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To understand the nature of rural class structure, there is a need to classify women into various categories depending on their relation to the means of production, for women's status does depend, to a large extent, upon the extent of her control over the means of production.
Based on the participation in agriculture, women are categorized as
- Female agricultural labour,
- Farmers,
- Co-farmers,
- Female family labour and
- Managers of farms and farm entrepreneurs (with male out - migration, widowhood, etc.)
Another classification based on participation is as follows:
- Independent producers , who manage their farms largely by themselves
- Agricultural producers, who share most aspects of work, responsibilities and decision makimg along with their husbands
- Agricultural helpers, who only participate in farm work at peak time when extra help is necessary.
- Farm home makers, who contribute to the farm production indirectly in preparing meals and attending to those working in fields.
The majority of rural women eke out their livelihood by working on land in a number of ways. Based on this, rural women are classified into four categories:
- The landless women
A large number of rural women primarily eke out their livelihood by working as mere wage labourers on agricultral farms. Many a time they are attached to landlord's family along with their men folk. These families own no land of their own and live in thatched huts. Generally a large section of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and backward caste women belong to this category.
- The near-landless women
These women hold tiny bits of land which are dry and uncultivable. Poor irrigation facilities, lack of resources and lack of cattle - wealth impair them in cultivating their lands. The difference between the landless and near landless women is that the latter have atleast some tiny bits of land to own. The scheduled caste women, scheduled tribe women, and the majority of the back ward caste women belong to this category. Due to the decline of handicrafts, even a large number of women from artisan class depended upon outside employment and mostly on work connected with agriculture. The woman of this type is an active family worker also, who shares the burden of work in family to a large extent.
- The simple peasant women
The women of this category work on the family farm which normally does not exceed 5 acres. They also work on the farms of others as wage labourers to add something to the meagre income of the family. Generally, the backward caste women belong to this category. They also assist their men in the household industries. Women contribute very little to farming, and this is a characteristic feature in many Latin American Countries.
- The rich peasant women
Most of these women belong to upper strata of the society. Depending upon the necessity, they supervise the work done at the family farm where latest means are utilised to the maximum extent. They reside in a well-built house. They can be compared with the veiled, non-working women of the Middle East.
The women of the first two categories are found in large numbers in rural India. They occupy the lower positions in the caste-class hierarchy. They invariably work for longer hours than their men folk both at home, at the work spot and a t the landlord's house. Majority of these women are property less, landless with no productive assets of their own except their labour power. Lack of skills, wide shifts in the occupation, seasonal employment, migration, low wages, exploitation, at the work spot and at home are the common features that effect the development of these women. To sum up the role of sex in farming can briefly be described as follows the very sparsely populated regions where shifting cultivation is used, men do little farm work and women do most of the work. In somewhat more densely populated regions, where the
agricultural system is that of the extensive plough cultivation, women do little farm work and men work more. Finally, in the regions of intensive cultivation of irrigated land, both men and
women work hard in order to earn enough from their small piece of land to support their family.
Boserup (1970) identifies four types of rural female work patterns which may be correlated with social class position
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