Women and Work in Rural India

Empirical study of women’s work and of women in the diverse labour processes that exist in rural India is meagre. This book seeks to extend our understanding of the nature of women’s work in different sectors of the rural economy. It does so by drawing on new concepts and definitions and multiple sources of data, in particular, time-use surveys and gender-disaggregated data from village surveys.

The book has six sections, with papers covering a range of issues on the general subject of women in rural production. These include conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues in understanding women’s work, women’s work in agriculture and allied sectors, women in non-agricultural work, the gender gap in wage rates, class and caste issues, and rural women’s access to finance.