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

members in sericulture. The authority relations among the traditional
dyads within the family manifest a transition from the concentrated
authority, towards a distributive authority in the context of sericulture. If
there is an unsuccessful adjustment, in the distributive system of
authority relations, the family, especially, if it is a mixed extended
family, eventually collapses to fonn separate nuclear families. In this
transitional process of distributive authority relations, individuals
themselves go through a process of self-realisation to achieve selfconfidence,
self assertion and an increasing autonomy. The same holds
good in gender relations.
Women's role in sericulture is determined by their relationship to
mam sericulturists and on the number of adult women in the family.
These, in tum, have a corresponding relationship in the level of their
participation and involvement in sericulture. There is also a
correspondent implication of the same in their status and position in the
family. Most of the adult women in sericulture families participate in
sericulture either actively or passively. When there are two women in
the household, older woman involves more in household activity while
the younger ones assume an active role in sericulture. As the householdwork
is considered always as that of women, in some of the singlewoman
households, women prefer to play only a passive role. However,
women do carry a heavier work load as compared to men, particularly in
sericulture households. Women, especially if they are main or active
sericulturists and if they are from single-woman sericulture households,
do feel over-burdened with their work. In most of the households, men
are sensitive to the women's work and take a greater share in the workload
at the work-intensive phases of sericulture. Women hardly have any
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