Bridging the Economic Gender Gap

The position of women in India is largely relegated to a passive and subservient position. Women appear in the popular culture as mothers, daughters and lovers; women are understood in terms of their relation to men. Whether life imitates art or it is the other way around, this same position exists in reality as well. In fact, often women are understood only in these terms — lacking any political or economic content. It is as if they undertake no productive activity in our country. This is of course false.

The problem is that the labor of women is rendered invisible. People do not recognise the component of ‘work’ in housework. As Angela Davis puts it, ‘household chores vanish after their completion… housework is only noticed when it is not done’. Which makes one wonder why is it that other tasks in the country are not treated the same way. The work of multitudes of workers in complex production processes also represents a miniscule part such that it would not be easy to recognise. Already in Adam Smith’s time pin-making already involved 12 different kinds of tasks, each assigned to a different set of workers who specialized in them. The reason behind one being recognised and the other be overlooked is simple: the payment of wages.

This little nugget of truth propounded by feminists the world over highlights the importance of bridging the economic gender gap. The role of position in our society is tied inevitably to their place in the production system. Therefore the improvement of the social position of women cannot happen without an improvement in their economic one.

This does not mean that the only way or even that the correct way to do this is by wages for housework. Angela Davis herself was critical of the latter, pointing out that it was still labor that was alienating and would reinforce the social ideas behind the lack of power that women possess. Instead, she and others have spoken in favour of women seeking jobs outside the home and arguing for affirmative action along the same lines.

In India in the past, women often took jobs in government sector enterprises. This is because these were seen as relatively safe compared to private ones, aside from their obvious prevalence. However the gradual disinvestment in PSUs has led to a diminishing public sector and dropping female labor force participation — which was never high to begin with. This also ties to the general lack of jobs in our economy. The answer then is simple: the government must lead the way.

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