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!