Gender and technology
A distinctive feature of the economic system of modern societies is the development of a highly complex and diverse division of labour. The division of labor means that work is divided among different occupations that require specialization, a result of which is economic interdependence; We all depend on each other to maintain our livelihood. Both men and women should be provided with free education and necessary vocational training prior to employment. Women are mainly involved in domestic duties. They don’t even hold jobs permanently and they lack role models. Women are not very active or independent due to traditionally being subservient to men. Men, women and children in rural or backward areas should be given opportunity to learn any craft or specialized work
Plantation employs more women overall than any other organized industry. There has been a decline in the employment of women in factory industries in recent years. This could be due to a number of reasons – use of machines required for skilled labour, tendency of employers not to hire women as women are given more benefits and higher wages as per the Act. The factory industry, where women’s employment is the largest, is a food and food processing industry dealing with agriculture, tobacco, textiles, chemicals, basic metals, electrical machinery and metal products.
women and work
Throughout history, men and women have contributed to the creation and reproduction of the social world around them, both on a day-to-day basis and over long periods of time. Over the past few decades, more and more women have entered the labor force. In most Western countries, Russia and China, women are about a quarter less likely than men to work outside the home. However, reports in the UK suggest that three quarters of the working female population are engaged in part-time, low-paid work, in cubicles, clearing, cashiering and catering.
Women and the Workplace; historical scene
For most populations in pre-industrial societies (and many in the developing world), productive activities and domestic activities were not separate. Production was carried out either in or near the home, and all members of the family worked on the land or in handicrafts. Women often had considerable influence in this domestic authority as a result of their importance in the economic process, even though they were excluded from the male reality of politics and warfare. Wives of artisans and craftsmen often kept the accounts of the business and widows usually owned and managed businesses.
Much of this changed with the separation of the workplace from the home due to the development of modern industry. m
The movement of production into mechanized factories was probably the largest single factor. ma used to work
China’s movement by individuals hired specifically for the tasks in question, so employers gradually began to contract workers individually? instead of families.
Over time – and the progress of industrialization established a growing divide between home and workplace. The idea of separate spheres, public and private, became part of popular attitudes. Men, by virtue of their employment outside the home, spent more time in the public sphere and were more involved in local affairs, politics, and the market. Women were associated with ‘domestic’ values and were responsible for tasks such as caring for children, maintaining the home and preparing meals for the family. The idea that ‘a woman’s place is in the home’ had different implications for women at different levels in society. Affluent women enjoyed the services of maids, nurses and domestic servants. binders were harshest for the poor women who had to
Engaging in industrial work along with household chores to supplement husband’s income.
Increase in economic activities of women
Women’s participation in the paid labor force has more or less steadily increased over the past decades. A major impact was the labor shortage experienced during World War I. During the war years women performed many tasks previously considered the exclusive province of men. Upon returning from the war, men again occupied most of those jobs, but the pre-established pattern was broken.
The gender division of labor changed dramatically in the years following World War II. The UK employment rate is the proportion of people of working age who are employed. For women it increased from 56 percent to 70 percent between 1971 and 2004. There are several reasons why the gap in the rate of economic activity between men and women has narrowed in recent decades, the first being a change in the scope and nature of work. Traditionally associated with women and the ‘domestic sphere’, birth rates have declined and the average age of childbirth has increased, with many women now taking up paid work before childbearing and after terms returns to work. Smaller families mean that the time many women previously spent at home caring for young children is reduced. The mechanization of many household tasks has also helped reduce the amount of time spent on maintaining the home. Automatic dish washers, vacuum cleaners and washing machines have made household chores less labor intensive. There is also evidence that the household division of labor between men and women has been steadily decreasing over time, although women certainly still do more household work than men.
There are also financial reasons for increasing numbers of women entering the labor market. The traditional nuclear family model – made up of a male earner, female homemaker and dependent children – now accounts for only a quarter of households. Domestic economic pressures, including increases in male unemployment, have led more women to seek paid work. Many families find that two incomes are needed to maintain the desired lifestyle. Other changes in household structure, including higher rates of singlehood and childlessness, as well as an increase in single-mother households, mean that women from outside traditional households are also entering the labor market – either by choice or from vacation
It is important to note that many women have chosen to enter the labor market in response to a desire for personal fulfillment and a drive for equality. After achieving legal equality with men, many women have taken advantage of opportunities to realize these rights in their outside lives. As work is central in contemporary society and employment is almost always a prerequisite for living an independent life. Women have made great strides towards equality with men in recent decades; Increased economic activity has been central to this process.
Gender and Inequalities at Work
Despite having a form! Equality with men, women still experience many inequalities in the labor market. The three main inequalities for women at the workplace are as follows; Occupational segregation, concentration, and wage differentials in concurrent employment.
Business Segregation:
Women workers have traditionally been concentrated in low-paid, routine occupations, many of these jobs are highly gendered – ie they are generally seen as ‘women’s work’. Secretarial and caring jobs (such as nursing social work and child care) are highly important for women and are generally considered ‘feminine’ occupations. Occupational gender segregation refers to the fact that men and women are concentrated in different types of jobs based on prevailing understandings of what is appropriate ‘male’ and ‘female’ work.
Business segregation has been observed for vertical and horizontal components. workspace isolation
Refers to the tendency for women to be concentrated in jobs with little authority and room for advancement, while men occupy more powerful and influential positions. Horizontal segregation refers to the tendency of men and women to occupy different categories of jobs. xhai
Tige segregation refers to the tendency of men and women to occupy different categories of jobs. Horizontal separation can be pronounced. In the UK 1991 more than 50 per cent of women’s employment fell into four occupational categories; Clerical secretarial, personal services and other primary. In 1998, 26 percent of women were in regular white laundry work, compared to only 8 percent of men, while 17 percent of men were in skilled manual work, compared to only 2 percent of women.
Changes in the organization of employment as well as sex role stereotyping have contributed to occupational segregation. Prestige and work is provided to ‘clerks’
a good example. In 1850, 99 percent of clerks in Britain were male. To be a clerk often required one to be responsible, with knowledge of accountancy skills and sometimes even the lowest clerk having a certain status in the outside world to carry out managerial responsibilities. The twentieth century has seen a general mechanization of office work, with a marked upgrading of skills and another related occupation, the ‘clerk’ as well as the secretary – a low status, low paid occupation. in. Women came to fill these occupations as the pay and prestige associated with them declined. However, the proportion of people working as secretaries has fallen over the past few decades. Computers have replaced typewriters, and many managers now do most of their letter writing and other tasks directly on the computer.
Concentration in part-time work:
Although an increasing number of women now work full-time outside the home, a large number are concentrated in part-time employment. In recent decades, opportunities for part-time work have greatly increased, partly as a result of labor markets encouraging flexible employment policies and partly because of the expansion of the service society.
Part time jobs are offering a lot more flexibility to the employees as compared to full time work. For this reason they are often preferred by women who are trying to balance work and family obligations, in many cases this can be done successfully and women who might otherwise be out of employment become economically active. But part time work has some disadvantages like low salary, job. Insecurity and limited opportunities for advancement.
Part-time work is attractive to many women and most of the growth is women’s economic activity in the post-war period. As of 2004 there were 5.2 million women in the UK in part-time employment to only 1.2 million men. The UK is somewhat unique among industrialized nations in this regard, with the UK having one of the highest rates of female part-time employment. Surveys have shown that part-time jobs are low paying, insecure and often more flexible for the employer than the employee. Most of the women do part time jobs. The main reason given by the people questioned for working part-time is the fact that they prefer not to work full-time.
Some scholars have argued that there are different types of women who are committed to work outside the home and who are unrestricted to work, rendering the traditional sexual division of labor unacceptable. According to this approach, many women happily choose to work part time
To meet traditional household obligations. However there is an important sense in which women have little choice. Men and older people do not warrant pain liability but still want to work in paid jobs or essentially find part-time work a more viable option.
Pay Gap:
Young women with good qualifications are now as likely to take up local jobs as their male counterparts. Yet this progress at the top of the occupational structure is offset by a huge increase in the number of women in low part-time jobs, ushering in the booming service sector. Occupational segregation by gender is one of the main factors in the persistence of the pay gap between men and women. Women are over-represented in job sectors with higher wages. Despite some gains, women are still under-represented at the top of the income distribution.
The percentage of women among the poor has steadily increased in recent years. Poverty is particularly acute for women with very young children who require constant care. There’s a vicious cycle here. A woman who can hold down a reasonably well-paying job may be financially crippled from paying for child care, yet if she starts working part-time Her earnings are reduced; whatever career prospects may have disappeared, and she also loses other economic benefits such as pension rights that full-time employees receive.
Changes in the Household Division of Labour:
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One of the consequences of more women entering paid work is that some traditional family patterns are being renegotiated. The male breadwinner model has become the exception rather than the rule, and women’s growing economic independence means they are in a better position to break out of gender stereotypes at home if they choose to do so. Both homework and financial decision making intern
Significant changes are taking place in the traditional household rules of women. There appears to be a move towards a more egalitarian relationship in many households, although the main responsibility for most housework still rests on women’s shoulders. The exception to this is small household repair jobs that are more likely to be done by men. Surveys have found that women still spend about 3 hours a day on average doing housework (excluding shopping and childcare). This compares with 1 hour 40 minutes spent by men (Office for National Statistics 2003)
Studies show that married women with jobs outside the home do ten more household chores than others, although they almost always bear the main responsibility of caring for the home. The pattern of their movements is definitely different. they do more
Doing housework for longer hours in the evenings and on weekends than for full-time housewives.
There is evidence that this pattern may also change for housewives. Men are contributing more household work than their share, although scholars who have examined this phenomenon argue that the process is one of backward adaptation (Gershschuni 1994). This means that the renegotiation of domestic work between men and women is proceeding at a slower pace than women’s entry into the labor market. Research has found that the division of labor within households varies according to factors such as class and the amount of time a woman spends in paid work. Couples from higher social classes tend to have a more egalitarian division of labor, or households in which the woman is working full-time. Overall, men are taking on a greater amount of household responsibility, but the burden is still not shared equally.
Gender Differentiation and Technological Development in India
Most of the women are employed in a) Agriculture b) Mines
- c) Plantation d) Factory Industries e) Small Scale Industries f) Social Service g) White Seller Jobs.
The plantation industry employs more women than others. In recent years there has been a decline in the employment of women in factory industries. This could be due to many reasons like use of machines for efficient labour, tendency of employers not to hire women as more benefits and higher wages are to be given to women as per the act. The factory industries where women’s employment is the largest are agriculture, tobacco, textiles, chemicals, basic metals, electrical machinery and metal products, food and food processing.
Women are not allowed to work underground in mines. A large number of women are also employed in e-milling, which is done on a large scale in Bengal, Bihar and Madras. Here women are employed in drying, spreading, threshing and removing rice from hullers and husking. They have to walk in the sun for long hours to spread and turn the rice with their feet or with a ladle.
During the period of last 50 years, there has been more loss of work opportunities for women in non-agriculture sectors of the economy than in agriculture.
Factors responsible for the decline in the employment of women workers:
1) One of the important reasons is the introduction of new machinery and modern technology, eliminating the physical processes that were done by women in the past.
2) Legal ban on employment of women on underground work in mines and night work in all industries.
3) The provisions of various labor laws related to women such as payment of maternity benefits, provision of crèche, prohibition of night work, adoption of equal pay for equal work and standardization of wages put more financial burden on the employers.
4) More automation i.e. use of more automatic machines eliminates unskilled hands.
5) Restriction on weight lifting by women.
6) The increase in the number of shifts and employment of women is probably only one shift.
7) Limited employment opportunities for women in engineering industries.
Most of the women work to supplement the family income. They work as coolies in most of the industries. In plantation women work on a family basis i.e. all the members of the family except very young children are put to work. In mines, especially coal mines, women are usually employed as cowries or wagon loaders or at times even seen pushing trams.
Women are paid slightly less than men because they work as efficiently as men. In plantations and wives they work same hours only in factories female workers are paid equally but this is legal information
Cementation has resulted in discriminatory job opportunities for women. Thus there exists a wide gap between the wages of men and women in factories, mines and plantations and physical strength, level of education and training, inclination for the job and when fixing the rates of wages, even manual jobs are discriminated against. are not free.
women. Labor laws have been made to protect women from undue exploitation.
Rapid automation, modernization of industrial techniques, requirement of higher skills on the part of workers, changed patterns of production and new products gradually reduce the need for unskilled labor in both men and women.
Ti is going In the formal organized sector, as such, there is less need for illiterate and inexperienced people. Even in the informal sector, unskilled workers cannot be absorbed in the near future. This is the age of specialization. Each operation is specialized and only technically trained worker can handle operator women as it is rare
The educated, especially in rural areas, rarely received the training necessary to perform specialized tasks, as mechanized operations replaced male workers, women were made surplus even earlier.
In developing countries like India, both women and children have to work because poverty and unemployment are going to persist in the future as well. There is no immediate solution in sight. Women are not considered fit or qualified for many jobs in India such as driving or operating a vehicle or any other responsible work such as accounting or shop-keeping. In many jobs women are not given preference after marriage.
India is still a backward country. There is no facility of education or communication in remote villages. Rural men are considered only for unskilled jobs. Heavy lifting, loading, wagoning or any activity that does not require much skill in urban areas employs true illiterates, lack of training faculties for men renders many men, women and children unable to do any job However, lack of proper qualification renders them ineligible for jobs in organized sectors.
Further modernization computerization of jobs has largely eliminated labor, with many traditionally skilled workers laid off and losing their jobs. In a situation where many artisans also have no scope for a better future, unskilled or untrained men or women cannot even think of getting a decent or gainful job. Unskilled adult man or woman can be engaged only in temporary casual jobs which are given on contract or sub-contract basis such as construction work, moving heavy goods, as porter or sweeper. Even the semi-skilled people find it difficult to survive in modern factories. The work is helpful in industries with skilled workers.
So that they can be engaged in gainful employment both in organized and unorganized sectors.