Seasonality, wage, labour and women's contribution to household income in western India
Oughton, E.
Different places, different voices gender and development in Africa, Asia and Latin America: 93-108
1993
Document Number: 339221
This chapter considers the significance of the contribution of women's earnings to the income of the household, based upon field work in Sangli district, Maharashtra. It is concerned with the seasonality of income flows and their importance at times of seasonal stress. Households in rural areas devise a number of strategies to cope with the regular pattern of seasonality of production and employment. Poorer households may find the expected pattern of seasonality difficult to accommodate. The nature and proximate cause of seasonal stress will depend upon the social and economic characteristics of the household. There is a significant difference between those households that receive only kind wages and those that receive cash or cash and kind payments. Given the prevailing wage rates, women need to work twice as long to achieve the same level of earnings as men. Women's contribution increased during periods of seasonal stress. Study of households earning cash income suggests that there is some complementarity in the use of the labour resources of the household. Off-farm work is an additional burden to these women, or an alternative to their domestic reproductive or productive labour. The factors that affect the entry of women into the paid labour force are low income, the gender-specific nature of tasks, alternative employment for male members of the household on their own land and social pressure, especially in higher-status households.