Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

Do Property Rights in Land Ensure Greater Participation of Women 275
land are not influential in the specific local context of the study. The influential
factors are literacy and occupation. Literate women are participating
better because they are consulted. Similarly, women’s unpaid work in the
household and on the family farm is not valued. But if a woman works
outside and contributes cash income to the family, she is consulted. This
clearly shows the influence of paid and unpaid work on women’s participation
in decision-making. As far as age is concerned, it has a positive impact,
indicating that older women are consulted more. The logical conclusion
of these results is that efforts towards the empowerment of women should
concentrate on improving the literacy levels of rural women and improving
employment opportunities.
NOTE
1. The composite scale was based on the following grading:
If the husband alone takes the decision, the rank is 1.
If the wife is consulted occasionally, the rank is 2.
If the wife is always consulted, the rank is 3.
The greater the rank, greater her participation.
The composite index, across various decisions under the above two categories,
measures aggregate say of the ith women.
3 3 3
Aggregate score Y i = ∑ ∑ ∑ R ijk
J = 1 k = 0 1 = 0
R ijk1 = the decision score of the ith woman.
REFERENCES
Agarwal, Bina. 1994. A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Census of India. http://www.censusindia.net/results/2001_census_Prov_
Workers_Tables.xlx
Ghosh, Jayati. 2004. ‘Informalization and Women’s Workforce Participation:
A Consideration of Recent Trends in Asia’, National Seminar on Globalization
and Women’s Work, 25–26 March. Seminar Papers Volume 1. NOIDA: V.V.
Giri National Labour Institute.
Kabeer, Naila. 1994. Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Theory.
London and New York: Verso.