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10 Women in the Economy (MWG-011)
Chapter-1
Conceptualizing Women’s Work

Q1. Explain the meaning of work and categories of worker.
Ans. ‘Work’ is defined as participation, which can be physical or mental in nature, in any
economically productive activity, with or without receiving any kind of compensation/ wage in cash or
kind. Any person engaged in ‘work’ as stated above is categorized as a ‘worker’ but mainly undertaken
by women, can comprise of any of activity like unpaid work on farm, family enterprise, cultivation,
milk production even for domestic consumption or some kind of part time work, all fall under the
purview of work. Work also includes effective supervision and providing direction of work.
Work, means carrying out of tasks, which involves the expenditure of mental and physical effort, and
its objective is the production of goods and services that cater to human needs. An occupation, or job,
is work that is done in exchange for a regular wage or salary.
In all cultures, work is the basis of the economy or economic system. The economic system for any
given culture is made up of the institutions that provide for the production and distribution of goods
and services. These institutions may vary from culture to culture, particularly in traditional societies
versus modern societies.
In traditional cultures, food gathering and food production is the type of work occupied by the
majority of the population. In larger traditional societies, carpentry, stonemasonry, and shipbuilding
are also prominent. In modern societies where industrial development exists, people work in a much
wider variety of occupations.
Categories of worker: Census of India categorizes ‘workers’ as main workers, marginal workers,
cultivators, agricultural laborer, household industry workers, and other workers. These categories are
defined as follows:
Main Worker: Those who worked for major part (six months or more) of the year preceding the date
of enumeration.
Marginal Worker: Persons who worked for less than six months of the reference period are termed
as marginal workers.
Cultivator: A person who is engaged in cultivation of land owned by government, private institutions
or persons as landlords for wages or payment in cash or kind, will fall under the category of
‘cultivator’. For a person to fall under this category, the person should be involved in activities like
ploughing, sowing, harvesting and post harvesting activities of crops other than plantation crops.
Agriculture Laborer: A person working on somebody’s land for wages in money or kind, share
basis and has no risk sharing in cultivation. This category of worker shares no right in leasing, owning
of the land on which she/he works.
Household Industry Worker: A worker who is working for an industry at home and within the
precincts of the house where the household lives, in urban areas or within the village. The industry is
not run at the scale of registered factory under the Indian Factories Act.
Other Workers: All workers who have been engaged in some economic activity during the last one
year but do not fall under any of the above-mentioned categories are called ‘other workers. Other
workers may be employed as government servants, municipal employees, teachers, factory workers,
plantation workers, those engaged in trade/ commerce/ business, mining, construction, political or
social work, priest; all fall under the category of ‘other worker’.
Let us now look at how NSSO categorizes Indian workforce while carrying out nationwide surveys.
The NSS categorizes workers into three categories of employment and/ or activity status as:
• Self-employed
• Regular salaried and
• Causal labor.
A higher proportion of the female workforce is always found to be concentrated in the ‘self-employed’
category. Within the category of self-employed, there are three sub categories namely, ‘own account
worker’, ‘employer’ and people who are working as ‘helpers’ in household enterprise and are not paid.
NSSO’s definition of own account workers include a whole range of workers, especially women, who
are engaged in ‘piece wage’ work at home. So, according to the status of self-employment to this
category of work, looks a misnomer as these worker and work for some entrepreneur/ traders or other
kind of employers and receive wages for work completed on the basis of piece rate.

Q2. Write a note on division of labor on the basis of gender.
Ans. The gender division of labor refers to the allocation of different jobs or types of work to women
and men. In feminist economics, the institutional rules, norms and practices that govern the