SERICUL TURE AND THE PROCESS OF CHANGE - Institute for ...

nuclear families where recently married women are unfamiliar with
sericulture. The latter situation has been observed in families with the
presence of two or more adult women. They could be related either by
affinal, as in the cases of daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, or by
consanguineal, as in the cases of mother and daughter. In both these
cases, the tendency is for older women to involve increasingly in the
household activity while YOWlger ones assume an active role in
sericulture. Interestingly, in non-sericulture households, these roles are
usually seen reversed regarding household chores and agriculture. The
old tend to withdraw from household activities, leaving the same to
YOWlger ones and confIning themselves to an active or an occasional
involvement in agricultural activities, depending on age factor.
Women whose participation in sericulture is passive could be a
result of an intentional and self imposed decision. It is the experience of
most women that men tend to be away from home for most part of their
non-working hours. Consequently, they feel that they are able to confine
their husbands to the household premises, at least in the name of
sericulture and on the pretext of their own ignorance of sericulture
operation. This is well articulated by some of the women of Salem
villages as done by Lakshmi (Refer Case No. 10). Further, as the
household-work is considered always to be that of women, in some of
the single-woman households the women prefer to play only a passive
role.
Those women who play an active role, generally involve in all
activities of sericulture and are as knowledgeable as the main
sericulturists whether male or female. However, in the presence of main
,
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