triple roles of women
TRANSCRIPT
Triple Roles of Women
Caroline Moser
Gender Division of Labor (GDOL)
In HH, between HH and outside HH, outside HH
Stereotype of man as breadwinner, woman as homemaker
Man as primary income earner, woman as secondary income earner
Gender Relations and GDOL
Subordination of women to men
GDOL embodies and perpetuates female subordination
Some tasks allocated to women, others to men, vary between cultures
Economic change, change in nature of work, distribution between men and women
Gender Relations and GDOL
Two premises of GDOL challenged: 1. it is natural 2. division between male
breadwinner and female homemaker based on complementarity of roles, “different but equal”
No reason why gender should be organizing principle of social division of labor, except in childbearing
Gender Relations and GDOL
Western capitalism and its separation of production and reproduction responsible for artificial division
Difference in value placed on work of women and men
Reproductive work
Childbearing/rearing, domestic tasks, guarantees maintenance and reproduction of the labor force
Biological reproduction and care and maintenance of the workforce and future workforce
Biological determinism, extended to care of adults
Reproductive work
Reproduction of labor: care and maintenance of individuals throughout their lives to ensure continuation of societySocial reproduction: includes broader processes by which main production relations in society are recreated and perpetuated
Reproductive work
Industrial revolution: modern cash economy divorced from subsistence economyMaternal deprivationEven if waged employee, woman’s primary occupation is wife and motherInvisible and undervaluedNo clear separation between work and leisure
Reproductive work
Economic cost of reproductive work
Paid work: exchange value
Reproductive work: use value
Extraordinarily rigid at a global level
Weakens position in labor market: low wages and poor conditions
Productive work
Work done by women and men for payment in cash or kindMarket production with exchange valueSubsistence/home production with use value and potential exchange valueMost low income women have important productive roles
Productive work
Area where women and men work unequally because of rigidity of GDOLWork in both formal and informal sectors, family enterprisesGDOL reinforces women’s subordinate position in productive workSegregation in labor market: women predominate in lower end
Productive work
Nimble fingers, cheapest, docile for tedious, monotonous waged work
Informal sector: issues of access to credit, markets, raw materials
Community managing work
Activities undertaken primarily by women at the community level
Extension of their reproductive role
Provision and maintenance of scarce resources for collective consumption: water, health care, education
Voluntary, unpaid
Community managing work
Community politics role of men
Seen as naturally women’s work
Mobilization and organization at community level a natural extension of domestic work
Practical and Strategic Gender Needs
Caroline Moser
Interests and needs
Interests: prioritized concernsNeeds: means by which interests are satisfied e.g. strategic gender interest: more equal society
strategic gender need: abolition of GDOL
practical gender interest: human survival
practical gender need: water provision
Strategic gender needs (SGN)
Needs women identify because of their subordinate position to men in society
Vary according to context
Relate to gdol, power, and control
e.g. legal rights, equal wages, women’s control over their bodies
Strategic gender needs
Meeting these help women achieve greater equality
Challenges existing roles and women’s subordinate position
Feminist, needs bottom-up struggle
Women’s “real” interests
Practical gender needs (PGN)
Needs women identify in their socially accepted roles in society
Do not challenge the gdol and women’s subordinate position in society, though arising out of them
Response to immediate perceived necessity w/in a specific context
Practical gender needs
Practical in nature
Concerned with living conditions such as water provision, health care, employment
Policies to meet PGN focus on domestic arena, IGPs, housing and basic services
Practical gender needs
Basic needs required by entire family but identified as PGN of women
Maraming salamat!
Thank you very much!