Women in Agriculture

Lesson 8 : Categorisation of Women in Agriculture

Boserup (1970) identifies four types of rural female work patterns which may be correlated with social class position

1. Socio - economically advantaged women who may be purely domestic, sometimes secluded;


2. Primarily domestic women, who participate in agricultural labor to a limited extent on a family small-holding


3. Active women farm workers, who contribute to a larger proportion of family agricultural production and income in poor families, and may work as hired labor for others;


4. Independent women farm workers or farm managers, who can not expect to be supported by a husband, and are responsible for almost all aspects of production. these types indicate the kinds of cultural and class related variations in the gender division of labor in agriculture which have to be considered in the design of extension strategies to include women.

This analysis further indicates that caste-class dimensions have their profound influence on the women of both the upper and lower classes. The upper class women, despite their financial breakdown do not come forward in search of employment and women from the lower castes, though their economic position is comparatively better than others, work and supplement the family income. This phenomenon confirms the view that the women of lower castes are over burdened with the household drudgery, taking care of children and cooking. Thus, women are not only over burdened but are subjected to exploitation at the work spot and at home. These exploitative feudal characteristics are explicitly visible in all the working class families in the agrarian societies. It is not only women who are subjected to exploitation but children are also being exploited. They are employed either to rear cattle or in the weeding job. Thus they live at the mercy of Their masters at the tender school-going age.

The reasons for women sticking on to agriculture may also be the same as in the case of man. Further, factors like large size of the family, pauperism, illiteracy and ignorance to acquire any other job compelled the womenfolk to depend more upon agriculture which does not require any special skill. But this does not last long, since most people have no land of their own. In the absence of even tiny bits of land to cultivate, they turned into mere labourers employed on wage employment which, as a result of heavy competition, ultimately resulted in underemployment And unemployment in the field of agriculture. Inadequate land is at the root of all these problems of poverty, tenurial insecurity and underemployment.

Agriculture which is seasonal in nature also conditions the availability of employment. Further, women in this field are mainly engaged in only some works like transplanting, weeding, and harvesting. Concentration of vast number of women in this field also reduced the bargaining capacity of women labourers. It also affected the wage pattern. Migration of agricultural labourers to fertile regions has also had it‘s adverse effect on the wage pattern. Particularly, women labourers in agriculture are much affected because of the unorganised nature of the farm labour, The seasonal nature of the demand for labour and the traditional way of conditioning women to some particular jobs.