Book review: Vibhuti Patel and Nandita Mondal (Eds.),Gendered Inequalities in Paid and Unpaid Work of Women in India

Gendered Inequalities in Paid and Unpaid Work of Women in India is an important contribution to the literature on the world of work (paid and unpaid), gender disparities and the feminist political economy. Patel and Mondal have edited and curated the book with chapters that cover a wide range of themes. The book contains 17 chapters divided into three broad sections—macroeconomy of women’s work, women in the urban economy and regional diversity, and women in the agrarian and rural economy. It brings together the ideas of a diverse set of scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds whose work focuses on different regions of the country. The book highlights the changes in the world of work in the context of the changes in the economic regime and the forward march of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation. The central theme of the book is to assess the gendered impact of these processes.

The first section—Macroeconomy and Women’s Work—has three chapters. The chapter by Patel gives an overview of the changing nature of women’s work. Patel notes that the decades after the neoliberal economic reforms are marked by rising social and economic inequalities, the inability of the growth process to provide decent jobs and the loss of livelihoods. Most women workers are in the unorganised sector, deprived of opportunities for skill upgradation and have little job security. Patel also notes the persistence of gender disparity in wages and ‘wage-theft’—the practice of not paying workers what they deserve in the form of minimum wages, overtime pay and other benefits. Building on a gendered analysis of informality and precarity, Ananya Chakraborty’s chapter in this section focuses on paid and unpaid work among migrant workers. It is based on a primary survey of women migrant workers in four Indian states. Chakraborty’s work highlights the limitations of standard data collection on women’s work. Her analysis shows that marriage plays an important role in women’s migration. Chakraborty argues that migrant women face several hurdles in the labour market, but continue to work, primarily in the informal sector with very little pay, along with performing disproportionate unpaid family labour at home. Mondal’s chapter in this section asserts the need to go beyond the binary of paid and unpaid work, to understand the nuances of work better, and to reclaim recognition from the state, markets and institutions.

The second section focuses on women in the urban economy in diverse regions. The chapter by Kaniska Singh and Asfia Jamal analyses the efforts of a social enterprise co-owned by 1,700 artisans and finds that strategies such as providing equal opportunities, ownership, training and autonomy for innovation positively impacted women’s bargaining ability within their homes and increased mobility. The authors also note that such interventions, while having a positive impact, are limited by the larger neoliberal regime that feeds on the informalisation of labour, poor working conditions and unequal power relations. Deepmala Baghel chapter studies the role of stress among professional women. The author argues that stress among professional women arises not only from their multiple roles in professional and personal lives but also from the current context of poor quality of jobs and working conditions and various kinds of sexism in workplaces. Stress has a severe impact on women’s health and well-being. The chapter by Aishwarya Chandran studies commercial surrogacy using ethnographic methods. The author convincingly argues that commercial surrogacy cannot be adequately understood through the lens of altruism. Chandran argues that commercial surrogacy must be understood as a form of body-based labour. The author also asserts that the role played by the customers and the service providers needs to be analysed in the context of the prevailing caste, class and gender-based structural inequalities and unequal power relations. The next chapter by Lalremruati Rodi and Rama Ramswamy is a study of street entrepreneurs in Mizoram. The authors note that the participation of women in street entrepreneurship is quite high in their research area, but note that the entrepreneurs face serious hurdles such as limited and expensive transportation, extreme weather conditions and other issues related to infrastructure and access to credit.

The chapter by Gayatri Sharma studies the links between the right of street vendors to earn a livelihood and women’s safety in public spaces. The author calls for a strategy to integrate advocacy for women’s rights and the rights of street vendors. Pournima Arvel studies the practice of caste-based begging among the Nagapanthi Dori Goshave, an indigenous community in Maharashtra. Arvel highlights the vulnerability of women in the community, discusses the stigma and risks attached to the profession, and calls for a more nuanced understanding of beggary. The chapter by Radhika Uppal and Amrita Gupta studies women who are professional drivers. The authors show that the women who break the traditional occupational barriers face several hurdles emanating from self-doubt, their families, communities and problems in workplaces and public spaces. The authors call for public policy to address the challenges women professional drivers face. The chapter by Saptam Patel discusses the invisibility of women in the world of art. Patel discusses the underrepresentation of women artists and disparities in the monetary value of their art.

The third and last section contains chapters on women in agriculture and allied activities. Using NSSO data for 1993–2012, Vijayamba presents evidence of falling cattle ownership and a decline in women’s participation in the livestock economy. The chapter by Kanchan Ekka shows work segregation for men and women in post-cocoon activity, which seems to be driven by cultural norms. The author finds a positive impact of women’s collectivisation but argues that patriarchal norms remain intact in households, communities and even in the legal sphere. The chapter by Reshmi studies the female workforce in the handloom sector in Assam. This qualitative research presents evidence of the precarious working conditions of women workers, the impact on their health and the problem of indebtedness. The author also notes that most women handloom workers were poor and belonged to socially backward communities and were hardly ever considered for work roles that gave them decision-making authority. The chapter by Lavanya Arvind studies the significant role played by self-help groups (SHG) in the rehabilitation of former devadasis in Karnataka. Arvind attributes the success story of the SHG to the solidarity-based association of women. The final chapter by Ashmita Sharma studies the tea plantations in West Bengal and argues that the crisis of the tea sector is borne disproportionately by women workers. The author highlights poor working conditions and lower pay for women in the sector.

While these chapters discuss a wide variety of themes, regions and contexts, some common themes emerge. The studies note that the brunt of informalisation and casualisation is borne by women workers, along with the disproportionate burden of unpaid work. Several studies note that women’s labour is undervalued, and women workers are rendered invisible by patriarchal structures in a wide variety of jobs and occupations. Some chapters highlight the need to devise a better conceptual and empirical framework to measure ‘work’. Several studies note that neoliberalism—far from delivering on its promise to be the rising tide that lifts all boats—has destroyed or negatively impacted women’s livelihoods. Several studies note the relevance of caste–gender intersectionality in creating structural barriers for women. Some studies do point to success stories of initiatives such as women’s SHGs and social enterprises, but there is overwhelming evidence of massive challenges for women workers who are simply trying to earn a decent livelihood and live a life of dignity. Many chapters also discuss concrete policy proposals that can go a long way in removing some of the barriers that women workers face. Overall, this book is a very important, timely contribution and an effort in the right direction.