Women, Education and Employment

As was stated earlier, male-oriented structures and beliefs profoundly affect women’s access to education and educational achievements (Mukhopadhyay and Seymour, 1994). While the 19th century reform movements had established the case for educating girls, this also had to be done without jeopardizing the interests of the patrifocal family.²⁵ Over time arguments had been built up for imparting higher education to girls but couched in ‘marriageability- enhancing’ terms; later this argument was augmented by the increasing value placed on their potential earning capability and contribution to the economic well-being of the patrifocal family. If this posed a challenge to gender differentiated roles within the family, the resilience of the social division of labour is evident in

²⁵Research on the negotiation of the issue of western education for girls (specially at the secondary and college levels) in the late nineteeth century brings to the fore the ‘value’ question. This could inform the contemporary debate as much for its difference in terms of policy as the continuity it marks in terms of socialization of girls and familial perceptions. Writing of Bengal and Calcutta in particular, Kerkhoff (1998) points out that high schools at this point were not intended to bring about equity in society, gender, class or otherwise. Girls high schools were recognized as socializing institutions established to better equip adolescent middle class girls to changing demands of the colonial urban and patriarchal society. It was hoped then that these high schools would reproduce the ideological and cultural hierarchies of the metropolis on which colonial rule depended.

that women still (had to) do the cooking (Sen 1990) and shoulder principal responsibility of child care and other household chores.

In fact tensions between the value of formal education for women and the disruptive potential for the patrifocal family have influenced the very system of education. (Mukhopadhyay and Seymour, 1994). While certain historical specificities do mark out Kerala from the compulsions of a patrifocal family; broadly the changing strategies and practices of families in shaping educational achievements towards their ‘collective well-being’ remain. The high levels of female literacy in Kerala have been well documented. In relation to men too, the achievements of women have been laudatory: over the decadal periods since 1961, gender-based disparity (ratio of male literacy rate to female literacy rate) has narrowed rather sharply from 1.39 to 1.07 by 1991. Some of the more notable achievements have been the near universalization of primary education for both girls and boys, and the very low (compared to all-India) school drop-out rates for girls which in fact are higher for boys since at least the early seventies, at each level of school education (Ambili, 1996). However, what gets obscured in the context of the very high aggregate literacy levels in the state is that gender disparities (ratio of male/female percentages at each level) at higher than primary or middle levels of schooling existed and continue to exist in college education, particularly technical education. It is well-known that in the state, macro level pressures that increase the desirability of education for girls have been strong historically and have been maintained over time (Jeffrey, 1992). As argued above such pressures create tensions at the micro-level of the family. In the context of Kerala it has been argued that matriliny, in this respect, would have been less restraining since even prior to the 1860s, the period in which the centralized education systems were established, girls often attended local schools (Jeffrey, 1992). The fact that Malabar showed much higher rates of female literacy compared to the other districts of Madras Presidency, gave this added support. In contrast, in Namboodiri households in the 30s and 40s, girls did not attend schools but were taught at home. However, it appears that this freedom to girls for attending schools did not hold for higher than primary/middle levels of schooling even among the matrilineal households.

The attainment of puberty seems to have been a significant barrier to further education for girls cutting across family structures,

communities and socio-economic groups. A respondent from a middle class Nair family pointed out that (around the 1940s) her father tried to stop her education after middle school, relenting only due to her insistence. In this context her mother had argued that she (mother) had only studied up to fourth standard and ‘that was the norm for girls’.²⁶ The experience of three Muslim women (40 years and below) suggests that girls study up to the primary level at least. In contrast, the elderly Muslim respondent reported that three of her four daughters were teachers, having studied entirely out of their own interest. Two younger respondents from poorer Hindu matrilineal families indicated that economic hardships were instrumental in pushing them out of school. For if education was ‘free’, it nevertheless involved certain costs, especially as higher schools tended to be at longer distances.²⁷ Gender differentiated roles implied that girls often had to combine household chores, including care of younger siblings with schooling, while boys mostly ran outside errands. This constrains the educational options of girls more than boys.

In contemporary Kerala, even though the disparity (at higher than primary/middle levels of education) is extremely low up to the 10th standard, and in fact reversed to some extent at the intermediate/pre-University and non-technical diploma levels, considerable difference still exists at the college levels, particularly in the technical fields. What is more interesting is that even in the field of higher education, particularly at the intermediate, pre-university level, it is courses which will lead to ‘suitable’ professions for women, from the point of view of their familial roles/responsibilities, that have a larger intake of girls. In teaching, the percentage of girls outnumbered the percentage of boys among the graduates and above category (Table 2). Some data on trade-wise intake in government ITIs and private ITCs (one year course)

²⁶Surprisingly, even one of our younger respondents, Anita, only in her twenties, cited puberty and economic hardship as reasons for her education being stopped at class seven. Almost all our respondents pointed out that puberty spelt restrictions on their mobility. Only two respondents, Kala and Chandrikakumari stated that puberty did not bring any restrictions. (Life Histories)

²⁷Proximity to primary school was there but schools for higher levels were not very near. Currently the state has one lower primary school for every sq km and one secondary school for every 4 sq km.

shows a preponderance of girls in stenography, dress-making, cutting and tailoring, secretarial practice and data preparation (Table 3); girls’ intake in the two-year technical courses is negligible (Table 4) except in civil draftsman and radio mechanic trades. Hence, the narrowing of gender disparities in education have equipped women to acquire earning power in ‘suitable’ occupations

generally non-technical in nature as we shall see from the employment pattern. The persistence of gender differentiated family roles, with primary responsibility of domestic chores falling on women, in turn perpetuates this sexual division of labour through an asymmetry of opportunities offered for acquiring ‘untraditional’ skills. While girls have made remarkable advances in professional courses such as engineering, medicine, agriculture, dairy development and veterinary science, their achievements are still low compared to boys. However, in the Kerala context, there is a certain sense in which girls are overeducated, being encouraged to study further while waiting to get a suitable job.

This is related to the nature of the labour market. A reason cited often for the lower (than all-India) and falling levels of female work-participation rates in Kerala is the longer years spent in schooling/higher education. Almost 32 per cent of males and 26 per cent of females were recorded as students in rural Kerala in 1987-88; the figures for rural India were 19 per cent and 11 per cent respectively (NSSO 1990). However (Kumar, 1992) points out that in a situation of slow growth of desired employment opportunities, commensurate with the levels of education, the causation may be the other way round: that the girls continue in the educational stream due to the lack of suitable employment avenues. Thus the growing proportion of students may well be a reflection of the falling levels of participation rather than the reverse. At the micro level this fits in with the patrifocal family, as it could be seen to further the ‘marriageability’ of girls, by enabling them to make better wives and mothers and/or be a potential contributor to the economic well-being of the family. However, higher levels of education of girls in a situation of high overall unemployment rates, are also manifested in poorly educated men with good jobs marrying better educated women, observed particularly among the Gulf migrants (Rajan et al., 1996).²⁸ While this does not seem to have affected gender relations in any visible way; there are indications that it is one of the factors shaping domestic violence. The INCLEN/ICRW (2000) study revealed a strong association between violence, physical and psychological, and female favourable gender gap in education and employment.

Levels of participation

Female work participation rates (WPRs) in Kerala have been among the lowest in India and declining, (Gulati and Rajan, 1991; Eapen, 1992; Kumar, 1992). The 1991 Census ranks Kerala 22nd among the states with respect to female participation. Using the NSSO

²⁸This is also evident in a recent study of migrant households in several districts that there is a ‘premium’ attached to the Gulf migrant as a ‘desirable’ bridegroom. In cases of migrant bridegrooms, the age difference between husband and wife tended to be wider and on an average the wife was better educated than the husband. Only in government jobs were there a higher proportion of women married to Gulf migrants as compared to all women (Zachariah et al., 2000).

data which adopts a more extended definition of work, we find that female WPRs, in terms of the usual principal and subsidiary status, hover between 20 per cent (urban) and 23 per cent (rural) according to the 50th Round of the NSSO for 1993-94, compared to male WPRs of 56 per cent (urban) and 54 per cent (rural). While male work participation rates have remained steady (in rural areas) since 1977-78 (32nd Round) or turned mildly upwards in urban areas, female WPRs have declined consistently, more so in rural areas, and it is only between 1987-88 (43rd Round) and 1993-94 that female urban WPR has increased; however the rural WPRs declined further.

That the female WPR is low does not mean that the supply of female labour is low since a certain percentage of women would be unemployed. Indeed female unemployment rates are very high in Kerala, in particular among educated women in rural areas. Table 5 attempts to relate labour market indicators by level of education for women and men, highlighting the inferior position of women in the labour market, both in terms of employment/unemployment. Almost a quarter of women graduates in rural areas are unable to procure employment compared to 13 per cent for men. While the problem is less serious in urban areas, among matriculates it is very severe. Although unemployment increases with the level of education, the possibility of securing regular work is also higher. This is reflected in the sharp rise in the proportion of women in regular employment with graduate level education, a reason we mentioned earlier for women continuing to study.

It is also a matter of concern that even in the prime working age groups, 20-34, female work force participation rates (44 per cent in rural and 25 per cent in urban areas) are less than half that for men (96 per cent and 95 per cent respectively); and while male WPRs in the age groups of up to 54 years have increased between 1987-88 and 1993-94, female WPRs have declined (data not shown here). Is it possible then that in the wake of increasing male participation rates, and high female unemployment rates, women are withdrawing from the labour market and it is probable that the withdrawal is among the educated. A recent Migration Survey in Kerala (Zachariah et al., 2000) shows not only that wives of emigrant husbands were on average better educated but a significantly higher proportion of them (84 per cent), than the proportion of all women (60.9 per cent) reported being housewives.

Patterns of work

Manufacturing, trade and services are growing areas of female employment in Kerala. While a more detailed break-up of industry groups is not available for 1993-94, between 1977-78 and 1987-88, we find that within manufacturing the growth in employment was in food processing industries including canning/processing of fish, beedi making, garment making, and wood products within which basket/mat weaving was important, and non-metallic mineral products, primarily brick making. The growth of employment in non-traditional sectors was marginal except in ‘electrical machinery’, largely on account of a number of labour intensive sub-contracting units which came up in the electronics industry. In trade most of the growth in employment was in the retail trade, primarily as sales girls/assistants (Eapen, 1994). While there was an increase of female employment in public administration, education and health under Social, Community and Personal Services, which are largely organized sector activities, it must be remembered that for women almost 60 per cent of organized sector employment is accounted for by the private sector while for men it is the reverse (Government of Kerala, 1989).

However, this growth in organized sector employment has to be probed deeper since looking at changes in the status of employment of women, we find that the share of casual work has been increasing while that of regular employment shows a decline. For instance, between 1987–88 and 1993–94 casual employment for females grew from 48 per cent to 50 per cent in rural areas and much more sharply, from 23 to 32 per cent in urban areas. Regular employment in urban areas declined very sharply. Since it is in urban areas that female participation rates show an increase, is it that a substantial part of the so-called newly emerging formal sector employment for women is not of a permanent, regular nature and hence being recorded as casual work? In other words does it reflect the increasing informalization of activities in a bid to keep the earnings low?

All this evidence points to an assymetrical position for women in terms of occupational distribution. We have seen how family structures channel women’s education to specific areas, facilitating occupational segregation, in areas generally less capital-using and less productive. This is confirmed by the occupational distribution of women, relating to the Census year 1981. The differential

occupational distribution by gender, captured by the Occupational Segregation Index, is rather high, the index of dissimilarity (which measures the extent of dissimilarity in the distribution of men and women across occupation taking a value between 0 and 100) being 52 (Table 6). It is interesting to highlight the type of jobs women are engaged in: even in the field of professional/technical activities where the proportion of women is relatively high (female to male ratio being 0.64) most of the women are engaged in the lower rungs

of the professional hierarchy — teaching but largely in schools, especially at the primary and nursery levels. In the medical profession the larger number is in nursing. Other professions are clerical, sales assistants, maids, sweepers, cooks and very few in managerial, administrative occupations. That even for the same levels of professional education, women’s earnings are lower, establishes the fact of both occupational segregation and discrimination in the labour market. A study shows that the gender gap in earnings of highly qualified persons, measured by the ratio of female to male earnings is 0.78 in Kerala in the science and technology fields. About 18 per cent of the differential can be explained in terms of the occupational segregation, 50–60 per cent by productivity characteristics, which suggests that almost a quarter is in terms of discrimination (Duraisamy and Duraisamy, 1997).²⁹

We have attempted to highlight certain dimensions of the labour market, which suggest a certain continuity in terms of the gendering of employment, reflecting women’s weaker position. Nor has there been any marked improvement in recent years. On the contrary, the informalization of formal sector activity and a tendency towards withdrawal from the workforce on the part of the educated women, indicate a worsening of their access to this ‘self-acquired’ income. This only weakens women’s position within the family, since any attempt to have a greater ‘voice in the family’ could be misconstrued as an attempt to challenge the gender differentiated family authority and lends itself to domestic violence, particularly because of the wife’s greater economic dependence on the husband. Increasing levels of domestic violence in the state and a norming of the male working subject and a domestic woman (Osella and Osella, 2000) suggests that education, even higher education, does not appear to have motivated large numbers of women to challenge gender role assumptions. In this context an observation by a well educated woman (a qualified lawyer) from our life histories, is instructive. ‘Though there is not much open discrimination against women in Kerala, there is a sharp distinction in the roles of men

²⁹Gender disparity in earnings of casual workers in agriculture and non agriculture clear from secondary information was confirmed by three of our respondents. Whether agriculture, construction or tile factory work, women receive ten to fifteen rupees less than men “for the same work”. (Life Histories).

and women. If women enter their roles, they have to face all kinds of abuse’.

Conclusion

From the preceding analysis it appears that ‘status’ of women as conventionally defined is inadequate for capturing the relations of power between men and women, which systematically place women in an inferior position in the household and outside. Although measures of literacy have been improved, in terms of enrolment rates and retention rates, to highlight the structural constraints on women’s education, its snowballing effect in terms of occupational rigidities and women’s own perceptions and aspirations for adult life need to be addressed. Our study throws up the need to understand decision-making at the household level, in the context of norms and practices that influence behaviour and shape choices. There are clear indications that families (whether natal or conjugal) mediate education and employment decisions of women, channeling them towards the ‘marriageability’ of girls. Alongside are the indications of the decline of women’s property rights in erstwhile matrilineal families as well as women’s lack of control over property transferred at marriage among matrilineal and patrilineal families. Greater access and resort to consumer practices have left their stamp on the organization of marriage as well as gendered decisions on education and employment. More importantly they have added new dimensions to earlier images of masculinity and femininity in the direction of the male ‘working’ subject and ‘domestic’ women. It is perhaps in this context of the ‘discontinuity’ between education and employment of women and ‘autonomy’ that we need to place the emerging picture of declining property rights, violence and the mental ill health of women. Here we need to reiterate that Kerala leads other states in the number of reported suicides, the links between dowry, violence and suicides on the one hand and that women lead men (as elsewhere in the country) in ‘common’ mental conditions such as stress on the other hand. Also important are the male-female differences in reasons advanced for common mental conditions, a larger number of women attributing it to marital disharmony as against the larger number of men citing economic factors.

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