STATUS OF WOMEN IN FAMILY: A STUDY AMONG WOMEN WORKERS OF ORGANISED AND UNORGANISED SECTORS IN URBAN BANGALORE

STATUS OF WOMEN IN FAMILY: A STUDY AMONG WOMEN WORKERS OF ORGANISED AND UNORGANISED SECTORS IN URBAN BANGALORE

This is a study conducted amongst working women of the Organised and Unorganised sector in Urban Bangalore. It is an attempt to understand the status of working women within their family by looking at their involvement in key decision making areas. The key areas that have been identified are distribution of household duties and money related decisions. Patriarchal traditions divide household into two domains the female and male domains. The female domain includes household responsibilities like child care, cooking and cleaning that belong to the woman of the house while the male domain includes money related issues where men are the primary breadwinners and decision makers at home. The study looks at the aspect that despite contributing to the family income, working women have very little involvement in the key decisions of the family. The topic of the study has been crystallised after conducting informal discussions with working women of Organised and Unorganised sectors. During the discussions women stated that even though they are working and making contribution to the household income, they do not feel a part of the key decision making areas within the household. The topic of this study has been chosen to clearly understand the role of working women in decision making at home. The two sectors have been chosen to understand the difference in the attitudes of women working in both sectors given the disparity in the level of their income. Random sampling method has been used to select the samples. The total sample size is 129, 66 from Organised sector and 63 from Unorganised sector. The area chosen for data collection from the Organised sector is software firms, apparel firm, educational institutions, insurance firms and banks. In the Unorganised sector the area chosen for the study is Rajendra Nagar, Koramangala in close vicinity to National Games Village, a residential complex. The respondents work as domestic cleaners and housekeeping staff in National Games Village. Primary data has been collected using questionnaire method substantiated by the case study method. The questionnaire had 58 questions along with four case studies. There are four case studies which focus on the involvement of working women from Organised and Unorganised sectors in decision making within the family to get a better understanding of their day to day lives. The findings of the study are discussed in this dissertation.

VASUDEV ROMICA

Sociology