CSO) was used by the author in this article to identify and measure gender
disparity by relatively looking at the time spend by men and women on productive activities.

This article puts emphasis on lack of data on informal sector and the women involved in these
activities which does not allow the due recognition and credit of their work in the informal
sector and thus, no contribution to the economy. Thus, author points out that such time use
statistics are important when government comes out with the policies for social, political and
economic development and upliftment of women. The article goes on to discuss that there are
number of factors which differentiate the work of women from men like how the household
chores, subsistence agriculture and taking care of children and elderly in a household
community.

The survey has been done in six states where several activities have been grouped and put
under three categories i.e., System of National Accounts (SNA) activities including primary
production activities, secondary activities, and trade, business and services activities, the
extended-SNA activities viz, household maintenance, management and shopping for own
household, care for children, the sick, elderly and disabled for own household and community
services and help to other households and the non-SNA activities consisting learning
activities, social and cultural activities, mass media, etc, and personal care and self-
maintenance., extended-SNA activities and Non-SNA activities.

The survey shows that the total work done by women in a day is more than what is done by
men but it is also seen that the less time spent by men on SNA activities is used up in
spending it on Non-SNA activities whereas in case of women, the less time spent by them on
SNA activities gets used up in performing extended-SNA activities and thus, they are left
with less time for the Non-SNA activities to be spent on. This forces the author to put up the
question that “Is Household Chores a Feminine Activity?” The author comes up with this

1
Rajesh Bhatia. “Measuring Gender Disparity Using Time Use Statistics” Economic & Political Weekly, Vol.
37, Issue No. 33, 17 Aug, 2002.

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argument after analysing the survey that whatever age group a woman belongs to; she is
always involved in the household activities more than the men. That even if women
participation in labour market is increasing or if they get education and get employed yet they
spend more hours on extended-SNA activities than the men as when it comes to choosing
between a boy and a girl with respect to sending them to the school, a boy is given preference
as it is assumed that the girls have to continue doing such work even after getting married.
The author also points out that based on the assumption that women are more caring than
men by birth, even after getting employed they have to take care of their children and elderly
people around them which is such a work that gets on unnoticed and unpaid, Also, the teen
girls who themselves need care and protection are involved in the household activities and as
they sometimes deprived of going to school and rather help their parents in the informal
sector even their work is not recognised or paid for.

The author concludes with developing a composite index to measure gender disparity so as
the policy makers are well versed with the conditions or factors that affect the overall
development and upliftment of status of women in society.

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 2) Domestic Labour and Female Labour Force Participation: Adding a Piece to the
Puzzle2
This article was published in Economic & Political Weekly in 2016, written by Sirisha C.
Naidu who is an Associate Professor at Department of Economics, Wright State University in
Dayton, U.S. The author in this article takes a different stance from what the above-
mentioned author submits. What the author points here is that there is decline in female
labour force participation rate (flfpr) whereas at the same time increase in participation in
domestic activities to which various explanations have been presented like increase in
enrolment in educational institutions or income effect which gives them the choice to leave
the labour market and take part in so-called “status” producing activities or the definition of
work by NSSO which excludes domestic activities or also, the declining employment
opportunities for women in India.

The author but goes beyond these explanations and suggest that such shift from labour market
to domestic economy may exist because of a crisis of reproduction, and an attempt to boost
household consumption for an economically impoverished population. The author explains
his stance by considering the statistical data published by NSSO for various criteria during
the period 1987–88 to 2011–12. The author criticizes the use of U-hypothesis where there is
increased women participation in agricultural activities when it is the primary source of
formation of national income whereas when the country shifts to non-agrarian sectors there is
decrease in flfpr but again the increase in educational and employment opportunities make
them enter the labour force. So, it is suggested that due to income effect where the decrease
in household income because of women’s withdrawal from labour market gets compensated
by increase in the wages of men but the data show that the gap is not covered that much what
the explanation theoretically proves to be so as there is also a wide gender wage gap in
various activities in the labour market. Also, the statistical data shows that there has been
higher educational enrolment by women, yet it negates the proposition that it will lead to
increase in labour force participation.

Also, there has been significant decrease in state’s providing enough employment
opportunities setting aside the good quality employment to the ever-increasing female labour
force. The author points out that even though there has been de-feminisation of the work that
has been mostly taken up by women since time immemorial yet such “de-feminisation” gets

2
Sirisha C Naidu, Domestic Labour and Female Labour Force Participation: Adding a Piece to the Puzzle,
Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 51, Issue No. 44-45, 05 Nov, 2016.

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threatened when there is lack of wages, lack of job security or increasing sexual harassment
cases at the work which forces the women to leave such informal sector jobs and then men
take up such jobs only out of necessity so as to run the household.

Author talks about the domestic economy in a way that NSSO defines domestic activities in
two categories of “domestic activities only” and “domestic and allied activities” which does
not come under the definition of work and also, the increased participation of women in such
activities is just for meeting the consumption needs of the household which gives them the
name of status producing activities which is not justified as the author argues that they can
be easily substituted by market goods in households with high income and/or access to
necessary infrastructure. And also, the women’s preference in doing domestic activities over
entering labour market is because they think that there is no other person in the family to do
such domestic activities which not only involve household chores or going to market to buy
the necessities but also include taking care of the other members of the family. This is what
termed as fighting the “crisis of reproduction” which means maintaining the initial stages of
entering the labour market and influencing the national economy as the domestic sphere plays
an important role in making a person ready for the outside capitalist world. So, though such
domestic activities are considered important in formation of an economy of a country yet the
efforts put in by women in such activities go unnoticed, unrecognised or unpaid as they do
not satisfy the commodity relations or capitalist definition of work where such activities are
only the factors of reproducing the labour in the market and act as subsidy for government to
increase the labour force participation in general. Such factors and government’s no help in
form of providing resources or incentives to women to enter the labour force causes the
familialism and the increasing immiseration faced by working-class household in the country.

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 Comparison and Critique of the Articles
Both the articles have been addressing the same problem- the decrease in participation of
women in labour sector and turning to take up domestic activities instead. The first article
refers to the problem in a way that it divides all the economic and non-economic activities
into various categories and then compare the amount of time that all men and women put in
such activities. Such analysis reveals that even if women are involved in economic activities
i.e. are part of labour force yet the percentage is less than that of men and also if get time
other than from their usual jobs, it is spent on the household chores and other domestic
activities. The author gives the reason of such behaviour by pointing out the patriarchal
notions attached to these activities i.e. to give preference to boy over girl in deciding who to
send school to as girls would do such jobs even if get married, or that women are caring and
emotional by birth thus, she is the perfect rather only person to take care of all the other
members of the family. And thus, in the end, the author talks about the holistic development
of individuals which in the case of women is possible only when they get time for other
activities like personal care or working on their hobbies.

Whereas in the second article, the author while considering the various reasons given for the
decrease in female labour force participation rate also criticizes them. Like how income effect
is not that considerable cause for such decrease because even if the females withdraw from
the informal sector yet the gender wage gap between them is such that the increase in men’s
wags also cannot cover what the women had left while withdrawing from the labour force,
also the increase in women getting enrolled in educational institutions and taking mainstream
occupations is not that much a boost for women to leave their household activities, or also
negation of the fact that there are not enough employment opportunities for ever-growing
female labour force as even if some are there, the quality of those in terms of the lack of
proper wages or the job and workplace security also forces them to give to such opportunities
a second thought. The author in such case comes up with some other factors affecting flfpr
like how the domestic activities taken up by women are just reduced to the terms like
domestic and allied activities by NSSO which as does not satisfy the requirements of the
definition of “work” and thus no recognition and no pay for such activities. Then such
activities are only reduced to be called as the status production activities as these are only for
consumption and not for capitalist production which is not true as these goods and services
produced out of such activities stand in equality to the market goods with some value and
price attached to them. Also, the women participation in such activities is just to deal with the

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crisis of reproduction i.e. to reproduce such conditions or initials of production economy in
the form of labour on time-to-time basis so as to make others and also the surroundings
around them “market ready”. That it is the job of women to ensure that the requisites of a
capitalist economy are fulfilled at any cost i.e. even at cost of her independence and
upliftment. And, the upliftment is only needed when there is inequality between certain
sections of society in availing the opportunities and benefits available to all. Thus, the author
in the end summarizes his points by pressing on the other factors being the important reasons
for such shift of women from labour market to domestic economy.

It could be noticed that the reasons of domestication of women can be derived or rather
discussed by taking into consideration the arguments presented by both the authors. That, it
the amalgamation of the patriarchal notions and the varied challenges that the growing
capitalist economy has brought forth with it. That, even if enrolment of women in educational
institutions and them taking up regular salaried jobs has increased yet, the notions attached
with the domestic activities like how women are more caring than men, that also since birth
and that they are well-suited to doing the household activities i.e. the only and perfect person
to do all the domestic activities like buying grocery items or taking care of children and
elderly people in the house. It is such notions which add fuel to the fire in modern world. And
breaking such patriarchal notions becomes more difficult when our market structure is taking
up more complex shape in order to fulfil the requisites and essentials of the capitalist
economy of ours.

The status production concept attached to such activities is in terms of how much is the salary
and what are the working conditions involved in such activities which determine the status of
such different sections of society. Thus, the work of women which in literal terms is not work
but mere participation in domestic activities because of its non-recognition and non-payment
gets reduced to mere concept of determining the status of women in the society and thus at
the end determining the appropriate behaviour of women which is expected of them. Like if
they do jobs or sometimes think about their personal leisure and hobbies then they are
crossing the convention boundaries that have been built the so-called male-dominated society
around us. Thus, instead of recognising the work of women as an essential part of our
economy and giving it the credit and attention that it deserves, it has become more about how
to come up with the various reasons which could possible form the part of defining them or
rather categorising them as status production activities, i.e., how the liberalising democracy
of ours rather than emancipating women from conservative and conventional barriers ties

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them back to such notions i.e. making them move back to the homes and the activities related
to such houses instead of giving them more opportunities to represent themselves in the
growing market and changing economy around us. It is the promotion of domestication of
women than liberation and equal participation of women in the societal activities.

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 CONCLUSION
Human development means complete usage of human capabilities like improved health,
knowledge and skills by the people for leisure, for productive purposes and for active
involvement in cultural, political and social affairs. But such development is affected when
there is a large difference in the amount of time which people spend on the different types of
activities, which also indicates the existence of disparity among different sections of the
population like gender disparity. To do away with such disparities is to recognise and study
such differences and come up with the solutions which first make people aware of such
disparities and then compel them to work towards their removal.

Also, the shift in participation from labour market to domestic economy cannot be just
restricted to the patriarchal notions that compel them to domestic sphere or that the growing
economy is what frees them from routine work but it is under the present-day and contextual
capitalist practices that the interplay of political, social and economic institutions takes place
which influence the access to wage work, determine value of labour power, shape the family-
households and determine their access to public goods and welfare which may include the
declining quality employment opportunities and the existence of a potential crisis of
reproduction.

Thus, future economic growth does not ensure the domestication of women getting vanished
and increase in female labour force participation automatically but rather it is the structural
conditions of labour market and the burden of reproducing households that are need to be
addressed.

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