question_answer

Explain public and private gender division.

Answer:

Gender division is a form of hierarchical social division. It can be seen at two levels:

(i) Public Division

(ii) Private Division

Boys and girls are brought up to believe that the main responsibility of women is housework and bringing up children. This is reflected in a Sexual Division of Labour in most families:

Women do all work inside the home such as cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, tailoring, looking after children, etc.

Men do all the work outside the home. It is not that men cannot do housework, they simply think that it is for women to attend to these things. And when these jobs are paid men are ready to take up these works.

Similarly, it is not that women do not work outside their home. In villages women fetch water, collect fuel and work in fields. In urban areas, poor women work as domestic helpers in middle class homes, and in offices.

In fact majority of women do some sort of paid work in addition to domestic labour. But their work is not valued and does not get recognition.

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