Women make up half the world's population but receive only 10% of world income and 1% of wealth. They constitute the majority of the agricultural and informal workforce but represent only 14% of organized sector employment. Women face disproportionate burdens and responsibilities at home in addition to their work outside, and cultural attitudes reinforce gender inequalities and discrimination against women in the workplace.

2. Women constitute ½ of the world’s population,
2/3 of the world’s labour force but get 1/10th of
the world’s income and 1% of the world’s
Wealth.
As per 2001 Census, 23% of women are in the
work force. 94% of all working women are in
the informal sector.

3.  “Women carry a disproportionately greater
burden of work than men and since women are
responsible for a greater share of non-SNA
(System of National Accounts) work in the
care economy , they enter labour market
already overburdened with work.” Report of
Gender Diagnosis and Budgeting in India of
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
NIPFP. December, 2001

4. Census of India, 2011, Series 1
RURAL/
URBAN
MALES FEMALES
TOTAL 51.61 22.27
RURAL 52.58 26.79
URBAN 48.92 09.19

5. 80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Total male female
main Ws
marg Ws
Non Ws

8. Distribution of Women Across Industry %
Community, social & personnel services sectors 55.6
Manufacturing 21.4
Agriculture & Allied Occupation 9.8
Finance, insurance, real estate & business 4.9
Factories 14
Mines 6
Plantation 51

9. Women constitute only 14% of the total
employment in the organized sector. It is
concentrated in Maharashtra, Delhi, West
Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamilnadu.
In the urban areas, FEAR in tertiary sector has
increased, from 37.6 % in 1983 to 52.9 % in
1999. (Economic Survey, 2002, GOI).
Here, women workers and employees get
relatively better wages, standard working hours,
and the protection of labour laws.

10. Changes in age-structure, urbanisation,
level & nature of economic development,
infrastructure, government policies, labour
laws, nature of work,structure of family,
culture & tradition affecting autonomy and
control, fertility levels and childbearing
practices, nature of housework, women’s
property rights, education, age at marriage,
migration, access to technology.

11. Nature of wage differentials (WD)-for
identical tasks women are paid less. And
women are confined to relatively inferior
tasks, casual work.
Causes of WD-patriarchal attitude, myths
Effects of WD- subordination of women,
son preference, man is treated as a “bread
winner”- Head of the Household (HoH)

12. Legislative measures
Equal Remuneration Act
 Formation of women’s union
Constitutional guarantees
Job reservation for women
Self Help Groups(SHGs)

13.  For forest dwellers, a comprehensive Minor
Forest Produce Workers Act which regulates
their work condition and provides social
security and accident compensation to the
forest workers.
 Sexual Harassment at Workplace act- Any
covert or overt sexual behaviour, lewd
remarks, physical advances against a woman
employee by her male colleague/ boss.

14. Workmen’s
Compensation
Act, 1932.
The Minimum
Wages Act,
1948
The Factories
Act, 1948
Maternity
Benefits Act,’61
Plantation
Labour
Act,’51
Bidi & Cigar
Workers
Act,’96
The Contract
Labour Act, ’70
Bonded
Labour Act,
1976
Equal
Remune-ration
Act,’76
Migration
Workers’ Act,76
Child Labour
(P&R)
Act,1986
Legal Services
Act, 1987

15.  Special buses and trains for working women
 Part time work, Flexi time
 Prohibition of Night work
 Maternity benefits and day care centres
 Occupational health & Safety
 Women’s cooperatives, Self employed
women
 Female headed households, right to housing
 working women’s hostels at district/ tehsil
levels

16. Declining participation of women in the
male dominated Trade Unions
Women’s cells/crocuses being formed in
the progressive unions
 Inter-union rivalry- violence
Subculture of T.U.-language, habits
 Attitude of the state- police ,
administration, courts
 Attitude and reaction of the family

17.  Food security, safe and cheap transport
 Safety net to deal with SAP & Globalisation
 Multicultural Outlook to counter casteism,
communalism ethnicism and racism
 Formation of Special Interest Groups- young
working mothers, study circles, career
guidance, therapeutic sessions., circulating
library, speak out centres and cultural
activities.
 Alternatives provided by SEWA, Annapurna

19. Implementation of statutory provision
Guaranteeing state stipulated minimum
wages
Reduction in military budget
Environmental issues- fuel, fodder, water
Land rights of agrarian and tribal women
Public education/ awareness generation

20.  Conventional indicators of DEVELOPMENT
are economic growth, rise in national & per
capita income and GDP, rapid pace of
urbanisation, high mobility of labour & capital,
expansion of industrial base, agrarian growth
and growth of foreign trade.
 This thinking has been challenged by gender
economists as this indicators have not taken
into consideration just distribution of resources,
opportunities and material wellbeing to majority
of human beings, especially women.

21. Women in Development-awareness about
marginalisation of women, Towards Equality
Report, The UN Charter, 1975.Equality, Deve,
Peace
Women & Development- integration of women in
the mainstream through Education, health and
economic development of women- NPP, GOI.
 Gender & Development- bending the existing
power structure in favour of women thru’
empowerment of women in apex bodies of
decision making. CEDAW

22.  Main indicators of human development are
educational achievements, income, health profile
and human rights.
 Human Development Report, 2001 has provided
development radars comprising of 8 indicators-indices
of poverty, per capita consumption
expenditure, life expectancy at age one, infant
mortality rates, intensity of formal education, literacy
rates, access to safe drinking water, proportion of
households with pakka houses. What about
declining sex- ratio ?

23.  Women don’t have control over resources in
the subsistence sector.
Women work for more hours & in return get
less wages.
 Land reforms have taken away land rights of
women as the titles were made in the name
of men.
 Girl Child labour are extremely vulnerable.
 Absence of social services for women
workers increases women’s plight at the time
of pregnancy, old age, illness and destitution.

24. Women become major victims of rationalisation,
mechanisation and automation. When structural
changes take place, women are not selected for
skill up gradation, if they don’t assert collectively.
 But, new international division of labour has
changed this dynamics as the focus is on induction
of young, moderately educated girls who would do
minute and monotonous with concentration and
dexterity e.g. pharmaceuticals, computers,
electronic, garments.

25.  Patriarchal structure of trade unions- Prejudice of
male leaders- Women being treated as an auxiliary
labour force that can be hired last at the time of
economic expansion & fired first at the time of
economic recession- Division of labour within
Unions-Men as leaders and Women as supporters-
Time & Place of Union meetings-Women’s role in
collective bargaining & reflection of women’s
aspirations and demands in the charter of demands-communal
and casteist biases within T.U. Workers
Education Programmes- CHILD LABOUR ?

26.  International Labour Organisation
Standardisation of work hours
Child labour prevention
Occupational health and Safety
Compensation for displaced population
Human rights of ethnic minorities- wages
& safety
Economic activities for women refugees